Chapter 6
Genetics and Personality
KEY TERMS
TERM
Active GenotypeEnvironment Correlation
Adoption Studies
Dizygotic Twins
Environmentalist View
Environmentality
Equal Environments
Assumption
Eugenics
Family Studies
Gender Identity Disorder
Genetic Junk
Genome
Genotype-Environment
Correlation
Genotype-Environment
Interaction
Genotypic Variance
DEFINITION
A person with a particular genotype creates or seeks out a
particular environment. It highlights the fact that we are not
passive recipients of our environments.
(1) We can examine the correlations between adopted
children and their adoptive parents, with whom they
share no genes
(2) We can examine the correlations between adopted
children and their genetic parents, with whom they share
no environment
Fraternal twins come from two eggs that are separately
fertilized.
Personality is determined by socialization practices.
The percentage of observed variance in a group of
individuals that can be attributed to environmental
(nongenetic) differences.
The twin method assumes that the environments
experienced by identical twins are no more similar to each
other than are the environments experienced by fraternal
twins. If they are more similar, then the greater similarity of
the identical twins could plausibly be due to the fact that
they have more genes in common.
The notion that we can design the future of the human
species by fostering the reproduction of persons with certain
traits and by discouraging the reproduction of persons
without those traits.
They correlate the degree of genetic relatedness among
family members with the degree of personality similarity and
capitalize on the fact that there are known degrees of
genetic overlap among family members in terms of degree
of relationship.
Two aspects need to be present simultaneously
(1) Cross-gender identification that is strong and persists over
time
(2) Persistent psychological discomfort with one’s biological
sex
Parts in the human chromosomes that are functionless
residue and serve no purpose. Recent studies have shown
that these portions of DNA may affect everything from a
person’s physical size to personality, thus adding to the
complexity of the human genome.
The complete set of genes an organism possesses.
The differential exposure of individuals with different
genotypes to different environments.
The differential response of the individuals with different
genotypes to the same environments.
Individual differences in the total collection of genes
possessed by each person.
Heritability
Molecular Genetics
Monozygotic Twins
Nature-Nurture Debate
Nonshared Environmental
Influences
Passive GenotypeEnvironment Correlation
Percentage of Variance
Phenotypic Variance
Reactive GenotypeEnvironment Correlation
Selective Breeding
Selective Placement
Shared Environmental
Influences
Twin Studies
A statistic that refers to the proportion of observed variance
in a group of individuals that can be accounted for by
genetic variance. It describes the degree to which genetic
differences between individuals cause differences in an
observed property.
The methods are designed to identify the specific genes
associated with personality traits. The most common method
is the association method.
Identical twins come from a single fertilized egg, which
divides into two at some point during gestation.
The arguments about whether genes or environments are
more important determinants of personality.
Features that are experienced differently (friends, summer
camp or not, special treatment…).
When parents provide both genes and the environment to
children, yet the children do nothing to obtain that
environment.
The fact that individuals vary, or are different from each
other, and this variability can be partitioned into
percentages that are due to different causes.
Observed individual differences (height, weight…).
When parents (or others) respond to children differently,
depending on the child’s genotypes.
Identifying the dogs that possess the desired characteristic
and having them mate only with other dogs that also
possess the characteristic.
If adopted children are placed with adoptive parents who
are similar to their birth parents, then this may inflate the
correlations between the adopted children and their
adoptive parents.
Features of the shared environment (books, TV, computer,
food, schools, church…).
They estimate heritability by gauging whether identical twins,
who share 100 percent of their genes, are more similar to
each other than are fraternal twins, who share only 50
percent of their genes.
Chapter 7
Physiological Approaches to Personality
KEY TERMS
TERM
Alpha Wave
Anxiety
Arousability And Arousal
Level
Ascending Reticular
Activating System (ARAS)
Autonomic Nervous System
Behavioral Activation System
(BAS)
Behavioral Inhibition System
(BIS)
DEFINITION
A particular type of brain wave that oscillates 8 to 12 times a
second. The amount of alpha wave present in a given time
period is an inverse indicator of brain activity during that
time period. The alpha wave is given off when the person is
calm and relaxed. In a given time period of brain wave
recording, the more alpha wave activity present the more
we can assume that part of the brain was less active.
An unpleasant, high-arousal emotional state associated with
perceived threat. In the psychoanalytic tradition, anxiety is
seen as a signal that the control of the ego is being
threatened by reality, by impulses from the id, or by harsh
controls exerted by the superego. Freud identified three
different types of anxiety: neurotic anxiety, moral anxiety
and objective anxiety. According to Rogers, the unpleasant
emotional of anxiety is the result of having an experience
that does not fit with one’s self-conception.
In Eysenck’s original theory of extraversion, he held that
extraverts had lower levels of cortical or brain arousal than
introverts. More recent research suggests that the difference
between introverts and extraverts lies more in the arousability
of their nervous systems, with extraverts showing less
arousability or reactivity than introverts to the same levels of
sensory stimulation.
A structure in the brain stem thought to control overall
cortical arousal; the structure Eysenck originally thought was
responsible for differences between introverts and extraverts.
That part of the peripheral nervous system that connects to
vital bodily structures associated with maintaining life and
responding to emergencies (e.g. storing and releasing
energy), such as the beating of the heart, respiration and
controlling blood pressure. There are two divisions of the ANS:
the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches.
In Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory, the system that is
responsive to incentives, such as cues for reward and
regulates approach behavior. When some stimulus is
recognized as potentially rewarding, the BAS triggers
approach behavior. This system is highly correlated with the
trait of extraversion.
In Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory, the system
responsive to cues for punishment, frustration and
uncertainty. The effect of BIS activation is to cease or inhibit
behavior or to bring about avoidance behavior. This system
is highly correlated with the trait of neuroticism.
Cardiac Reactivity
Circadian Rhythms
Comorbidity
Cortisol
Dopamine
Drd4
Electrodermal Activity (Skin
Conductance)
Electrodes
Electroencephalograph
(EEG)
Free Running
Frontal Brain Asymmetry
Functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
The increase in blood pressure and heart rate during times of
stress. Evidence suggests that chronic cardiac reactivity
contributes to coronary artery disease.
Many biological processes fluctuate around an approximate
24- to 25-hour cycle. These are called circadian rhythms
(circa = around; dia = day). Circadian rhythms in temporal
isolation studies have been found to be as short as 16 hours
in one person and as long as 50 hours in another person.
The presence of two or more disorders of any type in one
person.
A stress hormone that prepares the body to flee or fight.
Increases in cortisol in the blood indicate that the animal has
recently experienced stress.
A neurotransmitter that appears to be associated with
pleasure. Dopamine appears to function something like the
‘reward system’ and has even been called the ‘feeling
good’ chemical.
A gene located on the short arm of chromosome 11 that
codes for a protein called dopamine receptor. The function
of this dopamine receptor is to respond to the presence of
dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter. When the dopamine
receptor encounters dopamine from other neurons in the
brain, it discharges an electrical signal, activating other
neurons.
Electricity will flow across the skin with less resistance if that
skin is made damp with sweat. Sweating on the palms of the
hands is activated by the sympathetic nervous system and
so electrodermal activity I a way to directly measure
changes in the sympathetic nervous system.
A sensor usually placed on the surface of the skin and linked
to a physiological recording machine (often called a
polygraph) to measure physiological variables.
The brain spontaneously produces small amounts of
electricity, which can be measured by electrodes placed on
the scalp. EEGs can provide useful information about
patterns of activation in different regions of the brain that
may be associated with different types of information
processing tasks.
A condition in studies of circadian rhythms in which
participants are deprived from knowing what time it is (e.g.
meals are served when the participant asks for them, not at
pre-scheduled times). When a person is free running in time,
there are no time cues to influence behavior or biology.
Asymmetry in the amount of activity in the left and right part
of the frontal hemispheres of the brain. Studies using EEG
measures have linked more relative left brain activity with
pleasant emotions and more relative right brain activity with
negative emotions.
A noninvasive imaging technique used to identify specific
areas of brain activity. As parts of the brain are stimulated,
oxygenated blood rushes to the activated area, resulting in
increased iron concentrations in the blood. The fMRI detects
these elevated concentrations of iron and prints out colorful
images indicating which part of the brain is used to perform
certain tasks.
Harm Avoidance
Impulsivity
Monoamine Oxidase (MAO)
Morningness-Eveningness
Neurotransmitters
Norepinephrine
Novelty Seeking
Optimal Level Of Arousal
Physiological Systems
Reinforcement Sensitivity
Theory
In Cloninger’s tridimensional personality model, the
personality trait of harm avoidance is associated with low
levels of serotonin. People low in serotonin are sensitive to
unpleasant stimuli or to stimuli or events that have been
associated with punishment or pain. Consequently, people
low in serotonin seem to expect that harmful and unpleasant
events will happen to them and they are constantly vigilant
for signs such threatening events.
A personality trait that refers to lowered self-control,
especially in the presence of potentially rewarding activities,
the tendency to act before one thinks and a lowered ability
to anticipate the consequences of one’s behavior.
An enzyme found in the blood that is known to regulate
neurotransmitters, those chemicals that carry messages
between nerve cells. MAO may be a causal factor in the
personality trait of sensation seeking.
The stable differences between persons in preferences for
being active at different times of the day. The term was
coined to refer to this dimension. Differences between
morning- and evening-types of persons appear to be due to
differences in the length of their underlying circadian
biological rhythms.
Chemicals in the nerve cells that are responsible for the
transmission of a nerve impulse from one cell to another.
Some theories of personality are based directly on different
amounts of neurotransmitters found in the nervous system.
A neurotransmitter involved in activating the sympathetic
nervous system for flight or fight.
In Cloninger’s tridimensional personality model, the
personality trait of novelty seeking is based on low levels of
dopamine. Low levels of dopamine create a drive state to
obtain substances or experiences that increase dopamine.
Novelty and thrills and excitement can make up for low
levels of dopamine and so novelty-seeking behavior is
thought to result from low levels of this neurotransmitter.
Hebb believed that people are motivated to reach an
optimal level of arousal. If they are underaroused relative to
this level, an increase in arousal is rewarding; conversely, if
they are overaroused, a decrease in arousal is rewarding. By
optimal level of arousal, Hebb meant a level that is ‘just right’
for any given task.
The nervous system (including brain and nerves), the cardiac
system (including the heart, arteries and veins) and the
musculoskeletal system (including the muscles and bones,
which make all movements and behaviors possible).
Gray’s biological theory of personality. Based on recent
brain function research with animals, Gray constructed a
model of human personality based on two hypothesized
biological systems in the brain: the behavioral activation
system (BAS: which is responsive to incentives, such as cues
for reward and regulates approach behavior) and the
behavioral inhibition system (BIS: which is responsive to cues
for punishment, frustration and uncertainty).
Reward Dependence
Sensation Seeking
Sensory Deprivation
Serotonin
Telemetry
Theoretical Bridge
Tridimensional Personality
Model
Type A Personality
In Cloninger’s tridimensional personality model, the
personality trait of reward dependence is associated with
low levels of norepinephrine. People high on this trait are
persistent; they continue to act in ways that produced
reward. They work long hours, put a lot of effort into their
work and will often continue striving after others have given
up.
A dimension of personality postulated to have a
physiological basis. It refers to the tendency to seek out
thrilling and exciting activities, to take risks and to avoid
boredom.
Often done in a sound-proof chamber containing water in
which a person floats, in total darkness, such that sensory
input is reduced to a minimum. Researchers use sensory
deprivation chambers to see what happens when a person
is deprived of sensory input.
A neurotransmitter that plays a role in depression and other
mood disorders. Drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil block
the reuptake of serotonin, leaving it in the synapse longer,
leading depressed persons to feel less depressed.
The process by which electrical signals are sent from
electrodes to a polygraph using radio waves instead of
wires.
The connection between two different variables (for
instance, dimensions of personality and physiological
variables)
Cloninger’s tridimensional personality model ties three
specific personality traits to levels of the three
neurotransmitters. The first trait is called novelty seeking and
is based on low levels of dopamine. The second personality
trait is harm avoidance, which he associates with low levels
of serotonin. The third trait is reward dependence, which
Cloninger sees as related to low levels of norepinephrine.
In the 1960s, cardiologists Friedman and Rosenman began to
notice that many of their coronary heart disease patients
had similar personality traits – they were competitive,
aggressive workaholics, were ambitious overachievers, were
often hostile, were almost always in a hurry and rarely
relaxed or took it easy. Friedman and Rosenman referred to
this as the Type A personality, formally defined as ‘an actionemotion complex that can be observed in any person who is
aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to
achieve more and more in less and less time, and if required
to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other
persons’. Ass assessed by personality psychologists, Type A
refers to a syndrome of several traits: (1) achievement
motivation and competitiveness; (2) time urgency and (3)
hostility and aggressiveness.
Chapter 8
Evolutionary Perspectives on Personality
KEY TERMS
TERM
Adaptations
Adaptive Problem
Balancing Selection
By-Products Of Adaptations
Deductive Reasoning
Approach
Differential Gene
Reproduction
Domain-Specific
Effective Polygyny
DEFINITION
Inherited solutions to the survival and reproductive problems
posed by the hostile forces of nature. Adaptations are the
primary product of the selective process. An adaptation is a
‘reliably developing structure in the organism, which,
because it meshes with the recurrent structure of the world,
causes the solution to an adaptive problem’.
Anything that impedes survival or reproduction. All
adaptations must contribute to fitness during the period of
time in which they evolve by helping an organism survive,
reproduce or facilitate the reproductive success of genetic
relatives. Adaptations emerge from and interact with
recurrent structures of the world in a manner that solves
adaptive problems and hence aids in reproductive success.
When genetic variation is maintained by selection because
different levels on a trait dimension are adaptive in different
environments.
Evolutionary mechanisms that are not adaptations but rather
are by-products of other adaptations. Our nose, for
example, is clearly an adaptation designed for smelling. But
the fact that we use our nose to hold up our eyeglasses is an
incidental by-product.
The top-down, theory-driven method of empirical research
Reproductive success relative to others. The genes of
organisms who reproduce more than others get passed
down to future generations at relatively greater frequency
than the genes of those who reproduce less. Since survival is
usually critical for reproductive success, characteristics that
lead to greater survival get passed along. Since success in
mate competition is also critical for reproductive success,
qualities that lead to success in same-sex competition or to
success at being chosen as a mate get passed along.
Successful survival and successful mate competition,
therefore, are both part of differential gene reproduction.
Adaptations are presumed to be domain specific in the
sense that they are ‘designed’ by the evolutionary process
to solve a specialized adaptive problem. Domain specificity
implies that selection tends to fashion specific mechanisms
for each specific adaptive problem.
Because female mammals bear the physical burden of
gestation and lactation, there is a considerable sex
difference in minimum obligatory parental investment. This
difference leads to differences in the variances in
reproduction between the sexes: most females will have
some offspring, while a few males will sire many offspring,
and some will have none at all. This is known as effective
polygyny.
Evolutionary By-Products
Evolutionary Noise
Evolutionary-Predicted Sex
Differences
Frequency-Dependent
Selection
Functionality
Genes
Hostile Forces Of Nature
Inclusive Fitness Theory
Intersexual Selection
Intrasexual Competition
Incidental effects evolved changes that are not properly
considered adaptations. For example, our noses hold up
glasses, but that is not what the nose evolved for.
Random variations that are neutral with respect to selection.
Evolutionary psychology predicts that males and females will
be the same or similar in all those domains where the sexes
have faced the same or similar adaptive problems (e.g.
both sexes have sweat glands because both sexes have
faced the adaptive problem of thermal regulation) and
different when men and women have faced substantially
different adaptive problems (e.g. in the physical realm,
women have faced the problem of childbirth and have
therefore evolved adaptations that are lacking in men, such
as mechanisms for producing labor contractions through the
release of oxytocin into the bloodstream).
In some contexts, two or more heritable variants can evolve
within a population. The most obvious example is biological
sex itself. Within sexually reproducing species, the two sexes
exist in roughly equal numbers because of frequencydependent selection. If one sex becomes rare relative to the
other, evolution will produce an increase in the numbers of
the rarer sex. Frequency-dependent selection, in this
example, causes the frequency of men and women to
remain roughly equal. Different personality extremes (e.g.
introversion and extraversion) may be the result of frequency
dependent selection.
The notion that our psychological mechanisms are designed
to accomplish particular adaptive goals.
Packets of DNA that are inherited by children from their
parents in distinct chunks. They are the smallest discrete unit
that is inherited by offspring intact, without being broken up.
Hostile forces of nature are what Darwin called any event
that impedes survival. Hostile forces of nature include food
shortages, diseases, parasites, predators and extremes of
weather.
Modern evolutionary theory based on differential gene
reproduction. The ‘inclusive’ part refers to the fact that the
characteristics that affect reproduction need not affect the
personal production of offspring; they can affect the survival
reproduction of genetic relatives as well.
In Darwin’s intersexual selection, members of one sex choose
a mate based on their preferences for particular qualities in
that mate. These characteristics evolve because animals
that possess them are chosen more often as mates and their
genes thrive. Animals that lack the desired characteristics
are excluded from mating and their genes perish.
In Darwin’s intrasexual competition, members of the same
sex compete with each other and the outcome of their
contest gives the winner greater sexual access to members
of the opposite sex. Two stags locking horns in combat is the
prototypical image of this. The characteristics that lead to
success in contests of this kind, such as greater strength,
intelligence or attractiveness to allies, evolve because the
victors are able to mate more often and hence pass on
more genes.
Natural Selection
Psychopathy
Reactively Heritable
Restricted Sexual Strategy
Sexual Selection
Sexually Dimorphic
Social Anxiety
Unrestricted Mating Strategy
Xenophobia
Darwin reasoned that variants that better enabled an
organism to survive and reproduce would lead to more
descendants. The descendants, therefore, would inherit the
variants that led to their ancestors’ survival and
reproduction. Through this process, the successful variants
weeded out. Natural selection, therefore, results in gradual
changes in a species over time, as successful variants
increase in frequency and eventually spread throughout the
gene pool, replacing the less successful variants.
A term often used synonymously with the antisocial
personality disorder. It is used to refer to individual
differences in antisocial characteristics.
Traits that are secondary consequences of heritable traits.
According to Gangestad and Simpson, a woman seeking a
high-investing mate would adopt a restricted sexual strategy
marked by delayed intercourse and prolonged courtship.
This would enable her to assess the man’s level of
commitment, detect the existence of prior commitments to
other women and/or children and simultaneously signal to
the man the woman’s sexual fidelity and, hence, assure him
of his paternity of future offspring.
The evolution of characteristics because of their mating
benefits rather than because of their survival benefits.
According to Darwin, sexual selection takes two forms:
intrasexual competition and intersexual selection.
Species that show high variance in reproduction within one
sex tend to be highly sexually dimorphic or highly different in
size and structure. The more intense the effective polygyny,
the more dimorphic the sexes are in size and form.
Discomfort related to social interactions or even to the
anticipation of social interactions. Socially anxious persons
appear to be overly concerned about what others will think.
Baumeister and Tice propose that social anxiety is a speciestypical adaptation that functions to prevents social
exclusion.
According to Gangestad and Simpson, a woman seeking a
man for the quality of his genes is not interested in his level of
commitment to her. If the man is pursuing a short-term sexual
strategy, any delay on the woman’s part may deter him
from seeking sexual intercourse with her, thus defeating the
main adaptive reason for het mating strategy.
The fear of strangers. Characteristics that were probably
adaptive in ancestral environments, such as xenophobia,
are not necessarily adaptive in modern environments. Some
of the personality traits that make up human nature may be
vestigial adaptations to an ancestral environment that no
longer exists.
Chapter 9
Psychoanalytic Approaches to Personality
KEY TERMS
TERM
Anal Stage
Anxiety
Blindsight
Castration Anxiety
Conscious
Defense Mechanism
Deliberation-WithoutAwareness
Denial
DEFINITION
The second stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages of
development. The anal stage typically occurs between the
ages of 18 months and three years. At this stage, the anal
sphincter is the source of sexual pleasure and the child
obtains pleasure from first expelling feces and then, during
toilet training, from retaining feces. Adults who are
compulsive, overly neat, rigid and never messy are,
according to psychoanalytic theory, likely to be fixated at
the anal stage.
An unpleasant, high-arousal emotional state associated with
perceived threat. In the psychoanalytic tradition, anxiety is
seen as a signal that the control of the ego is being
threatened by reality, by impulses from the id, or by harsh
controls exerted by the superego. Freud identified three
different types of anxiety: neurotic anxiety, moral anxiety
and objective anxiety. According to Rogers, the unpleasant
emotional of anxiety is the result of having an experience
that does not fit with one’s self-conception.
Following an injury or stroke that damages the primary vision
center in the brain, a person may lose some or all of his or
her ability to see. In this blindness the eyes still bring
information into the brain, but the brain center responsible
for object recognition fails. People who suffer this ‘cortical’
blindness often display an interesting capacity to make
judgments about objects that they truly cannot see.
Freud argued that little boys come to believe that their
fathers might make a preemptive Oedipal strike and take
away what is at the root of the Oedipal conflict: the boy’s
penis. This fear of losing his penis is called castration anxiety;
it drives the little boy into giving up his sexual desire for his
mother.
The part of the mind that contains all the thoughts, feelings
and images that a person is presently aware of. Whatever a
person is currently thinking about is in his or her conscious
mind.
Strategies for coping with anxiety and threats to self-esteem.
The notion that, when confronted with a decision, if a person
can put it out of their conscious mind for a period of time,
then the ‘unconscious mind’ will continue to deliberate on it,
helping the person to arrive at a ‘sudden’ and often correct
decision sometime later.
When the reality of a particular situation is extremely anxietyprovoking, a person may resort to the defense mechanism of
denial. A person in denial insists that things are not the way
they seem. Denial can also be less extreme, as when
someone reappraises an anxiety-provoking situation so that
it seems less daunting. Denial often shows up in people’s
daydreams and fantasies.
Displacement
Dream Analysis
Ego
Ego Depletion
Electra Complex
False Consensus Effect
Fixation
Free Association
Fundamental Attribution Error
Genital Stage
An unconscious defense mechanism that involves avoiding
the recognition that one has certain inappropriate urges or
unacceptable feelings (e.g. anger, sexual attraction) toward
a specific other. Those feelings then get displaced onto
another person or object that is more appropriate or
acceptable.
A technique Freud taught for uncovering the unconscious
material in a dream by interpreting the content of a dream.
Freud called dreams ‘the royal road to the unconscious’.
The part of the mind that constrains the id to reality.
According to Freud, it develops within the first two or three
years of life. The ego operates according to the reality
principle. The ego understands that the urges of the id are
often in conflict with social and physical reality and that
direct expression of id impulses must therefore be redirected
or postponed.
In the radish condition, the participants’ exertion of selfcontrol in the face of temptation to eat cookies resulted in a
decrease of psychic energy available to work on the difficult
puzzle, leading them to give up sooner and report being
more tired after the experiment.
Within
the
psychoanalytic
theory
of
personality
development, the female counterpart to the Oedipal
complex; both refer to the phallic stage of development.
The tendency many people have to assume that others are
similar to them (i.e. extraverts think that many other people
are as extraverted as they are). Thinking that many other
people share your own traits, preferences or motivations.
According to Erikson, if a developmental crisis is not
successfully
and
adaptively
resolved,
personality
development could become arrested and the person would
continue to have a fixation on that crisis in development.
According to Freud, if a child fails to fully resolve a conflict at
a particular stage of development, he or she may get stuck
in that stage. If a child is fixated at a particular stage, he or
she exhibits a less mature approach to obtaining sexual
gratification.
Patients relax, let their minds wander and say whatever
comes into their minds. Patients often say things that surprise
or embarrass them. By relaxing the censor that screens
everyday thoughts, free association allows potentially
important material into conscious awareness.
When bad events happen to others, people have a
tendency to attribute blame to some characteristic of the
person, whereas when bad events happen to oneself,
people have the tendency to blame the situation.
The final stage in Freud’s psychosexual theory of
development. This stage begins around age 12 and lasts
through one’s adult life. Here the libido is focused on the
genitals, but not in the manner of self-manipulation
associated with the phallic stage. People reach the genital
stage with full psychic energy if they have resolved the
conflicts at the prior stages.
Id
Identification
Insight
Instincts
Interpretations
Latency Stage
Latent Content
Libido
Manifest Content
Moral Anxiety
The most primitive part of the human mind. Freud saw the id
as something we are born with and as the source of all drives
and urges. The id is like a spoiled child: selfish, impulsive and
pleasure-loving. According to Freud, the id operates strictly
according to the pleasure principle, which is the desire for
immediate gratification.
A developmental process in children. It consists of wanting to
become like the same-sex parent. In classic psychoanalysis,
it marks the beginning of the resolution of the Oedipal or
Electra conflicts and the successful resolution of the phallic
stage of psychosexual development. Freud believed that
the resolution of the phallic stage was both the beginning of
the superego and morality and the start of the adult gender
role.
In psychoanalysis, through many interpretations, a patient is
gradually led to an understanding of the unconscious source
of his or her problems. This understanding is called insight.
Freud believed that strong innate forces provided all the
energy in psychic system. He called these forces instincts. In
Freud’s initial formulation there were two fundamental
categories of instincts: self-preservation instincts and sexual
instincts. In his later formulations, Freud collapsed the selfpreservation and sexual instincts into one, which he called
the life instinct.
One of the three levels of cognition that are of interest to
personality psychologists. Interpretation is the making sense
of, or explaining, various events in the world. Psychoanalysts
offer patients interpretations of the psychodynamic causes
of their problems. Through many interpretations, patients are
gradually led to an understanding of the unconscious source
of their problems.
The fourth stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages of
development. This stage occurs from around the age of six
until puberty. Freud believed few specific sexual conflicts
existed during this time and was thus a period of
psychological rest or latency. Subsequent psychoanalysts
have argued that much development occurs during this
time, such as learning to make decisions for oneself,
interacting and making friends with others, developing an
identity and learning the meaning of work. The latency
period ends with the sexual awakening brought about by
puberty.
The latent content of a dream is, according to Freud, what
the elements of the dream actually represent.
Freud postulated that humans have a fundamental instinct
toward destruction and that this instinct is often manifest in
aggression toward others. The two instincts were usually
referred to as libido, for the life instinct and thanatos, for the
death instinct. While the libido was generally considered
sexual in nature, Freud also used this term to refer to any
need-satisfying, life-sustaining or pleasure-oriented urge.
The manifest content of a dream is, according to Freud,
what the dream actually contains.
Caused by conflict between the id or the ego and the
superego. For example, a person who suffers from chronic
shame or feelings of guilt over not living up to ‘proper’
Neurotic Anxiety
Objective Anxiety
Oedipal Conflict
Oral Stage
Penis Envy
Phallic Stage
Pleasure Principle
Preconscious
Primary Process Thinking
Projection
Projective Hypothesis
standards, even though such standards might not be
attainable, is experiencing moral anxiety.
Occurs when there is a direct conflict between the id and
the ego. The danger is that the ego may lose control over
some unacceptable desire of the id. For example, a man
who worries excessively that he might blurt out some
unacceptable thought or desire in public is beset by
neurotic anxiety.
Fear occurs in response to some real, external threat to the
person. For example, being confronted by a large,
aggressive-looking man with a knife while taking a shortcut
through an alley would elicit objective anxiety (fear) in most
people.
For boys, the main conflict in Freud’s phallic stage. It is a
boy’s unconscious wish to have his mother all to himself by
eliminating the father. (Oedipus is a character in a Greek
myth who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother).
The first stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages of
development. This stage occurs during the initial 18 months
after birth. During this time, the main sources of pleasure and
tension reduction are the mouth, lips and tongue. Adults
who still obtain pleasure from ‘taking in’, especially through
the mouth (e.g. people who overeat or smoke or talk too
much) might be fixated at this stage.
The female counterpart of castration anxiety, which occurs
during the phallic stage of psychosexual development for
girls around 3 to 5 years of age.
The third stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages of
development. It occurs between three and five years of
age, during which time the child discover that he has (or she
discovers that she does not have) a penis. This stage also
includes the awakening of sexual desire directed, according
to Freud, toward the parent of the opposite sex.
The desire for immediate gratification. The id operates
according to the pleasure principle; therefore, it does not
listen to reason, does not follow logic, has no values or
morals (other than immediate gratification) and has very
little patience.
Any information that a person is not presently aware of, but
that could easily be retrieved and made conscious, is found
in the preconscious mind.
Thinking without the logical rules of conscious though or an
anchor in reality. Dreams and fantasies are examples of
primary process thinking. Although primary process thought
does not follow the normal rules of reality (e.g. in dreams
people might fly or walk through walls), Freud believed there
were principles at work in primary process thought and that
these principles could be discovered.
A defense mechanism based on the notion that sometimes
we see in others those traits and desires that we find most
upsetting in ourselves. We literally ‘project’ (i.e. attribute) our
own unacceptable qualities onto others.
The idea that what a person ‘seed’ in an ambiguous figure,
such as an inkblot, reflects his or her personality. People are
thought to project their own personalities into what they
report seeing in such an ambiguous stimulus.
Psychic Energy
Psychoanalysis
Psychosexual Stage Theory
Rationalization
Reaction Formation
Reality Principle
Repression
Resistance
Secondary Process Thinking
According to Sigmund Freud, a source of energy within
each person that motivates him or her to do one thing and
not another. In Freud’s view, it is this energy that motivates all
human activity.
A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy (a
technique for helping individuals who are experiencing
some mental disorder or even relatively minor problems with
living). Psychoanalysis can be thought of as a theory about
the major components and mechanisms of personality, as
well as a method for deliberately restructuring personality.
According to Freud, all persons pass through a set series of
stages in personality development. At each of the first three
stages, young children must face and resolve specific
conflicts, which revolve around ways of obtaining a type of
sexual gratification. Children seek sexual gratification at
each stage by investing libidinal energy in a specific body
part. Each stage in the developmental process is named
after the body part in which sexual energy is invested.
A defense mechanism that involves generating acceptable
reasons
for
outcomes
that
might
otherwise
be
unacceptable. The goal is to reduce anxiety by coming up
with an explanation for some event that is easier to accept
than the ‘real’ reason.
A defense mechanism that refers to an attempt to stifle the
expression of an unacceptable urge; a person may
continually display a flurry of behavior that indicates the
opposite impulse. Reaction formation makes it possible for
psychoanalysts to predict that sometimes people will do
exactly the opposite of what you might otherwise think they
would do. It also alerts us to be sensitive to instances when a
person is doing something in excess. One of the hallmarks of
reaction formation is excessive behavior.
In psychoanalysis, it is the counterpart of the pleasure
principle. It refers to guiding behavior according to the
demands of reality and relies on the strengths of the ego to
provide such guidance.
One of the first defense mechanism discussed by Freud;
refers to the process of preventing unacceptable thoughts,
feelings or urges from reaching conscious awareness.
When a patient’s defenses are threatened by a probing
psychoanalyst, the patient may unconsciously set up
obstacles to progress. This stage of psychoanalysis is called
resistance. Resistance signifies that important unconscious
material is coming to the fore. The resistance itself becomes
an integral part of the interpretations the analyst offers to the
patient.
The ego engages in secondary process thinking, which refers
to the development and devising of strategies for problem
solving and obtaining satisfaction. Often this process involves
taking into account the constraints of physical reality, about
when and how to express some desire or urge. See primary
process thinking.
Sublimation
Superego
Symbols
Thanatos
Transference
Unconscious
Wish Fulfillment
A defense mechanism that refers to the channeling of
unacceptable sexual or aggressive instincts into socially
desired activities. For Freud, sublimation is the most adaptive
defense mechanism. A common example is going out to
chop wood when you are angry rather than acting on that
anger or even engaging in other less adaptive defense
mechanisms such as displacement.
The part of personality that internalizes the values, morals
and ideals of society. The superego makes us feel guilty,
ashamed or embarrassed when we do something wrong
and makes us feel pride when we do something right. The
superego sets moral goals and ideals of perfection and is the
source of our judgments that something is good or bad. It is
what some people refer to as conscience. The main tool of
the superego in enforcing right and wrong is the emotion of
guilt.
Psychoanalysts interpret dreams by deciphering how
unacceptable impulses and urges are transformed by the
unconscious into symbols in the dream (for example, parents
may be represented as a king and queen; children may be
represented as small animals).
Freud postulated that humans have a fundamental instinct
toward destruction and that this instinct is often manifest in
aggression toward others. The two instincts were usually
referred to as libido, for the life instincts and thanatos, for the
death instinct. While thanatos was considered to be the
death instinct, Freud also used this term to refer to any urge
to destroy, harm or aggress against others or oneself.
A term from psychoanalytic therapy. It refers to the patient
reacting to the analyst as if he or she were an important
figure from the patient’s own life. The patient displaces past
or present (negative and positive) feelings toward someone
from his or her own life onto the analyst. The idea behind
transference is that the interpersonal problems between a
patient and the important people in his or her life will be
reenacted in the therapy session with the analyst. This is a
specific form of the mechanism of evocation, as described
in the material on person-situation interaction.
The unconscious mind is that part of the mind about which
the conscious mind has no awareness.
If an urge from the id requires some external object or person
and that object or person is not available, the id may create
a mental image or fantasy of that object or person to satisfy
its needs. Mental energy is invested in that fantasy and the
urge is temporarily satisfied. This process is called wish
fulfillment, whereby something unavailable is conjured up
and the image of it is temporarily satisfying.
Chapter 11
Motives and Personality
KEY TERMS
TERM
Alpha And Beta Press
Anxiety
Apperception
Belongingness Needs
Client-Centered Therapy
Conditional Positive Regard
Conditions Of Worth
DEFINITION
Murray introduced the notion that there is a real
environment (what he called alpha press or objective
reality) and a perceived environment (called beta press or
reality-as-it-is-perceived). In any situation, what one person
‘sees’ may be different from what another ‘sees’. If two
people walk down a street and a third person smiles at each
of them, one person might ‘see’ the smile as a sign of
friendliness while the other person might ‘see’ the smile as a
smirk. Objectively (alpha press), it is the same smile;
subjectively (beta press), it may be a different event for the
two people.
An unpleasant, high-arousal emotional state associated with
perceived threat. In the psychoanalytic tradition, anxiety is
seen as a signal that the control of the ego is being
threatened by reality, by impulses from the id, or by harsh
controls exerted by the superego. Freud identified three
different types of anxiety: neurotic anxiety, moral anxiety
and objective anxiety. According to Rogers, the unpleasant
emotional of anxiety is the result of having an experience
that does not fit with one’s self-conception.
The notion that a person’s needs influence how he or she
perceives
the
environment,
especially
when
the
environment is ambiguous. The act of interpreting the
environment and perceiving the meaning of what is going
on in a situation.
The third level of Maslow’s motivation hierarchy. Humans are
a very social species and most people possess a strong need
to belong to groups. Being accepted by others and
welcomed into a groups represents a somewhat more
psychological need than the physiological needs or the
need for safety.
In Rogers’s client-centered therapy, clients are never given
interpretations of their problem. Nor are clients given any
direction about what course of action to take to solve their
problem. The therapist makes no attempts to change the
client directly. Instead, the therapist tries to create an
atmosphere in which the client may change him- or herself.
According to Rogers, people behave in specific ways to
earn the love and respect and positive regard of parents
and other significant people in their lives. Positive regard,
when it must be earned by meeting certain conditions is
called conditional positive regard.
According to Rogers, the requirements set forth by parents or
significant others for earning their positive regard are called
conditions of worth. Children may become preoccupied
with living up to these conditions of worth rather than
discovering what makes them happy.
Core Conditions
Distortion
Dynamic
Emotional Intelligence
Empathy
Esteem Needs
Flow
Fully Functioning Person
Hierarchy Of Needs
According to Carl Rogers, in client-centered therapy three
core conditions must be present in order for progress to
occur: (1) an atmosphere of genuine acceptance on the
part of the therapist; (2) the therapist must express
unconditional positive regard for the client; and (3) the client
must feel that the therapist understands him or her
(empathic understanding).
A defense mechanism in Roger’s theory of personality;
distortion refers to modifying the meaning of experiences to
make them less threatening to the self-image.
The interaction of forces within a person.
An adaptive form of intelligence consisting of the ability to
(1) know one’s own emotions; (2) regulate those emotions;
(3) motivate oneself; (4) know how others are feeling; and
(5) influence how others are feeling. Goleman posited that
emotional intelligence is more strongly predictive of
professional status, marital quality and salary than traditional
measures of intelligence and aptitude.
In
Rogers’s
client-centered
therapy,
empathy
is
understanding the person from his or her point of view.
Instead of interpreting the meaning behind what the client
says (e.g. ‘you have a harsh superego that is punishing you
for the actions of your id’), the client-centered therapist
simply listens to what the client says and reflects it back.
The fourth level of Maslow’s motivation hierarchy. There are
two types of esteem: esteem from others and self-esteem,
the latter often depending on the former. People want to be
seen by others as competent, as strong and as able to
achieve. They want to be respected by others for their
achievements or abilities. People also want to feel good
about themselves. Much of the activity of adult daily life is
geared toward achieving recognition and esteem from
others and bolstering one’s own self-confidence.
A subjective state that people report when they are
completely involved in an activity to the point of forgetting
time, fatigue and everything else but the activity itself. While
flow experiences are somewhat rare, they occur under
specific conditions; there is a balance between the person’s
skills and the challenges of the situation, there is a clear goal
and there is immediate feedback on how one is doing.
According to Rogers, a fully functioning person is on his or
her way toward self-actualization. Fully functioning persons
may not actually be self-actualized yet, but they are not
blocked or sidetracked in moving toward this goal. Such
persons are open to new experiences and are not afraid of
new ideas. They embrace life to its fullest. Fully functioning
individuals are also centered in the present. They do not
dwell on the past of their regrets. Fully functioning individuals
also trust themselves, their feelings and their own judgments.
Murray believed that each person has a unique
combination of needs. An individual’s various needs can be
thought of as existing at a different level of strength. A
person might have a high need for dominance, an average
need for intimacy and a low need for achievement. High
levels of some needs interact with the amounts of various
other needs within each person.
Humanistic Tradition
Implicit Motivation
Independence Training
Motives
Multi-Motive Grid
Need For Achievement
Need For Intimacy
Need For Power
Needs
Humanistic psychologists emphasize the role of choice in
human life and the influence of responsibility on creating a
meaningful and satisfying life. The meaning of any person’s
life, according to the humanistic approach, is found in the
choices that people make and the responsibility they take
for those choices. The humanistic tradition also emphasizes
the human need for growth and realizing one’s full potential.
In the humanistic tradition it is assumed that, if left to their
own devices, humans will grow and develop in positive and
satisfying directions.
Motives as they are measured in fantasy-based (i.e. TAT)
techniques, as opposed to direct self-report measures. The
implied motives of persons scored, for example, from TAT
stories, is thought to reveal their unconscious desires and
aspirations, their unspoken needs and wants. McClelland has
argued that implicit motives predict long-term behavioral
trends over time, such as implicit need for achievement
predicting long-term business success.
McClelland believes that certain parental behaviors can
promote high achievement motivation, autonomy and
independence in their children. One of these parenting
practices is placing an emphasis on independence training.
Training a child to be independent in different tasks
promotes a sense of mastery and confidence in the child.
Internal states that arouse and direct behavior toward
specific objects or goals. A motive is often caused by a
deficit, by the lack of something. Motives differ from each
other in type, amount and intensity, depending on the
person and his or her circumstances. Motives are based on
needs and propel people to perceive, think and act in
specific ways that serve to satisfy those needs.
Designed to assess motives, it uses 14 pictures representing
achievement, power or intimacy and a series of questions
about important motivational states to elicit answers from
test subjects. In theory, the motives elicited from the
photographs would influence how the subject answers the
test questions.
According to McClelland, the desire to do better, to be
successful and to feel competent. People with a high need
for achievement obtains satisfaction from accomplishing a
task or from the anticipation of accomplishing a task. They
cherish the process of being engaged in a challenging task.
McAdams defines the need for intimacy as the ‘recurrent
preference or readiness for warm, close and communicative
interaction with others’. People with a high need for intimacy
want more intimacy and meaningful human contact in their
day-to-day lives than do those with a low need for intimacy.
A preference for having an impact on other people.
Individuals with a high need for power are interested in
controlling situations and other people.
States of tension within a person; as a need is satisfied, the
state of tension is reduced. Usually the state of tension is
caused by the lack of something (e.g. a lack of food causes
a need to eat).
Physiological Needs
Positive Regard
Positive Self-Regard
Power Stress
Press
Responsibility Training
Safety Needs
Self-Actualization Need
Self-Attributed Motivation
State Levels
Thematic Apperception Test
The base of Maslow’s need hierarchy. These include those
needs that are of prime importance to the immediate
survival of the individual (the need for food, water, air, sleep)
as well as to the long-term survival of the species (the need
for sex).
According to Rogers, all children are born wanting to be
loved and accepted by their parents and others. He called
this in-born need the desire for positive regard.
According to Rogers, people who have received positive
regard from others develop a sense of positive self-regard;
they accept themselves, even their own weaknesses and
shortcomings. People with high positive self-regard trust
themselves, follow their own interests and rely on their feeling
to guide them to do the right thing.
According to David McClelland, when people do not get
their way or when their power is challenged or blocked, they
are likely to show strong stress responses. This stress has been
linked to diminished immune function and increased illness in
longitudinal studies.
Need-relevant aspects of the environment. A person’s need
for intimacy, for example, won’t affect that person’s
behavior without an appropriate environmental press (such
as the presence of friendly people).
Life experiences that provide opportunities to learn to
behave responsibly, such as having younger siblings to take
care of while growing up. Moderates the gender difference
in impulsive behaviors associated with need for power.
The second to lowest level of Maslow’s need hierarchy.
These needs have to do with shelter and security, such as
having a place to live and being free from the threat of
danger. Maslow believed that building a life that was
orderly, structured and predictable also fell under safety
needs.
Maslow defines self-actualization as becoming ‘more and
more what one idiosyncratically is, to become everything
that one is capable of becoming’. The pinnacle of Maslow’s
need hierarchy is the need for self-actualization. Maslow was
concerned with describing self-actualization; the work of
Carl Rogers was focused on how people achieve selfactualization.
McClelland argued that self-attributed motivation is primarily
a person’s self-awareness of his or her own conscious
motives. These self-attributed motives reflect a person’s
conscious awareness about what is important to him or her.
As such, they represent part of the individual’s conscious selfunderstanding. McClelland has argued that self-attributed
motives predict responses to immediate and specific
situations and to choice behaviors and attitudes. See implicit
motivation.
A concept that can be applied to motives and emotions,
state levels refer to a person’s momentary amount of a
specific need or emotion, which can fluctuate with specific
circumstances.
Developed by Murray and Morgan, this is a projective
assessment technique that consists of a set of black and
white ambiguous pictures. The person is shown each picture
Trait Levels
Unconditional Positive
Regard
and is told to write a short story interpreting what is
happening in each picture. The psychologist then codes the
stories for the presence of imagery associated with particular
motives. The TAT remains a popular personality assessment
technique today.
A concept that can be applied to motives and emotions,
trait levels refer to a person’s average tendency, or his or her
set-point, on the specific motive or emotion. The idea is that
people differ from each other in their typical or average
amount of specific motives or emotions.
The receipt of affection, love or respect without having done
anything to earn it. For example, a parent’s love for a child
should be unconditional.
Chapter 13
Emotion and Personality
KEY TERMS
TERM
Action Tendencies
Affect Intensity
Anterior Cingulate
Categorical Approach
Cognitive Schema
Cognitive Triad
Content
Depression
DEFINITION
Increases in the probabilities of certain behaviors that
accompany emotions. The activity or action tendency,
associated with fear, for example, is to flee or to fight.
Larsen and Diener describe high affect intensity individuals
as people who typically experience their emotions strongly
and are emotionally reactive and variable. Low affect
intensity individuals typically experience their emotions only
mildly and with only gradual fluctuations and minor
reactions.
Located deep toward the center of the brain, the anterior
cingulated cortex most likely evolved early in the evolution
of the nervous system. In experiments utilizing fMRI to trace
increased activation of parts of the brain, the anterior
cingulated cortex seems to be an area of the brain
associated with affect, including social rejection.
Researchers who suggest emotions are best thought of as a
small number of primary and distinct emotions (anger, joy,
anxiety, sadness) are said to take the categorical approach.
Emotion researchers who take the categorical approach
have tried to reduce the complexity of emotions by
searching for the primary emotions that underlie the great
variety of emotion terms. An example of a categorical
approach to emotion is that of Paul Ekman, who applies
criteria of distinct and universal facial expressions and whose
list of primary emotions contains disgust, sadness, joy,
surprise, anger and fear.
A schema is a way of processing incoming information and
of organizing and interpreting the facts of daily life. The
cognitive schema involved in depression, according to Beck,
distorts the incoming information in a negative way that
makes the person depressed.
According to Beck, there are three important areas of life
that are most influenced by the depressive cognitive
schema. This cognitive triad refers to information about the
self, about the world and about the future.
The content of emotional life refers to the characteristic or
typical emotions a person is likely to experience over time.
Someone whose emotional life contains a lot of pleasant
emotions is someone who might be characterized as happy,
cheerful and enthusiastic. Thus the notion of content leads us
to consider the kinds of emotions that people are likely to
experience over time and across situations in their lives.
A psychological disorder whose symptoms include a
depressed mood most of the day; diminished interest in
activities; change in weight, sleep patterns and movement;
fatigue or loss of energy; feelings of worthlessness; inability to
concentrate; and recurrent thoughts of death and suicide.
20% of Americans are afflicted with depression.
Diathesis-Stress Model
Dimensional Approach
Emotion
Emotional States
Emotional Traits
Functional Analysis
Happiness
Hostility
Suggests that a pre-existing vulnerability or diathesis, is
present among people who become depressed. In addition
to this vulnerability, a stressful life event must occur in order
to trigger the depression, such as the loss of a loved one or
some other major negative life event. The events must occur
together – something bad or stressful has to happen to a
person who has a particular vulnerability to depression – in
order for depression to occur.
Researchers gather data by having subjects rate themselves
on a wide variety of emotions, then apply statistical
techniques (mostly factor analysis) to identify the basic
dimensions underlying the ratings. Almost all the studies
suggest that subjects categorize emotions using just two
primary dimensions: how pleasant or unpleasant the
emotion is and how high or low on arousal the emotion is.
Emotions can be defined by their three components: (1)
emotions have distinct subjective feelings or affects
associated with them; (2) emotions are accompanied by
bodily changes, mostly in the nervous system and these
produce associated changes in breathing, heart rate,
muscle tension, blood chemistry and facial and bodily
expressions; (3) emotions are accompanied by distinct
action tendencies or increases in the probabilities of certain
behaviors.
Transitory states that depend more on the situation or
circumstances a person is in than on the specific person.
Emotions as states have a specific cause and that cause is
typically outside of the person (something happens in the
environment).
Stable personality traits that are primarily characterized by
specific emotions. F.e. the trait of neuroticism is primarily
characterized by the emotions of anxiety and worry.
In the expression of the emotions in man and animals,
Charles Darwin proposed a functional analysis of emotions
and emotional expressions focusing on the ‘why’ of
emotions and expressions. Darwin concluded that emotional
expressions communicate information from one animal to
another about what is likely to happen. For instance, a dog
baring its teeth, growling and bristling the fur on its back is
communicating to others that he is likely to attack. If others
recognize the dog’s communication, they may choose to
back away to safety.
Researchers conceive of happiness in two complementary
ways: in terms of a judgment that life is satisfying, as well as in
terms of the predominance of positive compared to
negative, emotions in one’s life. It turns out, however, that
people’s emotional lives and their judgments of how satisfied
they are with their lives are highly correlated. People who
have a lot of pleasant emotions relative to unpleasant
emotions in their lives tend also to judge their lives as
satisfying and vice versa.
A tendency to respond to everyday frustrations with anger
and aggression, to become irritable easily, to feel frequent
resentment and to act in a rude, critical, antagonistic and
uncooperative manner in everyday interactions. Hostility is a
sub trait in the Type A behavior pattern.
Limbic System
Mood Induction
Mood Variability
Neuroticism
Neurotransmitter Theory Of
Depression
Positive Illusions
Prefrontal Cortex
Reciprocal Causality
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Style
The part of the brain responsible for emotion and the ‘flightfight’ reaction. If individuals have a limbic system that is
easily activated, we might expect them to have frequent
episodes of emotion, particularly those emotions associated
with flight (such as anxiety, fear, worry) and those associated
with fight (such as anger, irritation, annoyance). Eysenck
postulated that the limbic system was the source of the trait
of neuroticism.
In experimental studies of mood, mood inductions are
employed as manipulations in order to determine whether
the mood differences (e.g. pleasant versus unpleasant)
effect some dependent variable. In studies of personality,
mood effects might interact with personality variables. For
example, positive mood effects might be stronger for
persons high on extraversion and negative mood effects
might be stronger for persons high on neuroticism.
Frequent fluctuations in a person’s emotional life over time.
A dimension of personality present, in some form, in every
major trait theory of personality. Different researchers have
used different terms for neuroticism, such as emotional
instability, anxiety-proneness and negative affectivity.
Adjectives useful for describing persons high on the trait of
neuroticism include moody, touchy, irritable, anxious,
unstable, pessimistic and complaining.
According to this theory, an imbalance of the
neurotransmitters at the synapses of the nervous system
causes depression. Some medications used to treat
depression target these specific neurotransmitters. Not all
people with depression are treated successfully with drugs.
That suggests that there may be varieties of depression;
some are biologically based, while others are more reactive
to stress, physical exercise or cognitive therapy.
Some researchers believe that part of being happy is to
have positive illusion about the self – an inflated view of
one’s own characteristics as a good, able and desirable
person – as this characteristic appears to be part of
emotional well-being.
Area of the brain found to be highly active in the control of
emotions. Many people who have committed violent acts
exhibit a neurological deficit in the frontal areas, portions of
the brain assumed to be responsible for regulating negative
emotions.
The notion that causality can move in two directions; for
example, helping others can lead to happiness and
happiness can lead one to be more helpful to others.
The tendency for a belief to become reality. For example, a
person who thinks he or she is a ‘total failure’ will often act
like a total failure and may even give up trying to do better,
thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The way in which emotion is experienced.
Chapter 16
Sex, Gender and Personality
KEY TERMS
TERM
Adaptive Problems
Androgynous
Effect Size
Expressiveness
Femininity
Gender
Gender Schemata
Gender Stereotypes
Global Self-Esteem
Hormonal Theories
DEFINITION
Anything that impedes survival or reproduction. All
adaptations must contribute to fitness during the period of
time in which they evolve by helping an organism survive,
reproduce or facilitate the reproductive success of genetic
relatives. Adaptations emerge from and interact with
recurrent structures of the world in a manner that solves
adaptive problems and hence aids in reproductive success.
In certain personality instruments, the masculinity dimension
contains
items
reflecting
assertiveness,
boldness,
dominance, self-sufficiency and instrumentality. The
femininity dimension contains items that reflect nurturance,
expression of emotions and empathy. Those persons who
scored high on both dimensions are labeled androgynous,
to reflect the notion that a single person can possess both
masculine and feminine characteristics.
How large a particular difference is or how strong a
particular correlation is, as averaged over several
experiments or studies.
The ease with which one can express emotions, such as
crying, showing empathy for the troubles for others and
showing nurturance to those in need.
A psychological dimension containing traits such as
nurturance, empathy and expression of emotions (e.g.
crying when sad). Femininity traits refer to gender roles, as
distinct from biological sex.
Social interpretations of what it means to be man or woman.
Cognitive orientations that lead individuals to process social
information on the basis of sex-linked associations.
Beliefs that we hold about how men and women differ or
are supposed to differ, which are not necessarily based on
reality. Gender stereotypes can have important real-life
consequences for men and women. These consequences
can damage people where it most counts – in their health,
their jobs, their odds of advancement and their social
reputations.
By far the most frequently measured component of selfesteem; defined as ‘the level of global regard that one has
for the self as a person’. Global self-esteem can range from
highly positive to highly negative and reflects an overall
evaluation of the self at the broadest level. Global selfesteem is linked with many aspects of functioning and is
commonly thought to be central to mental health.
Hormonal theories of sex differences argue that men and
women differ not because of the external social
environment but because the sexes have different amounts
of specific hormones. It is these physiological differences, not
differential social treatment, that causes boys and girls to
diverge over development.
Inhibitory Control
Instrumentality
Masculinity
Maximalist
Minimalist
Negative Affectivity
People-Things Dimension
Perceptual Sensitivity
Rumination
Sex Differences
Social Categories
Social Learning Theory
Social Role Theory
The ability to control inappropriate responses or behaviors.
Personality traits that involve working with objects, getting
tasks completed in a direct fashion, showing independence
from others and displaying self-sufficiency.
Traits that define the cultural roles associated with being
male. Two major personality instruments were published in
1974 to assess people using this new conception of gender
roles. The masculinity scales contain items reflecting
assertiveness, boldness, dominance, self-sufficiency and
instrumentality. Masculinity traits refer to gender roles, as
distinct from biological sex.
Those who describe sex differences as comparable in
magnitude to effect sizes in other areas of psychology,
important to consider and recommend that they should not
be trivialized.
Those who describe sex differences as small and
inconsequential.
Includes components such as anger, sadness, difficulty and
amount of distress.
Brian Little’s people-things dimension of personality refers to
the nature of vocational interests. Those at the ‘things’ end
of the dimension like vocations that deal with impersonal
tasks – machines, tools or materials. Examples include
carpenter, auto mechanic, building contractor, tool maker
or farmer. Those scoring toward the ‘people’ end of the
dimension prefer social occupations that involve thinking
about others, caring for other or directing others. Examples
include high school teacher, social worker or religious
counselor.
The ability to detect subtle stimuli from the environment.
Repeatedly focusing on one’s symptoms or distress (e.g.
‘why do I continue to feel so bad about myself?’ or ‘why
doesn’t my boss like me?’). rumination is a key contributor to
women’s greater experience of depressive symptoms.
An average difference between women and men on
certain characteristics such as height, body fat distribution or
personality characteristics, with no prejudgment about the
cause of the difference.
The cognitive component that describes the ways individuals
classify other people into groups, such as ‘cads’ and ‘dads’.
This cognitive component is one aspect of stereotyping.
A general theoretical view emphasizing the ways in which
the presence of others influence people’s behavior,
thoughts or feelings. Often combined with learning
principles, the emphasis is on how people acquire beliefs,
values, skills, attitudes and patterns of behavior through
social experiences.
According to social role theory, sex differences originate
because men and women are distributed differentially into
occupational and family roles. Men, for example, are
expected to assume the breadwinning role. Women are
expected to assume the housewife role. Over time, children
presumably learn the behaviors that are linked to these roles.
Socialization Theory
Surgency
Tender-Mindedness
Trust
The notion that boys and girls become different because
boys are reinforced by parents, teachers and the media for
being ‘masculine’ and girls for being ‘feminine’. This is
probably the most widely held theory of sex differences in
personality.
A cluster of behaviors including approach behavior, high
activity and impulsivity.
A nurturant proclivity, having empathy for others and being
sympathetic with those who are downtrodden.
The proclivity to cooperate with others, giving others the
benefit of the doubts and viewing one’s fellow human
beings as basically good at heart.
Chapter 18
Stress, Coping, Adjustment and Health
KEY TERMS
TERM
Acute Stress
Additive Effects
Alarm Stage
Arteriosclerosis
Chronic Stress
Competitive Achievement
Motivation
Creating Positive Events
Daily Hassles
Disclosure
Dispositional Optimism
Emotional Inhibition
Episodic Acute Stress
DEFINITION
Results from the sudden onset of demands or events that
seem to be beyond the control of the individual. This type of
stress is often experienced as tension headaches, emotional
upsets, gastrointestinal disturbances and feelings of agitation
and pressure.
The effects of different kinds of stress that add up and
accumulate in a person over time.
The first stage in Selye’s general adaptation syndrome (GAS).
The alarm stage consists of the flight-or-fight response of the
sympathetic nervous system and the associated peripheral
nervous system reactions. These include the release of
hormones, which prepare our bodies for challenge.
Hardening or blocking of the arteries. When the arteries that
feed the heart muscle itself become blocked, the
subsequent shortage of blood to the heart = a heart attack.
Stress that does not end, like an abusive relationship that
grinds the individual down until his or her resistance is
eroded. Chronic stress can result in serious systemic diseases
such as diabetes, decreased immune system functioning or
cardiovascular disease.
Also referred to as the need for achievement, it is a subtrait
in the Type A behavior pattern. Type A people like to work
hard and achieve goals. They like recognition and
overcoming obstacles and feel they are at their best when
competing with others.
Creating a positive time-out from stress. Folkman and
Moskowitz note that humor can have the added benefit of
generating positive emotional moments even during the
darkest periods of stress.
The major sources of stress in most people’s lives. Although
minor, daily hassles can be chronic and repetitive, such as
having too much to do all the time, having to fight the
crowds while shopping or having to worry over money. Such
daily hassles can be chronically irritating though they do not
initiate the same general adaptation syndrome evoked by
some major life events.
Telling someone about some private aspect of ourselves.
Many theorists have suggested that keeping things to
ourselves may be a source of stress and ultimately may lead
to psychological distress and physical disease.
The expectation that in the future good events will be
plentiful and bad events will be rare.
Suppression of emotional expression; often thought of as a
trait (e.g. some people chronically suppress their emotions).
Repeated episodes of acute stress, such as having to work
at more than one job every day, having to spend time with
a difficult in-law or needing to meet a recurring monthly
deadline.
Exhaustion Stage
Frustration
General Adaptation
Syndrome (GAS)
Health Behavior Model
Health Psychology
Hostility
Illness Behavior Model
Interactional Model
Leukocyte
Major Life Events
Optimistic Bias
The third stage in Selye’s general adaptation syndrome
(GAS). Selye felt that this was the stage where we are most
susceptible to illness and disease, as our physiological
resources are depleted.
The high-arousal unpleasant subjective feeling that comes
when a person is blocked from attaining an important goal.
For example, a thirsty person who just lost his last bit of
money in a malfunctioning soda machine would most likely
feel frustration.
GAS has three stages: when a stressor first appears, people
experience the alarm stage. If the stressor continues, the
stage of resistance begins. If the stressor remains constant,
the person eventually enters the third stage, the stage of
exhaustion.
Personality does not directly influence the relation between
stress and illness. Instead, personality affects health indirectly,
through health-promoting or health-degrading behaviors.
This model suggests that personality influences the degree to
which a person engages in various health-promoting or
health-demoting behaviors.
Researchers in the area of health psychology study relations
between the mind and the body and how these two
components respond to challenges from the environment
(e.g. stressful events, germs) to produce illness or health.
A tendency to respond to everyday frustrations with anger
and aggression, to become irritable easily, to feel frequent
resentment and to act in a rude, critical, antagonistic and
uncooperative manner in everyday interactions. Hostility is a
sub trait in the Type A behavior pattern.
Personality influences the degree to which a person
perceives and pays attention to bodily sensations and the
degree to which a person will interpret and label those
sensations as an illness.
Objective events happen to a person, but personality
factors determine the impact of those events by influencing
the person’s ability to cope. This is called the interactional
model because personality is assumed to moderate (that is,
influence) the relation between stress and illness.
A white blood cell. When there is an infection or injury to the
body or a systematic inflammation of the body occurs, there
is an elevation in white blood cells counts. Surtees et al., in a
2003 study, established a direct link between hostility and
elevated white blood cells counts.
According to Holmes and Rahe, major life events require
that people make major adjustments in their lives. Death or
loss of a spouse through divorce or separation are the most
stressful events, followed closely by being jailed, losing a
close family member in death or being severely injured.
Most people generally underestimate their risks, with the
average person rating his or her risk as below what is the true
average. This has been referred to as the optimistic bias and
it may actually lead people in general to ignore or minimize
the risks inherent in life or to take more risks than they should.
Positive Reappraisal
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD)
Predisposition Model
Primary Appraisal
Problem-Focused Coping
Resistance Stage
Secondary Appraisal
Self-Efficacy
Stress
Stressors
A cognitive process whereby a person focuses on the good
in what is happening or has happened to them. Folkman
and Moskowitz note that forms of this positive coping
strategy include seeing opportunities for personal growth or
seeing how one’s own efforts can benefit other people.
A syndrome that occurs in some individuals after
experiencing or witnessing life-threatening events, such as
military combat, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, serious
accidents or violent personal assault (e.g. rape). Those who
suffer from PTSD often relive the trigger experience for years
through nightmares or intense flashbacks; have difficulty
sleeping; report physical complaints; have flattened
emotions and feel detached or estranged from others. These
symptoms can be severe and last long enough to
significantly impair the individual’s daily life, health,
relationships and career.
In health psychology, the predisposition model suggests that
associations may exist between personality and illness
because a third variable is causing them both.
According to Lazarus, in order for stress to be evoked for a
person, two cognitive events must occur. The first cognitive
events, called the primary appraisal, is for the person to
perceive that the events is a threat to his or her personal
goals. See also secondary appraisal.
Thoughts and behaviors that manage or solve the underlying
cause of stress. Folkman and Moskowitz note that focusing
on solving problems, even little ones, can give a person a
positive sens of control even in the most stressful and
uncontrollable circumstances.
The second stage in Selye’s general adaptation syndrome
(GAS). Here the body is using its resources at an aboveaverage rate, even though the immediate fight-or-flight
response has subsided. Stress is being resisted, but the effort
is making demands on the person’s resources and energy.
According to Lazarus, in order for stress to be evoked for a
person, two cognitive events must occur. The secondary
necessary cognitive event, called the secondary appraisal,
is when the person concludes that he or she does not have
the resources to cope with the demands of the threatening
event. See primary appraisal.
A concept related to optimism and developed by Bandura.
The belief that one can behave in ways necessary to
achieve some desired outcome. Self-efficacy also refers to
the confidence one has in one’s ability to perform the
actions needed to achieve some specific outcome.
The subjective feeling that is produced by uncontrollable
and threatening events. Events that cause stress = stressors.
Events that cause stress. They appear to have several
common attributes: (1) stressors are extreme in some
manner, in the sense that they produce a state of feeling
overwhelmed or overloaded, that one just cannot take it
much longer; (2) stressors often produce opposing
tendencies in us, such as wanting and not wanting to put it
off as long as possible; and (3) stressors are uncontrollable,
outside of our power to influence, such as the exam that we
cannot avoid.
Time Urgency
Transactional Model
Traumatic Stress
Type A Personality
Type D Personality
A subtrait in the Type A personality. Type A persons hate
wasting time. They are always in a hurry and feel under
pressure to get the most done in the least amount of time.
Often they do two things at once, such as eat while reading
a book. Waiting is stressful for them.
In the transactional model of personality and health,
personality has three potential effects: (1) it can influence
coping, as in the interactional model; (2) it can influence
how the person appraises or interprets the events; and (3) it
can influence exposure to the events themselves.
A massive instance of acute stress, the effects of which can
reverberate within an individual for years or even a lifetime. It
differs from acute stress mainly in terms of its potential to lead
to posttraumatic stress disorder.
In the 1960s, cardiologists Friedman and Rosenman began to
notice that many of their coronary heart disease patients
had similar personality traits – they were competitive,
aggressive workaholics, were ambitious overachievers, were
often hostile, were almost always in a hurry and rarely
relaxed or took it easy. Friedman and Rosenman referred to
this as the Type A personality, formally defined as ‘an actionemotion complex that can be observed in any person who is
aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to
achieve more and more in less and less time, and if required
to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other
persons’. Ass assessed by personality psychologists, Type A
refers to a syndrome of several traits: (1) achievement
motivation and competitiveness; (2) time urgency and (3)
hostility and aggressiveness.
A dimension along which individuals differ on two underlying
traits: (1) negative affectivity, or the tendency to frequently
experience negative emotions across time and situations
(e.g. tension, worry, irritability and anxiety); and (2) social
inhibition or the tendency to inhibit the expression of
emotions, thoughts and behaviors in social interactions.
People high on both of these traits are said to have the Type
D personality, which places them at risk for poor outcomes
once they develop cardiac disease.