AP Psychology Flashcards: Personality Theories, Freud, Big Five, Humanistic, Assessment

The Big Five model, also called the Five-Factor Model or OCEAN, describes personality across five broad dimensions. Openness to experience reflects curiosity, imagination, and preference for variety versus routine. Conscientiousness reflects organization, self-discipline, and goal-directed behavior versus carelessness. Extraversion reflects sociability, assertiveness, and positive emotionality versus reserved introversion. Agreeableness reflects cooperation, trust, and empathy versus hostility and competitiveness.

Freud proposed that personality consists of three interacting systems. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification of basic drives and impulses without regard for reality or morality. It is entirely unconscious and present from birth. The ego operates on the reality principle, mediating between the id's desires and the constraints of the real world by finding realistic ways to satisfy needs. It develops in early childhood. The superego represents internalized moral standards and ideals, producing guilt when violated and pride when upheld.

Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies the ego uses to reduce anxiety caused by conflicts between the id, superego, and reality. Major types include repression, which pushes threatening memories into the unconscious; denial, which refuses to accept reality; projection, which attributes one's own unacceptable feelings to others; rationalization, which creates logical explanations for irrational behavior; displacement, which redirects emotions to a safer target; sublimation, which channels unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities; regression, which returns to behavio

The humanistic perspective, developed by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, emphasizes free will, personal growth, and the inherent goodness of people. Maslow proposed the hierarchy of needs culminating in self-actualization, the drive to fulfill one's unique potential. Rogers emphasized unconditional positive regard, the acceptance of a person without judgment, as essential for healthy personality development. He distinguished between the real self, who you actually are, and the ideal self, who you want to be. When these are congruent, the person is well-adjusted.

Julian Rotter's concept of locus of control describes whether people believe outcomes are determined by their own actions or by external forces. People with an internal locus of control believe they control their own fate through effort, skill, and decisions. They tend to be more motivated, achieve higher academically, and cope better with stress. People with an external locus of control believe outcomes are determined by luck, fate, or powerful others. They tend to feel more helpless and less motivated to change their circumstances.

Projective tests present ambiguous stimuli and ask subjects to interpret them, theoretically revealing unconscious thoughts, feelings, and conflicts. The Rorschach inkblot test asks what the person sees in symmetrical inkblots. The Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, asks the person to create stories about ambiguous scenes. Critics question their reliability and validity. Objective tests use standardized questions with fixed response options, scored consistently.

Self-efficacy, developed by Albert Bandura, is a person's belief in their ability to succeed at a specific task or in a specific situation. It differs from self-esteem, which is a general sense of self-worth. A person can have high self-esteem overall but low self-efficacy for mathematics. Self-efficacy influences whether people attempt challenging tasks, how much effort they invest, and how long they persist when facing obstacles. ---