MCAT - Psych/Social Foundations:: Personality and Psychological Disorders

The Big Five (Five-Factor Model) of personality, a widely used and empirically well-supported contemporary framework/model for describing/organizing normal human personality variation, proposes that individual personality can be broadly described along five relatively independent major trait dimensions, commonly remembered via the mnemonic 'OCEAN'; these five dimensions are:

- **A)** Only a single, solitary unified overall personality dimension/trait, with no further meaningful sub-division into any additional distinct trait dimensions whatsoever, directly contradicting the Big Five model's own actual, well-established five-dimension structure/premise
- **B)** Openness (to new experience/ideas), Conscientiousness (organization, discipline, dependability), Extraversion (sociability, outgoingness, positive emotionality), Agreeableness (cooperativeness, compassion, trust), and Neuroticism (emotional instability, general tendency toward negative emotion/anxiety) - this particular five-factor framework has emerged from extensive statistical factor-analytic research across quite different specific cultures/languages, and is generally considered by contemporary personality psychology researchers to represent a reasonably comprehensive, empirically robust, and broadly comprehensive general description of normal human personality variation
- **C)** A framework consisting instead of literally hundreds of entirely separate individual personality traits, with no meaningful further underlying organizing structure or broader higher-level dimension of any kind recognized whatsoever, contradicting the Big Five model's own actual, well-established, more parsimonious five-dimension organizing structure
- **D)** A model that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to personality, personality traits, or personality description of any kind

Considering the specific Big Five trait dimension of Neuroticism, an individual scoring particularly HIGH on this specific trait dimension would generally be expected to show a greater general tendency toward:

- **A)** Experiencing negative emotions (such as anxiety, worry, sadness, or irritability) more frequently/intensely, and generally showing somewhat greater relative emotional instability/reactivity overall, compared to an individual instead scoring particularly LOW on this same specific trait dimension (who would instead generally be expected to show greater relative emotional stability and calm)
- **B)** Experiencing positive emotions considerably more frequently/intensely than an individual instead scoring low on this same specific trait dimension, the general opposite of Neuroticism's own actual defining core characteristic/premise as specifically described within the Big Five model
- **C)** A trait dimension that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to any specific emotion, emotional stability, or emotional reactivity of any kind
- **D)** Greater general sociability/outgoingness specifically, a characteristic that instead corresponds to the separate Extraversion trait dimension, rather than accurately describing Neuroticism itself

Psychodynamic theory, a historically very influential (though today considerably less empirically dominant) general theoretical approach to personality first developed by Sigmund Freud, proposes that personality/behavior is substantially shaped/influenced by:

- **A)** Only entirely conscious, deliberate, and fully rational mental processes, with absolutely no meaningful contribution whatsoever from any unconscious mental process of any kind, directly contradicting psychodynamic theory's own actual core defining premise
- **B)** Purely and solely observable external behavior alone, with absolutely no meaningful, describable reference whatsoever to any internal mental process, structure, or conflict of any kind, a description that would instead correspond to a very different, considerably more strictly behaviorist theoretical approach, rather than accurately describing psychodynamic theory itself
- **C)** A theoretical approach that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to personality, behavior, or human psychology of any kind
- **D)** Largely UNCONSCIOUS mental processes, internal psychological conflicts (particularly conflicts arising between different proposed internal mental structures - the id, ego, and superego, discussed further below), and early childhood experiences - Freud proposed that much of human behavior/personality is actually driven by unconscious motives/conflicts that a person is not directly, consciously aware of, and that unresolved conflicts occurring during specific early childhood developmental stages can have lasting, significant effects on that same individual's own adult personality and behavior

Freud's proposed structural model of personality divides the human mind/psyche into three interacting components: the id, the ego, and the superego; the id specifically represents:

- **A)** A person's own fully conscious, rational, and reality-oriented decision-making processes, a description that instead corresponds to the separate ego component, rather than accurately describing the id itself
- **B)** A person's own internalized moral standards, values, and sense of conscience, a description that instead corresponds to the separate superego component, rather than accurately describing the id itself
- **C)** The most primitive, entirely unconscious component of personality, operating according to the 'pleasure principle' - seeking immediate gratification of basic biological drives/instincts (such as hunger, thirst, and sexual/aggressive impulses) without any regard whatsoever for realistic practical constraints or moral/social considerations of any kind
- **D)** A personality component that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to any basic biological drive, instinct, or impulse of any kind

The ego, the second of Freud's three proposed personality structures, is specifically characterized as operating according to the 'reality principle,' meaning the ego:

- **A)** Seeks immediate, unrestrained gratification of basic biological drives/instincts with absolutely no regard whatsoever for realistic practical constraints, a description that instead corresponds to the separate id component, rather than accurately describing the ego itself
- **B)** Attempts to realistically and practically satisfy the id's own basic underlying drives/impulses in a manner that is actually practical/realistic and appropriately, sufficiently socially acceptable, mediating between the id's own more primitive, unrestrained demands and the practical external constraints/realities of the actual real world (and also mediating between the id and the superego's own often quite restrictive/idealistic internalized moral demands) - the ego is generally considered the primary seat of a person's own conscious, rational decision-making and practical everyday problem-solving processes
- **C)** Represents a person's own internalized moral standards, values, and sense of conscience exclusively, a description that instead corresponds to the separate superego component, rather than accurately describing the ego itself
- **D)** A personality component that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to reality, practical constraints, or realistic considerations of any kind

The superego, the third and final of Freud's three proposed personality structures, specifically represents:

- **A)** A person's own internalized moral standards, values, and sense of conscience (including an internalized sense of an 'ego ideal,' representing standards for one's own idealized behavior) - developing gradually over the course of childhood, largely through internalizing parental and broader societal moral standards/values, the superego can generate feelings of guilt when a person's own actual behavior falls short of/violates those same internalized moral standards
- **B)** A person's own most primitive, entirely unconscious basic biological drives/instincts, seeking immediate gratification with no regard for practical or moral considerations, a description that instead corresponds to the separate id component, rather than accurately describing the superego itself
- **C)** A person's own practical, reality-oriented conscious decision-making processes exclusively, a description that instead corresponds to the separate ego component, rather than accurately describing the superego itself
- **D)** A personality component that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to morality, conscience, or internalized values of any kind

Defense mechanisms, another important concept within Freud's broader psychodynamic theoretical framework, refer to largely unconscious psychological strategies that the ego uses to:

- **A)** Actively and directly increase overall anxiety and internal psychological conflict as much as possible, the general opposite of defense mechanisms' own actual, well-established defining core function/purpose
- **B)** A category of psychological strategy that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to anxiety, internal psychological conflict, or the ego's own particular mediating function
- **C)** Only ever operate at a fully conscious, deliberate level, with absolutely no meaningful, describable unconscious component whatsoever, directly contradicting defense mechanisms' own actual defining largely-unconscious core characteristic
- **D)** Protect itself from anxiety generated by internal psychological conflict, typically between the competing demands of the id, superego, and external reality - common examples include repression (unconsciously pushing threatening/unacceptable thoughts, impulses, or memories out of conscious awareness entirely), projection (unconsciously attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts/impulses to another different person instead), rationalization (constructing a seemingly logical but ultimately inaccurate/self-serving explanation/justification for one's own behavior), and denial (refusing to consciously accept/acknowledge an objectively real and true, but uncomfortable/threatening, fact or reality)

Humanistic theories of personality, an important alternative general theoretical approach to personality (associated in particular with Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, discussed earlier in this same broader course regarding his hierarchy of needs), differ from psychodynamic theory in that humanistic theories generally emphasize:

- **A)** Unconscious mental conflict and early childhood experience as the primary, dominant determinants of adult personality, identical to psychodynamic theory's own core emphasis, rather than accurately and distinctively describing humanistic theory's own genuinely different, alternative theoretical emphasis
- **B)** A fundamentally negative/pessimistic overall general view of basic human nature, emphasizing conflict, unconscious primitive drives, and psychological defense as the primary, dominant organizing themes of human personality, a characterization that instead corresponds considerably more closely to psychodynamic theory, rather than accurately describing humanistic theory's own genuinely different overall general perspective
- **C)** A person's own conscious experience, free will, inherent basic human goodness, and their own innate underlying drive toward self-actualization/personal growth (a concept already discussed earlier in this same broader course regarding Maslow's hierarchy of needs) - humanistic theorists like Carl Rogers proposed that people have an innate underlying tendency toward positive personal growth and self-actualization, and that psychological difficulties/problems generally arise when this same natural underlying growth tendency is somehow blocked or otherwise significantly thwarted, often specifically by an insufficiently supportive, insufficiently accepting immediate social/interpersonal environment
- **D)** A theoretical approach that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to conscious experience, free will, or personal growth of any kind