1. A presidential candidate makes a Freudian slip on live TV, calling his mother “petty”; he corrects himself quickly and says he meant to say “pretty.” The next day the video has gone viral, and the morning talk shows discuss the possibility that the candidate has an unresolved Oedipal conflict; if so, he’s stuck in the phallic stage and is likely a relatively unstable person preoccupied with issues of seduction, power, and authority (which may be why he wants to be president). Your roommate knows you’re taking a psychology class and asks for your opinion: “Can we really tell that a person is sexually repressed, and maybe in love with his own mother, just because he stumbled over a single word?” How would you reply? How widely are Freud’s ideas about personality accepted by modern psychologists?
2. While reading a magazine, you come across an article on the nature– nurture controversy in personality. The magazine describes several adoption studies in which adopted children (who share no genes with each other, but grow up in the same household) are no more like each other than complete strangers. This suggests that family environment—
3. One of your friends has found an online site that offers personality testing. He takes the test and reports that the results prove he’s an “intuitive” rather than a “sensing” personality, who likes to look at the big picture rather than focusing on tangible here-
4. One of your friends tells you that her boyfriend cheated on her, so she will never date him or anyone who has ever been unfaithful because “once a cheat, always a cheat.” She goes on to explain that personality and character are stable over time, so people will always make the same decisions and repeat the same mistakes over time. What do we know about the interaction between personality and situations that might confirm or deny her statements?
Flashcards for Chapter 12