Theories of Personality

Theories of Personality
Final Exam
Spring 2011

Due by May 25, 2011… you may submit these by email.

Choose three of the following six questions, and answer them in YOUR OWN WORDS. If you use outside material, other than the lectures, please make sure you cite the source.

Each answer should be roughly 1½ to two pages double spaced (if you want to write more, feel free.) Please be sure you answer each part of the questions you have chosen.

1. Consider the following vignette, and identify the terms below as they appear in the given example. Give enough information that I can tell you understand the concept.

Sally has recently developed shoe fetish. She never felt sexually turned on by shoes in the past, but her new boyfriend finds high heels very sexy, and asks her to wear them whenever they are intimate. She notices that he becomes more aroused when she wears them, and compliments her more often than when she is barefoot. Sometimes, if she doesn’t wear them, he nags her until she puts them on. When she does, he stops nagging her.

Now, Sally finds that every time she wears heels, she becomes sexually excited, even if her boyfriend is not around.

Identify the following:

a: Neutral stimulus

b. Unconditioned stimulus

c. Conditioned stimulus

d. Conditioned response

e. (Positive) reinforcement

.

2. Reflect on what we learned about the humanistic movement in psychology. How was it different from other psychological theories that came before it? What were its main goals? How did many aspects of the “human potential movement” fail to adhere to the goals that were set forth by the founders of humanistic psychology?

3. Some of the theories that we have studied incorporate a need for spirituality or religion into the human personality, whereas others do not include this as a basic human need. What is your opinion about the role that spirituality should/should not play in the psychological understanding of human behavior? (This is an opinion question – there is no right or wrong answer to this one, but please tell me why you feel the way you do.)

4. Pretend that you are Albert Ellis. How would you respond to the following client?

Smedley is a very short, balding man with a big nose and ears that stick way, way out. He comes to you because he is deeply upset that he does not feel attractive. This concern with his appearance has led him to develop a great deal of anxiety: he worries that he will draw attention to himself, so he tries to avoid ever going out or being noticed. He’s terrified that no woman will ever want to date him, and so he has resigned himself to spending his life alone. Recently, he has even started calling in sick to work, because he feels that his whole life is turning into one big failure. Smedley is depressed, and on the verge of moving back into his mother’s basement at the age of 45.

5. Imagine that you could choose 1 of the theorists we have studied (living or dead) and have some free therapy sessions with him. (If he isn’t a therapist, then imagine you could consult with him in a professional capacity.) Which one would you choose, and why? What would you want to ask him? Write an imaginary conversation between the two of you – what do you think he might say to you in response to your inquiries?

6. Reflect on the last lecture we began about the ways in which psychological techniques have be used for psychological control rather than for healing. (I will finish this lecture next week.) What do you take away from this lecture? (What is the moral of the story, in other words? ) This is an open ended question – I want to know your feelings after hearing the lecture.