AP Psychology Unit 10 Terms Flashcards
An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
Personality
In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
Free Association
Freud’s theory of personality and therapeutic technique that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. Freud believed that the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight
Psychoanalysis
According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware
Unconscious
A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. It operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification
Id
The largely conscious, executive part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. It operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain
Ego
The part of the personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideas and provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations
Superego
The childhood stages of development during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones
Psychosexual stages
According to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
Oedipus complex
The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos
Indentification
The inability to see a problem from a new perspective by employing different mental set. According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
Fixation
In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Defense mechanisms
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
Repression
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated
Regression
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings
Reaction formation
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
Projection
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions
Rationalization
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
Displacement
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people re-channel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities
Sublimation
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities
Denial
Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history
Collective unconscious
A personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics
Projective test
A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Thematic apperception test
The most widely used projective test, a test of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
Rorschach inkblot test
A theory of death-related anxiety; explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
Terror-management theory
According to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential
Self-actualization
A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance
Unconditional positive regard
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am I?”
Self-concept
A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
Trait
A questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits
Personality inventory
The most widely researched and used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders, this test is now used for many other screening purposes
Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory
A test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups
Empirically derived test
Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits and their social context
Social-cognitive perspective
The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment
Reciprocal determinism
The extent to which people control over their environment rather than feeling helpless
Personal control
The perception that chance of outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate
External locus of control
The perception that you control your own fate
Internal locus of control
The scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive
Positive psychology
In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions
Self
Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders
Spotlight effect
One’s feelings of high or low self-worth
Self-esteem
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably
Self-serving bias
Giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications
Individualism
Giving high priority to one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly
Collectivism
