Chapter 12 Flashcards
Personality
A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world
Psychodynamic perspectives
Theoretical views emphasizing that personality is primarily unconscious (beyond awareness)
Id
The Freudian structure of personality consisting of unconscious drives; the individual’s reservoir of sexual energy
Ego
The Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality
Superego
The Freudian structure of personality that serves as the harsh internal judge of our behavior; what we often call conscience
Defense mechanisms
The Freudian term for tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Oedipus complex
According to Freud, a boy’s intense desire to replace his father and enjoy the affections of his mother
Collective unconscious
Jung’s term for the impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind, shared by all human beings because of their common ancestral past
Archetypes
Jung’s term for emotionally laden ideas and images in the collective unconscious that have rich and symbolic meaning for all people
Individual psychology
Adler’s view that people are motivated by purposes and goals and that perfection, not pleasure, is thus the key motivator in human life
Humanistic perspectives
Theoretical views of personality that stress a person’s capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities
Unconditional positive regard
Rogers’s construct referring to the individual’s need to be accepted, valued, and treated positively regardless of the person’s behavior
Conditions of worth
The standards that the individual must live up to in order to receive positive regard from others
Trait theories
Theoretical views stressing that personality consists of broad, enduring dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses
Big five factors of personality
The five broad traits that are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality: neuroticism (emotional instability), extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
Personological and life story perspectives
Theoretical views of personality stressing that the way to understand the person is to focus on the person’s life history and life story
Social cognitive perspectives
Theoretical views of personality emphasizing the influence of conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals
Self-efficacy
The belief that one can accomplish a given goal or task and produce positive change
Cognitive affective processing systems (CAPS)
Mischel’s theoretical model for describing how individuals’ thoughts and emotions about themselves and the world affect their behavior and become linked in ways that matter to that behavior
Behavioral genetics
The study of the inherited underpinnings of behavioral characteristics
Self-report test
A method of measuring personality characteristics that directly asks people whether specific items describe their personality traits; also called an objective test or an inventory
Empirically keyed test
A type of self report test that presents many questionnaire items to two groups that are known to be different in some central way
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
The most widely used and researched empirically keyed self-report personality test
Face validity
The extent to which a test item appears to fit the particular trait it is measuring
