Chapter 12- Personality

Question 1

personality

Answer 1

an individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling.

Question 2

explanations of personality differences are concerned with…

Answer 2

1) prior events 2) anticipated events

Question 3

self-report

Answer 3

a series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements or adjectives accurately describe their own behavior or mental state.

Question 4

actuarial method

Answer 4

a subtle way to measure personality characteristics in which a person may not even be aware of to help assess if others could potentially belong to that group

Question 5

minnesota multiphase personality inventory (MMPI-2)

Answer 5

a well-researched, clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems.

Question 6

validity scales

Answer 6

assess a person’s attitude toward test taking and likelihood to try and distort the results by faking answers.

Question 7

response style

Answer 7

when a person provides honest responses and doesn’t always agree or always disagree

Question 8

projective techniques

Answer 8

a standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of an individual’s personality

Question 9

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Answer 9

a projective personality test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent’s inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure.

Question 10

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Answer 10

a projective personality test in which respondents reveal underlying motives, concerns, and they way they see the social world through the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people

Question 11

trait

Answer 11

a relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way.

Question 12

two ways traits are seen by researchers

Answer 12

causes and motives (researchers who see them as causes usually use personality inventories, whereas tthose who see them as motives use projective tests)

Question 13

factor-analysis (related to personality traits)

Answer 13

pg 475 in book

Question 14

Big Five

Answer 14

the traits of the 5-factor model: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion

Question 15

psychodynamic research

Answer 15

an approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness-motives that can also produce emotional disorders

Question 16

dynamic unconscious

Answer 16

an active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person’s deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggle to control these forces.

Question 17

id

Answer 17

the part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives

Question 18

ego

Answer 18

the component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life’s practical demands.

Question 19

superego

Answer 19

the mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority.

Question 20

defense mechanisms

Answer 20

unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses

Question 21

rationalization

Answer 21

a defense mechanism that involves supplying a reasonable-sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal (mostly from oneself) one’s underlying motives or feelings

Question 22

reaction formation

Answer 22

a defense mechanism that involves unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of their opposite

Question 23

projection

Answer 23

a defense mechanism that involves attributing one’s own threatening feelings, motives or impulses to another person or group

Question 24

regression

Answer 24

a defense mechanism in which the ego deals with internal conflict and perceived threat by reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development

Question 25

displacement

Answer 25

a defense mechanism that involves shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less-threatening alternative

Question 26

identification

Answer 26

a defense mechanism that helps deal with feelings of threat and anxiety by enabling us unconsciously to take on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or better able to cope

Question 27

sublimation

Answer 27

a defense mechanism that involves channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities

Question 28

psychosexual stages

Answer 28

distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas and caregivers redirect or interfere with those pleasures

Question 29

fixation

Answer 29

a phenomenon in which a person’s pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck, or arrested at a particular psychosexual stage

Question 30

oral stage

Answer 30

the first psychosexual stage, in which experience centers on the pleasures and frustrations associated with the mouth, sucking and being fed

Question 31

anal stage

Answer 31

the second psychosexual stage, which is dominated by the pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention and expulsion of feces and urine, and toilet training

Question 32

phallic stage

Answer 32

the third psychosexual stage, during which experience is dominated by the pleasure, conflict, and frustration associated with the phallicgenital region as well as coping with powerful incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealously and conflict

Question 33

Oedipus conflict

Answer 33

a developmental experience in which a child’s conflicting feelings toward the opposite-sex parent are (usually) resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent

Question 34

latency stage

Answer 34

the fourth psychosexual stage, in which the primary focus is on the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal, and athletic skills.

Question 35

genital stage

Answer 35

the final psychosexual stage, a time for the coming together of the mature adult personality with a capacity of love, work, and relate to others in a mutually satisfying and reciprocal manner.

Question 36

self-actualizing tendency

Answer 36

the human motive toward realizing our inner potential

Question 37

existential approach

Answer 37

a school of thought that regards personality as governed by an individual’s ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death

Question 38

social cognitive approach

Answer 38

an approach that views personality in terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them

Question 39

person-situation controversy

Answer 39

the question of whether behavior is caused more by personality or by situational factors

Question 40

personal constructs

Answer 40

dimensions people use in making sense of their experiences

Question 41

outcome expectancies

Answer 41

a person’s assumptions about the likely consequences of a future behavior

Question 42

locus of control

Answer 42

a person’s tendency to perceive the control of rewards as internal to the self or external in the environment

Question 43

self-concept

Answer 43

a person’s explicit knowledge of his or her own behaviors, traits, and other personal characteristics

Question 44

self-verification

Answer 44

the tendency to seek evidence to confirm the self-concept

Question 45

self-esteem

Answer 45

the extent to which an individual likes, values, and accepts the self

Question 46

self-serving bias

Answer 46

people’s tendency to take credit for their successes but downplay responsibility for their failures

Question 47

narcissism

Answer 47

a trait that reflects a grandiose view of the self combined with a tendency to seek admiration from an exploit others