Chapter 13 Flashcards
Personality
Characteristic thoughts, emotional responses and behaviors that are relatively stable in an individual over time.
Personality Trait
A characteristic.
A dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time.
Superego
In psychodynamic theory, the internalization of societal and parental standards of conduct.
Ego
In psychodynamic theory, the component of personality that tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the superego.
Defensive Mechanisms
Unconscious mental strategies that mind uses to protect itself from distress.
Psychodynamic Theory
Freudian theory that unconscious forces determine behavior.
ID
In psychodynamic theory, the component of personality that is completely submerged in the unconscious and operates according to the pleasure principle.
Psychosexual Stages
According to Freud, developmental stages that correspond to distinct libidinal urges.
Progression through theses stages profoundly affects personality.
Humanistic Approaches
Approaches to studying personality that emphasize how people seek to fulfill their potential through greater self-understanding.
Personality Types
Discrete categories of people based on personality characteristics.
Trait Approach
An approach to studying personality that focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions.
Five-Factor Theory
The idea that personality can be described using five factors:
1) Openness to experience
2) Conscientiousness
3) Extraversion
4) Agreeableness
5) Neuroticism
Idiographic Approaches
Person-centered approaches to studying personality.
They focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons.
Nomothetic Approaches
Approaches to studying personality that focus on how common characteristics vary from person to person.
Projective Measures
Personality tests that examine unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous stimuli.
