Chapter 13: Personality Flashcards
Personality
An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
Psychodynamic Theories
View on personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences
Free Association
In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embaressing
Psychoanalysis
Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
Unconscious
According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychology, information processing of which we are unaware
Id
A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. Operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification
Ego
Largely unconscious, executive part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id;s desires in ways that will bring realistic pleasure rather than pain
Superego
The part of personality that according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscious) and for future aspirations
Psychosexual Stages
The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones
Oedipus Complex
According to Feud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
Identification
The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superego
Fixation
According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier pscho-sexual stage in which the conflicts weren’t resolved
Defense Mechanisms
In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from the consciousness
Collective Unconscious
Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory tracing from our species’ history
Projective Test
A personality test such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics
Rorschach Inkblot Test
The most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Herman Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
Terror-Management Theory
A theory of death-related anxiety; explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
Self-Actualization
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
Unconditional Positive Regard
According to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person
Self-Concept
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question ‘who am I’
Trait
A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
Personality Inventory
A questionnaire (often with true-false or agree/disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors, used to assess selected personality traits
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
The most widely researched and clinically used of all the personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use); this test is now used for many other screening purposes
Empirically Derived Test
A test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups
Social-Cognitive Persepctive
Views behavior as influenced by interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context
Personal Control
The extent to which we perceive control over our environment
External Locus of Control
The perception that someone or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate
Internal Locus of Control
The perception that you control your own fate
Self-Control
The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards
Learned Helplessness
The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events
Positive Psychology
The scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive
Spotlight Effect
Overestimating others noticing and evaluation our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)
Self-Esteem
One’s feelings of high or low self-worth
Self-Serving Bias
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably
Regression
Retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage
Reaction Formation
Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites
Rationalization
Disguising one’s own threatening impulses by mere threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions
Displacement
Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person
Thematic Approach Test (TAT)
Evaluates patterns of thought, attitudes, observations, emotions by having a participant view a picture and describe what is going on in it
Excessive Optimism
Someone who is too happy and blind to real risks, too overconfident
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
126 questions that offers choices and sorts people into personality types (Kathleen Briggs and Isabel Briggs Meyers)
Big 5
Conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, extraversion
Humanistic Approach
Strive for self-actualization (if healthy)
Person-Situation Controversy
How we act in certain situations and how we act in front of others vs. who we really are
Trait Theory
Describes traits of people’s personalities
Neo-Freudians
Horney, Jung, Adler- Believe in modified Freudian Theories
Inferiority Complex
Lack of self-worth, uncertainty, subconscious- believing one is not good enough
Penis Envy
Freud’s idea that females secretly desire a penis (male power)
False Consensus Effect
Overestimating the extent to which our opinions and beliefs are normal/the same as others
