Chapter 14 Personality

Question 1

personality

Answer 1

is individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting (what makes you, you)

Question 2

psychodyamic theories

Answer 2

posit that behavior is dynamic interaction between conscious and unconscious mind

Question 3

humanistic approach

Answer 3

focus on inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment

Question 4

trait theory

Answer 4

examine characteristic patterns of behavior

Question 5

social-cognitive theories

Answer 5

explore interaction between traits and social context

Question 6

psychoanalysis

Answer 6

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used interpret unconscious tensions

Question 7

conscious

Answer 7

everything we are aware of

Question 8

preconscious

Answer 8

part of the mind that represents ordinary memory

Question 9

unconscious

Answer 9

a reservoir of thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories that is outside conscious awareness

Question 10

free association

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

ego

Answer 11

Operates on reality principle; seeks to realistically gratify id’s impulses to bring long-term pleasure; contains perceptions, thoughts, judgments and memories (reality-oriented executive) (mediator); ego protects itself with tactics that reduce and redirect anxiety by reality distortion (defense mechanisms)

Question 12

superego

Answer 12

Focuses on ideal behavior; strives for perfections; acts as moral conscious (internalized set of ideals, or conscience) (social expectations)

Question 13

Id

Answer 13

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 (pleasure-seeking impulses) (basic desire)

Question 14

pleasure principle

Answer 14

seeking pleasure and avoiding pain

Question 15

reality principle

Answer 15

ability of the mind to assess the reality of the external world

Question 16

Oral (0-18 months)

Answer 16

pleasure centers on the mouth [sucking, biting, and chewing]

Question 17

Anal (18-36 months)

Answer 17

pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

Question 18

phallic (3-6 years)

Answer 18

pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings

Question 19

latency (6 to puberty)

Answer 19

a phase of dormant sexual feelings

Question 20

genital (puberty on)

Answer 20

maturation of sexual interests

Question 21

defense mechanisms

Answer 21

function indirectly and unconsciously

Question 22

repression

Answer 22

underlies all other defense mechanisms. It is sometimes incomplete and may be manifested as symbols in dreams or slips of the tongue. A retreat to an earlier stage of development

Question 23

regression

Answer 23

Retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated. /A little boy reverts to the oral comfort of thumb sucking in the car on the way to his first day of school.

Question 24

reaction formation

Answer 24

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites. /Repressing angry feelings, a person’s exaggerated friend

Question 25

projection

Answer 25

disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. /“The thief thinks everyone else is a thief” (an El Salvadoran saying).

Question 26

rationalization

Answer 26

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions./ A habitual drinker says she drinks with her friends “just to be sociable

Question 27

displacement

Answer 27

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person. /A little girl kicks the family dog after her mother sends her to her room

Question 28

denial

Answer 28

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities. /A partner denies evidence of his loved one’s affair.

Question 29

reciprocal determinsim

Answer 29

describes interaction and mutual influence of behavior, internal personal factors, and environmental factors

Question 30

self

Answer 30

viewed as center of personality

Question 31

spotlight effect

Answer 31

overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us) (e.g., self conscious)

Question 32

self-esteem

Answer 32

our feeling of self-worth

Question 33

self-efficacy

Answer 33

our sense of competence on a task

Question 34

blindness to one's own incompetence

Answer 34

People are most overconfident when most incompetent; it takes competence to recognize competence

Question 35

self-serving bias

Answer 35

Involves a readiness to perceive self favorably; Suggests people accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for successes than for failure

Question 36

defensive self-esteem

Answer 36

fragile, threatened by failure and criticism, and more vulnerable to perceived threats, which feed anger and feelings of vulnerability.

Question 37

secure self-esteem

Answer 37

less fragile, less contingent on external evaluations, and more likely to achieve a greater quality of life.

Question 38

growth mindset

Answer 38

the degree that people accept that their abilities, personalities, identities are flexible and can improve or change with learning and effort