Chapter 14: Personality - Key words Flashcards
People’s typical ways of thinking, feeling and behaving
personality
Relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behaviour across many situations
Trait
Approach to personality that focuses on identifying general laws that govern the behaviour of all individuals
Nomothetic approach
Approach to personality that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person
idiographic approach
investigation that allows researchers to pinpoint genes assocaited with specific personality traits
Molecular genetic study
The assumption that all psychological events have a cause
psychic determinism
reservoir of our most primitive impulses, including sex and aggression
Id
Tendency of the id to strive for immediate gratification
pleasure principle
Psyche’s executive and principle decision maker
ego
Tendency of the ego to postpone gratification untit it can find an appropriate outlet
reality principle
our sense of morality
Superego
unconscious manbeuvers inteded to minimize anxiety
defence mechanisms
motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses
repression
motivated forgetting of distressing external experienced
denial
the act of returning psychologically to a younger, and typically simpler and safer, age
regression
transformation of an anxiety-provoking emotion into its opposite
reaction-formation
unconscious attribution of our negative characteristics to others
projection
Directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a safer and more socially acceptable one
displacement
providing a reasonable-sounding explanation for unreasonable behaviours or failures
rationalization
transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal
sublimation
sexually arousing zone of the body
erogenous zone
psychosexual stage that focuses on the mouth
oral stage
psychosexual stage that focuses on toilet training
anal stage
psychosexual stage that focuses on the genitals
phallic stage
Conflict during the phallic stage in which boys supposedly love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals
Oedipus complex
Conflict during the phallic stage in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals
Electra complex
psychosexual stage in which sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious
latency stage
psychosexual stage in which seuxal impulses awaken and typically begin to mature into romantic attraction toward others
genital stage
theories derived from Freud’s model, but that placed less emphasis on sexuality as a driving force in personality and were more optimisitc regarding the prospects of long-term persoanlity growth
neo-Freudian theories
according to Adler, each person’s distinctive way of achieving superiority
style of life
Feelings of low self-esteem taht can lead to overcompensation for such feelings
inferiority complex
according to Jung, our shared storehouse of memories that ancestors have passed down to us across generations
Collective unconscious
cross-culturally universal symbols
Archetypes
theorists who emphasize thinking as a cause of personality
social learning theorists
tendency for people to mutually influence each other’s behaviour
reciprocal determism
extent to which people believve that reinforcers and punishers lie inside or outside of their control
locus of control
drive to develop our innate potential to the fullest possible extent
self-actualization
according to Rogers, expectations we place on ourselves for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour
conditions of worth
Transcedent moment of intense excitement and tranquility marked by a profound sense of connection to the world
peak experience
statistical technique that anlyzes the correlations among responses on personality inventories and other measures
factor analysis
five traits taht have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures
Big Five - (OCEAN) - Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
Approach proposing that the most crucial features of personality are embedded in our language
lexical approach
paper-and-pencil test consisting of questions that respondents answer in one of a few fixed ways
structured personality test
widely used structured personality test designed to assess symptoms of mental disorders
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory (MMPI)
Approach to building tests in which researchers begin with two or more criterion groups, and examine which items best distinguish them
empirical method of test construction
Extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring
face validity
approach to building tests that requires test developers to begin with a clear-cut conceptualization of a trait and then write items to assess that conceptualization
rational/theoretical method of test construction
test consisting of ambiguous stimuli that examinees must interpret or make sense of
projection test
hypothesis that in the process of interpreting ambiguous stimuli, examinees project aspects of tehir personality onto the stimulus
projective hypothesis
projective test consisting of ten symmetrical inkblots
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Projective test requiring examinees to tell a story in response to ambiguous pictures
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Psychological interpretation of handwriting
graphology
Tendency of people to accept high base rate descriptions as accurate
P. T. Barnum Effect
