Chapter 15: Personality

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. -Psychoanalytic

Question 2

Free Association

Answer 2

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 3

Psychoanalysis

Answer 3

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts.

Question 4

Unconscious

Answer 4

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

Question 5

Id

Answer 5

contains 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.

Question 6

Ego

Answer 6

the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. Operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Question 7

Superego

Answer 7

the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations.

Question 8

Psychosexual Stages

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Oedipus Complex

Answer 9

according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

Question 10

Identification

Answer 10

the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos.

Question 11

Fixation

Answer 11

according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.

Question 12

Defense Mechanisms

Answer 12

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Question 13

Repression

Answer 13

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.

Question 14

Regression

Answer 14

psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated.

Question 15

Reaction Formation

Answer 15

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings.
Ex: Because [someone] is afraid of being gay, they become homophobic.

Question 16

Projection

Answer 16

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

Question 17

Rationalization

Answer 17

defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions.
Ex. “I failed the test because the teacher hates me!”

Question 18

Displacement

Answer 18

psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet.
Ex: Whenever [someone] is mad at their boss, they get mad at their kids because they then can’t get in trouble.

Question 19

Projective Tests

Answer 19

a personality test (such as the Rorschach or TAT), that provides ambiguous stimuli to trigger projection of one’s inner thoughts and feelings.

Question 20

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Answer 20

a projective test in which subjects look at and tell a story about ambiguous pictures.

Question 21

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Answer 21

the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.

Question 22

Collective Unconsciousness

Answer 22

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history.

Question 23

Preconscious*

Answer 23

• in Freud’s theory, the level of consciousness in which thoughts and feelings are not conscious but are readily retrievable to consciousness.

Question 24

Pleasure Principle*

Answer 24

*Freud’s theory regarding the id’s desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain in order to achieve immediate gratification.

Question 25

Reality Principle*

Answer 25

**(our presentation of self thru our personality)* According the Freud, the attempt by the ego to satisfy both the id and the superego while still considering the reality of the situation.

Question 26

Oral Stage*

Answer 26

*Freud’s first stage of psychosexual development during which pleasure is centered in the mouth.

Question 27

Anal Stage*

Answer 27

*Freud’s second stage of psychosexual development where the primary sexual focus is on the elimination or holding onto feces. The stage is often thought of as representing a child’s ability to control his or her own world.

Question 28

Phallic Stage*

Answer 28

*The third of Freud’s psychosexual development in which genitals are the source of pleasure and the Oedipus Complex begins.

Question 29

Latency Stage*

Answer 29

*In Freud’s Psychosexual Stages when you have dormant sexual feelings ( 6 - puberty).

Question 30

Sublimation*

Answer 30

*a defense mechanism in which unacceptable energies are directed into socially acceptable outlets, such as sports.
Ex: Because [someone] is lonely at home, they spend all their time studying.

Question 31

Denial*

Answer 31

*refusing to acknowledge consciously the existence of something

Question 32

Trait Perspective*

Question 33

Big 5 (CANOE)*

Question 34

Introvert*

Question 35

Extrovert*

Question 36

Self-actualization

Answer 36

according to Maslow, the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential.

Question 37

Unconditional Positive Regard

Answer 37

according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person.

Question 38

Self-concept

Answer 38

(1) a sense of one’s identity and personal worth. (2) all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question “Who am I?”

Question 39

Trait

Answer 39

a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.

Question 40

Personality Inventory

Answer 40

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.

Question 41

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Answer 41

the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes.

Question 42

Empirically Derived Test

Answer 42

a test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups. (scale of range on how you fall on those items)

Question 43

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Answer 43

views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons (and their thinking) and their social context.

Question 44

Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 44

the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors.

Question 45

Positive Psychology

Answer 45

the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Question 46

Spotlight Effect

Answer 46

overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us).

Question 47

Self-esteem

Answer 47

one’s feelings of high or low self-worth.

Question 48

Self-Serving bias

Answer 48

a readiness to perceive oneself favorably.

Question 49

Individualism

Answer 49

giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals, and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.
Ex: America

Question 50

Collectivism

Answer 50

giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly.
Ex: China, Japan

Question 51

Terror-management theory

Answer 51

purposes that faith in one’s worldview and the pursuit of self-esteem provide protection against a deeply rooted fear or death.

Question 52

Personal Control

Answer 52

our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

Question 53

External locus of control

Answer 53

the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate.

Question 54

Internal locus of control

Answer 54

the perception that one controls one’s own fate.

Question 55

Learned Helplessness

Answer 55

the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.