Chapter Twelve Flashcards
Personality
Personality
Combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character
Psychodynamic Theories
Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences
Psychoanalysis
Theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts
Unconscious
Freud: Reservoir of unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories
Contemporary psychologists: Information processing of which one is unaware
Free Association
Method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how unimportant or embarrassing
Id
Reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive impulses
Ego
Partly conscious, “executive” part of personality that balances the demands of the id, superego, and reality
Superego
Partly conscious part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future goals
Who created psychosexual stages?
Freud
Psychosexual Stages
Childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones
Oral (0-18 months)
Pleasure centers on the mouth (sucking, biting, chewing)
Anal (18-36 months)
Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control
Phalic (3-6 years)
Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings
Latency (6 years to puberty)
A phase of dormant sexual feelings
Genital (puberty on)
Maturation of sexual interests
Oedipus Complex
Boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
Identification
Children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos
Fixation
Lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage with unresolved conflicts
Defense Mechanisms
Ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Repression
Spareing ego by ignoring threatening information
Collective Unconscious
Shared inherited group of memories from the human species’ history
Projective Test
Provided ambiguous images designed to trigger projections of the test-taker’s unconscious thoughts or feelings
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Projective test where people tell what they see in a series of symmetrical inkblots
Hierarchy of Needs
Basic needs must be satisfied before higher-level safety needs, and then psychological needs, become active
Self-Actualization
Psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved
Self-Transcendence
Striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self
Unconditional Positive Regard
Caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance
Self-Concept
All the thoughts and feelings one has in response to the question “Who am I?”
Trait
Characteristic pattern of behavior or tendency to feel and act in a certain way, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
Factor
Cluster of behavior tendencies that occur together; reflect a basic factor
Personality Inventory
Questionnaire that covers a wide range of feelings and behaviors
Self-Report
Method of recording participants’ descriptions of their personality traits, often using surveys, questionnaires, or tests
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
Most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests
Big Five Factors
Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism
Social-Cognitive Perspective
Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons (and their thinking) and their social contexts
Reciprocal Determinism
Interacting influences of behavior, internal personal factors, and environment
Self-Efficacy
One’s sense of competence and effectiveness
Self
Center of personality and organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions
Spotlight Effect
Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders
Self-Esteem
Confidence in one’s own worth or abilities; self-respect
Narcissism
Selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need for admiration
Self-Serving Bias
Readiness to perceive oneself favorably
Individualism
Giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal traits rather than group membership
Collectivism
Giving priority to the goals of one’s group and defining one’s identity in terms of group membership
