Chp. 12 - Personality Flashcards
What is personality?
View personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences. Derived from Freud’s psychoanalysis.
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective
Used free association to help patients find and release forbidden thoughts. A method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how unimportant or embarrassing.
Freud’s ID
A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives.
Ego
Largely conscious, “executive” part of the personality that balances the demands of the id, superego, and reality.
Suger Ego
Part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future goals.
Identification
Children incorporate their parent’s value into their developing super egos unresolved conflicts cause problems in adulthood.
Fixation
Linerging focuses on pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage with unresolved conflicts.
Oedipus Complex
A boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.
Elektra Complex
The female version of the Oedipus complex.
Defense Mechanisms
The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
Projective Tests
Provide ambiguous images designed to trigger projections of the test-taker’s unconscious thoughts or feelings.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
A test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
the most widely used projective test that has a set of 120 inkblots, which seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.
Humanistic Theories
Focus on ways healthy people strive for self-determination and self-realization.
Abraham Maslow-Self Actualizing Person
Maslow proposed that humans’ motivations form a pyramid-shaped hierarchy of needs.
Self-Actualization
The psychological need crises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved.
Self-Transcendence
The striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self.
Carl Rogers-Client (person) Centered Perspective
Humans are primed to reach their potential in a growth-promoting environment.
Acceptance (Unconditional Positive Regard)
A caring, accepting, nonjudgemental attitude which Roegrs believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-awareness.
Self-Concept
All the thoughts and feelings one has in response to the question - who am I?
Traits
Characteristics patterns of behavior or tendencies to feel and act in a certain way. Assessed by self-report inventories and per reports. more concerned with describing rather than defining traits. Trait theories define personality as a stable and enduring pattern of behavior.
Basic Factors
Clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together.
Western Cultures Prize Extraversion
Being introverted seems to imply that something is missing. Attractive and successful people are presumed to be extroverts. Introverted people are sensitive. Seek low levels of stimulation in their environment. Handle conflict well.
Benefits of Introversion
Introverted leaders outperform extroverted leaders in some contexts, such as when their employees voice new ideas and challenge existing norms. An analysis of 35 studies showed no correlation between extraversion and sales performance. Many introverted prosper, including Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, and Gandhi.
