Personality Flashcards
An individuals characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Personality
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.
Free Association
Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts, the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.
Psychoanalysis
According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.
Unconscious
A reservoir of unconcious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The ___ operates on the pleasure principle demanding immediate gratification.
Id
The largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ___ operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will bring pleasure rather than pain.
Ego
The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations.
Superego
The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.
Psychosexual Stages
According to Freud, a boy’s sexual desire towards his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.
Oedipus Complex
The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parent’s values into their developing superegos.
Identification
According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were not resolved.
Fixation
In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
Defense Mechanisms
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.
Repression
Involves taking out our frustrations, feelings, and impulses out on people or objects that are besides threatening.
Displacement
Involves taking our own unacceptable qualities and feelings and ascribing them to other people.
Projection
When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes abandon coping strategies and revert to childish behavior. (Ex. throwing a temper tantrum.)
Regression
Functions to protect the ego from things with which the individual cannot cope.
Denial
Involves explaining an unacceptable behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner, avoiding true reasons for the behavior.
Rationalization
Reduces anxiety by taking up the opposite feeling, impulse, or behavior.
Reaction-Formation
Modern day approaches that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences.
Psychodynamic Theory
Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species history. (Ex. a fear of snakes passed down via genes and evolution.)
Collective Unconscious
Major structural components of the collective unconscious, universal pattern or predispositions that structure how all humans consciously and unconsciously adapt to their world. (Ex. the Hero, or the Mentor.)
Archetype
A personality test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics.
Projective test
A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT)
