Personality

Question 1

The organized combination of attributes, motives, values, and behaviors that is unique to each individual.

Answer 1

personality

Question 2

Relatively enduring dimensions or qualities of personality along which people differ (for example, extra version, aloofness).

Answer 2

dispositional traits

Question 3

More situation-specific and changeable aspects of personality; ways in which people adapt to their roles and environments, including motives, goals, plans, schemas, self conceptions, stage-specific concerns, and coping mechanisms.

Answer 3

characteristic adaptations

Question 4

People’s overall evaluation of their worth as based on an assessment of the qualities that make up the self-concept.

Answer 4

self-esteem

Question 5

People’s perceptions of their unique attributes or traits.

Answer 5

self-concept

Question 6

A self-definition or sense of who one is, where one is going, and how one fi ts into society.

Answer 6

identity

Question 7

What are the Big Five dimensions used to characterize people’s personalities?

Answer 7

neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

Question 8

The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror or photograph, which occurs in most infants by 18 to 24 months of age.

Answer 8

self-recognition

Question 9

A genetically based pattern of tendencies to respond in predictable ways; building blocks of personality such as activity level, sociability, and emotionality.

Answer 9

temperament

Question 10

A person’s classification of the self along socially significant dimensions such as age and sex.

Answer 10

categorical self

Question 11

Characteristic mode of response in which the individual is irregular in habits and adapts slowly, often with vigorous protest, to changes in routine or new experiences.

Answer 11

difficult temperament

Question 12

Characteristic mode of response in which the individual is even-tempered, content, and open and adaptable to new experiences.

Answer 12

easy temperament

Question 13

A characteristic mode of response in which the
individual is relatively inactive and moody and displays mild resistance to new routines and experiences
but gradually adapts.

Answer 13

slow-to-warm-up temperament

Question 14

A temperamental characteristic reflecting a person’s tendency to withdraw from unfamiliar people and situations.

Answer 14

behavioral inhibition

Question 15

Dimension of temperament that involves the tendency to actively and energetically approach new experiences in an emotionally positive way (rather than to be inhibited and withdrawn).

Answer 15

surgency/extraversion

Question 16

Dimension of temperament that concerns the tendency to be sad, fearful, easily frustrated, and irritable (as opposed to laid back and adaptable).

Answer 16

negative affectivity

Question 17

Dimension of temperament pertaining to being able to sustain attention, control one’s behavior, and regulate one’s emotions (as opposed to unable to regulate one’s arousal and stay calm and focused).

Answer 17

effortful control

Question 18

The extent to which the child’s temperament and the demands of the child’s social environment are compatible or mesh, according to Thomas and Chess;

Answer 18

goodness of fit

Question 19

The process of defining and evaluating the self through comparisons with other people.

Answer 19

social comparison

Question 20

Idealized expectations of what one’s attributes and personality should be like.

Answer 20

ideal self

Question 21

The phenomenon in which a student’s academic self-concept and performance are likely to be more positive in an academically unselective school than in a highly selective one with many high-achieving students.

Answer 21

big-fish–little-pond effect

Question 22

The psychosocial conflict in which adolescents must form a coherent self-definition or remain confused about their life directions; fifth of Erikson’s stages.

Answer 22

identity versus role confusion

Question 23

A period of time in high school or college when young adults are relatively free of responsibilities and can experiment with different roles to find their identities.

Answer 23

moratorium period

Question 24

Identity status characterizing individuals who have not questioned who they are and have not committed themselves to an identity.

Answer 24

diffusion status

Question 25

An identity status characterizing individuals who appear to have committed themselves to a life direction but who have adopted an identity prematurely, without much thought.

Answer 25

foreclosure status

Question 26

Identity status characterizing individuals who are experiencing an identity crisis or actively exploring identity issues but who have not yet achieved an identity.

Answer 26

moratorium status

Question 27

An identity status characterizing individuals who have carefully thought through identity issues and made commitments or resolved their identity issues.

Answer 27

identity achievement status

Question 28

A sense of personal identification with the individual’s ethnic group and its values and cultural traditions.

Answer 28

ethnic identity

Question 29

A culture in which individuals define themselves as individuals and put their own goals ahead of their group’s goals, and one in which children are socialized to be independent and self-reliant.

Answer 29

individualistic culture

Question 30

A culture in which people define themselves in terms of group memberships, give group goals higher priority than personal goals, and socialize children to seek group harmony.

Answer 30

collectivist culture

Question 31

The psychosocial conflict of infancy in which infants must learn to trust others to meet their needs in order to trust themselves; first stage in Erikson’s theory.

Answer 31

trust versus mistrust

Question 32

The psychosocial conflict in which toddlers attempt to demonstrate their independence from and control over other people; second of Erikson’s stages.

Answer 32

autonomy versus shame and doubt

Question 33

The psychosocial conflict in which preschool children must learn to initiate new activities and pursue bold plans or become self-critical; third of Erikson’s stages.

Answer 33

initiative versus guilt

Question 34

The psychosocial conflict in which school-aged children must master important cognitive and social skills or feel incompetent; fourth of Erikson’s stages.

Answer 34

industry versus inferiority

Question 35

The psychosocial conflict in which young adults must commit themselves to a shared identity with another person or remain aloof and unconnected to
others; sixth of Erikson’s stages.

Answer 35

intimacy versus isolation

Question 36

The psychosocial conflict in which elderly adults attempt to find a sense of meaning in their lives and to accept the inevitability of death; eighth of Erikson’s stages.

Answer 36

integrity versus despair

Question 37

The psychosocial conflict in which middle-aged adults must gain the sense that they have produced something that will outlive them and genuinely care for younger generations to avoid self-preoccupation;
seventh of Erikson’s stages.

Answer 37

generativity versus stagnation

Question 38

Process in which elderly adults reflect on unresolved conflicts of the past and evaluate their lives; it may contribute to a sense of integrity and readiness for death.

Answer 38

life review

Question 39

A period of major questioning, inner struggle, and re-evaluation hypothesized to occur in an adult’s early 40s.

Answer 39

midlife crisis

Question 40

The concept that older people cope with aging through a strategy that involves focusing on the skills most needed, practicing those skills, and developing ways to avoid the need for other skills.

Answer 40

selective optimization with compensation

SOC

Question 41

A perspective holding that aging adults will find satisfaction to the extent that they maintain an active lifestyle.

Answer 41

activity theory

Question 42

A perspective that holds that successful aging involves a mutually satisfying withdrawal of the aging individual and society from each other.

Answer 42

disengagement theory