Personality

Question 1

personality

Answer 1

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

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; the techniques used in treating
psychological disorders by seeking to
expose and interpret unconscious
tensions.

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

Ego

Superego

Answer 5

id: contains a reservoir of unconscious
psychic energy that, according to Freud,
strives to satisfy basic sexual and
aggressive drives. The id operates on
the pleasure principle, demanding
immediate gratification.

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

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

Question 6

psychosexual stages

Answer 6

the childhood
stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which,
according to Freud, the id’s pleasureseeking energies focus on distinct
erogenous zones

Question 7

Oedipus complex

Answer 7

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

Question 8

identification

Answer 8

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

Question 9

fixation

Answer 9

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

Question 10

defense mechanisms

Answer 10

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

Question 11

repression:

regression:

Answer 11

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

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

Question 12

reaction formation

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

projection

Answer 13

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

Question 14

rationalization

Answer 14

defense mechanism
that offers self-justifying explanations in
place of the real, more threatening,
unconscious reasons for one’s actions.

Question 15

displacement

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

denial

Answer 16

defense mechanism by which
people refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities.

Question 17

collective unconscious

Answer 17

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

Question 18

projective test

Answer 18

a personality test,
such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to
trigger projection of one’s inner
dynamics.

Question 19

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Answer 19

a projective test in which people express
their inner feelings and interests through
the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Question 20

Rorschach inkblot test

Answer 20

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 21

terror–management theory

Answer 21

a theory of death-related anxiety; explores
people’s emotional and behavioral
responses to reminders of their
impending death.

Question 22

self-actualization

Answer 22

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

Question 23

unconditional positive regard

Answer 23

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

Question 24

self-concept

Answer 24

all our thoughts and
feelings about ourselves, in answer to
the question, “Who am I?”

Question 25

trait

Answer 25

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

Question 26

personality inventory

Answer 26

a questionnaire (often with true-false or agreedisagree items) on which people
respond to items designed to gauge a
wide range of feelings and behaviors;
used to assess selected personality
traits

Question 27

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI)

Answer 27

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 28

empirically derived test

Answer 28

a test (such
as the MMPI) developed by testing a
pool of items and then selecting those
that discriminate between groups.

Question 29

social-cognitive perspective

Answer 29

views
behavior as influenced by the interaction
between people’s traits (including their
thinking) and their social context.

Question 30

reciprocal determinism

Answer 30

the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

Question 31

personal control

Answer 31

the extent to which
people perceive control over their environment rather than feeling helpless.

Question 32

external locus of control

Answer 32

the perception that chance or outside forces
beyond your personal control determine
your fate.

Question 33

internal locus of control

Answer 33

the perception that you control your own fate.

Question 34

learned helplessness

Answer 34

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

Question 35

positive psychology

Answer 35

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

Question 36

self

Answer 36

in contemporary psychology,
assumed to be the center of personality,
the organizer of our thoughts, feelings,
and actions

Question 37

spotlight effect

Answer 37

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

Question 38

self-esteem

Answer 38

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

Question 39

self-serving bias

Answer 39

a readiness to perceive oneself favorably