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, however trivial or embarrassing.

Question 3

Psychoanalysis

Answer 3

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the technique 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

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

Ego

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Superego

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Psychosexual Stages

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Oedipus Complex

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Identification

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Fixation

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Defense Mechanisms

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Repression

Answer 13

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.

Question 14

Regression

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Reaction Formation

Answer 15

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 16

Projection

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Rationalization

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Displacement

Answer 18

Psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger towards a safer outlet.

Question 19

Collective Unconscious

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Projective Test

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Answer 22

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 23

Terror-Management Theory

Answer 23

Proposes that faith in one;s worldview and the pursuit of self-esteem provide protection against a deeply rooted fear of death.

Question 24

Self-Actualization

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Unconditional Positive Regard

Answer 25

According to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance towards another person.

Question 26

Self-Concept

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Trait

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Personality Inventory

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Answer 29

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 30

Empirically Derived Test

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Answer 31

Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons (and their thinking) and their social context.

Question 32

Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 32

The interacting influences between personality and environmental factors.

Question 33

Personal Control

Answer 33

Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

Question 34

External Locus of Control

Answer 34

The perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate.

Question 35

Internal Locus of Control

Answer 35

The perception that one controls one’s own fate,

Question 36

Learned Helplessness

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Positive Psychology

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Spotlight Effect

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Self-Esteem

Answer 39

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

Question 40

Self-Serving Bias

Answer 40

A readiness to perceive oneself favorably.