PSYC 12 Flashcards
An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Personality
View personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences.
Psychodynamic Theories
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
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
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.
Id
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.
Ego
The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations.
Superego
The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, 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 desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.
Oedipus Complex
The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ 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 unresolved.
Fixation
In psychoanalytic theory, the egos’ 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
Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history.
Collective Unconscious
A personality test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics.
Projective Test
The most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Herman Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
View personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth.
Humanistic Theories
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.
Self-Actualization
According to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person.
Unconditional Positive Regard
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am I?”.
Self-Concept
A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.
Trait
A questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.
Personality Inventory
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.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
A test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups.
Empirically Derived Test
Vies behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context.
Social-Cognitive Perspective
The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.
Reciprocal Determinism
In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Self
Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us).
Spotlight Effect
One’s feeling of high or low self-worth.
Self-Esteem
One’s sense of competence and effectiveness.
Self-Efficacy
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably.
Self-Serving Bias
Excessive self-love and self-absorption.
Narcissism
Giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.
Individualism
Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly.
Collectivism
