Unit 7 Vocab - Personality Flashcards
personality
an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
free association
(psychoanalysis) method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind
psychoanalysis
Freud’s theraputic technique where the patient and therapist’s insight on previously repressed feelings, allow the patient to gain self-insight
unconscious
Freud: reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feeling, and memories
Psychologists: info processing of which we are unaware
id
unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives; operates on pleasure principle and demands immediate satisfaction
ego
largely conscious, executive part of personality, mediates demands of id, superego, and reality; operates on reality principle
superego
represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgements/conscious and future aspirations
psychosexual stages
childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure seeking energies focus on distinc erogenous zones - oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
Oedipus Complex
a boy’s sexual desires towards his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
indentification
children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos
fixation
lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage in which conflicts were unresolved
defense mechanisms
the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
repression
psychoanalytic defense mechanism, banished anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
regression
psychoanalytic defense mechanism, an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated
reaction formation
psychoanalytic defense mechanism, ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites
projection
psychoanalytic defense mechanism, people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
rationalization
psychoanalytic defense mechanism, offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions
displacement
psychoanalytic defense mechanism, shifts sexual/aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable object (redirection)
collective unconscious
Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces that form our species’ history
projective test
personality test that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories the make up about ambiguous scenes
Rorschach Test (Inkblot)
most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots seeks to identify people’s inner feelings based on their interpretations of the blots
terror-management theory
death-related anxiety, explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
self-actualization
Maslow - the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential
