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AP Psych Unit 8
Chapter 13: Personality
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Personality | An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting |
Free Association | In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarassing |
Psychoanalysis | Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques unused in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions |
Unconscious | According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists information processing of which we are unaware |
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. Tries to satisfy the id in a way that the superego is okay with |
Superego | The part of personality that according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations |
Psychosexual Stages | the childhood stages of development during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones |
Oral Stage | 0-18 months, that centers on actions around the mouth |
Anal Stage | 18 months to 3 years, that centers aroun bowel and bladder elimination, coping with demands for control |
Phallic Stage | 3-6 years of age in which the pleasure zone is in the genitals, coping with Oedipus complex |
Genital Stage | Puberty and on, maturation of sexual interests |
Oedipus Complex | According to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for their rival father. |
Identification | The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents' values into their developing superegos |
Latency Stage | 6 to puberty, made up of dormant sexual feelings |
Fixation | According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved |
Regression | Defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated |
Reaction Formation | Defense mechanism in 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 |
Projection | Defense mechanism in which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others |
Rationalization | Defense mechanisms that offer self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions |
Displacement | 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 |
Collective Unconscious | Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history |
Alfred Adler | One of the three Neo-Freudians who argued that an insecurity complex motivated some individuals for their entire lives. |
Karen Horney | One of the three Neo-Freudians who argued that not everything was related to sex, that women didn't have penis envy, and that women were not inherently weaker than men |
Carl Jung | One of the three Neo-Freudians who believed in a collective unconscious that all human beings shared that created common archetypes that cross culture and might be innate to the human species |
Defense Mechanisms | In psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality |
Projective Tests | A personality test such as the Rorschach or TAT test that provide ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics |
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) | A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through their stories which they make up about ambiguous scenes |
Rorschach Inkblot Test | The most widely used projective test, set of 10 inkblots, people describe what they see in them and a trained analyst deciphers the meaning of the patient's projected feelings |
Terror-Management Theory | Proposes that faith in one's worldview and the pursuit of self-esteem provide protection against a deeply rooted fear of death |
Self-Actualization | According to Abraham 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 |
Unconditional Positive Regard | According to Rogers an attitude of total acceptance toward another person |
Empahty | Sharing and mirroring our feelings and reflecting our meanings |
Self Concept | All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "who am I?" |
Carl Rogers | Humanistic psychologist who believed that we can understand our personalities we must talk to them with understanding and empathy |
Fully-Functioning Person Theory | People can be come fully-functioning by working towards self-actualization and having a positive self concept that is aligned with reality |
Traits | A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports |
Factor Analysis | Statistical procedure to identify clusters of test items that are related, in personality we use it to identify commonalities in traits for example honesty might also be found in someone who is trustworthy or responsible |
Temperament | Our emotional reactivty and behavioral style that are innate and inborn and help define our personality |
Personality Inventories | Longer questionnaires covering a wide range of behaviors and feelings that are designed to assess several personality traits at once |
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) | The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders this test is now used for other screening purposes |
Empirically derived test | a personality test (such as the MMPI) that is derived by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between two groups. |
Big Five Factors | Published by Costa & McCrae, made up of the CANOE: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, extraversion |
Conscientiousness | One of the big five personality traits that emphasizes organization, care, and discipline |
Agreeableness | One of the big five personality traits that emphasizes soft-heartedness, trusting, and helpuflness |
Neuroticism | One of the big five personality traits that emphasizes calm, secure, and being self-satisfied, and emotionally stable |
Openness | One of the big five personality traits that emphasizes imagination, variety, and independence |
Allport and Odbert | Listed 18,000 traits |
Myers Briggs | Tests about 16 traits on a bipolar scales |
Cattel | One of the first to use factor analysis to come up with 16 personality traits to study |
Hans and Sybil Eysenck | Rated all individuals on 2 bipolar scales, extraversion vs. intraversion and emotional stability vs. emotional instability. |
Extraversion | One of the big five personality traits that emphasizes being sociable, a fun-loving attitude, and being affectionate |
Person-Situation Controversy | Does the personality determine behavior in a given situation or is it the situation that determines behavior |
Social-Cognitive Perspective | Views behavior as influenced by the interactions between persons (and their thinking) and their social context |
Reciprocal Determinism | The interacting influences between personality and environmental factors |
External Locus of Control | The perception that chance or outside forces beyond one's personal control determine one's fate |
Internal Locus of Control | The perception that one controls one's own fate. |
Learned Helplessness | The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeating aversive events. Study done by Martin Seligman on dogs. |
Spotlight Effect | Overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us |
Self-Esteem | One's feelings of high or low self-worth |
Personal Control | Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless |
Sigmund Freud | Psychologist who is famous for creating the first all encompassing theory of personality: psychoanalysis. Also the first full method of insight therapy/talk therapy. Involves defense mechanisms, free association, dream analysis, & psychosexual stages. |
Manifest Content | The actual content of what happens in the dream. So if the dream involves going to Wawa the manifest content is just a summary of what happened. |
Latent Content | Latent content is the hidden meaning in a dream according to Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. So if the dream involves going to Wawa perhaps it indicates that you are unsettled, searching for something, on a quest, etc. |
Erogenous Zones | Pleasure-sensitive areas on the body. Were the focus of Freud's topics for the creation of his now disproved psychosexual stages of development |
Electra Complex | Like the Oedipus complex but for females. So the Electra complex is where a girl is obsessed with the love of her father and wants to get rid of her mother because she could stand in the way of that love. |
Denial | A defense mechanism in which a person refuses to believe or even perceive painful realities potentially from their past. |
Neo-Freudians | The "New" Freuds. Psychologists who accepted some of his beliefs however disagreed with him and altered some of his theories. Include Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and Karen Horney |
Humanist theories | View personality with a focus on the potential for healthy growth. Major proponents (supporters) include Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. |
Abraham Maslow | The humanist psychologist who comes up with the hierarchy of needs and the idea that human beings cannot become the best versions of themselves (self-actualization) without achieving and meeting more basic needs first |
Gordon Allport | Created a list of all potential personality traits. They created a list of over 18,000 traits. They gave trait theory its start. |
Myers Briggs Type Indicator | One of the most common personality inventories which is 126 questions long and measures 16 traits. Created by two women Myers and Briggs. |
Attributional style | Whether you attribute things in your life to things that you have done or things the outside world has done to you. Related to Rotter's theory of locus of control |
Positive psychology | The scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. Promoted by Martin Seligman |
Self-serving bias | A readiness to perceive oneself favorably. |
Narcissism | Excessive self-love and self-absorption |