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Psy chapt 13
Psychology Chapter 13
Term | Definition |
---|---|
personality | A person’s characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors. |
personality trait | A pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that is relatively consistent over time and across situations. |
organization | The notion of _____ indicates that personality is a coherent whole. |
dynamic | This organized whole is _____ in that it is goal seeking, sensitive to particular contexts, and adaptive to the person's enviornment. |
Psychophysial systems | Allport had two ideas: He highlighted the mental nature of personality (i.e., the psycho- part of psychophysical), and he recognized that personality arises from basic biological processes (i.e., the –physical part). |
Characteristics | Stressed that peronality causes people to have _____ behaviors and thoughts (and feelings). |
temperaments | Biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways. |
Activity levels | is the overall amount of energy and of behavior a person exhibits. For example, some children race around the house, others are less vigorous, page 553 and still others are slow paced. |
Emotionality | describes the intensity of emotional reactions. For example, children who cry often or easily become frightened, as well as adults who quickly anger, are likely to be high in emotionality |
Sociability | Refers to the general tendecny to affiliate with others. People high in sociability perfer to be with others rather than to be alone. |
psychodynamic theory | The Freudian theory that unconscious forces determine behavior. |
Conscious level | Level consists of the thoughts that people are aware of. |
Presonscious level | Level consists of content that is not currently in awareness but that could be brought to awareness. This level is roughly analogous to long-term memory. |
Unconscious level | Level contains material that the mind cannot easily retrieve, including hidden memories, wishes, desires, and motives. |
Freudian slip | People may accidentally reveal a hidden motive when uttering a ____. |
Pleasure princple | The id operates accoding to the ______, which directs the person to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. |
id | In psychodynamic theory, the component of personality that is completely submerged in the unconscious and operates according to the pleasure principle. |
superego | In psychodynamic theory, the internalization of societal and parental standards of conduct. |
ego | In psychodynamic theory, the component of personality that tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the superego. |
reality principle | The ego operates according to the ____, which involves rational thoughts and problem solving. |
defense mechanisms | Unconscious mental strategies that the mind uses to protect itself from anxiety. |
Denial | Refusing to acknowledge source of anxiety Example: Ill person ignores medical advice. |
Repression | Excluding source of anxiety from awareness Example: Person fails to remember an unpleasant event |
Projection | Attributing unacceptable qualities of the self to someone else Example: Competitive person describes others as supercompetitive. |
Reaction formation | Warding off an uncomfortable thought by overemphasizing its opposite Example: Person with unacknowledged homosexual desires makes homophobic remarks. |
Rationalization | Concocting a seemingly logical reason or excuse for behavior that might otherwise be shameful Example: Person cheats on taxes because “everyone does it.” |
Displacement | Shifting the attention of emotion from one object to another Example: Person yells at children after a bad day at work. |
Sublimation | Channeling socially unacceptable impulses into constructive, even admirable, behavior Example: Sadist becomes a surgeon or dentist. |
Erogenous Zone | The mouth, the anus, or the genitals. |
Orla Stage | lasts from birth to approximately 18 months. During this time, infants seek pleasure through the mouth. |
Anal Stage | When children are 2 to 3 years old, they enter the____. During this time, toilet training—learning to control the bowels—leads them to focus on the anus. |
Phallic Stage | From age 3 to 5, children are in the _____. That is, they direct their libidinal energies toward the genitals. Children often discover the pleasure of rubbing their genitals during this time, although they have no sexual intent per se. |
Latency stage | Brief. During this time, children suppress libidinal urges or channel them into doing schoolwork or building friendships. |
Genital Stage | Adolescents and adults attain mature attitudes about sexuality and adulthood. |
psychosexual stages | According to Freud, developmental stages that correspond to distinct libidinal urges; progression through these stages profoundly affects personality. |
humanistic approaches | Approaches to studying personality that emphasize how people seek to fulfill their potential through greater self-understanding. |
trait approach | An approach to studying personality that focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions. |
five-factor theory | The idea that personality can be described using five factors: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. |
behavioral approach system (BAS) | The brain system involved in the pursuit of incentives or rewards. |
behavioral inhibition system (BIS) | The brain system that is sensitive to punishment and therefore inhibits behavior that might lead to danger or pain. |
situationism | The theory that behavior is determined more by situations than by personality traits. |
interactionists | Theorists who believe that behavior is determined jointly by situations and underlying dispositions. |
idiographic approaches | Person-centered approaches to assessing personality; they focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons. |
nomothetic approaches | Approaches to assessing personality that focus on how common characteristics vary from person to person. |
self-esteem | The evaluative aspect of the self-concept in which people feel worthy or unworthy. |
sociometer | An internal monitor of social acceptance or rejection. |
self-serving bias | The tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors. |