Psychology Chapter 11

incomplete

Personality

the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways

Franz Gall

proposed that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person’s personality traits, character, and mental abilities

Phrenology

the pseudoscience of measuring the areas of a person’s skull

Unconscious

mental activity of which we are unaware and are unable to access

Repression

process through which unacceptable urges and desires are kept in our unconscious

Id

contains our most primitive drives or urges, and is present from birth. It directs impulses for hunger, thirst, and sex

Superego

moral compass that tells us how we should behave

Ego

rational part of our personality

Neurosis

a tendency to experience negative emotions

Defense mechanisms

unconscious protective behaviors that aim to reduce anxiety

Reaction formation

a defense mechanism in which an individual acts much younger than their age

Projection

a person refuses to acknowledge her own unconscious feelings and instead sees those feelings in someone else

Latency period

period in which sexual desires are dormant as children focus on other pursuits

Alfred Adler

founded the school of psychology known as individual psychology

Individual psychology

school of psychology which focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority

Analytical psychology

psychology that balances opposing forces of conscious and unconscious thought

Collective unconscious

a universal version of the personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or memory traces

Archetypes

represented by universal themes in various cultures, as expressed through literature, art, and dreams

Social-cognitive theory

theory of personality that emphasizes both learning and cognition as sources of individual differences in personality

Reciprocal determinism

cognitive processes, behavior, and context all interact, each factor influencing and being influenced by the others simultaneously

Self-efficacy

our level of confidence in our own abilities, developed through our social experiences

Locus of control

refers to our beliefs about the power we have over our lives