Unit 7: Personality, Motivation & Emotion

Personality

An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

The Barnum Effect

Refers to the psychological phenomenon in which people believe that vague general statements about their personality are highly accurate even if it could apply to anyone to anyone.

Psychodynamic Theories

News personally with a focus on the unconscious mind and importance of childhood experience.

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions of unconscious motives, and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

Free Associations

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

Resevior of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories.

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that according to Freud, strives to satisfy the basic sexual pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Ego

The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying that id’s desire in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Defense Mechanism

In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s productive methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.

Ex. Insists there was an error on the team list and he’s going to set things right with the coach

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable less threatening object or person.

Ex. Yells at his brother for little or no reason

Projection

Disgusting one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

Ex. Tells everyone how mad his parents are at the coach

Rationalization

Offers self-justifying explanations in place the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions.

Ex. Explains that he wasn’t working very hard in tryouts and could have made the team if he’d really wanted.