4b Personality, Motivation, and Emotion Vocabulary Definitions

A collection of flashcards covering vocabulary related to personality, motivation, and emotion from psychological theories.

Personality

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

Psychodynamic theories

Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences.

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions onto unconscious motives and conflicts.

Free association

A method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind.

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives.

Ego

The partly conscious part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality.

Superego

The partly conscious part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment.

Preconscious

The part of the mind of which we are typically unaware but can become aware through focused thought.

Unconscious

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.

Defense mechanisms

The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.

Displacement

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

Projection

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

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening reasons for one's actions.

Reaction formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

Regression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage.

Repression

The basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts from consciousness.

Sublimation

Transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives.

Projective tests

Personality tests that provide ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics.

Thematic apperception tests

A projective test in which people express their inner feelings through stories about ambiguous scenes.

Rorschach test

A projective test that identifies people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of inkblots.

Humanistic psychology

A psychological perspective emphasizing the study of the whole person and personal growth.

Unconditional positive regard

A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude toward others, helping develop self-awareness.

Self-actualizing tendency

The process of fulfilling one’s true potential.

Social-cognitive theory

A view of behavior influenced by the interaction between people's traits and their social context.

Reciprocal determinism

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.

Self-concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to 'Who am I?'

Self-efficacy

Our sense of competence and effectiveness.

Self-esteem

Our feelings of high or low self-worth.

Traits

Characteristic patterns of behaviors or dispositions to feel and act.

Big Five theory

A model that uses five traits to describe personality: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

Agreeableness

A personality trait described as ‘soft-hearted, trusting, helpful.’

Conscientiousness

A personality trait described as ‘organized, careful, disciplined.’

Openness to experience

A personality trait described as ‘imaginative, preferring variety, independent.’

Extraversion

A personality trait described as ‘sociable, fun-loving, affectionate.’

Emotional stability

A personality trait described as ‘calm, secure, self-satisfied.’

Personality inventories

Questionnaires designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors.

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure identifying clusters of test items that tap basic components of a trait.

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

Homeostasis

A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state.

Drive-reduction theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state motivating an organism to satisfy the need.

Arousal theory

The idea that we are motivated to maintain an optimal level of arousal.

Optimal level of arousal

The level of stimulation needed to produce our best performance.

Yerkes-Dodson law

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point.

Self-determination theory

The theory that we feel motivated to satisfy our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

Intrinsic motivation

The desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

Extrinsic motivation

The desire to perform a behavior to receive rewards or avoid punishment.

Incentive

A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.

Learned helplessness

A feeling of hopelessness and decreased motivation learned when unable to avoid aversive events.

Sensation-seeking theory

The idea that we are motivated to seek out novel and stimulating experiences.

Lewin’s motivational conflicts theory

The theory positing that our drive to move toward or away from a stimulus can create conflicts between competing motivations.

Approach-approach conflict

A motivational conflict that occurs when an individual must choose between two equally attractive options.

Approach-avoidance conflict

A motivational conflict that arises when a single choice has both positive and negative aspects.

Avoidance-avoidance conflict

A motivational conflict that occurs when an individual must choose between two unattractive options.

Hormones

Chemical messengers of the endocrine system.

Leptin

Protein hormone secreted by fat cells that decreases hunger.

Ghrelin

Hormone secreted by an empty stomach that sends 'I’m hungry' signals to the brain.

Hypothalamus

Part of the brain that communicates with the endocrine system, performing body maintenance functions.

Pituitary gland

The ‘master’ of the endocrine system that communicates with the brain and sends hormones through the body.

Emotion

A response of the whole organism, involving physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience.

Facial feedback hypothesis

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings.

Behavioral feedback effect

The tendency of behavior to influence our own and others' thoughts and feelings.

Polygraph

A machine used to detect lies by measuring emotion-linked changes.

Broaden-and-build theory

Proposes that positive emotions increase awareness, helping build skills and resilience.

Universal emotions

Emotions that are expressed and recognized similarly across cultures.

Anger

Universally expressed by: Eyebrows drawn together and downward, eyes fixed, mouth squarish.

Happiness

Universally expressed by: Mouth forming smile, cheeks lifted, twinkle in eyes.

Disgust

Universally expressed by: Nose wrinkled, upper lip raised, tongue pushed outward.

Fear

Universally expressed by: Eyebrows level, drawn in and up, mouth corners retracted.

Sadness

Universally expressed by: Eyebrows' inner corners raised, mouth corners drawn down.

Surprise

Universally expressed by: Eyebrows raised, eyes widened, mouth rounded.

Display rules

Culturally-determined norms about when and how much to display certain emotions.