Personality and Disorders Flashcards

Flashcards on personality and psychological disorders.

Personality

An individual's distinct and relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors.

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality

Involves mapping the id, the ego, and the superego; core assumption is repression, the unconscious process of blocking out distressing thoughts or memories.

Id

The inherited part of the personality.

Ego

Who you are, or self.

Superego

Governed by morals and societal compasses.

Repression

Keeps unacceptable impulses out of conscious awareness.

Regression

Reverts to earlier developmental stages.

Displacement

Redirects emotions onto a safer target.

Sublimation

Channels unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable behaviors.

Reaction formation

Acts in the opposite way of an unacceptable impulse.

Projection

Attributes unacceptable traits to others.

Rationalization

Provides logical excuses for unacceptable actions.

Humanistic approach to personality

Emphasizes an individual's innate goodness, potential for growth, and self-actualization.

Self-concept

A person's explicit knowledge of his or her own behaviors, traits, and other personal characteristics; an organized body of knowledge that develops from social experiences and has a profound effect on a person's behavior throughout life.

Unconditional Positive Regard

The acceptance and love one receives from significant others is unqualified.

Conditional positive regard

The acceptance and love one receives from significant others is contingent upon one's behavior.

Core assumptions of behavioral and social learning theories of personality

Behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment; social learning theory adds observation and imitation.

Locus of control

A person's perception of the extent to which he/she controls what happens to him/her.

External locus of control

The perception that chance or external forces beyond your control determine your fate.

Internal locus of control

The perception that you control your own fate.

Trait models of personality

Suggest that personality can be understood by identifying and measuring individuals' stable characteristics or traits.

Big Five

Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Neuroticism

Structured personality test (MMPI)

A large scale test designed to measure a multitude of psychological disorders and personality traits.

Projective tests (Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Test)

A test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondents inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5)

A classification system that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how that disorder can be distinguished.

Mental disorder

A persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behavior, thoughts, or emotions that causes significant distress or impairment.

Generalized anxiety disorders (GAD)

Involves persistent, excessive worry about various issues.

Phobic disorders

Characterized by an intense and irrational fear of specific objects or situations.

Panic disorder

Involves recurring panic attacks, sudden episodes of intense fear and physical symptoms.

Obsessions

Persistent ideas, thoughts, or impulses that are unwanted and inappropriate and cause marked distress.

Compulsions

Repetitive behaviors or mental acts.

Specific phobias

Characterized by intense, irrational fear of specific objects or situations.

Social phobia

Involves a fear of social situations and the potential for being scrutinized or negatively judged by others.

Agoraphobia

Specific phobia involving fear of public places.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Disorder in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts and ritualistic behaviors designed to fend off those thoughts interfere with an individual’s functioning.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Marked emotional disturbance after experiencing or witnessing a severely stressful event; symptoms include flashbacks, avoiding reminders, and increased arousal.

Major depressive disorder

Characterized by a severely depressed mood and/or inability to experience pleasure that lasts 2 or more weeks and is accompanied by feelings of worthlessness, lethargy, and sleep and appetite disturbance.

Bipolar disorder

Characterized by both depressive and manic episodes.

Schizophrenia

A severe disorder of thought and emotion associated with a loss of contact with reality.

Delusions

Strongly held, fixed beliefs with no basis in reality.

Hallucinations

Sensory perceptions in the absence of external stimuli.

Delusion

A false belief.

Hallucination

Sensory perceptions.

Borderline personality disorder

Instability in one's self-image, mood, and social relationships and lack of clear identity

Psychopathic personality disorder

Condition marked by superficial charm, dishonesty, manipulativeness, self-centeredness, and risk taking

Depersonalization/derealization disorder

Condition marked by episodes of depersonalization, derealization, or both

Dissociative amnesia

Inability to recall important personal information- most often related to a stressful experience.

Dissociative fugue

Sudden, unexpected travel away from home or workplace, accompanied by amnesia for significant life events.

Dissociative identity disorder

Condition characterized by the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states that take control of the person's behavior.

Autism spectrum disorder

Condition beginning in early childhood in which a person shows persistent communication deficits as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interest, or activities.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

A persistent pattern of severe problems with inattention and/or hyperactivity or impulsiveness that cause significant impairments in functioning.

Conduct disorder

Mental health condition characterized by a repetitive and persistent pattern of antisocial and aggressive behaviors in children and adolescents