Unit 5: Personality and Social Psychology Practice Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key concepts from Unit 5: Personality and Social Psychology, contrasting Western perspectives with African cosmology, ontology, and the philosophy of ubuntu, while also addressing the impacts of colonialism and intergenerational trauma.

Personality

Stemming from the word “persona,” it represents an aspect of humanity that explains why people behave in a certain way and includes everything that makes a person a unique individual.

Persona

A term referring to a mask that used to be worn by actors in a stage play, or the mask we wear when we face the outside world.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how people’s behaviour and decision making are largely influenced by society.

Cosmologies

The ways in which we view and make sense of our world in relation to cultural philosophies, encompassing epistemology and ontology.

African Cosmology

The ways in which Africans perceive, conceive of, and understand their universe; a lens that affects value systems, attitudinal orientations, and the search for the meaning of life.

Ontology

Refers to someone’s ways of being.

African Ontology

A psychological reality shared by group members that offers a holistic view of existence, considering a person's life within their community, the spiritual world, and the physical world.

Collective Personality

A concept by Diop (1991) regarding African personality that includes psychic (national temperament), historical, and linguistic factors.

Isimilo/Seemo

The African concept describing personality or character; it communications an individual’s distinctiveness and is an expression of what is inside (indalo yakhe).

Indalo

Nature; derived from the root “dala” meaning old or ancient, it refers to the ancient essence which manifests someone’s character.

Ubuntu/Botho

An overarching ethic and philosophy that informs and guides the behaviour of people in a society, governing both personal and communal aspects of life.

Isintu/Setho

The culture that draws from, and is guided by, the ethic of ubuntu/botho.

Mekhoa

The closest African equivalent to the English term “traits,” referring to that which you draw from inside and “spit out” as hints of one's essence.

Scientific Racism

The production and dissemination of knowledge containing racist ideas during colonial administration to justify the oppression and dehumanisation of indigenous people.

Trait-comparison Bias

A term used by Bulhan (1985) to describe how Eurocentric psychological studies on black people often yielded results that were negative or opposite to those of white people.

Attribution Theory

A theory in Social Psychology referring to how we perceive others when they make decisions.

Self-perception Theory

A theory in Social Psychology referring to how we perceive ourselves.

Social Identity Theory

A theory in Social Psychology referring to how we categorise ourselves and others.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

A theory in Social Psychology referring to how our minds have trouble processing conflicting information.

Trauma

Defined by Prager (2003) as “a wound that never heals” which succeeds in passing the experience from one generation to the next.

Collective Trauma

Also known as social or structural trauma, it is not only felt by individuals but collectively within a network of connections in a community.

Projective Identification

A mechanism of trauma transmission that occurs when an individual projects unacceptable feelings onto another person; it becomes pathological if rigidly maintained.

Shame

A negative emotion and feeling of being lacking as a human being in some vital way, which can transform into collective humiliation for a society.

Totems

In Bantu cultures, an animal or plant regarded as an integral member of the family clan whose characteristics often find expression in the behaviours of family members.