Key Concepts in Personality Psychology

Personality

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

Psychoanalytic theory of personality

Developed by Sigmund Freud.

Id

Part of the personality that operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification.

Ego

The rational part of personality that operates on the reality principle and mediates between the id and the superego.

Superego

The part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience).

Free association

A method used by Freud to explore the unconscious by having patients say whatever comes to mind.

Iceberg analogy

Freud's analogy to describe the mind's structure—most of the mind is unconscious.

Defense mechanisms

Unconscious strategies used by the ego to reduce anxiety by distorting reality.

Freud's 6 defense mechanisms

Repression, Regression, Reaction Formation, Projection, Rationalization, Displacement.

Repression

Banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts from consciousness and underlies all other defense mechanisms.

Neo-Freudians

Psychologists who accepted many of Freud's ideas but emphasized the conscious mind and social influences.

Projective tests

Tests that use ambiguous stimuli to uncover unconscious motives, such as the TAT and Rorschach.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A projective test using 10 inkblots to analyze people's inner feelings based on their interpretations.

Modern view of the unconscious

An information-processing system that works without awareness, involving schemas, priming, implicit memories, and stereotypes.

Humanistic theories of personality

Theories that emphasize self-growth and self-actualization, developed by Maslow and Rogers.

Carl Rogers' emphasis

Genuineness, acceptance (unconditional positive regard), and empathy for personal growth.

Assessing the self (Rogers)

By comparing a person's actual self to their ideal self.

Big Five personality traits

Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness, Extraversion (CANOE).

Factor analysis

A statistical method used to identify clusters of related traits.

MMPI

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—a widely used, empirically derived personality test.

Person-situation controversy

Debate over whether traits or situations are more influential in determining behavior.

Social-cognitive theory of personality

Developed by Bandura; emphasizes the interaction between traits and social context.

Reciprocal determinism

Bandura's concept that behavior, internal personal factors, and environment influence each other.

Self-concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, answering the question 'Who am I?'

Spotlight effect

Overestimating how much others notice and evaluate our appearance or performance.

Self-serving bias

A tendency to perceive oneself favorably, attributing successes to self and failures to external factors.

Defensive self-esteem

Fragile self-esteem that is threatened by criticism or failure.

Secure self-esteem

Stable and less reliant on external validation, contributing to well-being.

Criticisms of humanistic theories

Vague concepts, overly individualistic, and naively optimistic.