Copy of Psych EXAM 2 study guide

Personality

An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Psychoanalytic perspective

Emphasizes the importance of unconscious processes and the influence of early childhood experiences.

Humanistic perspective

Represents an optimistic look at human nature, emphasizing the self and the fulfillment of a person’s unique potential.

Social cognitive perspective

Emphasizes learning and conscious cognitive processes, including beliefs about self and goal setting.

Trait perspective

Focuses on the description and measurement of specific personality differences among individuals.

Free association

A psychoanalytical technique where the patient spontaneously reports all thoughts, feelings, and mental images.

Conscious

Contains the thoughts, feelings, and sensations you’re currently aware of.

Preconscious

Contains information you’re not currently aware of but can easily bring to mind.

Unconscious

Houses submerged thoughts, feelings, wishes, and drives that influence conscious thoughts and behaviors.

ID

The completely unconscious, irrational component of personality that seeks immediate satisfaction of instinctual urges.

EGO

Partly conscious, rational component of personality that regulates thoughts and behaviors.

SUPEREGO

Partly conscious, self-evaluative, moralistic component formed through internalization of parental and societal rules.

Repression

The complete exclusion from consciousness of anxiety-producing thoughts, feelings, or impulses.

Displacement

The redirection of emotional impulses toward a substitute person or object.

Sublimation

A form of displacement where sexual urges are rechanneled into productive, nonsexual activities.

Oedipus complex

A child’s unconscious sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent, usually accompanied by hostile feelings toward the same-sex parent.

Ego defense mechanisms

Unconscious distortions of thoughts or perceptions that reduce anxiety by altering reality.

Self-efficacy

Belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations, influencing how challenges are approached.

Social psychology

The study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the presence of others.

Cognitive dissonance

The discomfort felt when actions conflict with beliefs, typically resolved by changing one or the other.

Ingroup bias

Favoring members of one’s own group over those of another group.

Outgroup homogeneity effect

The tendency to see members of the outgroup as all alike.

Social loafing

The phenomenon where individuals exert less effort when working in a group compared to when working alone.

Altruism

Selfless helping of others with no expectation of reward.

Bystander effect

A social phenomenon wherein individuals are less likely to help a victim when other people are present.