Theories of Personality

Flashcards for personality theories based on lecture transcript.

PERSONA

Theatrical mask used by Roman actors in Greek dramas to project a role or false appearance

PERSONALITY

A pattern of relatively permanent traits (inherited) and unique characteristics (acquired) that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior

THEORY

A set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses

TESTABLE HYPOTHESES

Determines a theory's worth by suggesting ways to trial its assumptions.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SCIENCE

Investigates the impact of a scientist’s psychological processes and personal characteristics on the development of theories and research

PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH

Focuses on the unconscious mind as the source of important differences in behavior styles

TRAIT APPROACH

Focuses on an individual's position along a continuum of various personality characteristics

HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Focuses on personal responsibility and feelings of self-acceptance as causes for differences in personality

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE APPROACH

Focuses on how people process information to explain differences in behavior

DETERMINISM

The belief that behavior is determined by forces we cannot control

FREE CHOICE

The belief that we can choose to be what we wish to be

PESSIMISM

The belief that we are doomed to live a miserable life

OPTIMISM

The belief that we can change and grow into fully functioning beings

CONSCIOUS MIND

Things we are currently focusing on

PRECONSCIOUS MIND

Things we are not currently aware of, but could focus on

UNCONSCIOUS MIND

That which we are unaware of

ID

The unorganized, inborn part of personality whose purpose is to immediately reduce tensions relating to hunger, sex, aggression, and other primitive impulses

EGO

Restrains instinctual energy in order to maintain the safety of the individual and help the person be a member of society

SUPEREGO

Represents the rights and wrongs of society and consists of the conscience and the ego ideal

TRAITS

Stable internal characteristics that cause behavior, thoughts, and feelings

TRAITS

Explain why individuals behave in certain ways, showing consistency across situations and over time.

HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Rejected Freud’s pessimistic view of personality, takes a more optimistic/positive outlook on human nature.

SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY

Emphasizes the role of learning in personality

SELF-EFFICACY

Beliefs about our ability to achieve goals

RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM

The individual and the environment continually influence one another

PERSONAL CONTROL

The belief that you pretty much control your destiny, with internal locus of control

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

The reason why someone may experience depression: feeling of no control over their destiny.

LEARNED OPTIMISM

Uncontrollable events are turned into challenges, adopting an internal locus of control

UNCONSCIOUS

Drives, urges, and instincts that are beyond awareness

PHYLOGENETIC ENDOWMENT

The experiences of our early ancestors that have been passed on to us though hundreds of generations of repetition

PRIMARY CENSOR AND FINAL CENSOR

A Guardian or Censor blocking the passage of the unconscious to the consciousness

ID

Operates at the unconscious level with no contact with reality, following the pleasure principle.

EGO

Operates at the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels, in contact with reality, following the reality principle.

SUPEREGO

Operates at the preconscious and unconscious levels, with no contact with the outside world, setting moralistic and idealistic standards.

PRIMARY PROCESS

The sensation/instinctual motivation that characterizes the id.

SECONDARY PROCESS

The realistic and logical process that characterizes the ego.

2 SUBSYSTEMS

The moralistic and idealistic principles that characterize the superego.

CONSCIENCE

Punishments for bad behavior that produce guilt

EGO-IDEAL

Rewards for good behavior that produce inferiority feelings if not met

ANXIETY

A felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by physical sensations that warn the person of impending danger

NEUROTIC ANXIETY

An apprehension about an unknown danger originates from the ID

MORAL ANXIETY

Originates from conflict between ego and superego; result from failure to behave correctly

REALISTIC / OBJECTIVE ANXIETY

Originates from the outside world; resembles fear but does not involve a specific feared object

DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Avoid dealing directly with instinctual demands and to defend the ego against anxiety that accompanies the demands

FIXATION

Remaining at the present, more comfortable stage of development

REGRESSION

Reverting to an earlier stage of development, which has less stress

PROJECTION

Attributing unwanted internal impulses to an external object/person

INTROJECTION

Incorporating positive qualities of another person onto own self

ACTING OUT

Performing an extreme behavior to express thoughts or feelings that the person is incapable of expressing

DENIAL

Refusal to accept reality or fact as if the painful event or thought did not exist

REACTION FORMATION

Doing the opposite in an exaggerated, compulsive, obsessive way; limited to a single object

DISSOCIATION

Breaking part of memory, consciousness, or perception of self or the environment to avoid unbearable thoughts, feelings, memories

REPRESSION

Forces threatening feelings into the unconscious; most basic defense mechanism

ISOLATION

Use obsessive thoughts to block out any feeling that follows an unwanted experience and sever associations

DISPLACEMENT

Redirect unacceptable urges into different people or objects so that the original impulse is concealed

COMPARTMENTALIZATION

A lesser form of dissociation; separate parts of self from awareness of other parts and behaving as if one has separate sets of values

INTELLECTUALIZATION

Dealing with stressors by excessive use of abstract thinking or complex explanations to control disturbing feelings

COMPENSATION

Counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strengths in other arenas

SUBLIMATION

Repression of genital aim onto cultural or social aim; channeling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable pursuits

HUMOR

Channeling of unacceptable impulses or thoughts into a light-hearted story or joke

FANTASY

Channeling of unacceptable or unattainable desires into imagination

ASSERTIVENESS

Emphasis of a person’s needs or thoughts in a manner that is respectful, direct, and firm

INFANTILE STAGE

The first 4 or 5 years of life are the most crucial for personality formation

ORAL-RECEPTIVE PHASE

Infants incorporate or receive into their body the instinctual object choice

ORAL-SADISTIC

Infants respond through biting, cooing, smiling, crying; first auto-erotic experience is thumb sucking

EARLY ANAL PHASE

Receive satisfaction by destroying or losing objects; aggression while in toilet training

LATE ANAL PHASE

Receive satisfaction by withholding and retention during toilet training

ANAL TRIAD

Orderliness, stinginess, obstinacy

SIMPLE OEDIPUS COMPLEX

A boy's incestuous feelings for mother and rivalry with father

COMPLETE OEDIPUS COMPLEX

Affection towards father and hostility towards mother, known as castration complex; castration anxiety

FEMALE OEDIPUS COMPLEX

Castration complex in the form of Penis envy expressed as a wish to be a boy or desire to have a penis

LATENCY PERIOD

Dormant psychosexual development, between the phallic phase and the genital period.

GENITAL PERIOD

Reawakening of sexual aim; give up auto-eroticism and direct sexual energy to another person

HEALTHY PERSONALITY

Balance among the structures of the mind, with ego controlling the id and superego

FREE ASSOCIATION

Verbalize every thought that comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant

TRANSFERENCE

Strong sexual/aggressive feelings that patients develop towards the psychoanalyst

NEGATIVE TRANSFERENCE

Hostile climate during therapy during transference

POSITIVE TRANSFERENCE

Permits patients to relive childhood experiences within a non-threatening situation

RESISTANCE

The patient’s unconscious responses block their progress

FREUDIAN OR UNCONSCIOUS SLIPS (PARAPRAXES)

“Fehlleistung” or faulty function, which reveals the unconscious intention of the person and the true purpose of the ego

DREAM ANALYSIS

Transform manifest to latent content, to analyze desires

MANIFEST CONTENT

Surface meaning/conscious description of dreams

LATENT CONTENT

Unconscious material revealed through dreams

REPETITIVE COMPULSION

Some dreams are repetitions of traumatic experience

JUNG'S LIBIDO

Broadened Freud’s definition of libido by redefining it as a more generalized psychic energy that includes sex but isn't restricted to it

CONSCIOUS IMAGES

Those images that are sensed by the ego

EGO (JUNG)

Center of consciousness, but not the core of personality

PERSONAL UNCONSCIOUS

Contains all forgotten, repressed, or subliminally perceived experiences of an individual

COMPLEXES

Emotionally toned conglomerations of associated ideas

COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

Has roots in the ancestral past of the entire species

ARCHETYPES

Ancient or archaic images that derive its contents from the collective unconscious

PERSONA (JUNG)

Side of personality that people show to the world

SHADOW

Represents the qualities that we hide from ourselves and others.

ANIMA

The feminine archetype in men.

ANIMUS

The masculine archetype in women

GREAT MOTHER

Represents two opposing forces—fertility and nourishment on the one hand and power and destruction on the other

WISE OLD MAN

The archetype of wisdom and meaning

HERO

Fights great odds to conquer evil, but is undone by an insignificant person or event

SELF

Inherited tendency in each person to move toward growth, perfection, and completion; pulls together the other archetypes and unites them in the process of self-realization

CAUSALITY

Present events have their origin in previous experiences