Chapter 14: personality vocab

personality

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

psychodynamic theories

theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences

psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

unconscious

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware

free association

in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which a person relaxes and says whatever comes to find, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

id

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, accord to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demeaning immediate gratification

ego

the partly conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain

superego

the partly conscious part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for duster aspirations

psychosexual stages

the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure seeking energies focus in erogenous zones

Oedipus complex

complex according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father

identification

the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos

fixate

in psychoanalytic theory, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

defense mechanisms

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from conscious anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories