Personality Psychology Exam 1 (Freud & Jung)

What is personality?

A set of characteristics influencing cognition, behavior, and motives.

What does personality psychology study?

How personality develops, originates, and functions.

What three factors develop personality?

Temperament + environment + behavior.

Why study personality psychology?

It improves communication, self-understanding, decisions, growth, and acceptance.

When did Freud believe personality became set?

By early childhood, around age 6.

What primarily drives humans according to Freud?

Unconscious instincts, especially sexual and aggressive drives.

What is an instinct?

An automatic, unlearned behavior or drive.

What did Freud believe about controlling instincts?

People cannot eliminate them but must learn to control them.

What are Freud's two basic instincts?

Life instincts and death instincts.

What does the life instinct seek?

Survival, basic needs, preservation, and sexual gratification.

What is libido?

The original sexual drive or psychic energy of the life instinct.

What does Freud's death instinct involve?

A drive toward balance, aggression, and an unconscious desire for death.

Which instinct did Freud believe was stronger?

The life instinct generally trumps the death instinct.

What is psychoanalysis?

A method of uncovering and dealing with unconscious material.

What is the conscious mind?

Thoughts and experiences you are currently aware of.

What is the preconscious?

Material outside awareness that can become conscious when accessed.

What is the unconscious?

Mental material outside conscious awareness.

What is Freud's Id?

The innate, pleasure-seeking part of personality.

What is Freud's Ego?

The realistic mediator that balances the Id and Superego.

What is Freud's Superego?

The perfectionistic, self-critical part shaped by values and parenting.

What is the healthiest balance among Id, Ego, and Superego?

The Ego should balance the Id and Superego without either dominating.

What is realistic anxiety?

Fear of actual dangers in the external world.

What is neurotic anxiety?

Fear that the Id's instincts will become uncontrollable. (Freud)

What is moral anxiety?

Anxiety from violating one's conscience or moral standards.

What are Freud's psychosexual stages?

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

What causes fixation according to Freud?

Significant conflict or trauma during a psychosexual stage.

What is oral fixation?

Fixation involving oral pleasure, such as chewing or smoking.

What can cause oral fixation?

Deprivation or overindulgence during the oral stage.

What is anal fixation?

Fixation involving control, retention, or releasing behaviors.

What stage focuses on genitals from ages 3–6?

The phallic stage.

What is phallic fixation associated with?

Narcissism, vanity, pride, and excessive focus on sexuality.

What is the Oedipal complex?

Freud's idea that boys desire their mother and compete with their father.

What is the Electra complex?

Freud's proposed idea that girls compete with their mother for their father.

What is penis envy?

Freud's proposed idea that girls feel inferior because they lack a penis.

What happens during the latency stage?

Sexual drives become relatively dormant until puberty.

What is maladaptive behavior?

Unhealthy behavior resulting from unresolved conflicts or fixations.

What are defense mechanisms?

Unconscious strategies that protect people from psychological pain.

What is repression?

Unconsciously pushing painful memories out of consciousness.

What is suppression?

Consciously choosing not to think about anxiety-provoking thoughts.

What is denial?

Refusing to recognize or accept an unpleasant reality.

What is rationalization?

Creating excuses to justify maladaptive behavior.

What is displacement?

Redirecting emotions, especially anger, toward a safer target.

What is sublimation?

Redirecting unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable behavior.

What is regression? (Freud)

Returning to less mature patterns of behavior.

What is projection?

Attributing your own undesirable traits or feelings to others.

What is reaction formation?

Expressing the opposite of an unacceptable feeling or trait.

What is intellectualization?

Using elaborate reasoning to distance yourself from painful feelings.

What is undoing?

Performing an action to cancel or make amends for another action.

What are Freud's four major assessment techniques?

Free association, dream analysis, resistance, and transference.

What is free association?

Reporting whatever thoughts come to mind without restriction.