psych #7

Free association

In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts/actions to unconscious motives and conflicts.

A therapeutic technique used to treat psychological disorders. The patient’s free associations, resistances, and dreams, release repressed feelings and allow the patient to gain self-insight.

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.

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. Operates on the pleasure principle

Ego

The largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. Operates on the reality principle.

Superego

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

Psychosexual stages

The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.

Oedipus complex

A boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

Identification

The process by which children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos (according to Freud).

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Projective test

A personality test that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner feelings.

Thematic Apperception Test

A projective test in which people express their inner feelings through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Rorschach inkblot test

The most widely used projective test; a set of 10 inkblots; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.

False consensus effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

Alfred Adler

A neo-Freudian who believed that the primary driving force in personality development was a striving for superiority. Social influences and the need to belong.

Karen Horney

A neo-Freudian psychologist who challenged Freud's “penis envy” and argued that women's sense of inferiority stemmed from cultural and societal factors. Proposed the concept of "basic anxiety" and "neurotic needs".

Carl Jung

Developed analytical psychology, which emphasizes the unconscious mind. He believed that the unconscious mind contains a "collective unconscious" shared by all humans.

Abraham Maslow

Humanistic psychologist who proposed the "hierarchy of needs", a theory that suggests humans are motivated by a series of needs, starting with basic physiological needs and moving towards self-actualization.

Albert Bandura

Social cognitive psychologist who developed the "social learning theory,"  emphasizing observational learning and modeling in personality development.

Self-actualization

The motivation to fulfill one’s potential; a psychological need that arises after basic physiological needs are met.

Unconditional positive regard

A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Self-concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question, “Who am I?”

Social-cognitive perspective

Behavior is influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (such as cognition) and their social context.

Behavioral approach

Focuses on the effects of learning on our personality development

Reciprocal determinism

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.

Spotlight effect

Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders

Self-esteem

One’s feelings of high or low self-worth.

Self-efficacy

One’s sense of competence and effectiveness.

Self-serving bias

A readiness to perceive oneself favorably.

Narcissism

Excessive self-love and self-absorption.

Individualism

Giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

Collectivism

Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly

Carl Rogers

Founded humanistic psychology, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within an accepting, genuine, empathic environment to facilitate clients’ growth. (Also called person-centered therapy.)

Drive-reduction theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

Homeostasis

A tendency to maintain a balanced internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry around a particular level.

Yerkes-Dodson law

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning with physiological needs that must first be satisfied, followed by higher-level safety needs, and finally psychological needs.

Set point

The point at which your “weight thermostat” may be set. When your body falls below this weight, increased hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore lost weight.

James-Lange theory

Our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to an emotion-arousing stimulus: stimulus —→ arousal —→ emotion

Cannon-Bard theory

An emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion

Facial feedback effect

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness

General adaption syndrome (GAS)

Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases—alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

Two-factor theory

Schachter's theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal.