Untitled Flashcards Set

Personality

An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Psychodynamic theories

Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences.

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts, using techniques to treat psychological disorders.

Unconscious

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories according to Freud.

Free association

A method in psychoanalysis exploring the unconscious where the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind.

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy according to Freud, striving to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives.

Ego

The partly conscious, 'executive' part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality.

Superego

The partly conscious part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment.

Defense mechanisms

The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Repression

The basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts and feelings from consciousness.

Collective unconscious

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history.

Terror-management theory

A theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional responses to reminders of their impending death.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

A projective test where people express their feelings through stories made up about ambiguous scenes.

Projective test

A personality test, such as the TAT or Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics.

Rorschach inkblot test

A projective test designed to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing how they interpret inkblots.

Humanistic theories

Theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth.

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s levels of human needs beginning with physiological needs, often visualized as a pyramid.

Self-actualization

The motivation to fulfill one’s potential according to Maslow.

Self-transcendence

The striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self according to Maslow.

Unconditional positive regard

A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude that Carl Rogers believed would help develop self-awareness.

Self-concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in response to the question, 'Who am I?'

Trait

A characteristic pattern of behavior or disposition to act in certain ways.

Personality inventory

A questionnaire designed to gauge a range of feelings and behaviors to assess personality traits.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

The most widely researched and clinically used personality test, originally developed to identify emotional disorders.

Empirically derived test

A test created by selecting items that discriminate between groups.

Big Five factors

Five traits — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism — that describe personality.

Social-cognitive perspective

A view of behavior as influenced by the interaction between traits and social context.

Behavioral approach

Focuses on the effects of learning on personality development.

Reciprocal determinism

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

Self

Assumed to be the center of personality, organizing our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Spotlight effect

Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance and performance.

Self-esteem

Our feelings of high or low self-worth.

Self-efficacy

Our sense of competence and effectiveness.

Self-serving bias

A readiness to perceive ourselves favorably.

Narcissism

Excessive self-love and self-absorption.

Individualism

A cultural pattern that emphasizes personal goals over group goals.

Collectivism

A cultural pattern that prioritizes the goals of important groups.

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

Instinct

A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned.

Physiological need

A basic bodily requirement.

Drive-reduction theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state that motivates satisfying the need.

Homeostasis

A tendency to maintain a balanced internal state and regulate body chemistry.

Incentive

A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.

Yerkes-Dodson law

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point.

Affiliation need

The need to build and maintain relationships and feel part of a group.

Self-determination theory

The theory that we feel motivated to satisfy our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

Intrinsic motivation

The desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

Extrinsic motivation

The desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid punishment.

Ostracism

Deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups.

Achievement motivation

A desire for significant accomplishment and mastery of skills.

Grit

In psychology, passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.

Glucose

The form of sugar that circulates in the blood, providing energy for body tissues.

Set point

The point at which the 'weight thermostat' may be set; when below this weight, increased hunger occurs.

Basal metabolic rate

The body’s resting rate of energy output.

Obesity

Defined as a BMI measurement of 30 or higher.

Emotion

A response involving physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience.

Polygraph

A machine used to detect lies by measuring emotion-linked changes.

Facial feedback effect

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings.

Behavior feedback effect

The tendency of behavior to influence thoughts, feelings, and actions.