Personality

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

(1) Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. (2) Freud’s therapeutic technique. Freud believed the patient’s free associations, resistances, and dreams—and the analyst’s interpretations of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing 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

Free Association

In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how unimportant or embarrassing.

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive impulses. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Ego

The partly conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, balances 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 future goals.

Psychosexual Stages

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

Oedipus 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.

Fixation

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 consciousness the thoughts, feelings, and memories that arouse anxiety.

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited group of memories from our species’ history.

Projective Test

A personality test, such as the TAT or Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of the test-taker’s unconscious thoughts or feelings.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

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

Rorschach inkblot test

A projective test designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing how they interpret 10 inkblots.

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s five levels of human needs, beginning with physiological needs. Often visualized as a pyramid, with basic needs providing the foundation supporting higher-level needs.

Self-Actualization

According to Maslow, the psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill our potential.

Self-Transcendence

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

Unconditional Positive Regard

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

Self-Concept

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

Trait

A stable or characteristic pattern of behavior or a tendency to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.  

Factor

A cluster of behavior tendencies that occur together.  

Personality Inventory

A questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.

Self-Report

A method of recording participants’ descriptions of their personality traits, often using surveys, questionnaires, or tests.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

The most widely clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now in its second version (MMPI-2) and is used for many other screening purposes.  

Big Five Factors

Five factors that researchers have identified—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (emotional stability versus instability)—that describe personality. (Also called the five-factor model.)

Social-Cognitive Perspective

A view of behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons (and their thinking) and their social context.

Reciprocal Determinism

The interacting influences of behavior, cognition, and environment.

Self

In modern psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, organizing our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Spotlight Effect

Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us).

Self-Esteem

Our feelings of high or low self-worth.

Self-Efficacy

Our sense of competence and effectiveness.

Narcissism

Excessive self-love and self-absorption.

Self-Serving Bias

Our readiness to perceive ourselves favorably.

Individualism

A cultural value that emphasizes people’s individual goals over group goals and defines identity mainly in terms of unique personal traits.  

Collectivism

A cultural value that prioritizes the goals of our group (often extended family or work group) and defines our identity accordingly.