Final Exam Psychology (Chapters 13, 14, 15)

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: Personality attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts

Unconscious

Freud: Reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

Free association

Method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.

Id

Reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

Oral (0-18 month) stage

Pleasure centers on the mouth—sucking, biting, chewing

Anal (18-36 months) stage

Pleasure focusing on bowel and bladder elimination; copying with demands for control

Phallic (3-6 years) stage

Pleasure zone is the genitals; copying with incestuous sexual feelings

Latency (6 years - puberty) stage

Phase of dormant sexual feelings

Genital (puberty on) stage

Maturation of sexual interests

Ego

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

Superego

The part of personality that according to Freud, represents the internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement (conscience) and for future aspirations

Psychosexual stages

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

Oedipus complex

A boy’s sexual desire towards his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father

Identification

Process of children incorporating their parents’ views into their developing superegos.

Fixation

Lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unsolved

Defense mechanisms

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

Repression

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

Collective unconscious

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

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

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

Projective test

Personality test, providing ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics

Rorschach inkblot test

Seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

Humanistic theories

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

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs-base is with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before people can fulfill their higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs

Self-actualization

One of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential

Self-transcendence

The striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self

Unconditional positive regard

Caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude- Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance

Self-concept

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

Trait

characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by selfpreport inventories and peer reports

Personality inventory

Questionnaire where people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests-originally used to identify emotional disorders → now used for may other screening purposes

Empirically derived test

Test created by selecting from a pool of items those that discriminate between groups

Social-cognitive perspective

View of behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits and social contect

Reciprocal determinism

Interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and envionment

Self

assumed to be the enter of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions

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

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 ofpersonally attributes rather than group identification.

Collectivism

Giving priority to the goals of one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly

Psychological disorder

Syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior

Medical Model

Concept that diseases have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured, often through medical hospital treatment

Epigenetics

“above” or “in addition to” genetics; study of the molecular mechanisms by which environments can influence genetic expression

DSM-5

Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders ,fifth edition

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Psychological disorder marked by extreme inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity

Anxiety disorders

psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

Generalized anxiety disorder

Anxiety disorder where a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in state of autonomic nerve system arousal

Panic Disorder

Anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread where a person may experience terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations

Phobia

anxiety disorder marked by a persistent,irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsession), and thoughts (compulsions), or both

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, etc, numbness of feeling, ad for insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after the traumatic after four weeks or more after traumatic experience

Major depressive disorder

Disorder where a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or another medical condition, two or more weeks with five or more symptoms, at least one of which must be (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure

Bipolar disorder

Person alternates between hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania

Mania

Hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgement is common

Schizophrenia

Characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expressions

Psychotic disorders

Group of disorder marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality

Delusion

False belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders

Chronic schizophrenia

Form of schizophrenia where symptoms appear by late adolescence or early adulthood.

Acute schizophrenia

For of schizophrenia beginning at any age, frequently occuring in response to traumatic event, and from which recovery is much more likely

Dissociative disorders

controversial rare disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Rare dissociative disorder where person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating identities

Personality Disorders

inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning

Antisocial personality disorder

Person exhibits lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist

Anorexia nervosa

Eating disorder where person maintains a starvation diet despite being significantly underweight; sometimes accompanied by excessive exercise

Bulimia nervosa

Eating disorder where person binge eats and usually followed by inappropriate weight-loss promoting behavior, such as vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exersie

Binge-eating disorder

Significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without compensatory behavior marking bulimia nervosa

Psychotherapy

Treatment involving psychological techniques; consisting of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or archive personal growth

Biomedical therapy

Prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person’s physiology

Eclectic approach

Approach to psychotherapy using techniques from various forms of therepy

Psychoanalysis

Patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transference—and analyst’s interpretations of them—released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to Gail self-insight

Resistance

The blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material

Interpretation

The analyst’s nothing of supposed dream meaning, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight

Transference

The patient’s transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (Love or hated for a parent)

Psychodynamic therapy

Views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and seeks to enhance self-insight

Insight therapies

Therapies aiming to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses

Client-centered therapy

Humanistic therapy- using active listening within an accepting, genuine, empathic environment to facilitate their clients’ growth

Active Listening

Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies

Unconditional positive regard

A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude that is believed to help clients develop self-awareness and self-acceptance

Behavior therapy

Therapy applying learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors

Counterconditioning

Using classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; include exposure therapies and adversive conditioning

Exposure therapies

Behavioral techniques that treat anxieties by exposing people to the things they fear and avoid (systematic desensitization, virtual reality exposure therapy

Systematic desensitation

Type of exposure that associates a pleasant relaxing state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli, used commonly to treat phobias

Virtural reality exposure therapy

Treats anxiety through creative electronic simulations in which people can safely face their greater fears (airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking)

Adversive conditioning

Associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (drinking alcohol)

Token economy

Operant conditioning procedure where people earn a token for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange tokens for privileges or treats

Cognitive therapy

Therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

Popular integrative therapy combining cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)

Group therapy

Therapy that is conducted with a group instead of individuals-provides group interaction

Family therapy

Treats people in the context of their family system—views an individual’s unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members

Meta-analysis

A statistical procedure for analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion

Evidence-based practice

Clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences

Therapeutic alliance

Bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client’s problem

Psychopharmacology

The study of the effects of drugs on mild and behavior

antipsychotic drugs

drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder

Antianxiety drugs

Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation

Antidepressant drugs

Drugs used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttramatic stress disorder

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

Biomedical therapy for several depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient