Personality Psychology Flashcards

Flashcards for Personality Psychology Exam Review

Personality

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

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud's theory of personality attributing thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts.

Unconscious

According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories we are unaware of.

Preconscious

Information that is not conscious, but is retrievable into conscious awareness.

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.

Superego

Part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and future aspirations.

Ego

The largely conscious part of your personality that mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality.

Psychosexual Stages

Childhood stages of development during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure seeking energies are focused on distinct erogenous zones.

Fixation

A lingering focus of pleasure seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage.

Oedipus Complex

Boys develop sexual desires towards their mothers and feelings of jealousy and hatred towards their father.

Identification

Process by which children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos.

Defense Mechanisms

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

Repression

the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety arousing impulses

Regression

Retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated.

Reaction Formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

Projection

Disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions.

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person.

Sublimation

Transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives.

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.

Alfred Adler

Emphasized the importance of SOCIAL tensions in childhood rather than sexual tensions to explain personality development.

Inferiority complex

Feeling of inferiority during childhood which causes individuals to overcompensate and either have significant achievements or develop antisocial tendencies.

Karen Horney

Brought a feminist perspective to psychoanalytic theory and sharply attacked the male bias she saw in Freud’s work.

Collective Unconscious

Idea that humans have a shared reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history.

Archetypes

inherited memories

Projective Tests

Test which presents ambiguous stimuli which is designed to get at one’s inner/unconscious dynamics when you interpret it.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Test where people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Most widely used projective test, looks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of blots.

Humanistic Perspective

View personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth

Self Actualization

Ultimate goal in hierarchy of needs after physical/psychological needs are met; motivation to fulfill one’ potential

Unconditional Positive Regard

Attitude of total acceptance towards another person; necessary for positive relationships.

Self-Concept

All thoughts and feelings about ourselves: “Who am I?”

Trait Perspective

Looks to DESCRIBE personality in terms of fundamental traits

Trait

Characteristic patterns of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

Factor Analysis

Identifying clusters of correlated test items

Personality Inventory

A questionnaire that is usually true/false in which 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 used personality test. Purpose was to identify emotional disorders but is also now used for employment screening purposes.

Conscientiousness

Measures self discipline, carefulness, need for achievement, and degree by which people think before acting.

Agreeableness

Measures how empathetic, considerate, friendly, and helpful people are.

Neuroticism

Measures people’s tendencies to experience negative emotional states like stress and anxiety.

Openness (to experience)

Measures factors of active imagination, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity within people.

Extraversion

Measures social interaction and how assertive people are.

Social Cognitive Perspective

Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (including thinking) and their social context.

Reciprocal Determinism

Interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.

Positive Psychology

Scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Spotlight Effect

Overestimating others noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, mistakes, etc.

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

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.

Internal Locus of Control

Idea that one controls their own destiny.

External Locus of Control

Idea that one’s fate is outside of their personal control and determined by luck.

Learned Helplessness

Hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.