Personality Psychology

A set of flashcards to review key concepts and definitions related to personality psychology.

Personality

The long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways.

Temperament

Innate characteristics that shape an individual's personality; categorized into easy, difficult, or slow to warm up.

Choleric

A temperament associated with passionate, ambitious, and bold characteristics; corresponds to yellow bile from the liver.

Melancholic

A temperament characterized by reserved, anxious, and unhappy traits; corresponds to black bile from the kidneys.

Sanguine

A temperament associated with joyful, eager, and optimistic characteristics; corresponds to red blood from the heart.

Phlegmatic

A temperament characterized by calm, reliable, and thoughtful traits; corresponds to white phlegm from the lungs.

Phrenology

The discredited theory that personality traits can be determined by the shape and bumps on the skull.

Id

The part of the personality that contains primitive urges and operates on the 'pleasure principle', seeking immediate gratification.

Superego

The part of the personality that develops through social interactions and acts as a moral compass, striving for perfection.

Ego

The rational part of personality that attempts to mediate between the desires of the id and the constraints of the superego.

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious protective behaviors used by the ego to reduce anxiety and restore balance between the id and superego.

Oedipus Complex

Freud's theory that boys experience desire for their mothers and hostility toward their fathers during the phallic stage.

Electra Complex

A counterpart to the Oedipus complex in girls, where they feel desire for their fathers and rivalry with their mothers.

Locus of Control

A belief about the extent to which outcomes in one's life are controlled by internal or external factors.

Reciprocal Determinism

Bandura's theory that behavior, cognitive processes, and environmental factors all influence each other.

Self-Efficacy

An individual's belief in their own abilities to succeed in specific situations or accomplish tasks.

Congruence

The alignment between one's ideal self and real self, contributing to self-worth and mental health.

Big Five Personality Traits

A model outlining five key traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Humanistic Approach

A perspective focusing on healthy personality development and self-actualization, emphasizing subjective experiences.

Projective Tests

Assessment tools that evaluate unconscious processes by asking individuals to interpret ambiguous stimuli.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

A projective test where individuals create stories about ambiguous pictures to reveal their thoughts and feelings.