PSYCH 101 Chapter 10 PERSONALITY

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering personality definitions, theoretical perspectives, the Big Five traits, psychosexual stages, defense mechanisms, biological systems, and assessment methods from Chapter 10.

Personality

A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world.

Psychodynamic Perspective

An approach proposing that personality is formed primarily by unconscious factors and inner forces.

Horney's Perspective

A psychodynamic approach developed by Karen Horney that incorporated psychosocial ideas into the understanding of personality development.

Jung's Perspective

A psychodynamic theory proposing that personality is shaped by the collective unconscious, conceptualized as a shared mind.

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of an inherited, shared mind containing universal memories and ideas common across human beings.

Adler's Perspective

A psychodynamic theory proposing that individuals are driven by purpose and goals rather than unconscious sexual impulses.

Humanistic Perspective

An approach to personality that emphasizes personal growth, human potential, and the pursuit of happiness.

Maslow's Perspective

A humanistic framework proposing that personality development is driven by progression through a hierarchy of needs.

Rogers' Perspective

A humanistic theory asserting that individuals are born with the innate "ingredients" required for personal growth and happiness.

Trait Approach

A perspective in personality psychology that focuses on identifying, measuring, and describing enduring underlying traits.

Five Factor Model

A trait model proposing that personality is best understood through five broad domains: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Life Story Approach

An approach to personality that focuses on an individual's unique life history and personal narrative.

Biological Perspective

An approach that explains personality characteristics and individual differences through underlying biological and physiological differences.

Traits

Relatively stable dispositions to behave in a particular and consistent way across situations.

Gordon Allport

A personality psychologist who believed that traits are preexisting dispositions that reliably trigger or cause behavior.

Core Traits

The basic set of fundamental traits that defines how humans differ from one another.

Trait Hierarchy

The organization of language-based descriptive trait adjectives arranged hierarchically from broad dimensions down to specific behaviors.

Big Five Domains

The five overarching personality traits: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Openness to Experience

A Big Five domain encompassing imagination, feelings, actions, and ideas.

Conscientiousness

A Big Five domain encompassing competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, and goal-driven behavior.

Extraversion

A Big Five domain encompassing sociability, assertiveness, and emotional expression.

Agreeableness

A Big Five domain encompassing cooperative, trustworthy, and good-natured behavior.

Neuroticism

A Big Five domain characterized by a tendency toward unstable emotions.

Lower-Order Facets

The six narrower sub-traits nested beneath each of the broad Big Five personality domains.

Facets of Neuroticism

The six specific lower-order facets comprising neuroticism: anxiousness, angry hostility, depressiveness, self-consciousness, impulsivity, and vulnerability.

Low Openness Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being practical, conventional, and preferring routine.

High Openness Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being curious, having a wide range of interests, and being independent.

Low Conscientiousness Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being impulsive, careless, and disorganized.

High Conscientiousness Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being hardworking, dependable, and organized.

Low Extraversion Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being quiet, reserved, and withdrawn.

High Extraversion Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being outgoing, warm, and seeking adventure.

Low Agreeableness Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being critical, uncooperative, and suspicious.

High Agreeableness Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being helpful, trusting, and empathetic.

Low Neuroticism Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being calm, even-tempered, and secure.

High Neuroticism Profile

A personality score profile characterized by being anxious, unhappy, and prone to negative emotions.

Projective Techniques

A standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of an individual's personality.

Subjective Interpretation

A primary vulnerability of projective tests wherein results and scoring depend on the subjective clinical judgment of the examiner.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A projective technique in which an individual's inner personality and motives are inferred from their interpretations of unstructured inkblots.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

A projective test in which an individual tells stories about ambiguous pictures of people and scenes, revealing underlying motives and conflicts.

Moratorium on the Rorschach Inkblot Test

A formal 1999 call urging a cessation of the use of the Rorschach Inkblot Test in clinical and forensic settings due to a lack of empirical research evidence.

Howard N. Garb

The researcher from the Pittsburgh V.A. Health Care System and University of Pittsburgh who authored the 1999 paper calling for a moratorium on the Rorschach Inkblot Test.

Incremental Validity

The degree to which a test provides new, meaningful diagnostic or predictive information above and beyond existing measures.

Selective Reporting

A methodological issue in assessment research where investigators report significant results while failing to report nonsignificant results.

Barnum Effect

A type of cognitive bias that involves a tendency to believe that vague, general personality descriptions apply specifically and uniquely to oneself.

Barnum Statements

Vague and general statements that people tend to believe apply uniquely and specifically to themselves.

Positivity Ratio (Barnum Effect)

A factor influencing the Barnum effect where a higher proportion of positive descriptions increases the likelihood that a person will accept them as accurate.

Perceived Authority Factor (Barnum Effect)

A factor that elevates susceptibility to the Barnum effect when the source of the description is viewed as possessing high trust, credibility, or authority.

Statement Vagueness Factor (Barnum Effect)

The condition requiring statements to be broad enough to allow individuals to project their own personal meaning onto the descriptions.

Personality Traits Prone to Barnum Effect

Specific personality characteristics that increase the likelihood of accepting Barnum statements, identified as being anxious and agreeable.

Conscious Mind

In Freud's iceberg model, the tip above the water representing mental contents, thoughts, and feelings of which an individual is actively aware.

Unconscious Mind

In Freud's iceberg model, the large submerged region containing hidden drives, impulses, and memories outside of conscious awareness.

Id

The structural component of personality present at birth containing bodily needs, wants, desires, and sexual and aggressive impulses.

Pleasure Principle

The operating principle of the id that demands immediate gratification of all impulses, desires, and bodily needs.

Ego

The structural component of personality developed through the civilized world that helps manage day-to-day life tasks.

Reality Principle

The operating principle of the ego that mediates between the demands of the id and the practical constraints of the external world.

Superego

The structural component of personality representing the internalization of cultural rules, learned primarily as parents exercise authority.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Distinct, early life stages during which personality is formed as children resolve conflicts centered on pleasure-seeking drives.

Fixation

A developmental stall occurring when deprivation or overindulgence leaves a person's pleasure-seeking drives psychologically stuck at a particular psychosexual stage.

Oral Stage

Freud's first psychosexual stage (0 to 18 months), where experience centers on the pleasures and frustrations of the mouth, sucking, being fed, and exploring the environment.

Anal Stage

Freud's second psychosexual stage (2 to 3 years), where experience centers on the pleasures and frustrations of the retention and expulsion of feces and urine, toilet training, and developing self-regulation.

Phallic Stage

Freud's third psychosexual stage (3 to 5 years), where experience centers on the phallic/genital region and coping with incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealousy, and conflict.

Latency Stage

Freud's fourth psychosexual stage (6 to 13 years), where the primary focus shifts to the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal, and athletic skills.

Genital Stage

Freud's final psychosexual stage (adulthood), where the mature adult personality integrates the capacity to work, love, and relate reciprocally to others.

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious coping mechanisms employed by the ego to reduce internal conflict and anxiety.

Rationalization

A defense mechanism involving supplying a reasonable-sounding explanation to conceal one's true underlying motives or feelings.

Projection

A defense mechanism that involves attributing one's own threatening feelings, motives, or impulses to another person or group.

Regression

A defense mechanism involving dealing with internal conflict and perceived threat by reverting to an immature behavior or an earlier stage of development.

Displacement

A defense mechanism that involves shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative.

Identification

A defense mechanism in which an individual unconsciously takes on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or able to cope.

Sublimation

A defense mechanism that involves channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities.

Critique of Sexual Primacy

A critique of psychodynamic theory asserting that sexual forces may not be as primary to personality as Freud originally proposed.

Critique of Childhood Determinism

A critique of psychodynamic theory highlighting that later life experiences are also important in shaping personality rather than early childhood alone.

Critique of Unconscious Dominance

A critique of psychodynamic theory stating that conscious reasoning skills and deliberate thinking are more important than unconscious factors.

Critique of Societal Neglect

A critique pointing out that psychodynamic theory underemphasized the substantial influence of societal and cultural factors on personality.

Genetic Overlap in Personality

The biological principle that shared genes account for personality similarities, where greater similarity in personality correlates with greater overlap in genes.

Phineas Gage

A historical case demonstrating that frontal lobe damage caused an individual to act socially inappropriately and less conscientiously.

Neurological Personality Change

Shifts in personality traits that occur as a direct result of organic brain conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, stroke, or brain tumors.

Antidepressant Effects on Personality

Pharmacological shifts in personality resulting from altered brain chemistry, such as medications making individuals more extraverted and less neurotic.

Eysenck's Arousal Regulation Theory

A biological theory proposing that extraversion and introversion are governed by baseline arousal levels within the Reticular Activation System (RAS).

Reticular Activation System (RAS)

The brainstem network regulating physiological arousal and alertness, serving as the biological foundation for Eysenck's arousal regulation theory.

Introversion (Arousal Dynamics)

According to Eysenck, an arousal state where baseline arousal is above the optimal level, leading individuals to keep distractions to a minimum, be alone, and read quietly.

Extraversion (Arousal Dynamics)

According to Eysenck, an arousal state where baseline arousal is below the optimal level, leading individuals to seek distractions, spend time with friends, and listen to loud music.

Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

A biological personality theory proposing that personality is governed by two motivational systems in the brain: the Behavioral Activation System and the Behavioral Inhibition System.

Behavioral Activation System (BAS)

A brain system sensitive to environmental rewards that promotes behavior seeking positive consequences, associated with positive emotion and extraversion.

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

A brain system sensitive to environmental punishment that promotes behavior avoiding negative consequences, associated with negative emotion and neuroticism.

Self-Report Personality Assessment

A personality assessment method in which an individual provides a series of answers to a standardized questionnaire.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

A widely used clinical self-report questionnaire designed to assess personality traits and psychological disorders.

NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)

A standardized self-report personality assessment designed to measure the Big Five factors of personality and their lower-order facets.