4.4

Personality

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

Psychodynamic theories

Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences.

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions onto unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

Free association

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

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives, operating on the pleasure principle.

Ego

The partly conscious ‘executive’ part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality, operating on the reality principle.

Superego

The partly conscious part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations.

Preconscious

The part of the mind of which we are typically unaware but can become aware through focused thought.

Unconscious

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories, according to Freud.

Defense mechanisms

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

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.

Displacement

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

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.

Reaction formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

Regression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated.

Repression

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

Sublimation

Transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives.

Projective tests

A personality test that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics.

Thematic apperception tests

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

Rorschach test

A projective test that seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of 10 inkblots.

Humanistic psychology

A psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person and the uniqueness of each individual.

Unconditional positive regard

A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude toward others which helps develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Self-actualizing tendency

The process of fulfilling one’s true potential, viewed as a naturally occurring process.