Module 55-58: Personality and the Unconscious

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Freudian psychosexual stages, defense mechanisms, psychodynamic views, humanistic theories, and trait theories including the Big Five.

Free association

A method of exploring the unconscious in psychoanalysis in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind.

Psychoanalysis

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

Unconscious

A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories; in modern psychology, it refers to information processing of which we are unaware.

Id

A reservoir that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives; pleasure principle; immediate gratification.

Ego

The largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id; it operates on the reality principle.

Superego

The part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment; it operates on the ideal and how we ought to behave.

Psychosexual stages

The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.

Oral stage

$0-18$ months; focus of pleasure is on the mouth – sucking, biting, and chewing.

Anal stage

$18-36$ months; pleasure focuses on bowel or bladder eliminations and coping with demands for control.

Phallic stage

$3-6$ years; pleasure zone is the genitals; involves incestuous sexual feelings.

Latency stage

$6$ to puberty; a phase of dormant sexual feelings.

Genital stage

Puberty onwards; the maturation of sexual interests.

Oedipus complex

A boy's sexual desire toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

Identification

The process by which children incorporate their parents' values into their developing superegos.

Fixation

A lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage in which conflicts were unresolved.

Defense mechanisms

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

Repression

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

Projection

A defense mechanism involving pushing your own feelings onto someone else.

Psychodynamic theories

Modern-day approaches that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences.

Collective unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history.

Projective tests

Personality tests that provide ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

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

Rorschach inkblot test

A set of $10$ inkblots that seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretation of the blots.

False consensus effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

Terror management theory

A theory of death-related anxiety that explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death.

Humanistic theories

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

Self-actualization

One of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met; the motivation to fulfill one's potential.

Unconditional positive regard

According to Carl Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person.

Self-concept

All the thoughts and feelings we have about ourselves in response to the question, "Who am I?"

Trait

A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act.

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure used to identify clusters of test items that tap basic components of intelligence or personality.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

The most widely researched and empirically derived personality test, used to assess selected personality characteristics.

Big Five Factors

A set of five reliable personality dimensions: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness, and Extraversion (CANOE or OCEAN).