Chapter 12

Personality inventory

paper-and-pencil or computerized test that consists of statements that require a specific, standardized response from the person taking the test.

Fixation

disorder in which the person does not fully resolve the conflict in a particular psychosexual stage, resulting in personality traits and behavior associated with that earlier stage.

Surface traits

aspects of personality that can easily be seen by other people in the outward actions of a person.

Basic anxiety

anxiety created when a child is born into the bigger and more powerful world of older children and adults.

Direct observation

assessment in which the professional observes the client engaged in ordinary, day-to-day behavior in either a clinical or natural setting.

Subjective

referring to concepts and impressions that are only valid within a particular person’s perception and may be influenced by biases, prejudice, and personal experiences.

Temperament

the behavioral characteristics that are fairly well established at birth, such as “easy,” “difficult,” and “slow to warm up”; the enduring characteristics with which each person is born.

Source traits

the more basic traits that underlie the surface traits, forming the core of personality.

Trait–situation interaction

the assumption that the particular circumstances of any given situation will influence the way in which a trait is expressed.

Thematic Apperception Test

(TAT) projective test that uses 20 pictures of people in ambiguous situations as the visual stimuli.

Humanistic perspective

the “third force” in psychology that focuses on those aspects of personality that make people uniquely human, such as subjective feelings and freedom of choice.

Self-actualizing tendency

the striving to fulfill one’s innate capacities and capabilities.

Trait

a consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving.

Self

an individual’s awareness of his or her own personal characteristics and level of functioning.

Psychoanalysis

an insight therapy based on the theory of Freud, emphasizing the revealing of unconscious conflicts; Freud’s term for both the theory of personality and the therapy based on it.

Unconscious mind

level of the mind in which thoughts, feelings, memories, and other information are kept that are not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness.

Phallic stage

the third stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring from about 3 to 6 years of age, in which the child discovers sexual feelings.

Rorschach inkblot test

projective test that uses 10 inkblots as the ambiguous stimuli.

Archetypes

Jung’s collective, universal human memories.

Conditional positive regard

positive regard that is given only when the person is doing what the providers of positive regard wish.

Self-efficacy

individual’s expectancy of how effective his or her efforts to accomplish a goal will be in any particular circumstance.

Anal stage

the second stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring from about 18-36 months of age, in which the anus is the erogenous zone and toilet training is the source of conflict.

Reciprocal determinism

Bandura’s explanation of how the factors of environment, personal characteristics, and behavior can interact to determine future behavior.

Halo effect

tendency of an interviewer to allow positive characteristics of a client to influence the assessments of the client’s behavior and statements.

Behavioral genetics

field of study devoted to discovering the genetic bases for personality characteristics.

Trait theories

theories that endeavor to describe the characteristics that make up human personality in an effort to predict future behavior.

Psychological defense mechanisms

unconscious distortions of a person’s perception of reality that reduce stress and anxiety.

Reality principle

principle by which the ego functions; the satisfaction of the demands of the id only when negative consequences will not result.

Psychosexual stages

five stages of personality development proposed by Freud and tied to the sexual development of the child.

Five-factor model

(Big Five) model of personality traits that describes five basic trait dimensions.

Id

part of the personality present at birth and completely unconscious.

Personality

the unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel, and behave.

Conscience

part of the superego that produces guilt, depending on how acceptable behavior is.

Superego

part of the personality that acts as a moral center.

Oral stage

the first stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring in the first 18 months of life, in which the mouth is the erogenous zone and weaning is the primary conflict.

Social cognitive learning theorists

theorists who emphasize the importance of both the influences of other people’s behavior and of a person’s own expectancies on learning.

Neurotic personalities

personalities typified by maladaptive ways of dealing with relationships in Horney’s theory.

Neo-Freudians

followers of Freud who developed their own competing psychodynamic theories.

Interview

method of personality assessment in which the professional asks questions of the client and allows the client to answer in either a structured or unstructured fashion.

Collective unconscious

Jung’s name for the memories shared by all members of the human species.

Fully functioning person

a person who is in touch with and trusting of the deepest, innermost urges and feelings.

Ego

part of the personality that develops out of a need to deal with reality; mostly conscious, rational, and logical.

Latency

the fourth stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring during the school years, in which the sexual feelings of the child are repressed while the child develops in other ways.

Locus of control

the tendency for people to assume that they either have control or do not have control over events and consequences in their lives.

Self-concept

the image of oneself that develops from interactions with important significant people in one’s life.

Introverts

people who prefer solitude and dislike being the center of attention.

Unconditional positive regard

positive regard that is given without conditions or strings attached; in person-centered therapy, referring to the warm, respectful, and accepting atmosphere created by the therapist for the client.

Extraverts

people who are outgoing and sociable.

Introversion

dimension of personality in which people tend to withdraw from excessive stimulation.

Pleasure principle

principle by which the id functions; the desire for the immediate satisfaction of needs without regard for the consequences.

Genital stage

the final stage in Freud’s psychosexual stages; from puberty on, sexual urges are allowed back into consciousness and the individual moves toward adult social and sexual behavior.

Social cognitive view

learning theory that includes cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging, memory, and imitation of models.

Habits

in behaviorism, sets of well-learned responses that have become automatic.

Electra complex

situation occurring in the phallic stage in which a child develops a sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent and jealousy of the same-sex parent. Males develop an Oedipus complex, whereas females develop an Electra complex.

Projective tests

personality assessments that present ambiguous visual stimuli to the client and ask the client to respond with whatever comes to mind.

Oedipus complex

situation occurring in the phallic stage in which a child develops a sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent and jealousy of the same-sex parent. Males develop an Oedipus complex, whereas females develop an Electra complex.

Personal unconscious

Jung’s name for the unconscious mind as described by Freud.

Character

value judgments of a person’s moral and ethical behavior.

Expectancy

a person’s subjective feeling that a particular behavior will lead to a reinforcing consequence.

Rating scale

assessment in which a numerical value is assigned to specific behavior that is listed in the scale.

Frequency count

assessment in which the frequency of a particular behavior is counted.

Positive regard

warmth, affection, love, and respect that come from significant others in one’s life.