Personality Vocab Terms

Psychodynamic & Humanistic Theories of Personality 

  1. Ego Defense Mechanisms: in Psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

  2. Denial: a defense mechanism that refuses to accept reality

  3. Displacement: when the ego distorts reality and takes an impulse/emotions and places it on another, safer object (you are angry at your father, you cannot act towards him, so you act out on your brother)

  4. Projection: when someone attributes his or her own feelings to another person or group (you want to cheat, you cannot accept this urge, so you say other people are cheating)

  5. Rationalization: when the urge/action is justified by logical/plausible but not accurate reasoning. (you eat compulsively bc of stress, but you say that you always gain weight in the winter time)

  6. Reaction Formation: when you take an urge and manifest its opposite (you want to act impulsively, cannot accept this urge, so you are overly prudish/reserved)

  7. Regression: when the urge/impulse cannot be accepted so a person acts like an earlier stage of development (an adult who cannot accept an impulse plays with dolls)

  8. Repression: the key to Freud’s theory; urges that cannot be accepted are pushed down into the unconscious

  9. Sublimation: the healthy channeling of unconscious energy (libido) into pro-social behaviors. For Freud, this was Love and Work

  10. Unconditional Regard: (also unconditional positive regard): Carl Roger’s theory, a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude that would help clients develop self-awareness and self-acceptance. a person should receive UR from loved ones in order to promote more congruent(healthy) behaviors. When a person does not receive UR they will often become more incongruent and therefore more mentally unhealthy.

  11. Self-Actualization: the top of the hierarchy of needs created by A. Maslow. A person should move from more basic needs to self-actualizing needs in order to manifest their true potential

 

Social-Cognitive & Trait Theories of Personality • 

  1. Reciprocal Determinism: the idea that an individual influences the environment and the environment influences the individual.

  2. Big Five Trait Theory: a trait theory that states personality is based on a continuum of 5 traits (CANOE: #56-60)

  3. Conscientiousness: reflects the tendency to be responsible, organized, hard-working, goal-directed, and to adhere to norms and rules

  4. Agreeableness: reflects traits such as compassion, kindness, and caring for other people 

  5. Neuroticism-Emotional Stability: refers to a personality dimension that measures an individual's emotional stability and tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, sadness, and irritability.

  6. Openness: refers to how open-minded you are to new ideas or experiences

  7. Extraversion: refers to traits of Energy, positive emotions, surgency, assertiveness, sociability and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others, and talkativeness. 

  8. Factor Analysis: a statistical method used to describe variability among observed variables in terms of fewer unobserved variables called factors 

    Motivation 

  1. Drive-Reduction Theory: the theory of motivation that indicates we have physiological needs that creates an aroused state (a drive) leading to behaviors emerge to satisfy that need 

  2. Arousal Theory: the idea that we have an optimal level of arousal in order to maximize performance, which is usually a moderate level of arousal

  3. Yerkes-Dodson Law: proposes that you reach your peak level of performance with an intermediate level of arousal. Too much arousal, we give up; not enough arousal, we don’t take it seriously. For easy tasks, we need high levels of arousal, but for hard tasks, too much arousal actuals decreases performance.

  4. Self-Determination Theory: suggests that all humans have three basic psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—that underlie growth and development.

  5. Intrinsic Motivation: motivation for performance comes from an internal source (eg. Personal pride)

  6. Extrinsic Motivation: motivation for performance comes from an external source (eg. – a paycheck)

  7. Instincts: Inborn, fixed patterns of behavior that present in response to certain stimuli and are often species-specific. Instinct theory: A theory, based on the work of Darwin, stating that people perform certain behaviors due to instincts developed through generations of evolution.

  8. Lewin’s Motivational Conflict Theory: individuals are motivated to resolve conflicts that can be categorized into three types: approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, and approach-avoidance.

  9. Approach-Approach conflict resolution: when the choices have good/positive aspects to their resolution (eg.- both desserts are appealing, what to choose?)

  10. Approach-Avoidance conflict resolution: when the choices have both good and bad aspects to them (more complex; pros and cons lists but this does not mean every pro/con carries with it the same qualitative value. IE.- one choice may have 1 pro that outweighs the other choice even though it may have several pro aspects. ) In addition, multiple approach-avoidance conflicts: when you have several choices with pros and cons as could be seen with college choices. 

  1. Avoidance-Avoidance: when the choices are both bad/dominated by negative outcomes (eg. The rock and the hard place)

  2. Sensation-Seeking Theory: the tendency to search out and engage in thrilling activities as a method of increasing stimulation and arousal. These are often highly stimulating, but dangerous, activities

  3. Eating: act of consuming food

  4. Hormones: chemical substances produced in your body that control and regulate the activity of certain cells or organs. Produced by the endocrine system

  5. External Factors: I will assume that this is about external cues associated with the motivational forces


Emotion

  1. Broaden-and-Build Theory of Emotion: posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires (a theorized mechanism by which happiness might support health behavior change), which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. (IE.- he more positive emotions a person experiences the more likely a person will seek behaviors that will promote more positive emotions)

  2. Universality of Emotions: assume that emotions are innate and universal, independently of human's acknowledgment of them, and that all humans have the capacity to experience and perceive the same core set of emotion categories (seen in #79-84) 

  3. Display Rules: norms for the expression of emotion that differ from culture to culture. 

  4. Elicitors: a facial emotional expression (e.g., a disgusted face) activates a response that is similar to responses to other emotional stimuli that causes the same emotional expression (e.g., a dirty, nonflushed toilet). (Ie.- think of it like priming for a memory🡪 except this is priming an emotion)