Personality	an individual's unique and relatively consistent pattern of behaviors, feelings, thoughts and motives
Personality Psychology	the scientific study of personality and its development, structure, traits, processes, variations, and disordered forms (personality disorders).
Psychoanalysis	Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts
Ego Defense Mechanisms	the ego reduces or redirects such anxiety through defense mechanisms, which are tactics that unconsciously distort 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	blocking impulses or memories from consciousness
Sublimation	transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives
The Preconscious Mind	can be retrieved into conscious awareness using psychoanalytic treatment techniques
The Unconscious Mind	According to Freud, the part of our mind that contains our unacceptable passions and thoughts that we repress (forcibly block) from our consciousness because they would be too unsettling to acknowledge
Psychodynamic Theory	Psychodynamic theories of personality view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind.
Projective Tests	a personality test that asks test-takers to describe an ambiguous image or tell a story about it.
Rorschach Test	The most widely used projective test, comprised of a standardized set of 10 inkblots. During the test, participants are shown the inkblots and asked describe what they see.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)	Projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Humanistic Psychology	view personality with a focus on our inherent potential for healthy personal growth, emphasizing our free will and our positive qualities
Unconditional Positive Regard	a caring attitude in which one conveys acceptance of a person in their current state (their “real self”) without judgment
Self Actualizing Tendency	the ongoing process of realizing one’s inherent potentials and capabilities
Trait	a characteristic pattern of behavior, thoughts and emotions
Factor Analysis	a statistical procedure used heavily by trait theorists that examines a correlated cluster of test items (each of which probes a specific behavior) in order to determine if the cluster reflects a more basic factor (a trait)
Big Five Theory	The most widely accepted trait theory, outlining 5 factors/traits that make up personality.
Personality Inventory	Typically, these are longer self-report questionnaires that consist of many close-ended statements that the test-taker responds to with yes/no, true/false, or agree/disagree (sometimes agree/disagree is on a Likert scale)
Neuroticism	relates to a person’s emotional stability. A person who is highly neurotic is anxious, depressed, and easily stressed.
Social Cognitive Theory	Social-cognitive theorists focus on how we interact with our environment. They propose that a combination of observational learning (“social”) and mental processes (“cognitive”) leads to the consistent patterns of behavior called personality.
Reciprocal Determinism	Three elements – a person’s behavior (actions and decisions), environment (external stimuli and influences), and internal personal factors (cognitive and biological processes, emotions, and competencies) – interact with one another to determine behavior and personality.
Self-concept	the way one views oneself and in relation to others
Self-efficacy	the degree to which a person thinks (cognition) their efforts (behavior) will result in a desired outcome
Self-esteem	one’s overall sense of self-worth or personal value
Motivation	the force directing a person to behave a certain way
Instincts	an innate (unlearned) and consistent pattern of complex behavior that is performed the same way by every member of the species.
Homeostasis	the tendency to maintain a balanced internal state
Drive-Reduction theory of motivation	When a physiological need increases, so does our psychological drive to reduce it
Arousal theory of motivation	Theory that people and other animals are motivated to maintain optimal levels of arousal.
Yerkes-Dodson Law	Principle stating that moderate levels of arousal lead to optimal performance.
Sensation Seeking Theory	Motivational theory based on the trait of sensation seeking. ndividuals high in the sensation-seeking trait are drawn to new, unusual, and thrilling experiences, often demonstrating a high tolerance for risk.
Self-Determination Theory	Theory of motivation that proposes that people are motivated by intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations
Intrinsic Motivation	Refers to doing an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some outside reward.
Extrinsic Motivation	Involves performing an activity to achieve an external reward or avoid threatened punishments.
Incentive Theory of motivation	Theory of motivation based on behaviorism that emphasizes how external stimuli motivate behavior, including extrinsic motivators.
Motivational Conflicts Theory	Theory that describes the dynamics of human decision making in the face of conflicting motivations. Identifies Approach-Approach Conflict, Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict and Approach-Avoidance Conflict.
Affiliation	the need to build relationships and to feel part of a group
Ostracism	deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups
Emotion	a complex experience that begins with a stimulus (external factor) and includes physiological responses, subjective emotional feelings and emotional expressions
Facial Feedback Hypothesis	Theory of emotion stating that specific facial expressions affect our emotions. For example, some research shows that we may feel happier when smiling, angrier when scowling, and sadder when frowning.
Broaden and Build Theory of Emotion	Theory of emotion that argues that everyday positive emotions broaden awareness and encourage novel, varied, and exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, this broadened approach helps build skills and resilience that boost well-being.
Universal Emotions	Theorized by Paul Ekman that facial expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, contempt, and surprise are present in every culture.
Display Rules	Expected or “appropriate” ways of expressing emotions that vary according culture, group memberships, and personal social identity

Unit 4 part 1