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. |
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 |
Openness: A person's willingness to try new things, be imaginative, and have a broad range of interests.
Conscientiousness: A person's tendency to be organized, responsible, and disciplined.
Extraversion: A person's tendency to be outgoing, sociable, and assertive.
Agreeableness: A person's tendency to be cooperative, compassionate, and trusting.
Id: A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that seeks to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. Demands immediate gratification of desires.
Superego: The internalized part of personality that functions as our “conscience”. Focused on how we ought to behave.
Ego: The largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that mediates the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego seeks to satisfy the id’s impulses and the superego’s demands in realistic ways that will be beneficial in the long-run.
Congruence: Rogers believed that people are naturally good and that a person is born perfectly congruent between their real self and their ideal self