4b Personality, Motivation, and Emotion Vocabulary Definitions

Unit 4b: Personality, Motivation, and Emotion Vocabulary Definitions

Topic 4.4: Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theories of Personality

• Personality
  An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Psychodynamic Theories

• Psychoanalytic Theory

  • Developed by Freud.
  • Attributes thoughts/actions to unconscious motives and conflicts.
  • Involves techniques for treating psychological disorders by interpreting unconscious tensions.

• Key Concepts:

  • Free Association
  • A method to explore the unconscious by allowing individuals to say whatever comes to mind.
  • Id
  • Reservoir of unconscious psychic energy striving for immediate gratification of sexual and aggressive drives (pleasure principle).
  • Ego
  • Partly conscious executive of personality mediating between id, superego, and reality (reality principle).
  • Superego
  • Represents internalized ideals, providing standards for judgment and aspirations.

Levels of Consciousness

• Preconscious
  • Part of the mind typically unaware but accessible through thought.
• Unconscious
  • Reservoir of unacceptable thoughts/memories; processing we are unaware of.

Defense Mechanisms

• Strategies to reduce anxiety by distorting reality:

  • Denial
  • Refusing to believe painful realities.
  • Displacement
  • Redirecting impulses toward more acceptable targets.
  • Projection
  • Attributing one's threatening impulses to others.
  • Rationalization
  • Self-justifying explanations for actions.
  • Reaction Formation
  • Turning unacceptable impulses into their opposites.
  • Regression
  • Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage.
  • Repression
  • Banning from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts/memories.
  • Sublimation
  • Transferring unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives.

• Projective Tests

  • Tests that provide ambiguous stimuli to trigger projection of inner dynamics.
  • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
  • Participants create stories about ambiguous scenes.
  • Rorschach Test
  • Analyzes responses to inkblots to identify inner feelings.

Humanistic Psychology

• Focuses on the whole person and individual uniqueness, emphasizing potential and growth.
• Key Concepts:
  • Unconditional Positive Regard
  • Nonjudgmental acceptance that encourages self-awareness.
  • Self-Actualizing Tendency
  • Innate drive to fulfill one’s true potential after basic needs are met.

Topic 4.5: Social-Cognitive and Trait Theories of Personality

• Social-Cognitive Theory
  • Behavior influenced by interaction between traits and social context.
• Reciprocal Determinism
  • Interaction of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.
• Self-Concept
  • Our perceptions and feelings about ourselves.
• Self-Efficacy
  • Belief in our competence and effectiveness.
• Self-Esteem
  • Feelings of self-worth.
• Traits
  • Characteristic behavior patterns or dispositions.

The Big Five Personality Traits

1. Openness - Imaginative, independent, preferring variety.
2. Conscientiousness - Organized, careful, disciplined.
3. Extraversion - Sociable, fun-loving, affectionate.
4. Agreeableness - Soft-hearted, trusting, helpful.
5. Emotional Stability - Calm, secure, self-satisfied.

• Personality Inventories
  • Questionnaires assessing various feelings/behaviors (e.g., true-false items).
• Factor Analysis
  • Statistical method identifying clusters of related traits.

Topic 4.6: Motivation

• Motivation
  • Needs or desires that energize/direct behavior.
• Homeostasis
  • Tendency to maintain a balanced internal state.
• Drive-Reduction Theory
  • Physiological needs create arousal that motivates behavior.
• Arousal Theory
  • Motivation to maintain optimal arousal levels for performance.

Key Theories

• Optimal Level of Arousal
  • Varies for peak performance.
• Yerkes-Dodson Law
  • Performance increases with arousal only to a point, after which it declines.
• Self-Determination Theory
  • Motivation driven by needs for competence, autonomy, relatedness.
• Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation
  • Intrinsic: Engaging for satisfaction; Extrinsic: Engaging for rewards or to avoid punishment.
• Incentives
  • Environmental stimuli that motivate behavior.
• Learned Helplessness
  • Decreased motivation learned from avoidance of aversive stimuli.

Motivational Conflicts

• Approach-Approach Conflict
  • Choosing between two attractive options.
• Approach-Avoidance Conflict
  • Choosing a single option with both positive and negative aspects.
• Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
  • Choosing between two unattractive options.

Related Biological Concepts

• Hormones
  • Chemical messengers regulating body processes.
• Leptin
  • Hormone signaling satiety.
• Ghrelin
  • Hormone signaling hunger.
• Hypothalamus
  • Brain region managing hunger control.
• Pituitary Gland
  • Master gland communicating with the endocrine system.

Topic 4.7: Emotion

• Emotion
  • Whole organism response involving:
  1. Physiological arousal
  2. Expressive behaviors
  3. Conscious experience

Theories and Effects

• Facial Feedback Hypothesis
  • Facial expressions can trigger corresponding emotions.
• Behavioral Feedback Effect
  • Behavior can influence thoughts/feelings/actions.
• Polygraph
  • Measures emotion-linked changes (perspiration, heart rate, breathing).
• Broaden-and-Build Theory
  • Positive emotions expand awareness and build capabilities over time.

Universal Emotions

• Common emotional expressions across cultures:

  • Anger
  • Eyebrows together, eyes fixed, square mouth.
  • Happiness
  • Smiling mouth, lifted cheeks, twinkling eyes.
  • Disgust
  • Wrinkled nose, raised upper lip, pushed tongue.
  • Fear
  • Level eyebrows, drawn in, reclined mouth corners.
  • Sadness
  • Raised inner eyebrows, downturned mouth corners.
  • Surprise
  • Raised eyebrows, widened eyes, rounded mouth.

• Display Rules

  • Culturally determined norms for emotional expression.