AP Psychology Personality Vocab

Personality

an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Psychodynamic Perspective

how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

Brainpower

Ego

the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Defense Mechanisms

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Denial

refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

Displacement

psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet

Projection

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization

defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions

Reaction Formation

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings.

Regression

psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Sublimation

defense mechanism. channeling unacceptable urges into something more acceptable. Ex: want to beat up teacher but enroll in karate instead. this is the more mature form of reaction formation (which results in negative outcome)

Preconscious

in Freud's theory, the level of consciousness in which thoughts and feelings are not conscious but are readily retrieveable to consciousness

Unconscious

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

Humanistic Psychology

historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth

Unconditional Positive Regard

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance

Self-Actualizing Tendency

the human motive toward realizing our inner potential

Social-Cognitive Theory

referring to the use of cognitive processes in relation to understanding the social world

Reciprocal Determinism

the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

Self-Concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?"

Self-Efficacy

one's sense of competence and effectiveness

Self-Esteem

how much you value, respect, and feel confident about yourself

Trait Theories

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

Personality Inventories

a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.

Factor Analysis

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score.

The Big Five Theory

a trait theory that identifies five main characteristics that account for most individual differences in personality

Conscientiousness

the care a person gives to organization and thoughtfulness of others; dependability

Agreeableness

how trusting, good-natured, cooperative, and soft-hearted one is

Neuroticism

degree of emotional instability or stability

Openness to Experience

how intellectual, imaginative, curious, and broad-minded one is

Extraversion

A personality dimension describing someone who is sociable, gregarious, and assertive