PS101: Chapter 14 (Theories of Personality)

A distinctive and relatively stable pattern of behavior, thoughts, motives, and emotions that characterizes an individual

A characteristic of an individual, describing a habitual way of behaving, thinking or feeling.

Psychoanalysis; believed in unconscious motives, passions, guilty secrets, unspeakable yearnings, and conflicts between desire and duty.

A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy developed by Sigmund Freud; it emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts.

Theories that explain behavior and personality in terms of unconscious energy dynamics within the individual.

In psychoanalysis, the part of personality containing inherited psychic energy, particularly sexual and aggressive instincts; the reservoir of unconscious psychological energies and the motives to avoid pain and obtain pleasure.

In psychoanalysis, the psychic energy that fuels the life or sexual instincts of the id.

In psychoanalysis, the part of personality that represents reason, good sense, and rational self-control.

In psychoanalysis, the part of personality that represents conscience, morality, and social standards.

Methods used by the ego to prevent unconscious anxiety or threatening thoughts from entering consciousness.

When a threatening idea, memory or emotion is blocked from consciousness. A woman who had a frightening childhood experience that she cannot remember, for example, is said to be repressing her memory of it.

Occurs when a person's own unacceptable or threatening feelings are repressed and then attributed to someone else. A person who is embarrassed about having sexual feelings toward members of a different ethnic group, for example, may project this discomfort onto them, saying, "Those people are dirty-minded and oversexed."

Occurs when people direct emotions (especially anger) toward things, animals, or other people that are not the real object of their feelings. A boy who is forbidden to express anger toward his father, for example, may "take it out" on his toys or his younger sister.

When displacement serves a higher cultural or socially useful purpose, as in the creation of art or inventions.

Occurs when a person reverts to a previous phase of psychological development. An 8-year-old boy who is anxious about his parents' divorce may regress to earlier habits of thumb sucking or clinging.

When people refuse to admit that something unpleasant is happening, such as mistreatment by a partner; that they have a problem, such as drinking too much; or that they are feeling a forbidden emotion, such as anger.

A series of stages in which sexual energy takes different forms as the child matures. Each new stage produces a certain amount of frustration, conflict, and anxiety.

Occurs during the first year of life, when babies experience the world through their mouths. People can start smoking, overeating, nail biting, or chewing on pencils; some may become clinging and dependent, like a nursing child.

At ages 2 to 3, when toilet training and control of bodily wastes are the key issues. Some become obsessive about neatness and cleanliness, while others may be messy and disorganized.

Most crucial stage for the formation of personality; lasts roughly from age 3 to age 5 or 6, when the child unconsciously wishes to possess the parent of the other sex and to get rid of the parent of the same sex. For example, some children say they will marry their mother when they grow up.

Nonsexual stage before genital stage.

Begins at puberty and leads to adult sexuality.

When a child wants to possess the parent of the opposite sex and get rid of the parent of the same sex.

Argued that it was insulting and unscientific to claim that half the human race is dissatisfied with its anatomy. When women feel inferior to men, they said, we should look for explanations in the disadvantages that women live with and their second-class status.

Originally one of Freud's closest friends and a member of his inner circle. He said that in addition to the individual's own unconscious, all human beings share a vast collective unconscious, containing universal memories, symbols, images, and themes, which he called archetypes.

In Jungian theory, the universal memories and experiences of humankind, represented in the symbols, stories, and images (archetypes) that occur across all cultures.

Universal, symbolic images that appear in myths, art, stories, and dreams; to Jungians, they reflect the collective unconscious.

Archetype that reflects the prehistoric fear of wild animals and represents the bestial, evil side of human nature.

A psychodynamic approach that emphasizes the importance of the infant's first two years of life and the baby's formative relationships, especially with the mother.

A child's representations and perception of people, relating to the attachment a child may not only have with a parent, but of his perception of the parent.

If A came before B, then A must have caused B, but this isn't true.

Standardized questionnaires requiring written responses, typically to multiple-choice or true-false items. They provide information about literally hundreds of different aspects of personality, including needs, values, interests, self-esteem, emotional problems, and typical ways of responding to situations. They typically include scales on which people are asked to rate themselves.

One of the most influential psychologists in the empirical study of personality; he recognized that not all traits have equal weight and significance in people's lives, and that most of us have five to ten central traits that reflect a characteristic way of behaving, dealing with others, and reacting to new situations.

Five to ten main traits that reflect a characteristic way of behaving, dealing with others, and reacting to new situations.

More changeable aspects of personality, such as music preferences, habits, casual opinions, and the like.

Applied a statistical method called factor analysis.

A statistical method for analyzing the intercorrelations among various measures or test scores; clusters of measures or scores that are highly correlated are assumed to measure the same underlying trait or ability (factor).

Describes the extent to which people are outgoing or shy.

Describes the extent to which a person suffers from such traits as anxiety, the inability to control impulses, and a tendency to feel negative emotions such as anger, guilt, contempt, and resentment.

Describes the extent to which people are good-natured or irritable, cooperative or abrasive, secure or suspicious, and jealous.

Describes the degree to which people are responsible or undependable, persevering or quick to give up, steadfast or fickle, tidy or careless, self-disciplined or impulsive.

Describes the extent to which people are curious, imaginative, questioning, and creative or conforming, unimaginative, predictable, and uncomfortable with novelty.

Physiological dispositions to respond to the environment in certain ways; they are present in infancy and in many nonhuman species and are assumed to be innate.

A statistical estimate of the proportion of the total variance in some trait that is attributable to genetic differences among individuals within a group.

Argues that people do acquire central personality traits from their learning history and their resulting expectations and beliefs. A child who studies hard and gets good grades will expect that hard work in other situations will also pay off.

In social-cognitive theories, the two-way interaction between aspects of the environment and aspects of the individual in the shaping of personality traits.

Unique aspects of a person's environment and experience that are not shared with family members.

A program of shared rules that governs the behavior of members of a community or society and a set of values, beliefs, and attitudes shared by most members of that community.

Cultures in which the self is regarded as autonomous, and individual goals and wishes are prized above duty and relations with others.

Cultures in which the self is regarded as embedded in relationships, and harmony with one's group is prized above individual goals and wishes.

In which even small disputes and trivial insults put a man's reputation for toughness on the line, requiring him to respond with violence to restore his status.

A psychological approach that emphasizes personal growth, resilience, and the achievement of human potential.

One of the leaders of the humanist psychology movement; believed that the trouble with psychology was that it had ignored many of the positive aspects of life, such as joy, laughter, love, happiness, and peak experiences.

Rare moments of rapture caused by the attainment of excellence or the experience of beauty.

Striving for a life that is meaningful, challenging, and satisfying.

Interested in what he called the "fully functioning individual"; How you behave depends on your subjective reality, not on the external reality around you.

Harmony between the image they project to others and their true feelings and wishes.

To Carl Rogers, love or support given to another person with no conditions attached.

Shared with the humanists a belief in free will; but he also emphasized some of the inherently difficult and tragic aspects of the human condition, including loneliness, anxiety, and alienation.

A philosophical approach that emphasizes the inevitable dilemmas and the challenges of human existence.

The story that each of us develops over time to explain ourselves and make meaning of everything that has happened to us.