Chapter 14 - Personality Flashcards

1
Q

What is personality?

A

People’s typical ways of thinking, feeling and behaving

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2
Q

What is a trait?

A

Relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behaviour across many situations

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3
Q

What is a nomothetic approach?

A

A scientific approach that seeks out general principles in nature rather then principles specific to an individual

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4
Q

What is an idiographic approach?

A

A scientific approach that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person

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5
Q

What is the molecular genetic study

A

The investigation allows researchers to pinpoint genes associated with specific personality traits

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6
Q

What is psychic determinism?

A

The assumption that all psychological events have a cause

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7
Q

What is id

A

The reservoir of our most primitive impulses, including sex and aggression

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8
Q

What is the pleasure principle?

A

The tendency of the id to strive for immediate gratification

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9
Q

What is a superego?

A

Our sense of morality

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10
Q

What is an ego?

A

Psyche’s executive and principal decision maker

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11
Q

What is the reality principle?

A

The tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet

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12
Q

What are defence mechanisms?

A

Unconscious manoeuvres intended to minimize anxiety

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13
Q

What is repression?

A

Motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses

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14
Q

What is denial?

A

Motivated forgetting of distressing external experiences

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15
Q

What is reaction formation?

A

Transformation of an anxiety-provoking emotion into its opposite

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16
Q

What is projection?

A

Unconscious attribution of our negative characteristics to others

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17
Q

What is displacement?

A

Directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a safer and more socially acceptable target

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18
Q

What is rationalization?

A

Providing a reasonable-sounding explanation for unreasonable behaviours or for failures

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19
Q

What is sublimation?

A

Transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal

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20
Q

What is the erogenous zone?

A

Sexually arousing zone of the body

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21
Q

What is the oral stage?

A

Psychosexual stage that focuses on the mouth

22
Q

What is the anal stage?

A

The psychosexual stage that focuses on toilet training

23
Q

What is the phallic stage?

A

Psychosexual stage that focuses on the genitals

24
Q

What is the Oedipus complex?

A

Conflict during the phallic stage in which boys love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals

25
Q

What is the latency stage?

A

Psychosexual stage in which sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious

26
Q

What is the genital stage?

A

Psychosexual stage in which sexual impulses awaken and typically begin to mature into romantic attraction toward others

27
Q

What are neo-Freudian theories?

A

Theories derived from Freud’s model; but that placed less emphasis on sexuality as a driving force in personality and were more optimistic regarding the prospects for long-term personality growth

28
Q

What is style of life?

A

According to Adler, each person’s distinctive way of achieving superiority

29
Q

What is an inferiority complex?

A

Feelings of low self-esteem can lead to overcompensation for such feelings

30
Q

What is the collective unconscious?

A

Our shared storehouse of memories that ancestors have passed down to us across generations

31
Q

What are archetypes?

A

Cross-culturally universal symbols

32
Q

What are social learning theorists

A

Theorists who emphasize thinking as a cause of personality

33
Q

What is reciprocal determinism?

A

Tendency for people to mutually influence each others behaviour

34
Q

What is self-actualization?

A

Drive to develop our innate potential to the fullest possible extent

35
Q

What are conditions of worth?

A

Expectations we place on ourselves for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour

36
Q

What is peak experience?

A

Transcendent moment of intense excitement and tranquillity marked by a profound sense of connection to the world.

37
Q

What is factor analysis?

A

Statistical technique that analyzes the correlations among responses on personality inventories and other measures

38
Q

What are the big five?

A

Five traits that have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures

39
Q

What is the lexical approach?

A

Approach proposing that the most crucial features of personality are embedded in our language

40
Q

What is a structured personality test?

A

A paper-and-pencil test consisting of questions that respondents answer in one of a few fixed ways

41
Q

What is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)?

A

widely used structured personality test designed to assess symptoms of mental disorders

42
Q

What is the empirical method of test construction?

A

Approach to building tests in
which researchers begin with two or more criterion groups and examine which items best distinguish them

43
Q

What is face validity?

A

The extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring

44
Q

What is the rational/theoretic method of test construction?

A

Approach to building tests that requires test developers to begin with a clear-cut conceptualization of a trait and then write items to access that conceptualization

45
Q

What are projective tests?

A

Test consisting of ambiguous stimuli that examinees musty interpret or make sense of

46
Q

What is a projective hypothesis?

A

Hypothesis that in the process of interpreting ambiguous stimuli, examinees project aspects of their personality onto the stimulus

47
Q

What is Rorschach Inkblot test?

A

A projective test consisting of ten symmetrical inkblots

48
Q

What is a thematic apperception test (TAT)?

A

Projective test requiring examinees to tell a story in response to ambiguous pictures

49
Q

What is Graphology?

A

Psychological interpretation of handwriting?

50
Q

What is the P.T. Barnum effect?

A

Tendency of people to accept high base rate descriptions as accurate