Chapter 12- Personality

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

an individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking and feeling

Question 2

self-report

Answer 2

series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements or adjectives accurately describe their own behavior or mental state

Question 3

Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI-2)

Answer 3

a well researched, clinical questionnaire used to asses personality and psychological problems

Question 4

projective techniques

Answer 4

standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of an individual’s personality

Question 5

Rorschach inkblot test

Answer 5

a projective personality test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent’s inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure

Question 6

thematic apperception test (TAT)

Answer 6

projective personality test in which respondents reveal underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the social world through the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people

Question 7

trait

Answer 7

relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way

Question 8

big five

Answer 8

traits of the five-factor model: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion

Question 9

psychodynamic approach

Answer 9

approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires, largely operating outside of awareness - motives that can also produce emotional disorders

Question 10

dynamic unconscious

Answer 10

active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person’s deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggle to control these forces.

Question 11

ID

Answer 11

part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives

Question 12

ego

Answer 12

component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life’s practical demands

Question 13

superego

Answer 13

mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority

Question 14

defense mechanism

Answer 14

unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses

Question 15

rationalization

Answer 15

defense mechanism that involves supplying a reasonable sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal (mostly from oneself) ones underlying motives or feelings

Question 16

reaction formation

Answer 16

defense mechanism that involves unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of their opposite

Question 17

projection

Answer 17

defense mechanism that involves attributing one’s own threatening feelings, motives or impulses to another person or group

Question 18

regression

Answer 18

defense mechanism in which the ego deals with internal conflict and perceived threat by reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development

Question 19

displacement

Answer 19

defense mechanism that involves shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less-threatening alternative

Question 20

identification

Answer 20

defense mechanism that helps deal with feelings of threat and anxiety by enabling us unconsciously to take on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or better able to cope

Question 21

sublimation

Answer 21

defense mechanism that involves channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into social acceptable and culturally enhancing activities

Question 22

psychosexual stages

Answer 22

distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas and caregivers redirect or interfere with those pleasures

Question 23

fixation

Answer 23

phenomenon in which a person’s pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck, or arrested, at a particular psychosexual stage

Question 24

oral stage

Answer 24

1st psychosexual stage, in which experience centers on the pleasures and frustrations associated with the mouth, sucking and being fed

Question 25

anal stage

Answer 25

2nd psychosexual stage, which is dominated by the pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention and expulsion of feces and urine and toilet training

Question 26

phallic stage

Answer 26

3rd psychosexual stage, during which experience is dominated by the pleasure, conflict and frustration associated with the phallic-genital region as well as powerful incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealousy and conflict

Question 27

oedipus conflict

Answer 27

developmental experience in which a child’s conflicting feelings toward the opposite sex parent is (usually) resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent

Question 28

latency stage

Answer 28

4th psychosexual stage, in which primary focus is on the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal and athletic skills

Question 29

genital stage

Answer 29

final psychosexual stage, a tie for the coming together of the mature adult personality with a capacity to love, work and relate to others in a mutually satisfying and reciprocal manner

Question 30

self-actualizing tendency

Answer 30

human motive toward realizing our inner potential

Question 31

existential approach

Answer 31

school of thought that regards personality as governed by an individual’s ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death

Question 32

social cognitive approach

Answer 32

approach that views personality in terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them

Question 33

person-situation controversy

Answer 33

question of whether behavior is caused more by personality or by situational factors

Question 34

personal constructs

Answer 34

dimensions people use in making sense of their experiences

Question 35

outcome expectancies

Answer 35

person’s assumptions about the likely consequences of a future behavior

Question 36

locus of control

Answer 36

person’s tendency to perceive the control rewards as internal to the self or external in the environment

Question 37

self-concept

Answer 37

person’s explicit knowledge of his or her own behaviors, traits, and other personal characteristics

Question 38

self-verification

Answer 38

tendency to seek evidence to confirm the self-concept

Question 39

self-esteem

Answer 39

extent to which an individual like’s, values and accepts the self

Question 40

self-serving bias

Answer 40

people’s tendency to take credit for their successes but downplay responsibility for their failures

Question 41

narcissism

Answer 41

trait that reflects a grandiose view of the self combined with a tendency to seek admiration from and exploit others.