AP Psychology Unit 10 Terms

Question 1

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

Answer 1

Personality

Question 2

In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Answer 2

Free Association

Question 3

Freud’s theory of personality and therapeutic technique that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. Freud believed that the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight

Answer 3

Psychoanalysis

Question 4

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

Answer 4

Unconscious

Question 5

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. It operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

Answer 5

Id

Question 6

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

Answer 6

Ego

Question 7

The part of the personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideas and provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations

Answer 7

Superego

Question 8

The childhood stages of development during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

Answer 8

Psychosexual stages

Question 9

According to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father

Answer 9

Oedipus complex

Question 10

The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos

Answer 10

Indentification

Question 11

The inability to see a problem from a new perspective by employing different mental set. According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

Answer 11

Fixation

Question 12

In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Answer 12

Defense mechanisms

Question 13

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

Answer 13

Repression

Question 14

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

Answer 14

Regression

Question 15

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

Answer 15

Reaction formation

Question 16

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

Answer 16

Projection

Question 17

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

Answer 17

Rationalization

Question 18

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

Answer 18

Displacement

Question 19

Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people re-channel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities

Answer 19

Sublimation

Question 20

Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities

Answer 20

Denial

Question 21

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history

Answer 21

Collective unconscious

Question 22

A personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics

Answer 22

Projective test

Question 23

A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

Answer 23

Thematic apperception test

Question 24

The most widely used projective test, a test of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

Answer 24

Rorschach inkblot test

Question 25

A theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death

Answer 25

Terror-management theory

Question 26

According to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential

Answer 26

Self-actualization

Question 27

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

Answer 27

Unconditional positive regard

Question 28

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

Answer 28

Self-concept

Question 29

A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

Answer 29

Trait

Question 30

A questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits

Answer 30

Personality inventory

Question 31

The most widely researched and used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders, this test is now used for many other screening purposes

Answer 31

Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory

Question 32

A test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups

Answer 32

Empirically derived test

Question 33

Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits and their social context

Answer 33

Social-cognitive perspective

Question 34

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

Answer 34

Reciprocal determinism

Question 35

The extent to which people control over their environment rather than feeling helpless

Answer 35

Personal control

Question 36

The perception that chance of outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate

Answer 36

External locus of control

Question 37

The perception that you control your own fate

Answer 37

Internal locus of control

Question 38

The scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive

Answer 38

Positive psychology

Question 39

In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions

Answer 39

Self

Question 40

Overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders

Answer 40

Spotlight effect

Question 41

One's feelings of high or low self-worth

Answer 41

Self-esteem

Question 42

A readiness to perceive oneself favorably

Answer 42

Self-serving bias

Question 43

Giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

Answer 43

Individualism

Question 44

Giving high priority to one's group and defining one's identity accordingly

Answer 44

Collectivism