Module 55

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Question 2

Psychodynamic theories

Answer 2

theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences.

Question 3

Psychoanalysis

Answer 3

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

Question 4

Unconscious

Answer 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.

Question 5

Free association

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

ID

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Ego

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

Superego

Answer 8

the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations.

Question 9

Psychosexual stages

Answer 9

the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.

Question 10

Oedipus complex

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Identification

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Fixation

Answer 12

in psychoanalytic theory, according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.

Question 13

Defense mechanisms

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Repression

Answer 14

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

Question 15

collective unconscious

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Projective test

Answer 16

a personality test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics

Question 17

Thematic Apperception Test

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Rorschach inkblot test

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Terror-management theory

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Sigmund Freud

Answer 20

Psychodynamic theories of personality view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious mind and unconscious mind, including associated motives and conflicts. These theories are descended from Freud’s psychoanalysis—his theory of personality and the associated treatment techniques.

Question 21

Alfred Adler

Answer 21

agreed with Freud that childhood is important. But believed that childhood social, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality formation

Question 22

Karen Horney

Answer 22

agreed with Freud that childhood is important. But believed that childhood social, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality formation

Question 23

Carl Jung (Yoong)

Answer 23

Freud’s disciple-turned-dissenter, placed less emphasis on social factors and agreed with Freud that the unconscious exerts a powerful influence. But to Jung, the unconscious contains more than our repressed thoughts and feelings. He believed we also have a collective unconscious, a common reservoir of images, or archetypes, derived from our species’ universal experiences