Unit 4- Personality Flashcards
(59 cards)
personality
an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
psychoanalytic theory
Freud; proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality.
humanistic theories
focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fufillment
trait theories
examine characteristic patterns of behavior (traits)
social-cognitive theories
explore the interaction between people’s traits (Including their thinking) and their social context.
psychodynamic theories
Alder, Horney, Jung; theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences
psychoanalysis
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.
Freud’s therapeutic technique. He believed the patients free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences- and the analyst’s interpretations of them- released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.
Freudian slip
“slips of the tongue” where unconscious desires sneak out in speaking
unconscious
according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.
according to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.
free association
in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrasing.
we store some of the unconscious thoughts temporarily in…
how does this relate to the iceburg
a preconscious area/subconscious mind
can hide or reveal waterline of iceburg
3 parts of personality
Id: unconscious energy, instinct, aggressive and sexual drives
“pleasure principle”
ego: mostly conscious, mediator, compromises between id and superego
superego: internalized ideals, conscience, gives you pride or guilt
shoulds and should nots of society
defense mechanisms
in psychoanalysic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
NeoFreudians
Alder, Horney, Jung
emphasized the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience and coping with the environment, and doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivations. emphasized lofiter motices and social interactions instead.
Alder
believed that much of our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority feelings that trigger out strivings for superiority and power.
Horney
said childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security. She also opposed Freud’s assumptions that women have weak superegos and suffer “penis envy”, and she attempted to balance his masculine bias
Jung
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: concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history. explains why spiritua concerns are deeply rooted and why people in different cultures share certain myths and images.
research supports two of Freud’s defense mechanisms…
reaction formation
projection (now called false consensus effect)
terror-management theory
a theory of death-related anxiety and explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
projective test
a personality test, such as the TAT or Rorshach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics and explore the preconscious and unsonscious mind.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Rorschach inkblot test
a projective tests that seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing how they interpret 10 ink blots.
humanistic theorists
theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth
hierarchy of needs
maslow’s levels of human needs, beginning at the base with psysiological needs. often visualized as a pyramid, with needs nearer the base taking priority until they are satisfied.
