Unit 5

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

an individual’s unique and relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Question 2

Psychodynamic theories

Answer 2

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

Question 4

Unconscious

Answer 4

a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

Question 5

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Answer 5

According to Freud, personality is composed of three parts: Id, Ego, and Superego

Question 6

Id

Answer 6

primitive instinctive component of personality that strives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress

Operates on the pleasure principle = immediate gratification

Question 7

Ego

Answer 7

decision making component of personality that mediates the demands of the id, superego, and reality

Operates on the reality principle = delays the gratification of the id until an appropriate outlet can be found

Question 8

Superego

Answer 8

the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong

The conscience forces the ego to consider not only the real, but the ideal

Question 9

Psychosocial Personality Development

Answer 9

goes through Psychosocial Stages

When id-based urges are not satisfied or overindulged, a person can become fixated in a stage and carries that sexual energy from stage into adulthood

Children learn to cope with feelings, by repressing them and become like the rival parent

Question 10

Repression

Answer 10

basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Question 11

Regression

Answer 11

retreating to earlier stage of personality/life

Question 12

Displacement

Answer 12

shifting/redirecting emotional feelings to a substitute target

Question 13

Projection

Answer 13

disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing to someone else

Question 14

Rationalization

Answer 14

offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Question 15

Sublimation

Answer 15

substituting socially acceptable behavior for unacceptable impulses

Question 16

Denial

Answer 16

claiming and believing that something is true which is actually false

Question 17

Reaction Formation

Answer 17

switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

People may express feelings that are opposite of their true feelings

Question 18

Social-cognitive perspective

Answer 18

views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits and their social context

Question 19

Reciprocal determinism

Answer 19

the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

Question 20

Humanistic Theories

Answer 20

Theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth

Question 21

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 21

certain needs must be fulfilled before others
Our personality develops as we strive for self-actualization

Question 22

Carl Roger’s Person-Centered Perspective

Answer 22

People are basically good and have self-actualizing tendencies

Question 23

Traits

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Hans Eysenck & Sybil Eysenck

Answer 24

Used factor analysis to analyze traits

Question 25

Factor analysis

Answer 25

statistical procedure that identifies clusters (factors) of test items that map basic components of traits

measures extraversion/introversion & Emotional stability/instability (neuroticism)

Question 26

Five Factor Model

Answer 26

Paul Costa & Robert McCrae

Openness
Measures the individual’s ability to think in abstract ways
High scorers: creative, adventurous, intellectual
Low scorers: practical, conventional, focused on the concrete

Conscientiousness
Measures a person’s ability to exercise self-discipline and control in order to pursue their goals
High scorers: organized, careful, disciplined
Low scorers: impulsive, disorganized, easily side-tracked

Extraversion
Measures a person’s inclination to seek stimulation from the outside world, especially in the form of attention from other people
High scorers: energetic, sociable, adventurous
Low scorers: quiet, reserved, timid

Agreeableness
Refers to an individual’s behavior towards others while interacting with them
High scorers: soft-hearted, trusting, helpful
Low scorers: ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative

Neuroticism
Measures a person’s tendency to experience negative emotions
(emotional stability vs instability)
High scorers: anxious, insecure, self-pitying
Low scorers: calm, secure, self-satisfied

Question 27

Halo Effect

Answer 27

tendency of an interviewer to allow positive characteristics of a client to influence the assessments of the client’s behavior and statements

Question 28

Personality inventory

Answer 28

a questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feeling and behaviors

Question 29

Projective tests

Answer 29

personality tests that provide ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics

Question 30

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Answer 30

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