Chapter 13 Psychology

The characteristic thoughts, behaviors, and emotional responses that are relatively stable in an individual over time and across circumstances

personality isn't just a list of traits, but a coherent whole

a characteristic; a dispositional tendency to act in a certain way over time and across circumstances

Freudian theory that unconscious forces, such as wishes and motives, influence behavior

According to Freud, the developmental stages that correspond to the pursuit of satisfaction of libidinal urges

pleasure and exploration is sought through the mouth

Learning to focus on self-control of the body

learn pleasure (not sexual pleasure) in exploration of genitals

children want their opposite sex parent, so they seek to be like their same sex parent to get attention from their opposite sex parent

children's sexuality is suppressed

adults and adolescents learn that it's equally pleasureable to receive and give pleasure sexually

when a child becomes fixated at the oral stage, they continue to seek pleasure through the mouth (such as smoking) and are excessively needy

children who were fixated in the oral stage, are stubborn and highly regulating

I want; the component of personality that is completel submerged in the unconscious and operates according to the pleasure principle

I should; the internalization of societal and parental standards of conduct

I can; the component that tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the superego

unconscious mental strategies the mind uses to protect itself from conflict and distress

approaches to studying personality that emphasize personal experience and belief systems, they propose that people seek personal growth to fulfill their human potential

discrete categories based on global personality characteristics

an approach to studying personality that focuses on the extent to which individuals differ in personality dispositions

the extent to which people believe they can achieve specific outcomes

person-centered approaches to studying personality that focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into i=unique persons

approaches to studying personality that focus on how people vary across common traits

personality tests that examine unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous stimuli

relatively direct assessments of personality, usually based on information gathered through self-report questionnaires or observer ratings

the theory that behavior is determined more by situations than by personality traits

theorists who believe that behavior is determined jointly by underlying dispositions and situations

biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways

brain system involved in the pursuit of incentives or reward

the brain system that is sensitive to punishment and therefore inhibits behavior that might lead to danger or pain

the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors