Personality and Stuff

• 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

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

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

• Id 
• Ego
• Superego

• contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives
• Operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

• the largely conscious "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality
• Operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain

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

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

• Oral (0-18 months)
• Anal (18-36 months)
• Phallic (3-6 years)
• Latency (6-puberty)
• Genital (puberty on)

• according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires towards his mother and feelings of jealousy and hate for the rival father
• occurs during the phallic stage

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

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

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

• Repression
• Regression
• Reaction Formation
• Projection
• Rationalization
• Displacement
• Denial

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

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

• 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

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

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

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

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

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

believed that much of our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood feelings of inferiority

believed that childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security

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

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

• 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

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

People nurture our growth by being genuine, accepting, and empathic

according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person

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

• Description of self-actualizing is subjective
• Rogers' idea that what truly matters is whether or not our lives can deeply satisfy who we are can lead to self-indulgence, selfishness, and an erosion of moral restraints
• Naive and fails to appreciate the reality of our human capacity for evil

came to define personality in terms of identifiable behavior patterns

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

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

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

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

• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism (emotional stability vs. instablity)
• Openness
• Extraversion

Inconsistency in behaviors make personality tests scores weak predictors of behavior

views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits and their social content

According to Bandura, the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

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

the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your own fate

the perception that you control your own fate

the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

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

a readiness to perceive oneself favorably