Chapter 15 Quiz

ego & reality principle

the largely conscious "executive" part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id and the superego, and reality. realistically brings pleasure rather than pain.

archetype

A recurring symbol, character, landscape, or event found in myth and literature across different cultures and eras.

inferiority complex

Adler's theory of the feelings of inadequacy or inferiority in young children that influence their developing personalities and create desires to overcome

thanatos

An instinctual drive toward death, leading to aggressive actions

eros

An instinctual drive toward life

psychoanalysis

Freuds theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. seeks to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

erik erikson

Neo-Freudian, humanistic; 8 psychosocial stages of development: theory shows how people evolve through the life span. Each stage is marked by a psychological crisis that involves confronting "Who am I?"

alfred adler

Neo-Freudian; introduced concept of "inferiority complex" and stressed the importance of birth order

Karen Horney

Neo-freudian who found psychoanalysis negatively biased toward women and believed cultural variables are the foundation of personality development

psychodynamic approach

Psychological approach developed by Sigmund Freud. Emphasizes the interplay of unconscious psychological processes in determining human thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Carl Jung

Student of Freud. Broke over Freud's emphasis of sexuality. Believed all people had a collective unconscious of the past generations.

Oedipus complex

a boys sexual desires towards his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

compensation

a defense mechanism that conceals your undesirable shortcomings by exaggerating desirable behaviors

intellectualization

a defense mechanism that uses reasoning to block out emotional stress and conflict

fixation

a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.

persona

a personal facade that one presents to the world

projective test

a personality test that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of ones inner dynamics

thematic apperception test

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

neo-freudian

a psychologist who accepts the broad features of Freud's theory but has revised the theory to fit his or her own concepts

personality

an individuals characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Sigmund Freud

austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation; founded psychoanalysis

collective unconscious

carl jungs concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species history.

id & pleasure principle

contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. demands immediate gratification

Electra complex

counterpart to the Oedipus complex for females

projection

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

reaction formation

defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

regression

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

rationalization

defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for ones actions.

displacement

defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or a person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet.

libido

freudian term for sexual urge or desire

animus

hostile feeling or intent

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 embarressing.

unconscious

information processing of which we are unaware.

sublimation

modifying the natural expression of an impulse or instinct to one that is socially acceptable

hysteria

neurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks and disturbances of sensory and motor functions

neurosis

psychological disturbance characterized by prolonged high levels of anxiety

latency stage

psychosexual stage of dormant sexual feelings

genital stage

psychosexual stage of maturation of sexual interests.

anal stage

psychosexual stage that focuses on bowels and bladder elimination, coping with demands for control

phallic stage

psychosexual stage that focuses on the pleasure center of the genitals and coping with incestuous sexual feelings.

oral stage

psychosexual stage that focuses on the pleasure center of the mouth - sucking, biting, chewing.

freudian slip

slip of the tongue by which it is thought a person unintentionally reveals his or her true feelings

repression

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

psychosexual stages

the childhood stages of development during which the ids pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.

defense mechanisms

the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

anima

the inner self that is in touch with the unconscious

rorschach inkblot test

the most widely used projective test which weeks to identify peoples inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.

superego

the part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations.

identification

the process by which children incorporate their parents values into their developing superegos