Introduction to Psychology Chapter 12

What is a mandala?

A circular design representing the balance, unity, and completion of the unconscious self.

What are possible selves?

A collection of thought, beliefs, feelings, and images concerning the person that one could become.

What is the id?

A component of Freud's personality theory containing primitive drives at birth.

What is self?

A continuously evolving conception of one's personal identity.

What is a habit?

A deeply ingrained, learned pattern of behavior.

What is anal expulsive personality?

A disorderly, destructive, cruel, or messy person.

What is interview (personality)?

A face-to-face meeting held for the purpose of gaining information about an individual's personal history, personality traits, current psychological state, etc.

What is the Electra complex?

A girl's sexual attraction to her father and feeling of rivalry with her mother.

What is fixation?

A lasting conflict developed as a result of frustration or overindulgence.

What is a rating scale?

A list of personality traits/aspects of behavior on which a person is rated.

What is personal unconscious?

A mental storehouse for an individual's unconscious thoughts.

What is the collective unconscious?

A mental storehouse for unconscious ideas and images shared by all humans.

What is a personality questionnaire?

A paper and pencil test consisting of questions that reveal aspects of personality.

What is a fully functioning person?

A person living in harmony with her/his deepest feelings, impulses, and intuitions.

What is an extrovert?

A person who attention is directed outward; a bold, outgoing person.

What is anal retentive personality?

A person who is obstinate, stingy, or compulsive and who generally has difficulty "letting go".

What is phallic personality?

A person who is vain, exhibionistic, sensitive, and narcissistic.

What is oral aggressive personality?

A person who uses the mouth to express hostility by shouting, cursing, biting, etc.

What is oral dependent personality?

A person who wants to passively receive attention, gifts, love, etc.

What is an introvert?

A person whose attention is focused inward; a shy reserved, self-focused person.

What is personality?

A person's unique and relatively stable behavior patterns.

What is basic anxiety?

A primary form of anxiety that arises from living in a hostile world.

What is the Thematic Apperception Test?

A projective test consisting of 20 different scenes and life situations about which respondents make up stories.

What is a situational test?

A simulation of real-life conditions so that a person's reactions may be directly observed.

What is a psychological situation?

A situation as it is perceived and interpreted by an individual, not as it exists objectively.

What is a personality trait?

A stable quality that a person shows in most situations.

What is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)?

A standardized test designed to identify problem areas of functioning in an individual's personality.

What is incongruence?

A state that exists when there is a discrepancy between one's experiences and self image or between one's self image and ideal self.

What is factor analysis?

A statistical technique used to correlate multiple measurements and identify general underlying factors.

What is a personality type?

A style of personality defined by a group of related traits.

What is personality theory?

A system of concepts, assumptions, ideas, and principles proposed to explain personality.

What is an objective test?

A test that gives the same score when different people correct it.

What is social learning theory?

A theory that combined learning principles with cognitive processes, socialization, and modeling, to explain behavior, including personality.

What is archetype?

A universal idea, image, or pattern found in the collective unconscious.

What is striving for superiority?

According to Alfred Adler, this basic drive propels is toward perfection.

What is latency?

According to Freud, a period in childhood when psychosexual development is more or less interrupted.

What is the Oedipus complex?

According to Freud, a young boy's sexual interest in his mother accompanied by competitive aggression toward his father.

What is humanism?

An approach that focuses on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideals.

What is anima?

An archetype representing the female principle.

What is animus?

An archetype representing the male principle.

What is the preconscious?

An area of the mind containing information that can be voluntarily brought to awareness.

What is introversion?

An ego attitude in which energy is mainly directed inward.

What is extroverson?

An ego attitude in which energy is mainly directed outward.

What is the ideal self?

An idealized image of oneself.

What is a unstructured interview?

An interview in which conversation is informal and topics are taken up freely as they arise.

What is structured interview?

An interview that follows a prearranged plan, usually a series of planned questions.

What is the self archetype?

An unconscious image of the center of the self, representing unity, wholeness, completion, and balance.

What is an expectancy?

Anticipation about the effect that a response will have, especially regarding reinforcement.

What is the erogenous zone?

Any body area that produces pleasurable sensations.

What is a behavioral personality theory?

Any model of personality that emphasizes learning and observable behavior.

What is moral anxiety?

Apprehension felt when thoughts, impulses, or actions conflict with the superego's standards.

What is neurotic anxiety?

Apprehension felt when thoughts, impulses, or actions conflict with the superego's standards.

What is the inferiority complex?

Arises when feelings of inferiority became overwhelming.

What is direct observation?

Assessing behavior through directs surveillance.

What are source traits?

Basic underlying traits/dimensions of personality.

What is an unconditioned positive regard?

Complete, unqualified acceptance of another person as he/she is.

What is the reality principle?

Delaying action until it is appropriate.

What are situational determinants?

External conditions that strongly influence behavior.

What is the psychoanalytic theory?

Freudian theory of personality that emphasizes unconscious forces and conflicts.

What are psychosexual stages?

How Freud classifies a period of development.

What is libido?

In Freudian theory, the force, primarily pleasure oriented, that energizes the personality.

What are conditions of worth?

Internal standards used to judge the value of one's thoughts, actions, feelings, or experiences.

What are the big five personality traits?

Openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

What is conscience?

Part of the superego that produces guilt when standards are not met.

What is the phallic stage?

Period of development in which psychosexual interest focuses on the clitoris, according to Freud.

What is the genital stage?

Period of psychosexual development in which sexual pleasure focuses on sexual relations, according to Freud.

What is the anal stage?

Period of psychosexual development where pleasure focuses on the anus, according to Freud.

What is character?

Personal characteristics that have been judged/evaluated.

What are projective tests?

Personality tests that use ambiguous/unstructured stimuli.

What is the Rorschach Inkblot Test?

Projective test that consists of complex irregular monochromatic shapes.

What are subclinical trials?

Qualities of individuals that are not extreme enough to merit a psychiatric diagnosis.

What is a behavioral assessment?

Recording the frequency of various behaviors.

What is self-esteem?

Regarding oneself as a worthwhile person; a positive evaluation of oneself.

What is reliability?

Stability of test scores over time.

What is the norm?

Standard used to compare an individual's performance on a test with that of others.

Doing a behavioral assessment requires direct observation of the person's actions or a direct report of the person's thoughts. T or F?

T

What is peak experiences?

Temporary moments of self actualization.

What is creative self?

The "artist" in each of us that creates a unique identity and style of life.

What is a persona?

The "mask" or public self presented to others.

What is free will?

The ability to freely make choices that are not controlled by genetics, learning, or unconscious forces.

What are central traits?

The core traits that characterize an individual personality.

What is Eros?

The decision making part of personality that operates on the reality principle.

What is validity?

The degree to which a test measures the trait that it was designed to.

What is the pleasure principle?

The id's drive to avoid pain and seek what feels good.

What is the psyche?

The mind, mental life, and personality as a whole.

What is the superego?

The part of personality that represents moral conscience.

What is the ego ideal?

The part of the superego representing ideal behavior.

What is self-concept?

The perception of one's own personality traits.

What is the oral stage?

The period when infants are preoccupied with the mouth as a source of pleasure and means of expression.

What is subjective experience?

The process of fully developing personal potentials.

What is the unconscious?

The region of the mind are beyond awareness.

What is conscious?

The region of the mind that includes all mental contents that a person is aware of at any given moment.

What is reinforcement value?

The subjective value that a person attaches to a particular activity or reinforcer.

What is the halo effect?

The tendency to generalize a un/favorable particular impression to unrelated details of personality.

What are surface traits?

The visible or observable traits of one's personality.

What is positive self-regard?

Thinking of oneself as a good, lovable, worthwhile person.

What is human nature?

Those traits, qualities, potentials, and behavior patterns most characteristic of the human species.

What is self-image?

Total subjective perception of one's body and personality.

What are secondary traits?

Traits that are inconsistent or relatively superficial.

An individual's perception of his/her own personality constitutes that person's _______.

self-concept