Chapter 15: Personality

can be defined as a person’s enduring general style of dealing with others and with the world around them

those who followed his basic beliefs and practices typify psychoanalytic theories of personality.

means a psychological approach based on a marriage of Freudian concepts, such as the unconscious, with more modern ideas.

a therapist actively listens, while the patient relaxes and reports anything that comes into his mind, no matter how absurd it might seem.

is the source of mental energy and drive.

which is the desire to maximize pleasure while minimizing pain.

is the internal representation of all of society’s rules, morals, and obligations.

according to Freud, is the part of the mind that allows a person to function in the environment and to be logical.

is the process by which memories or desires that provoke too much anxiety to deal with are pushed into the unconscious

is a defense mechanism that directs anger away from the source of the anger to a less threatening person or object.

is another defense mechanism by which the ego reverses the direction of a disturbing desire to make that desire safer or more socially acceptable.

making up for failures in one area through success in others

creating logical excuses for emotional or irrational behavior

reverting to childish behaviors

the refusal to acknowledge or accept unwanted beliefs or actions

the channeling or redirecting of sexual or aggressive feelings into a more socially acceptable outlet

or the feeling of being alone in an unfamiliar or hostile world, is a central theme in childhood.

formulated another theory of personality that was, in part, a response to Freud’s theory.

Jung believed that all of the opposing forces and desires of the mind were balanced by a force called the

comprised of repressed memories

of behavior and memory common to all humans and passed down from our ancient and common ancestors.

are the behaviors and memories in the collective unconscious.

like other psychoanalytic psychologists, believed that childhood is the crucial formative period.

theories of personality emphasize the uniqueness and richness of being human.

is becoming, in a creative way, the person you are capable of being.

is our mental representation of who we feel we truly are

other people’s evaluations of our worth, distort our self-concept.

Humanistic theories also address the distinction between

of personality are based on the assumption that cognitive constructs are the basis for personality.

A representative example of a social-cognitive theory of personality was developed by

refers to a person’s beliefs about his or her own abilities in a given situation.

ways in which people explain themselves or react in different situations.

proposed that the extent to which people believe that their successes or failures are due to their own efforts plays a major role in personality.

believe that successes or failures are a direct result of their efforts

are more likely to attribute success or failure to luck or chance.

personality provide quantitative systems for describing and comparing traits or stable predispositions to behave in a certain way.

traits such as the Big Five are thought to be universal.

are those that are unique to the individual, such as openness or curiosity.

Trait theories

traits that override a person’s whole being

the primary characteristics of the person

traits that constitute interests

saw traits differently because he believed that 16 source traits were the basis of personality.

recognized that traits are not necessarily consistent across various situations but often vary depending upon the circumstances.

a questionnaire designed to examine people’s personalities based on their traits.

signifying the 16 traits or personality factors it measures.

refers to how we view ourselves

refers to how much we value ourselves.

our bodies, names, and the like

how we behave

how we interact with others

our feelings and personalities

which refers to the error by which we generalize a high self-evaluation from one domain to another.

is the early appearing set of individual differences in reaction and regulation that form the “nucleus” of personality.

temperament is generally assessed on three scales: surgency (amount of positive affect and activity level), negative affect (amount of frustration and sadness), and effortful control (ability of a child to self-regulate moods and behavior).

work on the physiology of young children showed that children classified as low in effortful control were more likely to have higher baseline heart rates, more muscle tension, and greater pupil dilation.