theories of personality

• Personality is the unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel, and behave.
• Character refers to value judgments of a person’s moral and ethical behavior.
• Temperament is the enduring characteristics with which each person is born.
• Freud is the founder of the psychoanalytic movement in psychology.
• Personality inventory is a paper and pencil or computerized test that consists of statements that require a specific, standardized response from the person taking the test.
• The results of Internet-based personality tests lack professional interpretation.
• There are numerous personality tests available on the Internet, not all of which are equal in quality, reliability, or validity.
• MMPI-2 is a personality test designed to detect abnormal personality.
• Freud’s historical views of personality were influenced by the Victorian era in Europe, where men were understood to be unable to control their "animal" desires at times, and a good Victorian husband would father several children with his wife and then turn to a mistress for sexual comfort, leaving his virtuous wife untouched.
• The preconscious mind is a level of the mind in which information is available but not currently conscious.
• The conscious mind is a level of the mind that is aware of immediate surroundings and perceptions.
• The unconscious mind is a level of the mind in which thoughts, feelings, memories, and other information are kept that are not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness.
• Two of the three parts of the personality (ego and superego) exist at all three levels of awareness, the id is completely in the unconscious mind.
• Id is a part of the personality present at birth and completely unconscious.
• Libido is the instinctual energy that may come into conflict with the demands of a society’s standards for behavior.
• Pleasure principle is the principle by which the id functions; the immediate satisfaction of needs without regard for the consequences.
• Rationalization is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person invents acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior.
• The Genital stage is the fifth stage in which sexual feelings reawaken with appropriate targets.
• The Superego develops during the Phallic stage.
• Repression is a psychological defense mechanism in which the person refuses to consciously remember a threatening or unacceptable event, instead pushing those events into the unconscious mind.
• Freud’s historical views of personality include Repression, Rationalization, Projection, Reaction formation, Displacement, Regression, Identification, Compensation (substitution), and Sublimation.
• The Anal stage is the second stage occurring from about 1 to 3 years of age, in which the anus is the erogenous zone and toilet training is the source of conflict.
• The Anal expulsive personality is a characteristic of the Anal stage.
• The Id dominated personality is a characteristic of the Oral stage.
• The Oedipus complex is a situation occurring in the Phallic stage in which a child develops a sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent and jealousy of the same-sex parent.
• Fixation is a disorder in which the person does not fully resolve the conflict in a particular psychosexual stage, resulting in personality traits and behavior associated with that earlier stage.
• The Oral stage is the first stage occurring in the first year of life in which the mouth is the erogenous zone and weaning is the primary conflict.
• The Latency stage is the fourth stage occurring during the school years, in which the sexual feelings of the child are repressed while the child develops in other ways.
• The Phallic stage is the third stage occurring from about 3 to 6 years of age, in which the child discovers sexual feelings.
• Psychosexual stages are five stages of personality development proposed by Freud and tied to the sexual development of the child.
• Ego is a part of the personality that develops out of a need to deal with reality, mostly conscious, rational, and logical.
• Reality principle is the principle by which the ego functions; the satisfaction of the demands of the id only when negative consequences will not result.
• Superego is a part of the personality that acts as a moral center.
• Ego ideal is a part of the superego that contains the standards for moral behavior.
• Conscience is a part of the superego that produces pride or guilt, depending on how well behavior matches or does not match the ego ideal.
• Psychological defense mechanisms are unconscious distortions of a person’s perception of reality that reduce stress and anxiety.
• Frequency count: assessment in which the frequency of a particular behavior is counted.
• Personality inventory: paper and pencil or computerized test that consists of statements that require a specific, standardized response from the person taking the test.
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: based on Jung’s theory of personality types.
• NEO-PI: based on the five-factor model.