personality psychology

• what is personality psychology?

  
  

  personality psychology studies how personality originates, develops and functions - personality is an abstract concept
• why do we study personality?

  
  

  to understand ourselves and the world around us to grow
• define personality

  
  

  a dynamic & organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his / her cognitions (your thoughts), motivations (why we do certain actions) and behaviors in various situations
• what is the main focus in the study of personality?

  
  

  to offer explanations for each individual's unique ways of responding to his / her physical, social & cultural environments
• define free association

  
  

  therapeutic technique central to psychoanalysis in which therapist encourages patients to report, without restriction, any thoughts that occur to them no matter how irrelevant, unimportant, or unpleasant (fundamental role in psychoanalysis)
• what did freud believe about our actions?

  
  

  that there is a definite force controlling all actions and believed all thoughts were related

  
  

  nothing we do is accidental (due to our unconscious)
• define resistance

  
  

  (in psychoanalysis), when unwilling to disclose painful memories
• define freud's unconscious

  
  

  the depository of hidden wishes, needs & conflicts of which one is unaware and filled with sexual and aggressive impulses and unresolved issues
• what did freud say dreams were?

  
  

  the royal road to the unconscious
• define dream analysis

  
  

  psychoanalytic technique used to probe the unconscious through interpretations of the patients dream (think latent & manifest content)
• name freud's three parts of mental life

  
  

  conscious, preconscious, unconscious
• define conscious (freud)

  
  

  the ideas and sensations of which we are aware
• define preconscious (freud)

  
  

  contains the experiences that are unconscious but that could be conscious easily
• define unconscious (freud)

  
  

  contains the experiences and memories of which we are not aware
• what are instincts?

  
  

  the driving forces in personality that govern behavior, and motivate to seek gratifications and homeostasis
• what are the two main motivating instincts?

  
  

  1. life instincts: instinctive urges to preserve life, includes basic needs & libido - originally sexual instincts, later revised to psychic and pleasurable gratification of life instincts

  
  

  2. death instincts: instincts to return to a state of balance, free of painful struggles before death. as a result, comes aggression
• what are the three systems in freud's structural theory of personality?

  
  

  id - the pleasure principle; wanting immediate gratification; consists of unconscious biological sexual / aggressive instincts

  
  

  ego - executive functioning of personality; balances the needs of the id & extremes of the superego in realistic / appropriate ways

  
  

  superego - strives for perfectionism; internalized societal values and morals (right and wrong); where our conscience comes from; either results in satisfaction OR shame
• define defense mechanisms

  
  

  universal reactions that protect people against pain / anxiety
• name the different defense mechanisms

  
  

  repression, reaction formation, rationalization, intellectualization, undoing, sublimation, suppression, denial, displacement
• define repression

  
  

  unconsciously banish painful memories from consciousness
• define suppression

  
  

  active and conscious attempt to stop thinking of any anxiety-provoking thoughts from our preconscious
• define denial

  
  

  refusal to perceive or accept unpleasant event in reality
• define displacement

  
  

  unconsciously redirect anger on substitute objects / people
• define sublimation

  
  

  displacing anger on ones / things that are socially acceptable
• define reaction formation

  
  

  expressing the opposite of one's true feelings

  example bullying a crush
• define rationalization

  
  

  justification of behavior through plausible (but inaccurate) excuses
• define intellectualization

  
  

  dissociation between thoughts & feelings when we try to reason with ourselves to avoid confronting an unconscious conflict and the emotional stress from it

  example listing benefits of being single to yourself instead of facing the pain of a breakup
• define undoing

  
  

  performing an act to nullify / make amends for an unpleasant one
• what are freud's stages of psychosexual development?

  
  

  freud believed personality formed in terms of one's attempts to be at bay with biological impulses: oral, anal, phallic, latency, & genital
• define fixation

  
  

  defensive attachment / focus on an earlier psychosexual stage due to a traumatic experience or unresolved conflict
• define oedipal complex

  
  

  when boys develop a sexual longing for their mother during the phallic stage and view the father as a rival
• define electra complex

  
  

  penis envy during the phallic stage causing love for fathers as he has desired object
• name freud's 3 major assessment techniques

  
  

  free association, dream analysis, & transference
• what does the oedipal complex result in?

  development of the superego
• what does the electra complex result in?

  inadequate superegos
• what is transference characterized by?

  the ambivalence, attitudes of affection / hostility, toward "parents" that are displaced onto therapist
• define positive transference

  special affection toward therapist, usually develops first (praise, trust, falling in love)
• define counter transference

  therapist's reaction w/ personal feelings toward patient
• what is jung's psyche (total personality)?

  the psyche represents all of the interacting systems within human personality that accounts for all mental life & behavior of a person
• define psychic energy

  energy that flows continuously from consciousness to unconsciousness & back