Week 8

• psychodynamic theory


  a theory put forward by Sigmund Freud in which psychic energy moves among the compartments of the personality: id, ego, and superego
• psychoanalysis


  Sigmund Freud's treatment approach based on his psychodynamic theory
• id


  the component of Sigmund Freud's personality theory containing primitive drives present at birth
• ego


  the component of Sigmund Freud's personality that is the self that others see
• superego


  the component of Sigmund Freud's personality theory that internalizes society's rules for right and wrong, or the conscience
• defense mechanism


  in Sigmund Freud's personality theory, a protective behavior that reduces anxiety
• psychosexual stage


  a stage in Sigmund Freud's theory of the developing personality
• five psychosexual stages of personality development

  oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
• conscious


  ideas, thoughts, and feelings of which we are aware
• preconscious


  material that can be easily recalled
• unconscious


  well below the surface of awareness
• neo-Freudian


  a theorist who attempted to update and modify Sigmund Freud's original theory of personality
• unconscious mind


  the part of mental activity that cannot be voluntarily retrieved
• collective unconscious


  composed of our common psychological predispositions as humans passed from generation to generation
• trait


  a stable personality characteristic
• big five theory


  a trait theory that identifies five main characteristics that account for most individual differences in personality
• openness


  a big five personality trait characterized by an appreciation for fantasy, feelings, actions, ideas, values and aesthetics
• conscientiousness


  a big five personality trait characterized by competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, and deliberation
• extroversion


  one of the big five traits characterized by warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, and positive emotion; opposite of introversion
• introversion


  one of the big five traits characterized by coolness, reserve, passivity, inactivity, caution, and negative emotion; opposite of extroversion
• agreeableness


  a big five personality trait characterized by trustworthiness, altruism, trust, compliance, modesty, and tender mindedness
• neuroticism


  a big five personality trait characterized by anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsivity, and vulnerability
• social-cognitive learning theory


  a theory of personality that features cognition and learning, especially from the social environment, as important sources of individual differences in personality
• locus of control


  a cognitive expectancy featured in social-cognitive learning theories of personality about the source of individual outcomes
• external locus of control

  sees outcomes as resulting from luck or chance
• internal locus of control


  sees outcomes as the result of individual effort
• reciprocal determinism


  a social-cognitive learning theory of personality that features the mutual influence of the person and that of the situation on each other
• self-efficacy


  confidence in your abilities to gain reinforcement
• temperament


  a child's pattern of mood, activity, or emotional responsiveness linked to later personality
• biological variables connected to personality

  temperament, genetic predispositions, brain structure
• reactivity


  differences in people's responses to novel/challenging stimuli
• personality inventory


  an objective test, often using numbered scales or multiple choice, used to assess personality
• projective test


  a test of personality based on Freudian theory that provides an ambiguous stimulus onto which test takers "project" their personality
• self


  patterns of thought, feelings, and actions we perceive in our own minds
• ABCs of the self

  affect, behavior, cognition
• self-concept


  people's description of their own characteristics
• self-schema


  a cognitive organization that helps us think about the self and process self-relevant information
• self-reference effect (SRE)


  we process self-relevant information differently than information about others
• self-awareness


  knowledge of your own internal traits, feelings, roles, and memories; allows us to establish boundaries between the self and other people
• self-consciousness


  our awareness of our own characteristics and the way the self is perceived by others