CH 11: Personality

• Actualizing Tendency


  the natural drive in humans to strive for fulfillment and enhancement
• Anal Stage


  occurs from approximately 18 months to 3 years of age, in which the parents’ regulation of the child’s biological urge to expel or retain feces influences personality development
• Archetypes


  mental representations or symbols of themes and predispositions to respond to the world in a certain way that are contained in the collective unconscious
• Basic Anxiety


  field of study that examines the influence of genetics and hereditary factors on personality traits
• Behavioral Genetics


  field of study that examines the influence of genetics and hereditary factors on personality traits
• Cardinal Traits


  those dominant elements of our personalities that drive all of our behaviors
• Central Traits


  the tendencies we have to behave in a certain way across most situations
• Clinical Interview


  the initial meeting between a client and a clinician in which the clinician asks questions to identify the difficulty in functioning that the person is experiencing
• Collective Unconscious


  the part of the unconscious that contains images and material universal to people of all time periods and cultures
• Conscious Level


  the level of consciousness that holds all the thoughts, perceptions, and impulses of which we are aware
• Defense Mechanisms


  branchlike structures on the head of the neuron that receive incoming signals from other neurons in the nervous system
• Ego


  the part of the personality that attempts to meet the demands of the id in a socially appropriate way
• Electra Complex


  in the female, an unconscious sexual urge for the father that develops during the phallic psychosexual stage
• Extraversion


  personality traits that involve energy directed outward, such as being easygoing, lively, or excitable
• Five Factor Theory


  Costa and McCrae’s trait theory that proposes five core dimensions to personality: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism
• Genital Stage


  Freud’s final psychosexual stage of development, which begins at puberty, in which sexual energy is transferred toward peers of the other sex (heterosexual orientation) or same sex (homosexual orientation)
• Humanistic Approach


  a personality perspective that emphasizes the individual, personal choice, and free will in shaping personality; assumes that humans have a built-in drive toward fulfilling their own natural potential
• ID


  the unconscious part of the personality that seeks pleasure and gratification
• Introversion


  personality traits that involve energy directed inward, such as being calm or peaceful
• Latency Stage


  inferiorty
• Locus of Control


  the expectation of control we have over the outcome of an event; an internal locus means we expect some degree of personal control, whereas an external locus means we expect little personal control
• MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)


  a personality inventory that is designed to identify problem areas of functioning in an individual’s personality
• Neuroticism


  the degree to which one is emotionally unstable
• Oedipus Complex


  in the male, an unconscious sexual urge for the mother that develops during the phallic psychosexual stage
• Oral Stage


  Freud’s first psychosexual stage of development, which occurs during the first 18 months of life, in which the handling of the child’s feeding experiences influences personality development
• Personal Unconscious


  the part of the unconscious that consists of forgotten memories and repressed experiences from one’s past
• Personality Inventories


  objective paper-and-pencil or computerized self-report forms that measure personality on several dimensions or traits
• Person-Situation Interaction


  the influence of the situation on the stability of traits; when in the same situation, we display similar behavior, but when the situation is different, behavior may change
• Phallic Stage


  Freud’s third psychosexual stage of development, which occurs between 3 and 6 years of age, in which little boys experience the Oedipus complex and little girls the Electra complex
• Pleasure Principle


  the basis on which the id operates; the urge to feel good and maximize gratification
• Preconscious Level


  Latent parts of the brain that are readily available to the conscious mind, although not currently in use
• Projective Test


  a less structured and subjective personality test in which an individual is shown an ambiguous stimulus and is asked to describe what they see
• Psychoanalytic Perspective


  a personality approach developed by Sigmund Freud that sees personality as the product of driving forces within a person that are often conflicting and sometimes unconscious
• Psychoticism


  the degree to which one is hostile, nonconforming, impulsive, and aggressive
• Reality Principle


  the basis on which the ego operates; finding socially appropriate means to fulfill id demands
• Reciprocal Determinism


  the mutual interaction among one’s behavior, thoughts, and environment determines personality
• Reliability


  the capacity to adapt well to significant stressors
• Rorschach Inkblot Test


  a projective personality test consisting of 10 ambiguous inkblots in which a person is asked to describe what they see; the person’s responses are then coded for consistent themes and issues
• Secondary Traits


  the tendencies we have that are less consistent and describe how we behave in certain situations
• Self-Actualization


  the fulfillment of one’s natural potential