Ap Psych Vocab

Front 1

Personality

Back 1

the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual or a nation or group ; especially : the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional characteristic

Front 2

theories

Back 2

Humanistic, psychoanalytic, social-cognitive, trait.

Front 3

Sigmund Freud

Back 3

founder of a complex integrated theory of psychologic causes of mental disorders, some, such as hysteria, with physical symptoms. Among tenets of freudian theory are that human beings are motivated by a pleasure principle; receive internal stimulation from a sex instinct and a death instinct; have personality structures that can be divided into ego, superego, and id; and have unconscious, preconscious, and conscious levels of mental activity.

Front 4

Unconscious

Back 4

Lacking awareness and the capacity for sensory perception; not conscious

Front 5

Psychoanalysis

Back 5

heory of personality and motivation - of what makes people do what they do. It is also a type of therapy. Simply put, psychoanalysis involves the exploration of a person’s unconscious thought processes through methods such as free association – saying whatever comes to mind – and dream analysis. The goal is to find and overcome those unconscious areas of resistance that block mental growth and cause mental illnesses.

Front 6

Free Association

Back 6

psychoanalytic technique in which a patient's articulation of free associations is encouraged in order to reveal unconscious thoughts and emotions, such as traumatic experiences that have been repressed.

Front 7

Dream Interpretation

Back 7

Every dream represents a wish as fulfilled. Thanks to a relative relaxation of censorship in sleep, a dream expresses repressed desires whose satisfaction is forbidden during the waking state. The conflicts involved may be expressed in unpleasant or anxiety-provoking dreams, however.
The driving force of the dream, unconscious wishes, are rooted in childhood, notably in oedipal conflicts.
The "dream material" is supplied by "day's residues"—usually recent events of waking life.
The dream work transforms this material by means of the primary processes of condensation, displacement, and visual representation, followed on occasion by a secondary elaboration that perfects the "dream façade."
Having once transformed into the "manifest content of the dream," the "latent dream-thoughts," now unrecognizable, are able to cross the barrier of censorship.
The scenes thus created have, for the dreamer, all the characteristics of reality; they are hallucinatory in nature.
The logic governing the dreamwork is very different from that of waking life, and the dream's manifest content is often incoherent, filled with bizarre or absurd elements.

Front 8

Manifest Content of Dreams

Back 8

According to Freud, our dreams are important and meaningful in understanding the causes of our problems, hidden issues, and painful issues we can't face during wakefulness. Freud identified two types of content in our dreams; latent content and manifest content. Manifest content is all the parts of the dream that we remember (the actual content). It's not the stuff we associate with our dreams, but the actual story lines of the dreams.

Front 9

Latent Content of Dreams

Back 9

ccording to Freud, dreams have two types of content, each of which contains different meanings to the dreams. One of these type of content islatent content, which is the underlying, more hidden, but true meaning of a dream (as opposed to the manifest content). Freud believed that the latent content was somehow censored by the subconscious which was a way to protect us from the real meanings of the dreams. This was necessary because the dream content may be difficult for people to deal with, so people disguise the real meaning. However, Freud believed that when people were in conflict, if he could uncover or get to the latent content, then he could identify the person's problem and resolve their conflict.

Front 10

Instinct

Back 10

behavior that is genetically programmed into an entire species. Thus, the behavior is not the result of learning, and can be seen across members of a species. For example, there are specific nest building behaviors that are part of different species of birds. If you hatch one of these birds in captivity and raise it without any contact with any other members of its species, it will still do those species-specific nest building behaviors.

Front 11

ID

Back 11

According to Freud, humans have three main components to their personality that cause us to behave the way we do and make us who we are. One of these components, the id, is the part that you may consider that little devil sitting on your shoulder trying to get you to do all those things that feel good, even if they are wrong. More specifically, the id is the part of the human personality that is made up of all our inborn biological urges that seeks out immediate gratification (guided by the Pleasure Principle), regardless of social values or consequences. For example, when you are in a bar and see a really attractive person who stirs some sexual feelings in you, the id is what is pushing you to simply go over to this person, grab them, and ravage them right there. Of course you know that this is completely unacceptable behavior so you don't do it, but the id doesn't care about that. It just wants what it wants no matter what.

Front 12

Eros

Back 12

According to Freud humans have a death instinct (thanatos) and a life instinct, called eros. This life instinct is important as it promotes behaviors that help us survive. A prime example of life instinct is sex - can you think of something that promotes life more than sex?

Front 13

Libido

Back 13

The terms libido was introduced by Sigmund Freud and is, at a very basic level, sexual desire and urges. The libido, which is part of the Id, is a secual energy or force that can come into conflict with the conventions of what is typically considered civilized behavior. Other psychologists, like Jung, viewed the libido more generally and thought it to be more of a creative or psychic energy that helps people accomplish more (like a motivating force).

Front 14

Thanatos

Back 14

According to Freud humans have a life instinct (eros) and a death instinct, called thanatos. This death instinct compels humans to engage in risky and destructive behaviors that could lead to death (remember, it is an instinct for personal death). Behaviors such as thrill seeking, aggression, and risk taking can be considered actions stemming from thanatos.

Front 15

Pleasure Principle

Back 15

The principle in which the id operates on. According to Freud, the id is the part of your personality that wants instant gratification of what you desire. The id is unconcerned with the consequences of acting on these urges as long as it obtains total gratification immediately. It is fair to say that discomfort is not one of the id's strong points and only operates on one principle: pleasure.

Front 16

Ego

Back 16

According to Freud, the ego is the part of personality that helps us deal with reality by mediating between the demands of the id, superego, and the environment. The ego prevents us from acting on every urge we have (produced by the id) and being so morally driven that we can't function properly. The ego works according to the reality principle which helps us direct our unacceptable sexual and aggressive urges to more acceptable targets. For example, when you walk down the street and see an extremely attractive person, the ego, working on the reality principle, helps us realize that it is not socially acceptable to cross the street, grab the person, and have sex with them. Instead, the ego tells us that there will be other, more appropriate people, places, and times to fulfill these needs.

Front 17

Reality Principle

Back 17

The ego has a tough job trying to satisfy the needs of the id without giving it everything it wants and engaging in inappropriate and unacceptable behaviors. The ego manages to satisfy the id without engaging in all sorts of inappropriate acts by following the reality principle--the guide directing our unacceptable sexual and aggressive urges to more acceptable targets. For example, when you walk down the street and see an extremely attractive person, the ego, working on the reality principle, helps us realize that it is not socially acceptable to cross the street, grab the person, and have sex with them. Instead, the ego follows the reality principle which tells us that there will be other, more appropriate people, places, and times to fulfill these needs.

Front 18

Superego

Back 18

ccording to Freud, humans have three main components to their personality that cause us to behave the way we do and make us who we are; the id, ego, and superego. The superego (Latin for "over the I") acts as our moral guide and mediates between the id and the ego. The superego contains the conscience, which makes us feel guilty for doing or thinking something wrong and good when we do something right.

Front 19

Intrapsychic
Psychodynamic Conflicts

Back 19

The study of human behavior from the point of view of motivation and drives, depending largely on the functional significance of emotion, and based on the assumption that an individual's total personality and reactions at any given time are the product of the interaction between his genetic constitution and his environment.

Front 20

Defense Mechanisms

Back 20

Most notably used by Freud in his psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism is a tactic developed by the ego to protect against anxiety. Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with. In some instances, defense mechanisms are thought to keep inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind.

Front 21

Sublimation

Back 21

modifying the natural expression of an impulse or instinct (especially a sexual one) to one that is socially acceptable

Front 22

Repression

Back 22

the classical defense mechanism that protects you from impulses or ideas that would cause anxiety by preventing them from becoming conscious

Front 23

Projection

Back 23

he attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or desires to someone or something as a naive or unconscious defense against anxiety or guilt.

Front 24

Denial

Back 24

An unconscious defense mechanism characterized by refusal to acknowledge painful realities, thoughts, or feelings.

Front 25

Displacement

Back 25

A psychological defense mechanism in which there is an unconscious shift of emotions, affect, or desires from the original object to a more acceptable or immediate substitute.

Front 26

Reaction Formation

Back 26

A defense mechanism where an individual acts in a manner opposite from his or her unconscious beliefs. A homosexual who joined a gay hate group would be an example of reaction formation. Freud believed that defense mechanisms helped us cope with the world around us by letting us repress our deepest unconscious fears.

Front 27

Regression

Back 27

egression is another one of the defense mechanisms identified by Freud. According to Freud there are times when people are faced with situations that are so anxiety provoking that they can't deal with it and they protect themselves by retreating to an earlier stage of development. For example, my niece was afraid to go to school for the first time (first day of school can be very scary) so she began to exhibit very childish behaviors like throwing a tantrum, crying, not letting go of her mother's leg, and even wetting her pants.

Front 28

Rationalization

Back 28

Rationalization is a defense mechanism identified by Freud. According to Freud when people are not able to deal with the reasons they behave in particular ways, they protect themselves by creating self-justifying explanations for their behaviors. For example, if I flunk out of school because I didn’t study properly it might be so hard for me to deal with that I rationalize my behaviors by saying that I simply didn't have enough time to study because I have a full-time job, a baby at home, and so many other demands on my time.

Front 29

Psychosexual Stages

Back 29

Freud believed there to be five stages of psychosexual development: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent and Genital. At each of these stages, pleasure is focused on a particular part of the body. Too much or too little pleasure in any one of these stages caused a fixation which would lead to personality or psychological disorders. For example, too much pleasure in the phallic stage could lead to obsessive masturbation and sexual dysfunction as an adult.

Front 30

Fixated/Fixate

Back 30

classical psychoanalysis, to cause (the libido) to be arrested at an early stage of psychosexual development.

Front 31

Oral Stage

Back 31

he oral stage is the first stage of Freud's stages of psychosexual development, lasting from birth to 18 months. According to Freud, the mouth is the primary erogenous zone through which pleasure is derived. The major conflict issue during this stage is the weaning process, during which the child is forced to become less dependent upon caretakers. A fixation at this stage can result in problems with dependency or aggression.

Front 32

Anal Stage

Back 32

*******

Front 33

Anal Retentive

Back 33

*****

Front 34

Phallic Stage

Back 34

he phallic stage is the third stage of Freud’s stages of psychosexual development, lasting from age three years to six years. According to Freud, the genitals are the primary erogenous zone and pleasure is derived from genital stimulation. The primary conflict at this stage is a desire to possess the opposite-sex parent. Completion of this stage results in identifying with the same-sex parent

Front 35

Identification

Back 35

A person's association with or assumption of the qualities, characteristics, or views of another person or group.

Front 36

Oedipus Complex

Back 36

The complex of emotions aroused in a child by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex.

Front 37

Castration Anxiety

Back 37

Concern or solicitude respecting some thing or event, future or uncertain, which disturbs the mind, and keeps it in a state of painful uneasiness.

Front 38

Electra Complex

Back 38

In psychoanalysis, a daughter's unconscious libidinal desire for her father

Front 39

Penis Envy

Back 39

the psychoanalytic concept in which a female envies male characteristics or capabilities, especially the possession of a penis.

Front 40

Latency Stage

Back 40

) the fourth period (from about age 5 or 6 until puberty) during which sexual interests are supposed to be sublimated into other activities

Front 41

Genital Stage

Back 41

he genital stage is the fifth and final stage of Freud’s stages of psychosexual development that begins during puberty. During this stage, the individual develops a strong interest in the opposite sex. If the other psychosexual stages have been successfully completed, the individual will develop into a well-balanced, warm, and caring adult.

Front 42

Projective Tests

Back 42

A psychological test in which a subject's responses to ambiguous or unstructured standard stimuli, such as a series of cartoons, abstract patterns, or incomplete sentences, are analyzed in order to determine underlying personality traits, feelings, or attitudes.

Front 43

Thematic Apperception Tests

Back 43

Express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Front 44

Roschach Inkblot Test

Back 44

A psychological test in which a subject's interpretations of a series of standard inkblots are analyzed as an indication of personality traits, preoccupations, and conflicts.

Interpretations of the blots.

Front 45

Humanism

Back 45

the doctrine emphasizing a person's capacity for self-realization through reason; rejects religion and the supernatural

Front 46

Abraham Maslow

Back 46

Father of Humanism. Hierarchy of needs

Front 47

Self Actualization

Back 47

farthest level someone can reach on the hierarchy of needs.

Front 48

Hierarchy of Needs

Back 48

Abraham Maslow formed the hierarchy of needs.

Front 49

Carl Rogers

Back 49

United States psychologist who developed client-centered therapy (1902-1987)

Front 50

Person Centered Perspective

Back 50

****

Front 51

Unconditional Positive Regard

Back 51

According to Carl Rogers, unconditional positive regard is when one person is completely accepting toward another person. This is not just a show of acceptance, but is an attitude that is then demonstrated through behavior. Rogers indicated that for humanistic type of therapy to work, the therapist had to have this for the client.

Front 52

Self Concept

Back 52

The mental image or perception that one has of oneself.

Front 53

Terror-Management Theory

Back 53

***

Front 54

Neo-Freudians

Back 54

f, relating to, or characterizing any psychoanalytic system based on but modifying Freudian doctrine by emphasizing social factors, interpersonal relations, or other cultural influences in personality development or in causation of the neuroses

Front 55

Ego Psychologists

Back 55

a psychological theory based on the idea that the ego is an independent part of the personality that develops self-identity through conflict and its resolution over a lifetime

Front 56

Carl Jung

Back 56

swiss psychologist

Front 57

Analytical Psychology

Back 57

The theory of psychoanalysis developed by Carl Jung that focuses on the concept of the collective unconscious and the importance of balancing opposing forces within the personality.

Front 58

Collective Unconscious

Back 58

In Jungian psychology, a part of the unconscious mind, shared by a society, a people, or all humankind, that is the product of ancestral experience and contains such concepts as science, religion, and morality.

Front 59

Introversion

Back 59

he direction of or tendency to direct one's thoughts and feelings toward oneself.

Front 60

Extraversion

Back 60

the act of directing one’s interest outward or to things outside the self.

Front 61

Alfred Adler

Back 61

psychiatrist whose influential system of individual psychology introduced the term inferiority feeling, later widely and often inaccurately called inferiority complex. He developed a flexible, supportive psychotherapy to direct those emotionally disabled by inferiority feelings toward maturity, common sense, and social usefulness.

Front 62

Individual Psychology

Back 62

A system of psychology in which traits of an individual are compared in terms of striving for superiority and then restated in the form of a composite of this single tendency.

Front 63

Compensation

Back 63

Behavior that develops either consciously or unconsciously to offset a real or imagined deficiency, as in personality or physical ability.

Front 64

Inferiority Complex

Back 64

A persistent sense of inadequacy or a tendency to self-diminishment, sometimes resulting in excessive aggressiveness through overcompensation.

Front 65

Striving for superiority

Back 65

***

Front 66

Birth Order

Back 66

Birth order is defined as a person's rank by age among his or her brothers and sisters.

Front 67

Erik Erikson

Back 67

evelopment of the individual's sexuality as affected by biological, cultural, and emotional influences from prenatal life onward throughout life

Front 68

Psychosocial stages of development

Back 68

the development of the personality, and the acquisition of social attitudes and skills, from infancy through maturity.

Front 69

Karen Horney

Back 69

German-born American psychoanalyst who, departing from some of the basic principles of Sigmund Freud, suggested an environmental and social basis for the personality and its disorders.

Love and Intimacy

Front 70

Personality Traits

Back 70

traits are distinguishing qualities or characteristics of a person. Traits are a readiness to think or act in a similar fashion in response to a variety of different stimuli or situations.

Front 71

Gordon Allport

Back 71

American psychologist and educator who developed an original theory of personality.

Front 72

Cardinal Traits

Back 72

According to psychologist Gordon Allport, personality is composed of three traits: cardinal traits, central traits, and secondary traits. Cardinal traits are those that dominate personality to the point that people are famous for them. Allport believed that personalities dominated by one central trait are rare, with most people exhibiting a number of central traits. People with such personalities often become so known for these traits that their names are often synonymous with these qualities. Consider the origin and meaning of the following: Freudian, Machiavellian, narcissism, Don Juan, Christ-like, etc.

Front 73

Central Traits

Back 73

Characteristics of an individual that are of particular interest to an examiner, interviewer, trainer, or perceiver.

Front 74

secondary traits

Back 74

****

Front 75

Raymond Cattell

Back 75

American psychologist (born in England) who developed a broad theory of human behavior based on multivariate research (1905-1998)

Front 76

Factor Analysis

Back 76

any of several methods for reducing correlational data to a smaller number of dimensions or factors; beginning with a correlation matrix a small number of components or factors are extracted that are regarded as the basic variables that account for the interrelations observed in the data

Front 77

16PF

Back 77

a self-report personality inventory developed by Raymond B. Cattell to measure the 16 personality dimensions that emerged from his factor analysis of a wide range of traits

Front 78

Hans Eysenck

Back 78

a British psychologist (born in Germany) noted for his theories of intelligence and personality and for his strong criticism of Freudian psychoanalysis

Front 79

Introversion-Extraversion

Back 79

Internal motivation versus external motivation.

Front 80

Reliability

Back 80

ielding the same or compatible results in different clinical experiments or statistical trials

Front 81

Validity

Back 81

roducing the desired results; efficacious

Front 82

Norms

Back 82

The rules of behavior that are part of the ideology of the group. Norms tend to reflect the values of the group and specify those actions that are proper and those that are inappropriate, as well as rewards for adherence and the punishment for conformity.

Front 83

Standardization

Back 83

A process in which the value of a potential standard is fixed by a measurement made with respect to a standard whose value is known.

Front 84

Psychological Test

Back 84

Psychological tests are written, visual, or verbal evaluations administered to assess the cognitive and emotional functioning of children and adults.

Front 85

Self Efficacy

Back 85

The concept of self-efficacy lies at the center of psychologist Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory. Bandura’s theory emphasizes the role of observational learning, social experience and reciprocal determinism in the development of personality.Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation.

Front 86

Reciprocal Determinism

Back 86

According to Albert Bandura, a person's behavior is both influenced by and influences a person's personal factors and the environment. Bandura suggests that a person's behavior can be conditioned through the operant conditioning (use of consequences like reward and punishment); he also believes that a person's behavior can impact the environment. So it is not just that you are influenced by your environment, but that you also influence the environment around you--each impacts the other.

Front 87

Albert Bandura

Back 87

Behaviorism, with its emphasis on experimental methods, focuses on variables we can observe, measure, and manipulate, and avoids whatever is subjective, internal, and unavailable -- i.e. mental. In the experimental method, the standard procedure is to manipulate one variable, and then measure its effects on another. All this boils down to a theory of personality that says that one’s environment causes one’s behavior.

Front 88

Pessimism

Back 88

The opinion or doctrine that everything in nature is ordered for or tends to the worst, or that the world is wholly evil; -- opposed to optimism.

Front 89

Optimism

Back 89

A tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation

Front 90

Personality Inventories

Back 90

A personality inventory is an assessment tool used to determine which of these personality types a person falls into: extroverted, introverted, thinking, feeling, sensing, intuitive, judging, and perceptive. It is used as part of a self assessment done for career planning purposes.

Front 91

MMPI

Back 91

a self-report personality inventory consisting of 550 items that describe feelings or actions which the person is asked to agree with or disagree with; many scales estimating traits and qualities of personality have been developed using MMPI items

Front 92

Empirically Derived

Back 92

Relying on or derived from observation or experiment

Front 93

Neuroticism

Back 93

mental or personality disturbance not attributable to any known neurological or organic dysfunction

Front 94

Agreeableness

Back 94

pleasantness resulting from agreeable conditions; "a well trained staff saw to the agreeableness of our accommodations"; "he discovered the amenities of reading at an early age"

Front 95

Conscientiousness

Back 95

Guided by or in accordance with the dictates of conscience; principled

Front 96

Openness

Back 96

The quality or state of being open.

Front 97

The Big 5

Back 97

The five factors are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism

Front 98

Emotionality-Stability

Back 98

Psychology Consistency of mood and affect

Front 99

Julian Rotter

Back 99

Julian Rotter observed people in therapy and noticed that:
Different people, given identical conditions for learning, learn different things
Some people respond predictably to reinforcement, others less so, and some respond unpredictably
Some people see a direct and strong connection between their behaviour and the rewards and punishments received

Front 100

Locus of Control

Back 100

A psychological construct that refers to whether individuals believe that their behaviour or, more correctly, the reinforcements from behaviour, is under their own control (internal locus of control; see internals) or not (external locus of control; see externals).

Front 101

External Locus of Control

Back 101

A person with an external locus of control is more likely to believe that his or her fate is determined by chance or outside forces that are beyond their own personal control. This strategy can be healthy sometimes. Like when dealing with failure or disaster, but can also be harmful in that it can lead to feeling of helplessness and loss of personal control.

Front 102

Internal Locus of Control

Back 102

Who controls your behavior? Are you the master of your own domain? Is your life already predetermined and everything that happens is fated? If you believe that you control your own destiny and that your behaviors are under your control, then you have an internal locus of control. This concept has quite a bit of importance when we try to make attributions for our behaviors. For example, if you did well on a test, how would you explain it? If you said that it was because you got lucky or the teacher made an easy test, then you would be exhibiting and "external" locus of control. However, if you attribute your good performance to your hard work, good study habits, and interest in the topic, you would being exhibiting and internal locus of control.

Front 103

Martin Seligman

Back 103

is an American psychologist who also writes self-help books. A world-renowned authority on depression and abnormal psychology, he is well known[citation needed] for his work on the theory of "learned helplessness", and according to The Daily Pennsylvanian is considered the father of positive psychology. He is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Front 104

Learned Helplessness

Back 104

Geriatric medicine A state of overdependency discordant with the degree of physical and mental disability seen in nursing home Pts Psychiatry A condition in which a person attempts to establish and maintain contact with another by adopting a helpless, powerless stance

Front 105

Positive Psychology

Back 105

Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology that "studies the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive". Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent", and "to make normal life more fulfilling", not to cure mental illness.