Personality Terms Chapter 11

Front 1

Defense Mechanisms

Back 1

In psychoanalytic theory, the mechanisms of the ego that serve to protect an individual from experiencing anxiety produced by conflicts with the id, ego, and superego.

Front 2

Parapraxis

Back 2

An unintentional utterance or action caused by a leakage from the unconscious parts of the mind; a Freudian slip.

Front 3

Ego Psychology

Back 3

The modern school of psychoanalytic thought that believes that the most important aspect of mental functioning is the way the ego mediates between and formulates compromises among the impulses of the id and the superego.

Front 4

Denial

Back 4

The defense mechanism that denies that a current source of anxiety exists.

Front 5

Repression

Back 5

The defense mechanism that banishes the past from current awareness.

Front 6

Reaction Formation

Back 6

The defense mechanism that keeps an anxiety-producing impulse or thought in check by producing its opposite.

Front 7

Projection

Back 7

The defense mechanism of attributing a thought or impulse that is feared in oneself to someone else.

Front 8

Rationalization

Back 8

The defense mechanism that produces a seemingly logical rationale for an impulse or thought that otherwise would cause anxiety.

Front 9

Intellectualization

Back 9

The defense mechanism by which thoughts that otherwise would cause anxiety are translated into cold, analytic, non-arousing terms.

Front 10

Sublimation

Back 10

The defense mechanism that turns otherwise dangerous or anxiety producing impulses toward constructive ends.

Front 11

Psychic Conflict

Back 11

When the mind battles with itself (the id vs. the superego) causing anxiety.

Front 12

Compromise Formation

Back 12

The ego's attempt to resolve psychic conflict; one of the most important processes that the ego engages in.

Front 13

Terror Management Theory

Back 13

The proposition that many of our thought processes and motivations are based on an effort to deal with (and avoid thinking about) the literally terrifying fact that we are mortal and will die one day.

Front 14

Operational Definition

Back 14

Taking an abstract psychological concept and defining it in a way that can be precisely measured.