Personality Terms Chapter 13

Front 1

Actualize

Back 1

To maintain and enhance life.

Front 2

Angst

Back 2

In existential philosophy, the anxiety that stems from doubts about the meaning and purpose of life (existential anxiety).

Front 3

Anguish

Back 3

Angst felt because choices, though inevitable, are never perfect.

Front 4

Authentic Existence

Back 4

Choosing to inspect one's life, with brutal honesty, and freely face the many uncomfortable questions concerning the meaning of your existence, your own morality, and what you will do with the free will afforded to you at this moment

Front 5

Autotelic Activities

Back 5

Activities that are enjoyable for their own sake.

Front 6

Bad Faith

Back 6

Leading the unexamined life; doing as you are told by society, convention, your peer group, political propaganda, religious dogma, and advertising.

Front 7

Chronically Accessible Constructs

Back 7

Particular constructs that individuals can most readily bring to mind.

Front 8

Cognitive

Back 8

Any mental activity related to thinking (conscious, unconscious, or both).

Front 9

Conditions of Worth

Back 9

Feeling that other people value you only if you are smart, successful, attractive, or good.

Front 10

Construal

Back 10

An individual's particular experience of the world or way of interpreting reality.

Front 11

Constructive Alternativism

Back 11

View that your personal reality does not simply exist apart from you; you construct it in your mind.

Front 12

Core Virtues

Back 12

Virtures encouraged by major religions and philosophies.

Front 13

Despair

Back 13

Angst felt when you acknowledge that many outcomes are beyond your control.

Front 14

Eigenwelt

Back 14

In Binswanger's phenomenological analysis, the experience of experience itself; the result of introspection.

Front 15

Existentialism

Back 15

The philosophical approach that focuses on conscious experience, free will, the meaning of life, and other basic questions of existence.

Front 16

Flow

Back 16

Occurs during an autotelic activity; it is characterized by tremendous concentration, total lack of distractibility, your thoughts concern only the activity at hand, you experience a slightly elevated mood, and time seems to pass very quickly.

Front 17

Forlorn

Back 17

Angst felt because you are alone with your existential choices.

Front 18

Fully Functioning Person

Back 18

An individual who can perceive the world accurately and without neurotic distortion, and can take responsibility for his or her own choices.

Front 19

Hardiness

Back 19

A lifestyle that embraces rather than avoids potential sources of stress.

Front 20

Hierarchy of Needs

Back 20

Organization of needs that characterize human motivation.

Front 21

Humanistic Psychology

Back 21

A basic approach (paradigm) based on the premise that to understand a person you must understand his or her unique view of reality.

Front 22

Introspection

Back 22

The task of observing one's own mental processes.

Front 23

Mitwelt

Back 23

In Binswanger's phenomenological analysis, social experience; feelings and thoughts about others and oneself in relation to them.

Front 24

Nietzsche's Superman

Back 24

The ideal person who seeks to triumph over the apparent meaninglessness of life by coming to see fundamental ideas in a way that provides the certainty and existential strength to face what must be faced.

Front 25

Nihilism

Back 25

Less severe, and more common kind of existential pathology, in which experience is dominated by anger, disgust, and cynicism.

Front 26

Optimal Experience

Back 26

Occurs when one makes the most out of his or her moment-to-moment experiences.

Front 27

Optimistic Toughness

Back 27

The existential courage to face your own mortality and the apparent meaninglessness of life, and to seek purpose for your existence nonetheless.

Front 28

Personal Construct Theory

Back 28

Theory of personality that emphasizes how one's cognitive or thinking system builds that experience out of one's own personal constructs.

Front 29

Personal Constructs

Back 29

Your unique set of ideas about the world.

Front 30

Phenomenal Filed

Back 30

The entire panorama of your conscious experience.

Front 31

Phenomenology

Back 31

A basic approach (paradigm) interested in conscious experience.

Front 32

Positive Psychology Movement

Back 32

A basic approach (paradigm) that focuses on the study of psychology with the expressed purpose of improving quality of life and preventing psychopathology.

Front 33

Role Construct Repertory Test

Back 33

Kelly's assessment instrument for personal constructs.

Front 34

Self-Actualization (Maslow)

Back 34

The desire for self-fulfillment that occurs after other, more basic needs are met; this tendency can be observed in two forms: a desire to become more of what one presently is, and/or to become everything that one is capable of becoming.

Front 35

Self-Actualization (Rogers)

Back 35

The ability to be free of conditions of worth so one can fulfill the natural phenomenon of personal development (defined as the process of you becoming more fully yourself).

Front 36

Sociality Corollary

Back 36

In Kelly's personal construct theory, the principle that to understand another person it is necessary to understand his or her unique view of reality.

Front 37

Subjective Well-being

Back 37

A sense of happiness and general well-being.

Front 38

Thrown-ness

Back 38

In Heidegger's existential analysis, the era, location, and situation into which a person happens to be born.

Front 39

Umwelt

Back 39

In Binswanger's phenomenological analysis, biological experience, the sensations a person feels of being a live animal.

Front 40

Unconditional Positive Regard

Back 40

Feeling of being loved and accepted by parents and significant others without regard for accomplishments.

Front 41

Vegetativeness

Back 41

The most severe kind of existential pathology in which a person feels that nothing has meaning and becomes listless and aimless.