Ohio State University Psych 1100 Chapter 14

Front 1

Personality

Back 1

People's typical ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Front 2

Trait

Back 2

Relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behavior across many situations.

Front 3

Nomothetic Approach

Back 3

Approach to personality that focuses on identifying general laws that govern the behavior of all individuals.

Front 4

Idiographic Approach

Back 4

Approach to personality that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person.

Front 5

Molecular Genetic Study

Back 5

Investigation that allows researchers to pinpoint genes associated with specific personality traits.

Front 6

Psychic Determinism

Back 6

The assumption that all psychological events have a cause.

Front 7

ID

Back 7

Reservoir of our most primitive impulses, including sex and aggression.

Front 8

Pleasure Principle

Back 8

Tendency of the ID to strive for immediate gratification.

Front 9

Ego

Back 9

Psyche's executive and principal decision maker.

Front 10

Reality Principle

Back 10

Tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet.

Front 11

Superego

Back 11

Our sense of morality.

Front 12

Defense Mechanisms

Back 12

Unconscious maneuvers intended to minimize anxiety.

Front 13

Repression

Back 13

Motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses.

Front 14

Denial

Back 14

Motivated forgetting of distressing external experiences.

Front 15

Regression

Back 15

The act of returning psychologically to a younger, and typically simpler and safer, age.

Front 16

Reaction-formation

Back 16

Transformation of an anxiety-provoking emotion into its opposite.

Front 17

Projection

Back 17

Unconscious attribution of our negative characteristics to others.

Front 18

Displacement

Back 18

Directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a safer and more socially acceptable target.

Front 19

Rationalization

Back 19

Providing a reasonable-sounding explanation for unreasonable behaviors or for failures.

Front 20

Identification with the Aggressor

Back 20

Process of adopting the characteristics of individuals we find threatening.

Front 21

Sublimation

Back 21

Transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal.

Front 22

Erogenous Zone

Back 22

Sexually arousing zone of the body.

Front 23

Oral Stage

Back 23

Psychosexual stage that focuses on the mouth.

Front 24

Anal Stage

Back 24

Psychosexual stage that focuses on toilet training.

Front 25

Phallic Stage

Back 25

Psychosexual stage that focuses on the genitals.

Front 26

Oedipus Complex

Back 26

Conflict during phallic stage in which boys supposedly love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals.

Front 27

Electra Complex

Back 27

Conflict during phallic stage in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want t eliminate their mothers as rivals.

Front 28

Latency Stage

Back 28

Psychosexual stage in which sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious.

Front 29

Genital Stage

Back 29

Psychosexual Stage in which sexual impulses awake and typically begin to mature into romantic attraction toward others.

Front 30

Neo-Freudian Theories

Back 30

Theories derived from Freud's model, but that placed less emphasis on sexuality as a driving force in personality and were more optimistic regarding the prospects for long term personality growth.

Front 31

Style of Life

Back 31

According to Adler, each person's distinctive way of achieving superiority.

Front 32

Inferiority Complex

Back 32

Feelings of low self-esteem that can lead to overcompensation for such feelings.

Front 33

Collective Unconscious

Back 33

According to Jung, our shared storehouse of memories that ancestors have passed down to us across generations.

Front 34

Archetype

Back 34

Cross-culturally universal symbols.

Front 35

Social Learning Theorists

Back 35

Theorists who emphasize thinking as a cause of personality.

Front 36

Reciprocal Determinism

Back 36

Tendency for people to mutually influence each other's behavior.

Front 37

Locus of Control

Back 37

Extent to which people believe that reinforcers and punishers lie inside or outside of their control.

Front 38

Self-Actualization

Back 38

Drive to develop our innate potential to the fullest possible extent.

Front 39

Conditions of Worth

Back 39

According to Rogers, expectations we place on ourselves for appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

Front 40

Incongruence

Back 40

Inconsistency between our personalities and innate dispositions.

Front 41

Peak Experience

Back 41

Transcendent moment of intense excitement and tranquility marked by a profound sense of connection to the world.

Front 42

Factor Analysis

Back 42

Statistical Technique that analyzes the correlations among responses on personality inventories and other measures.

Front 43

Big Five

Back 43

Five traits that have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures.

Front 44

Lexical Approach

Back 44

Approach proposing that the most crucial features of personality are embedded in our language.

Front 45

Structured Personality Test

Back 45

Paper-and-pencil test consisting of questions that respondents answer in one of a few fixed ways.

Front 46

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Back 46

Widely used structured personality test designed to assess symptoms of mental disorders.

Front 47

Empirical Method of Test Construction

Back 47

Approach to building tests in which researchers begin with two or more criterion groups, and examine which items best distinguish them.

Front 48

Face Validity

Back 48

Extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring.

Front 49

Rational / Theoretical Method of Test Construction

Back 49

Approach to building tests that requires test developers to begin with a clear-cut conceptualization of a trait and then write items to assess that conceptualization.

Front 50

Projective Test

Back 50

Test consisting of ambiguous stimuli that examinees must interpret or make sense of.

Front 51

Projective Hypothesis

Back 51

Hypothesis that in the process of interpreting ambiguous stimuli, examinees project aspects of their personality onto the stimulus.

Front 52

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Back 52

Projective test consisting of ten symmetrical inkblots.

Front 53

Incremental Validity

Back 53

Extent to which a test contributes information beyond other, more easily collected measures.

Front 54

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Back 54

Projective test requiring examinees to tell a story in response to ambiguous pictures.

Front 55

Graphology

Back 55

Psychological interpretation of handwriting.

Front 56

P.T. Barnum Effect

Back 56

Tendency of people to accept high base rate descriptions as accurate.