You Get Worked

PERSONALITY – an individual’s characteristic pattern of think9ing, feeling, and acting.

FREE ASSOCIATION – in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how tri vial or embarrassing.

PSYCHOANALYSIS – Freud’s theory of personality that attributes our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

UNCONSIOUS – according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories, According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

ID – contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

EGO – the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that , according to Freud, mediates among the demands of Id, superego, and reality – reality principle

SUPEREGO – part of personality that according to Freud , represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment) and future aspirations.

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES – the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital ) during which, according to Freud, the Id’s pleasure seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.

OEDIPUS COMPLEXm- boy’s sexual desires towards mother, jealousy towards father

IDENTIFICATIONS – process by which children incorporate their parent’s values into their developing superego

FIXATION – lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved.

DEFENSE MECHANISMS – in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

REPRESSION – basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.

REGRESSION – Defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated REACTION FORMATION – psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings

PROJECTION – psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

RATIONALIZATION – defense mechanism that offers self justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions.

DISPLACEMENT – psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet.

PROJECTIVE TEST – a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics.

THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT) a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST – the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.

COLLECTIVE UNCONSIOUS – Carl Jung’s concept of shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces form our species’ history

SELF-ACTUALIZATION – according to Maslow, the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential

UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD – according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person.

SELF-CONCEPT – all out thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am I?

TRAIT – a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer report

PERSONALITY INVENTORY – a questionnaire (often with true- false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.

MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVETORY (MMPI) – the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes.

EMPIRICALLY DERIVED TEST – a test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups.

EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL – the perception that one controls one’s own fate

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS – the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

SPOTLIGHT EFFECT – overestimating other’s noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)

SELF-ESTEEM – one’s feeling of high or low self-worth

SELF-SERVING BIAS – a readiness to perceive ourselves favorably

INDIVIDUALISM – gibing priority to one’s own goals over group goals, and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.

COLLECTIVISM – giving priority to the goals of one’s group (extended family, work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly

TERROR–MANAGEMENT THEORY – proposes that faith in one’s worldview and the pursuit of self-esteem provide protection against a deeply rooted fear of death