Psychology Test #4 2022/2023 Graded A+

personality - ANSWER - an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting psychodynamic theories - ANSWER - view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious and unconscious minds - they stress the importance of childhood experiences free association - ANSWER - the Freudian technique in which the person is encouraged to say whatever comes to mind as a means of exploring the unconscious psychoanalysis - ANSWER - Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts - also, the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret the tensions within a patient's unconscious unconscious - ANSWER - in freud's theory, the unconscious is the reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories - according to contemporary psychologists, it is a level of information processing of which we are unaware id - ANSWER - in freud's theory, the id is the unconscious system of personality, consisting of basic sexual and aggressive drives, that supplies psychic energy to personality - it operates on the pleasure principle - bottom of the iceberg ego - ANSWER - in psychoanalytic theory, the ego is the largely conscious, "executive" division of personality that attempts to mediate among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality - it operates on the reality principle - top of the iceberg superego - ANSWER - in freud's theory, the superego is the division of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations - middle of the iceberg psychosexual stages - ANSWER - Freud's psychosexual stages are developmental periods children pass through during which the id's pleasure-seeking energies are focused on different erogenous zones Oedipus complex - ANSWER - according to freud, boys in the phallic stage develop a collection of feelings, known as the oedipus complex, that center on sexual attraction to the mother and resentment of the father - some psychologists believe girls have a parallel electra complex identification - ANSWER - in freud's theory, identification is the process by which the child's superego develops and incorporates the parent's values - Freud saw identification as crucial, not only to resolution of the Oedipus complex, but also the development of what psychologists now call gender identity fixation - ANSWER - in freud's theory, fixation occurs when development becomes arrested, due to unresolved conflicts, in an earlier psychosexual stage defense mechanisms - ANSWER - in psychoanalytic theory, defense mechanisms are the go's methods of unconsciously protecting itself again anxiety by distorting reality repression - ANSWER - the basis of all defense mechanisms, repression is the unconscious exclusion of anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness collective unconscious - ANSWER - Jung's concept of an inherited unconscious shared by all people and deriving from our species' history projective test - ANSWER - such as the Rorschach - present ambiguous stimuli onto which people supposedly project their own inner feelings Rorschach inkblot test - ANSWER - the most widely used projective test - consists of 10 inkblots that people are asked to interpret - it seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots terror-management theory - ANSWER - focuses on people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their mortality humanistic theories - ANSWER - of personality focus on our potential for healthy personal growth self-actualization - ANSWER - in Maslow's theory, self-actualization describes the process of fulfilling one;s potential and becoming spontaneous, loving, creative, and self-accepting - self-actualization becomes active only after the basic physical and psychological needs have been met unconditional positive regard - ANSWER - according to Rogers, unconditional positive reward is an attitude of total acceptance toward another person self-concept - ANSWER - refers to one's personal awareness of "who I am" - in the humanistic perspective, the self-concept is a central feature of personality - life happiness is significantly affected by whether the self-concept is positive or negative trait - ANSWER - a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act personality inventory - ANSWER - personality inventories, associated with the trait perspective, are questionnaires used to assess personality traits Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) - ANSWER - consisting of 10 clinical scales, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely researched and clinically used personality inventory empirically derived test - ANSWER - developed by testing many items to see which best distinguish between groups of interest social-cognitive perspective - ANSWER - according to the social-cognitive perspective, behavior is the result of interactions between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context reciprocal determinism - ANSWER - according to the social-cognitive perspective, personality is shaped through reciprocal determinism, or the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment personal control - ANSWER - refers to the extent to which people perceive control over their environment external locus of control - ANSWER - the perception that your fate is determined by forces not under personal control internal locus of control - ANSWER - the perception that, to a great extent, you control your own destiny self-control - ANSWER - the ability to control impulses and delay gratification learned helplessness - ANSWER - the passive resignation and perceived lack of control that a person or animal develops from repeated exposure to inescapable aversive events positive psychology - ANSWER - focusing on positive emotions, positive character traits, and enabling institutions, positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal human functioning self - ANSWER - in contemporary psychology, the self is the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions spotlight effect - ANSWER - the spotlight effect is the tendency of people to overestimate the extent to which other people are noticing and evaluating their appearance, performance, and blunders self-esteem - ANSWER - refers to an individual's feeling of self-worth self-serving bias - ANSWER - the tendency to perceive one-self favorably narcissism - ANSWER - excessive self-love and self-absorption social psychology - ANSWER - the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another attribution theory - ANSWER - deals with out causal explanations of behavior - we attribute behavior to the individual's disposition or to the situation fundamental attribution error - ANSWER - our tendency to underestimate the impact of situations and to overestimate the impact of personal dispositions upon the behavior of others attitudes - ANSWER - feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that may predispose us to respond in particular ways to objects, people, and events peripheral route persuasion - ANSWER - occurs when people are influenced by more superficial and incidental cues, such as a speaker's appearance central route persuasion - ANSWER - occurs when people respond favorably to arguments as a result of engaging in systematic thinking about an issue foot-in-the-door phenomenon - ANSWER - the tendency for people who agree to a small request to comply later with a larger request role - ANSWER - a set of explanations (norms) about how people in a specific social position ought to behave cognitive dissonance theory - ANSWER - refers to the theory that we act to reduce the psychological discomfort we experience when our behavior conflicts with what we think and feel, or more generally, when two of our thoughts are inconsistent - this is frequently accomplished by changing our attitude rather than our behavior - memory aid: dissonance means "lack of harmony"; cognitive dissonance occurs when two thoughts, or cognitions, are at variance with one another conformity - ANSWER - the tendency to change one's thinking or behavior to coincide with a group standard normative social influence - ANSWER - refers to the pressure on individuals to conform to avoid rejection or gain social approval - memory aid: normative means "based on a norm, or pattern, regarded as typical for a specific group."; normative social influence is the pressure groups exert on the individual to behave in ways acceptable to the group standard informative social influence - ANSWER - results when one is willing to accept others' opinions about reality social facilitation - ANSWER - stronger performance of simple or well-learned tasks that occurs when other people are present social loafing - ANSWER - the tendency for individual effort to be diminished when one is part of a group working toward a common goal deindividuation - ANSWER - refers to the loss of self-restraint and self-awareness that sometimes occurs in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity - memory aid: as a prefix, de- indicates reversal or undoing; to deindividuate is to undo one's individuality group polarization - ANSWER - refers to the enhancement of a group's prevailing tendencies through discussion, which often has the effect of accentuating the group's differences from other groups - memory aid: to polarize is to "cause thinking to concentrate about two poles, or contrasting positions" groupthink - ANSWER - refers to the unrealistic thought processes and decision making that occur within groups when the desire for group harmony overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives - ex: the psychological tendencies of self-justification, conformity, and group polarization foster the development of the "team spirit" mentality known as groupthink prejudice - ANSWER - an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members stereotype - ANSWER - a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people discrimination - ANSWER - unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members just-world phenomenon - ANSWER - a manifestation of the commonly held belief that good is rewarded and evil is punished - the logic is indisputable; "If I am rewarded, I must be good." ingroup - ANSWER - refers to the people and groups with whom we share a common identity