Personality - Answers an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
free association - Answers in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person
relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.
psychoanalysis - Answers Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to
unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to
expose and interpret unconscious tensions
unconscious - Answers 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 - Answers contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to
satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. It operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate
gratification
ego - Answers the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates
among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. It operates on the reality principle, satisfying the
id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain
superego - Answers the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and
provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations
defense mechanism - Answers in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing
anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
repression - Answers in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-
arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
regression - Answers a defense mechanism in which you flee from reality by assuming a more infantile
state where some psychic energy remains fixated
reaction formation - Answers 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 - Answers psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening
impulses by attributing them to others
rationalization - Answers defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations or excuses in place
of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions