ANSWERS
personality - set of characteristics that distinguishes us from others and leads us to act consistently
across situations
traits - stable predisposition to act or behave a certain way
trait theories - systems for assessing how people differ, particularly in their predispositions to
respond in certain ways across situations
extroversion - how outgoing and sociable you are
neuroticism - your degree of anxiety, worry, or moodiness
psychoticism - tendencies to be insensitive, uncaring, or cruel
Big Five - five dimensions of personality that have been isolated through factor analysis
OCEAN
OCEAN - openness
conscientiousness
extroversion
agreeableness
neuroticism
ideographic approach - study individuals in greater detail
cardinal traits - Allport's term to describe the personality traits that dominate an individual's life
central traits - Allport's term to describe the 5-10 descriptive traits you would use to describe
someone
, secondary traits - the less obvious characteristics of an individual's personality that do not always
appear in their behavior
self-report inventories - personality tests where people answer groups of questions about how they
typically think/act/feel
projective personality test - individuals are asked to interpret unstructured or ambiguous stimuli
Rorschach Test - inkblot
Thematic Apperception Test - TAT; ambiguous picture
psychodynamic theory - developed by Freud
much of behavior is governed by unconscious forces
conscious mind - contents of awareness
things that occupy the focus of your attention at the moment
preconscious mind - contains all of the inactive but potentially accessible thoughts and memories
unconscious mind - houses all the memories, urges, and conflicts that are beyond awareness
id - portion of personality governed by inborn, instinctual drives, particularly those related to sex and
aggression
superego - the portion of personality that motivates people to act in an ideal fashion
ego - portion of personality that induces people to act with reason and deliberation and helps them
conform to the requirements of the external world
defense mechanisms - unconscious processes used by ego to ward off anxiety that comes with
confrontation, usually with demands from id