Personality Vocab List A

3. the theory that thoughts & actions have unconscious motives used in treating psychological disorders
7. the extent to which people feel control over their environment
9. an individual’s characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, & acting
10. unconscious psychic energy that wants to satisfy sexual & aggresive urges (operates on pleasure principle)
12. basic defense mechanism that ignores anxiety-inducing thoughts, feelings, & memories
13. center of one’s personality; organizer of thoughts, feelings, & actions
14. projective test in which people reveal inner thoughts & feelings through made-up stories for ambiguous scenes
16. most researched & used personality test that was developed to identify emotional disorders
17. lasting focus of pleasure-seeking energy from an earlier psychosexual stage with unresolved conflicts
19. theory of death-related anxiety that explores people’s responses to reminders of their impending death
20. prioritizing one’s goals over group goals & defining one’s identity accordingly
21. a characteristic disposition or pattern of behavior
22. an attitude of complete & total acceptance towards another

1. part of the personality that represents internalized ideals & provides standards for judgments & aspirations
2. shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from human history
4. idea that behavior is influenced by interactions between people’s traits & social context
5. one’s feelings of self-worth
6. the perception that one can control their own fate
8. defense mechanism in which socially unacceptable impulses into socially approved ones
11. defense mechanism in which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulse to their opposite
15. defense mechanism that offers justification rather than the real, unconscious reasons for one’s actions
18. a boy’s sexual feelings for his mother & feelings of hatred/jealousy towards his father