| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Personality | A pattern of relatively permanent traits, dispositions, or characteristics that give some consistency to people's behavior. |
| Consciousness | Freud's level of mental life that consists of those experiences that we are aware of at any given time. |
| Preconscious | Freud's level of the mind that contains those experiences that are not currently conscious but may become so with varying degrees of difficulty. |
| Unconscious | Freud's level of mental life that consists of mental activities beyond people's normal awareness. |
| Id | In Freud's theory, the source of a person's instinctual energy, which works mainly on the pleasure principle. |
| Ego | In Freud's theory, the part of personality that seeks to satisfy instinctual needs in accordance with reality. |
| Superego | In Freud's theory, the moral aspect of mental functioning comprising the ego ideal (what a person would ideally like to be) and the conscience and taught by parents and society. |
| Oral Stage | Freud's first stage of personality development, from birth to about age 2, during which the instincts of infants are focused on the mouth as the primary pleasure center. |
| Anal Stage | Freud's second stage of personality development, from about age 2 to about age 3, during which children learn to control the immediate gratification they obtain through defecation and to become responsive to the demands of society. |
| Phallic Stage | Freud's third stage of personality development, from about age 4 through age 7, during which children obtain gratification primarily from the genitals. |
| Oedipus Complex | Feelings of rivalry with the parent of the same sex and sexual desire for the parent of the other sex, occurring during the phallic stage and ultimately resolved through identification with the parent of the same sex. |
| Latency Stage | Freud's fourth stage of personality development, from about age 7 until puberty, during which sexual urges are inactive. |
| Genital Stage | Freud's last stage of personality development, from the onset of puberty through adulthood, during which the sexual conflicts of childhood resurface (at puberty) and are often resolved during adolescence). |
| Libido | In Freud's theory, the instinctual (and sexual) life force that, working on the pleasure principle and seeking immediate gratification, energizes the id. |
| Defense Mechanism | An unconscious way of reducing anxiety by distorting perceptions of reality. |
| Repression | Defense mechanism by which anxiety-provoking thoughts and feelings are forced to the unconscious. |
| Rationalization | Defense mechanism by which people reinterpret undesirable feelings or behaviors in terms that make them appear acceptable. |
| Fixation | An excessive attachment to some person or object that was appropriate only at an earlier stage of development |
| Regression | A return to a prior stage after a person has progressed through the various stages of development; caused by anxiety. |
| Projection | Defense mechanism by which people attribute their own undesirable traits to others. |
| Reaction Formation | Defense mechanism by which people behave in a way opposite to what their true but anxiety-provoking feelings would dictate. |
| Displacement | Defense mechanism by which people divert sexual or aggressive feelings for one person onto another person. |
| Denial | Defense mechanism by which people refuse to accept reality. |
| Sublimation | Defense mechanism by which people redirect socially unacceptable impulses toward acceptable goals. |
| Social Interest | In Adler's theory, a feeling of openness with all humanity. |
| Collective Unconscious | In Jung's theory, a shared storehouse of primitive ideas and images that reside in the unconscious and are inherited from one's ancestors. |
| Archetypes | In Jung's theory, the emotionally charged ideas and images that are rich in meaning and symbolism and exist within the collective unconscious. |
| Longitudinal Study | A research approach that follows a group of people over time to determine change or stability in behavior. |
| Trait | Any readily identifiable stable quality that characterizes how an individual differs from other individuals. |
| Types | Personality categories in which broad collections of traits are loosely tied together and interrelated. |
| Self-actualization | The process of growth and the realization of individual potential; in the humanistic view, a final level of psychological development in which a person attempts to minimize ill health, be fully functioning, have a superior perception of reality, and feel a strong sense of self-acceptance. |
| Fulfillment | In Roger's theory of personality, an inborn tendency directing people toward actualizing their essential nature and thus attaining their potential. |
| Self | In Roger's theory of personality, the perception an individual has of himself or herself and of his or her relationships to other people and to various aspects of life. |
| Ideal Self | In Roger's theory of personality, the self a person would ideally like to be. |
| Self-efficacy | A person's belief about whether he or she can successfully engage in and execute a specific behavior. |
| Assessment | Process of evaluating individual differences among human beings by means of tests interviews, observations, and recordings of physiological. |
| Projective Tests | Devices or instruments used to assess personality, in which examinees are shown a standard set of ambiguous stimuli and asked to respond to the stimuli in their own way. |
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