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An individual's unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling and breathing

personality theory

A theory that attempts to describe and explain similarities and differences in people's patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.


Sigmund Freud's theory of personality, which emphasizes unconcious determinanats of behavior, sexual and aggressive instinctual drive, and the enduring effects of early childhood experiences on later personality development

free association

A psychoanalytic technique in which patient spontaneously reports all thoughts, feelings and mental images as they come to mind.


In Freud's theory, a term used to describe thoughts, feelings, wishes, and drives that are operating below the level of concious awareness.


Latin for it, in Freud's theory, the completely unconcious, irrational componenet of personality that seeks immediate satisfaction of instinctual urges and drives, ruled by the pleasure principle.


The Self-preservation or life instinct, reflected in the expression of basic biological urges that perpetuate the existence of the individual and all the species


The psychological and emotional energy associated with expressions of sexuality; the sex drive.


The death instinct, reflected in aggressive, destructive, and self-destructive actions.

Pleasure principle

The motive to obtain pleasure and avoid tension or discomfort, the most fundamental human motive and the guiding principle of the id.


Latin for I; In Freud's theory; the partly conscious rational component of personality that regulates thoughts and behavior and is most in touch with he demands od the external world.

reality principle

The capacity to accomadate external demands by postponing gratification until the appropiate time or circumstances exist.


The partly self-concious, self-evluative, moralistic component of personality that is formed through the internalization of parental and societal roles.

Ego defense mechanisms

Largely unconcious distoritions of thoughts or perceptions that act to reduce anxiety.


The unconcious exclusion of anxiety-provoking thoughts, feelings and memories from concious awareness; the most fundamental ego defense mechanism


The ego defense mechanism that involves unconcious shifting the target of an emotional urge to a subsitite taget that is less threatening or dangerous.


An ego defense mechanism that involves redirecting sexual urges toward productive, socially acceptable, nonsexual actives; a form of displacement.

psychosexual stages

In Freud's theory, age-related developmetnal periods in which the child's sexual urges are focused on different areas of the body and are expressed through the activities associated with those areas.

Oedipus complex

In Freud's theory, a child's unconcious sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent, usually accompanied by hostile feelings toward the same-sex parent.


In psychoanalytic theory, an ego defense mechanism that involves reducing anxiety by imitating the behavior and characteristics of another person.

collective unconscious

In Jung's theory, the hypothesized part of the unconcious mind that is inherited from previous generations and that contains universally shared ancestral experiences and ideas


In Jung's theory, the inherited mental instincts, themes and preoccupations that are the main components of the collective unconcious.

humanistic psychology

The theoritical viewpoint on personality that generally emphasizes the inherent goodness of people, human potential, the self-concept, and healthy personality development.

actualizing tendency

In Carl Riger's theory, the innate drive to maintain and enhance the human organism.


The set of perceptions and beliefs that you hold about yourself.

conditional positive regard


unconditional positive regard

In Roger's theory, the sense that you will be valued and loved even if you don't conform to the standards and experiences of others; unconditional love or acceptance.

social cognitive theory

Albert Bandura's theory of personality, which emphasizes the importance of obervational learning, concious cognitive procesess, social expereinces, self-efficacy beliefs and reciprocal determination.

reciprocal determination

A model proposed by psychologist Albert Bandura that explains human functioning and personality as caused by the interaction of behavorial, cognitive and environmental factors.


The belief that people have about their ability to meet the demands of a specific situation, feelings of self-condifence or self-doubt



trait theory

A theory that focuses on identifying, describing, and measuring individual differences in behavorial dispositions.

surface traits

Personality characteristics or attributes that can easiliy be inferred from observable behavior.

Source traits


behavorial genetics

An interdisciplanary field that studies the effects of genes and heredity on behavior.

psychological test

A test that assess a person's abilities, aptitudes, interests, or personality, on the basis of a systematically obtained sample of behavior.

projective test

A type of personality test that involves a person's interpreting an ambigous image, used to assess unconcious motives, conflicts, psychological desires and personality traits.

Rorschach Inkblot Test



A psuedoscience that claims to assess personality, social, and occupational attributes based on a person's distinctive handwritin, ddodles and drawing style.

Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT)

A projective personality test that involves creating stories about each of a series of ambigious scenes.

Self-report inventory

A type of psychological test which a person's responses to standardized questionsare compared to established norms.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

A self-report inventrory that assess personality characteristics and psychological disorders ; used to assess both normal and distributed populations

California Personality Inventory (CPI)

A self-report inventory that assess persoanlity characteristics in normal populations.

Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)

A self-report inventroy developed by Raymond Cartell that generates a persoanlity profile with ratings on 16 trait dimensions.

positive selves


Alfred Alder

Austrain physicist who boke Sigmund Freud and developed his own psychoanalytic theory of personality; which emphazised social factors and the motivation toward self-imporvement and self-realization; key ideas include the inferioirity complex and superiority complex.

Albert Bandura

Contemporary American Psychologist who is best known for his research in observational learning and his social cognitive theory of personality;
Key Ideas include self-efficacy beleifs and reciprocal determination.

Raymond Cartell

British-born American psychologist who developed a trait theory that identifies 16 essential source traits or personality factors; also developed the widely used self-report personality test, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire

Hans Eysneck

German-born Britisn psychologist who developed a trait theory of personality that identifies the three basic dimensions of personality as neurocism, extraversion, and psychoticism; reduced Cartell's 16 PF. Emphasis on measuring and describing individual differences

Sigmund Freud

Austrian nuerologist who founded psycholanalysis, which is both a comprehensive theory of personality and a form of psychotherapy; emphasized the role of unconcious determinanats of behavior and early childhood experiences in the development of personality and psychological problems; Key Ideas: include the id, ego, superego; the psychosexualstages of development; and the ego defense mechanisms.

Karen Horney

German-born American psychoanalyst who emphazied the role of social relationships and culture in personality
Sharply disagreed with Freud's characterization of female psychological development, especially his notion that women suffer from from penis envy;
Key ideas include basic anxiety and womb envy.

Carl G. Jung

Swiss psychiatrist who broke with Sigmund Freud to develop his own psychoanalytic theory of personality, which stressed striving toward psychological harmony;
Key Ideas include the collective unconcious and archetypes.

Abraham Maslow

American Psychologist who was one of the founders of humanstic psychology and emphasized the study of healthy personality development
Developed a heirarchal test of motivation based on the idea that people will strive for self-actualization, the highest motive, only after more basic needs have been met;
Key ideas include: Hierarchy of needs and self-actualization.

Carl Rogers

Amercian psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistis psychology;
Developed a theory of personality and form of psychotherapy that emphsized the inherent worth of people, the innate tendency to strive towards one's potential, and the importance of the self-concept in personality development; key ideas include the actualizing tendency and unconditional positive regard.

Five-factor model of personality

A trait theory by Costa, McCrae that identifies extraversion, nueroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness. and openness to experienceas the fundamental building blocks of personality.

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