Personality Chapter 10

Defined as distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting

Personal characteristics that have been judged or evaluated

Hereditary aspects of personality, including sensitivity, moods, irritability, and distractibility

Stable qualities that a person shows in most situations

People who have several traits in common

System of concepts, assumptions, ideas, and principles proposed to explain personality

Attempt to learn what traits make up personality and how they relate to actual behavior

Focus on the inner workings of personality, especially internal conflicts and struggles

Focus on private, subjective experience and personal growth

Attribute difference in personality to socialization, expectations, and mental processes

Most widely used self-report inventory; originally designed to assess mental health and detect psychological symptoms; person must reply true or false; includes "lying scales"

Openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Attempts to explain personality on the basis of unconscious mental forces; argues that personality is made up of multiple structures; personality develops defense mechanisms to protect against anxiety

Levels of consciousness: conscious, preconscious, unconscious. Structures of personality: id,ego, superego

What we're aware of