| A | B |
|---|
| Trait | Characteristic tendency towards certain behaviors or emotions no matter what situation. |
| Cardinal Trait | One or two characteristics that are most dominant or constant. |
| Central Trait | Significant tendencies that are less dominant than cardinal traits. |
| Secondary Trait | Characteristics that are often present in an individual but are not as "defining" of that individual. |
| Factor Analysis | a complex satistical method created by Raymond Cattell use to catalogue human personality traits |
| Type A Personality | A personality that is driven, competitive, rigid, and intense. |
| Type B Personality | A personality type that is more calm, laid-back, and easy going. |
| Five-Factor Model | The five personality traits, used to describe everyone to some greater or lesser degree, are openness, conscientiousness, and extroversion. |
| Openness | The dgree to which one is open to new experiences and learning. |
| Conscientiousness | The degree to which one is responsible, hard-working, and reliable. |
| Extroversion | The degree to which one is outgoing, expressive, and active. |
| Agreeableness | The degree to which one is considerate, likable, and tolerant. |
| Neuroticism | Teh degree to which one is anxious, unstable, or irrational. |
| Id | Based on the pleasure principle. Part of the unconscious mind. |
| Ego | The reality principle. Works to balance the id and the superego. |
| Superego | Gives harsh judgement on how one should behave. Often refered to as an internalized mother's voice. |
| Defense Mechanisms | These help us through difficult or traumatic period in our lives, although they can be maladaptive if carried to excess. |
| Denial | Rejecting the truth of a painful reality. |
| Displacement | "Taking out" an emotion on a safe or more accessible target than the actual source of emotion. |
| Projection | Attributing something that we don't like about ourselves to someone else. |
| Rationalization | Basically excuse making. |
| Reaction Formation | Protecing ourselves from undesirable emotions by behaving in ways that are exactly opposite of how we truly feel. |
| Regression | Figuratively going back in time to a safer, simpler way of being. |
| Repression | Unconscious forgetting; something painful is buried so deeply that we no longer even know it is part of us. |
| Sublimation | Associating the tterm with "substituion;" an undesirable emotion or drive is unconsciously replaced by a socially acceptable one. |
| Suppression | Conscious forgetting, a conscious attempt to push something out of your mind. |
