STUDY GUIDE: UNIT 10 – PERSONALITY
AP Psychology
In addition to the information in this study guide, you are also responsible
for all of the content in textbook (Chapter 13), all information from class
notes/discussions, videos, handouts and graphic organizers.
It’s AP – it’s all fair game 
Terms & Concepts
All terms & concepts on page 591.
(Terms & concepts are also listed on the back of the APP February calendar)
Big Ideas: Chapter 13
1: What was Freud’s view of personality and its development?
 Psychoanalysis
 Free association, dream analysis
 Id, ego, superego
 Psychosexual stages
2: How did Freud think people defended themselves against anxiety?
 Repression, regression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement,
denial
3: Which of Freud’s ideas did his followers accept or reject?
 Adler, Horney, Jung
4: What are projective tests, and how are they used?
 TAT, Rorschach
 Criticisms
5: How do contemporary psychologists view Freud and the unconscious?
6: How did humanist psychologists view personality, and what was their goal in studying
personality?
 Maslow & Rogers
 Unconditional positive regard
7: How did humanist psychologists assess a person’s sense of self?
 Self concept
8: How has the humanist perspective influenced psychology?
What criticisms has it faced?
9: How do psychologists use traits to describe personality?
 Hans and Sybil Eysenck
 Factor analysis
10: What are personality inventories, and what are their strengths and weaknesses as traitassessment tools?
 MMPI
11: Which traits seem to provide the most useful information about personality variation?
 The Big Five
12: Does research support the consistency of personality traits over time and across situations?
13: In the view of social-cognitive psychologists, what mutual influences shape an individual’s
personality?
 Albert Bandura
14: What are the causes and consequences of personal control?
 Internal and external locus of control
 Learned helplessness
 Optimism vs. pessimism
15: What underlying principle guides social-cognitive psychologists in their assessment of
people’s behavior and beliefs?
 Adulthood’s commitments
 Successful aging
16: What has the social-cognitive perspective contributed to the study of personality, and what
criticisms has it faced?
 Continuity and stages
 Stability and change
17: Are we helped or hindered by high self-esteem?
 Spotlight effect
 Self-esteem
 Self-serving bias