Part 3, Chapter 10 - Vocabulary
These flashcards have been designed as a study tool to assist in your mastery of each chapter’s vocabulary and accompanying concepts.
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For use in conjunction with:
Personality: A Systems Approach, By John D. Mayer
Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach
Flashcards by Rebecca Disbrow
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Conscious Self, Conscious
Executive, Ego

The conscious, aware part of the self.

Note: The “ego” was also used by
Sigmund Freud as part of the id/ego/superego division of the mind.
Freud’s ego was defined differently than it is here.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Totalitarian Ego

Characterization of the ego as an entity that carefully controls information so as to promote its own positive image.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Egocentric

The quality of constructing mental models with one’s own interests and perspectives at their center.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Beneffectance
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In Greenwald’s theory of the totalitarian ego, taking credit for causing good outcomes to happen while avoiding accepting blame for bad outcomes.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Confirmation Bias

The tendency of people to search for information that supports their point of view in preference to challenging information.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Feedback

Information about how closely an ongoing process is to meeting a standard.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Feedback Loop

A mechanism for controlling the action of a system that involves feedback as to whether or not it is meeting its goals.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Cybernetics

A field of study that focuses on communication and control in systems, particularly in relation to the system’s self-governance.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Negative Feedback Loop

A mechanism for controlling the action of a system in which the discrepancy between a goal and its attainment is reduced (negated) through feedback.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Comparator

A portion of a feedback loop that judges the difference between the current state of affairs and the desired goal.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Circumspection-Preemption-
Control Cycle

A mental process described by the social-cognitive psychologist George
Kelly, in which a person thinks about a problem (circumspects), decides enough time has been spent on it
(preemption), and makes a decision about how to act (control).
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Dilated Constructs

In terms of social-cognitive theory, a concept or idea, such as trusting others, which is applied in too many cases or to too many situations.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Constricted Constructs

In terms of social-cognitive theory, a concept or idea, such as trusting others, which is applied in too many cases or to too many situations.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Tight Constructs

A type of mental model, in Kelly’s theoretical system, that is rigid and is not easily changed.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Loose Constructs

A type of mental model, in George
Kelly’s theoretical system, that is like a
“first draft,” and may be readily revised in the future.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Self-Monitoring

A state within a person, or a long-term trait, that describes a condition in which the individual closely observes his or her own mental processes or behaviors.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Defensive Pessimism

An adaptive type of pessimism in which a person imagines bad outcomes in order to motivate herself or himself toward higher achievement.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Personal Control

High-level control by the personality system in general, some of which involves conscious self-control, and other portions of which involve unconscious mechanisms.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Dissociated

A state in which concepts that are naturally associated in memory are divided from one another through the establishment of mental barriers and the ideas then operate independently of the ideas to which they had been related previously.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Neo-Dissociationism

A theory proposed by Ernest Hilgard in the 1970’s to re-explain earlier ideas of dissociation and automatism – dating from the 1890’s – in more contemporary psychological language.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Classic Suggestion Effect

An introspective feeling that one has involuntarily responded to an instruction, such as hearing the direction to move one’s head, and then having it move without willing it to do so.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Hypnotic Virtuoso

A hypnotic participant who is especially able to enter into the trance state and is especially talented at carrying out mental tasks under hypnosis.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Defense Mechanisms

Mental processes that are in place to protect the conscious self (ego) from psychic pain.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Suppression

A defense mechanism that involves the conscious blocking out or expelling thoughts that one wishes to avoid thinking about.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Micro-Expressions

Full facial expressions of basic emotions that occur in roughly a quarter of a second or less and then disappear.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Repression

The unconscious forgetting or blocking out of unpleasant or threatening ideas that one wishes to avoid thinking about.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Denial

A defense mechanism in which the individual maintains a claim in the face of obvious information to the contrary.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Projection

A defense mechanism in which the individual sees his or her own unpleasant attributes in another person while being unable to see them in him or herself.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

False Consensus Effect

A research finding that people often believe more others agree with them than is actually the case.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Rationalization

A defense mechanism in which a person employs a plausible, but false, reason for explaining her or his behavior that covers up a real but more unpleasant or threatening reason.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control

Reaction Formation

A defense mechanism in which someone acts opposite to their real inclinations in order to hide them.

For example, someone is intentionally generous in order to mask feelings of stinginess.
Part 3 – Personality Organization
Chapter 10 – Dynamics of Self Control