PSY 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Unconscious Mind, Implicit Memory, Reality Principle
29 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
* pattern of psychological characteristics (thinking, feeling and behaving) that differentiate us from others and leads us to act consistently across situations and times; involves the study of psychological differences in personality traits. * trait: stable predisposition to act or behave in a certain way. * there are two traditions when talking about personality * nomothetic: what processes are universal to all people (ex. try to understand personality using general laws) * idiographic: unique traits in different people (ex. case studies); less common approach to personality studies. * two instinctual forces were eros and thanatos, meaning sexuality and aggression. * the iceberg metaphor for unconscious thinking; conscious (acute awareness), preconscious (just under awareness), unconscious (well below awareness, difficult to know but influential, contains memories and forbidden/dangerous urges) * id (instincts, pleasure principle, unconscious), superego (idealistic principle, morals), ego (reality principle, balances the other two, rational part, act reasonably, protects us through defense mechanisms)
