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The Psychodynamic Perspective on Personality definitions

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  • Psychodynamic Perspective
    A psychological approach emphasizing unconscious energy dynamics and internal conflicts shaping thoughts and behaviors.
  • Unconscious
    A mental realm containing thoughts, feelings, and desires outside of awareness but still influencing behavior.
  • Id
    A personality component representing primitive desires, seeking immediate gratification and pleasure, fully unconscious from birth.
  • Superego
    A personality structure embodying internalized societal norms, acting as a moral compass and source of guilt or shame.
  • Ego
    A rational mediator balancing primitive urges and moral standards, enabling realistic and socially acceptable behavior.
  • Defense Mechanisms
    Unconscious cognitive distortions deployed to reduce internal conflict and anxiety between primitive urges and moral demands.
  • Repression
    A process where distressing memories or emotions are blocked from conscious awareness, preventing recall of traumatic events.
  • Denial
    An unconscious refusal to accept reality or facts, shielding the individual from uncomfortable truths or situations.
  • Displacement
    Redirecting emotional responses from their original source to a less threatening person or object.
  • Projection
    Attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to another person, externalizing inner conflicts.
  • Regression
    A return to earlier developmental behaviors when faced with stress, such as acting younger than one's age.
  • Reaction Formation
    Transforming threatening inner desires into their opposite, often resulting in exaggerated or contrary behaviors.
  • Psychosexual Stages
    A developmental sequence where childhood experiences and conflicts at specific ages shape adult personality.
  • Oedipus Complex
    A childhood conflict involving desire for the opposite-sex parent and rivalry with the same-sex parent.
  • Fixation
    A lingering focus on behaviors or needs from an unresolved psychosexual stage, influencing adult habits or traits.