G-6 Glossary
that are directed toward the satisfaction of some general
need.
Freudian slips Slips of the tongue or pen, misreading,
incorrect hearing, temporary forgetting of names and
intentions, and the misplacing of objects, all of which
are caused by unconscious wishes. Also called
parapraxes.
fully functioning person (Rogers) (See person of
tomorrow)
functional autonomy (Allport) The tendency for
some motives to become independent from the original
motive responsible for the behavior.
fundamental attribution error (Buss) Our tendency
to ignore situational and environmental forces when
explaining the behavior of other people and instead focus
on internal dispositions.
fundamental situational error (Buss) The tendency
to assume that the environment alone can produce
behavior void of a stable internal mechanism.G
Gemeinschaftsgefühl (See social interest)
generalization The transfer of the effects of one
learning situation to another.
generalized expectancy (Rotter) Expectation based
on similar past experiences that a given behavior will be
reinforced.
generalized reinforcer (Skinner) A conditioned
reinforcer that has been associated with several primary
reinforcers. Money, for example, is a generalized
reinforcer because it is associated with food, shelter, and
other primary reinforcers.
genitality (Erikson) Period of life beginning with
puberty and continuing through adulthood and marked
by full sexual identity.
genital-locomotor Erikson’s term for the preschool
child’s psychosexual mode of adapting.
genital stage (Freud) Period of life beginning with
puberty and continuing through adulthood and marked
by full sexual identity.
genital stage (Klein) Comparable to Freud’s phallic
stage: that is, the time around ages 3 to 5 when the
Oedipus complex reaches its culmination.
great mother Jungian archetype of the opposing forces
of fertility and destruction.
guilt (Kelly) The sense of having lost one’s core role
structure.
guilt (May) An ontological characteristic of human
existence arising from our separation from the natural
world (Umwelt), from other people (Mitwelt), or from
oneself (Eigenwelt).factor analysis A mathematical procedure for reducing
a large number of variables to a few; used by Eysenck
and others to identify personality traits and factors.
factor loadings The amount of correlation that a score
contributes to a given factor.
falsifiable An attribute of a theory that allows research
to either support or fail to support that theory’s major
tenets. A falsifiable theory is accountable to experimental
results.
fear (Kelly) A specific threat to one’s personal constructs.
feeling (Jung) A rational function that tells us the
value of something. The feeling function can be either
extraverted (directed toward the objective world) or
introverted (directed toward the subjective world).
fiction (Adler) A belief or expectation of the future
that serves to motivate present behavior. The truthfulness
of a fictional idea is immaterial, because the person acts
as if the idea were true.
fixation A defense mechanism that arises when
psychic energy is blocked at one stage of development,
thus making change or psychological growth difficult.
fixation (Fromm) The nonproductive form of
rootedness marked by a reluctance to grow beyond the
security provided by one’s mother.
fixed-interval (Skinner) Intermittent reinforcement
schedule whereby the organism is reinforced for its first
response following a designated period of time (e.g., FI
10 means that the animal is reinforced for its initial
response after 10 minutes have elapsed since its previous
reinforcement).
fixed-ratio (Skinner) Reinforcement schedule in
which the organism is reinforced intermittently
according to a specified number of responses it makes
(e.g., FR 7 means that the organism is reinforced for
every seventh response).
formative tendency (Rogers) Tendency in all matter
to evolve from simpler to more complex forms.
fortuitous events (Bandura) Environmental events
that are unexpected and unintended.
fragmentation corollary Kelly’s assumption that
behavior is sometimes inconsistent because one’s
construct systems can admit incompatible elements.
frame of orientation (Fromm) The need for humans
to develop a unifying philosophy or consistent way of
looking at things.
free association Technique used in Freudian
psychotherapy in which the therapist instructs the patient
to verbalize every thought that comes to mind, no matter
how irrelevant or repugnant it may appear.
freedom of movement (Rotter) The mean expectancy
of being reinforced for performing all those behaviors