Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
Edition(^616) Back Matter Glossary © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
separation anxiety Reactions of infants upon losing
sight of their primary caregiver; at first infants protest,
then despair, and finally become emotionally detached.
separation-individuation (Mahler) The third major
stage of development, marked by the child’s becoming
an individual, separate from its mother; spans the period
from ages 4 or 5 months to about 30 to 36 months.
shadow Jungian archetype representing the inferior or
dark side of personality.
shaping Conditioning a response by first rewarding
gross approximations of the behavior, then closer
approximations, and finally the desired behavior itself.
social cognitive theory Bandura’s assumption that
personality is molded by an interaction of behavior,
personal factors, and one’s environment.
social interest (Adler) Translation of the German
Gemeinschaftsgefühl,meaning a community feeling or a
sense of feeling at one with all human beings.
sociality corollary Kelly’s notion that people can
communicate with others because they are able to
construe others’ constructions.
somnolent detachment (Sullivan) Dynamism that
protects a person from increasingly strong and painful
effects of severe anxiety.
splitting (object relations theory) A psychic defense
mechanism in which the child subjectively separates
incompatible aspects of an object.
stability (Eysenck) (Seeneuroticism)
standing still (Adler) Safeguarding tendency
characterized by lack of action as a means of avoiding
failure.
stimulus generalization (Seegeneralization)
style of life (Adler) A person’s individuality that
expresses itself in any circumstance or environment; the
“flavor” of a person’s life.
sublimation A defense mechanism that involves the
repression of the genital aim of Eros and its substitution
by a cultural or social aim.
successive approximations Procedure used to shape
an organism’s actions by rewarding behaviors as they
become closer and closer to the target behavior.
superego (Freud) The moral or ethical processes of
personality. The superego has two subsystems—the
conscience, which tells us what is wrong, and the ego-
ideal, which tells us what is right.
superego function (Eysenck) (Seepsychoticism)
suppression The blocking or inhibiting of an activity
either by a conscious act of the will or by an outside
agent such as parents or other authority figures. It differs
from repression, which is the unconscious blocking of
anxiety-producing experiences.
syntaxic (Sullivan) Consensually validated
experiences that represent the highest level of cognition
and that can be accurately communicated to others,
usually through language.
syntonic Erikson’s term for the positive element in
each pair of opposites that characterize his eight stages
of development.
T
Taoistic attitude (Maslow) Noninterfering, passive,
receptive attitude that includes awe and wonder toward
that which is observed.
taxonomy A system of classification of data according
to their natural relationships.
teleology An explanation of behavior in terms of
future goals or purposes.
tenderness (Sullivan) Tension within the mothering
one that is aroused by the manifest needs of the infant.
The child feels tenderness as the need to receive care.
tension (Sullivan) The potentiality for action, which
may or may not be experienced in awareness.
theory A set of related assumptions that permit
scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate
testable hypotheses.
thinking (Jung) A rational function that tells us the
meaning of an image that originates either from the
external world (extraverted) or from the internal world
(introverted).
third force Somewhat vague term referring to
those approaches to psychology that have reacted
against the older psychodynamic and behavioristic
theories. The third force is usually thought to include
humanistic, existential, and phenomenological
theories.
threat (Kelly) The anticipation of danger to the
stability of one’s personal constructs.
threat (Rogers) Feeling that results from the
perception of an experience that is inconsistent with
one’s organismic self.
trait A relatively permanent disposition of an
individual, which is inferred from behavior.
traits, bipolar (See bipolar traits)
traits, unipolar (See unipolar traits)
transcendence (Fromm) The need for humans to rise
above their passive animal existence through either
creating or destroying life.
transference Strong, undeserved feelings that the
patient develops toward the analyst during the course of
treatment. These feelings may be either sexual or hostile,
but they stem from the patient’s earlier experiences with
parents.
G-14 Glossary