genital personality

in classical psychoanalytic theory, the sexually mature, adult personality that ideally develops during the genital stage of psychosexual development. Individuals who have reached this stage of development are posited to have fully resolved their Oedipus complex and to exhibit a mature sexuality that involves true intimacy and expresses equal concern for their own and their partner’s satisfaction. Also called genital character. See also genital love.

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Psychology term of the day

July 27th 2024

Flynn effect

the gradual cross-cultural rise in raw scores obtained on measures of general intelligence. These increases have been roughly 9 points per generation (i.e., 30 years). The gains have been unequally distributed across the different kinds of abilities, with fluid abilities showing substantially greater gains than crystallized abilities (see Cattell–Horn theory of intelligence). [James Flynn (1934– ), New Zealand philosopher who first documented its occurrence]