phenomenal self

the self as experienced by the individual at a particular time. Only a small portion of self-knowledge is active in working memory or consciousness at any time. The same person might have a very different phenomenal self at different times, without any change in actual self-knowledge stored in long-term memory, simply because different views are brought into awareness by events. Also called working self-concept.

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Psychology term of the day

January 18th 2025

hierarchical model of personality

a model of either within-person dynamics or individual differences in personality in which some psychological constructs are viewed as high-level variables that organize or govern the functioning of other lower level variables. For example, a hierarchical model of personality traits might view the construct sociability as being at a lower level in a hierarchy than the construct extraversion: Sociability would be seen as a form or example of the higher level trait of extraversion.