Personality

PersonalityModules 28-29 Notes

Psychodynamic Perspective on

PersonalitySigmund Freud proposed psychology’s first and most famous theory on personality:

Personality- a person’s characteristic thoughts and behaviorsPersonality emerges from tensions generated by unconscious motives and unresolved childhood conflicts


PersonalityPsychoanalysis-Therapeutic technique that attempts to provide insight into thoughts and actions by exposing and interpreting the underlying unconscious motives and conflictsThis was accomplished by having the patient lay on a couch facing away from Freud and just freely talking about whatever came to mind


PersonalityPsychodynamic Perspective:View of personality that retains some aspects of Freudian theory, but is less likely to see unresolved childhood conflicts as a source of personality developmentMaintains the emphasis on the unconscious mind

Freud’s View of the Mind

Theory developed from Freud’s observation that some of his patients had problems that didn’t have a physical causeFreud was a physician- if their problems weren’t physical, how could he treat them?By having his patients relax and speak freely (free association), he would get a view into their unconscious and begin to help them deal with their problems


Freud used an iceberg to illustrate the mindThe conscious mind is like the tip of the icebergJust below the water’s surface is the preconscious mind- info that is not conscious but is retrievableDeepest level is the unconscious- mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories


Personality grows out of basic human contact between the various levels of the mind:

IdSuperegoEgo


IdPresent at birthStrives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive needsPleasure principle- demands instant gratification


SuperegoInternal ideal and judgment (your conscience) Develops as children interact with parents, peers, and societyBasically focuses on what we should doWants perfection- weak superegos give in to temptation, strong superegos feel guilty


Ego-Largely conscious part of the personality that negotiates the demands of the id, superego, and realityReality principle- satisfy the id in ways that realistically being pleasure rather than pain

Defense MechanismsAnxiety occurs when the id’s wishes and desires come into conflict with the superego’s rulesDefense mechanisms are the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Defense MechanismsRepression

Banishing provoking thoughts from consciousnessAim of psychoanalysis was to draw repressed conflicts back into the consciousness to allow healing

Defense MechanismsRegression

A person retreats to a more comfortable stage of lifeOlder sibling will want to be held in the presence of a newborn baby

Defense MechanismsDenial

Refusing to admit that something unpleasant is happeningThoughts of invincibility- “I can text and drive, nothing bad will happen to me”

Defense MechanismsReaction Formation

Making an unacceptable impulse into its opposite

Defense MechanismsProjection

Attributing threatening impulses to others“I don’t trust you” means that I really don’t trust myself

Defense MechanismsRationalization

Explaining things in a way that hides the actual reason for a behavior“I only smoke when I’m out with friends”Cheating on a test because nobody gets hurt

Defense MechanismsDisplacement

Shifting an unacceptable impulse towards a less threating object or personPunching a wall when you’re mad at a friend, for example

Defense MechanismsSublimation

Transforming negative emotions or actions into more positive behaviorsBeing a really aggressive person might make you good at playing football or rugby

Psychosexual StagesDuring each of these childhood stages, the Id is focused on different parts of the bodyUnresolved conflicts in any of these stages could cause problems later in life

Psychosexual StagesOral Stage-

1st 18 months of lifeChewing, sucking, bitingWeaning can be difficultFixation results in drinking, overeating, smoking, or nail biting

Psychosexual StagesAnal stage-

Lasts 18 months to 3 yearsBowel and bladder functionPotty training can be difficultFixation results in either wastefulness/messiness OR obsessiveness

Psychosexual StagesPhallic Stage-

Ages 3-6Pleasure shifts to genitalsFreud believed that boys felt love for their mothers and fear/jealously towards fathers

Psychosexual StagesLatency Stage-

6 years old to pubertyGrow closer to same-sex parentHow we gain our gender identityEgo and superego developFixation results in lack of social and communication skills

Psychosexual StagesGenital Stage-

Puberty to DeathStart experiencing sexual feelingsIf other stages have been completed successfully, one is well-balanced, warm, and caring

Assessing/Evaluating Psychodynamic

PerspectiveProjective Tests-Provide ambiguous stimuli to trigger projections of inner thoughts and feelings

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)-

Patients make up a story based on a random scene


PerspectiveRorschach Test-10 inkblots are shown to patientsResponses are compared to “average” responsesNot a reliable test


PerspectiveWeaknesses of Freud’s work:Based on cases studies of troubled, upper-class, Austrian women 100 years agoDevelopment does not end in childhoodGender identity is not dependent on traditional family model (mother and father present)Underestimates peer influence on personalityChildren under 3 are not capable of emotional traumaFreud’s methods involved leading questionsResearch is biased towards malesTheory is not scientific

Humanistic PerspectiveFocuses on conscious experiencesFocuses on free will and creative abilitiesStudies all factors relevant to human condition (not just observable behaviors)While Freud only studied “sick” patients, Humanists believe “healthy” should be studied as well

Humanistic PerspectiveMaslow and self-actualization

Must satisfy basic needs before moving on to higher levelsUsed people such as Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt as benchmarks for living a “productive and rich” life

Humanistic Perspective

Humanistic PerspectiveCarl Rodgers and Person-Centered Approach

People will flourish when given acceptance, genuineness, and empathyUnconditional positive regard- total acceptance toward another personWe mature by being genuine about our feelings and aren’t afraid to disclose details to othersWe also need to be empathetic about other’s feelings

Humanistic PerspectiveTo assess personality, humanists have patients evaluate their self-concept (our thoughts and feelings about ourselves)

Humanistic PerspectiveProblems with Humanistic Perspective

Unconditional positive regard for children can be interpreted as never disciplining, criticizing, or denying a child (saying no)

Trait PerspectiveTraits- aspects of personality that relatively consistentIn the early days, personality was associated with body types

Overweight people were jollyThin people were high strung

Trait PerspectiveMost accepted model of Trait perspective is known as the “Big 5”

ConscientiousnessAgreeablenessNeuroticismOpennessExtraversion

Trait Perspective

Trait PerspectiveTesting is done through personality inventories, which gauge a range of feelings and behaviorsTesting can be faulty as we may behave one way in certain situations, and different in othersTesting also does not tell us why we behave the way we do- just how we behave

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Understanding personality involves considering how people are affected by a particular situation, by what they have learned, by how they think, and by how they interact socially


Personal ControlOur perception on how much we control our environmentExternal locus of control- forces outside ourselves determine our fateInternal locus of control- you are in control of your fate


Learned helplessnessFeeling that you can’t avoid bad eventsCan lead to depression

Positive psychologyStudy of optimal human functioning and the factors that allow people to thriveOptimism is a key factor- but can be overdone


Issues with the perspective:Makes humans into stimulus-response creaturesUnseen motives (greed, revenge) are discounted

Bottom line: personality cannot be clearly defined by one perspective of study

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Personality