Personality Structure and Development

• Personality:

“It is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that influence his motivations, and behavior in various situations)”.

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Personality development:

• Styles of thoughts, feelings, and behavior which make each human being a unique individual.

• There are multiple theories which describe the nature of personality from different views.

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Psychoanalytic theory

• Sigmund Freud: psychoanalyst

- believed that the first six years of life significantly shape later personality development.

- linked childhood experiences with adult problems.

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- Explained that: internal emotional life of the individual is the most significant factor in development of personality.

-Illness occur as behavior disorders & originates in conflicts among (id, ego, superego and or environment

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- Freud believed that all behavior stemmed from two opposing groups of instincts: 

1-The life instinct (sexual urges).

2-The death instinct ( Aggressive urges).

*Described psyche in terms of:

•Level of consciousness.

•Structure of personality.

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*Freud’s levels of consciousness: 1. Conscious level: Aware of how and now

- Concerned with thoughts, feelings & sensations.

2. preconscious level:

• -Reactions and ideas are stored and partially forgotten, can be recalled easily with concentration.

• Acts as watchman, it prevents unacceptable memories from reaching the conscious mind 6

3. Unconscious level:

- Largest part of mind.

-Storehouse for all memories, feelings, responses experienced in entire life.

-Cannot be recalled at will.

-Demonstrated through dreams, slips of tongue, unexplained behavior, jokes, and lapses of memory.

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• Structure of personality: according to Freud:

1.The id:

- The original source of personality

- Developed from birth to one year.

- considered a part of unconscious.

- biological force (sexual and aggressive).

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2. The ego:

- cognitive, rational, and conscious component of personality

- (The reality principle) try to balance between the id & and superego.

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3. The superego:

- Usually it is developed after 5 years age

-Represents the internalized moral standards of the society in which one lives.

-Strives for perfection , ( Judges an action is right or wrong.

- Main function of superego is to inhibit the impulses of the id

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• Superego has 2 parts:

• Conscience:

• Ego ideal

• Normally, (ego, superego, and id) work as a team in producing integrated behavior.

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Psychosexual development of personality

1. Oral stage:

* from birth to about 18 months,

- The child gets his satisfaction of hunger by sucking.

2. Anal stage:

* from 18 months to 3 years

Ego is much developed.

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3. phallic stage:

*from 3 to 6 years.

- Oedipus complex & Electra complex occurs in this stage (child is interested of parents of opposite sex).

- Ego developed more, superego starts to develop lately .

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4. latent stage:

* 6 to 12 years.

-(separation from parents – reading – writing).

5.genital stage:

* 13 – 19 (adolescence stage).  

* Mental illness occur from fixation at a particular stage or not resolved conflict.

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Treatment (psychoanalysis) strategies

1. Hypnosis:

- Encourages client to discuss emotional conflicts.

2. Dream analysis:

- discussing a client’s dreams to discover their true meaning and significance

3. Free association:

• Therapist tries to uncover the client’s true thoughts and feelings by responding quickly with the first thing that comes to mind

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Defense Mechanisms

• Coping mechanisms

• Unconscious ways to protect from anxiety.

• The primary tools of the ego.

• Used to manage the internal conflicts between the demands of the id and the restrictions of the superego.

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Defense Mechanisms… cont.

1. unconscious.

2. change over time.

3. adaptive We all use defenses all the time

4. Psychopathology is the degree to which the use of defense mechanisms is disruptive of a person's ability to deal with the world around him.

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Defense Mechanisms… cont.

**Projection:

•the person always seeing “the others” as hostile. (lead to Paranoid delusions)

Example:

- A physician believes that the nursing staff is uncomfortable talking to him, when in fact, he is uncomfortable talking with them.

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**Denial• Asserting that some clear feature of external

reality just is not true.

(avoid of painful aspect of reality)

* Examples:

- A person with heart attack, insists on continuing his lifestyle as if nothing had happened.

• - non-acceptance of fatal diagnosis, such as cancer.

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Splitting• Perceived People and things extremely as

all bad or good

*Examples:

- "This doctor is a miracle worker, but that doctor is totally incompetent:

- "No one from that family will ever make anything good:

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Blocking• Temporary block in thinking, or an

inability to remember

* Examples:

- A student is unable to recall the fact needed to answer the exam question, although he recalls it as he walks out of the exam.

• - During talking you pause looks confused, and ask " What was I just talking about?"

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Regression• Returning to an earlier stage of

development "Acting childish"

* Examples:

- An older patient breaks down crying when told bad news.

-Older children who have been weaned may go back to breast-feeding.

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Introjection: (Identification

• Features of external world or persons made part of the self. (opposite of projection)

*Examples:

• -A teenager adopts the style and mannerisms of a cinema star.

• - A child who fears dragons becomes a dragon in serious play.

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Displacement

* Changing the target of an emotion toward less threatening object, while the person having the

feeling remains the same

* Examples:

-A man who is angry at his boss beat his wife rather than telling his boss what he really

thinks.

often runs down from higher to lower in power hierarchy.

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Repression• unwanted unacceptable impulses/

feelings/thoughts are eliminated from consciousness.

• I. Examples:

-A man who survived 6 months in a concentration camp cannot recall anything about his life during that time period.

You forget, and then forget that you forgot.

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Isolation of affect• Separation of an idea from the affect that

accompanies it

• Facts without feelings

*Examples:

• - A patient who has had a finger severely injured in an accident describes the incident to his physician without any emotional reaction.

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Intellectualization*Cognition replaces affect , excessive use of intellectual processes.

* Example:

A physician tells a patient about his poor prognosis and talks a great deal about the technical aspects by which the prognosis was derived.

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Acting out

• Massive emotional or behavioral outburst to cover up underlying unacceptable emotions.

* Example:

- A student learns he failed a course, smashes a window in the classroom.

- "Whistling in the dark" hides the real underlying fear.

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Rationalization• Acceptable explanations to justify attitudes

or behaviors that are less acceptable.

- Examples:

• - "Yes, I believe killing is wrong, but I killed him because he deserved it"

• - girl fails math test, blames English teacher who gave assignment at the same time.

• - A fox came to eat the grapes, and found the tree was high, the fox said that the grapes is fidget.

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Reaction formationUnacceptable impulse is transformed into its opposite. (love is expressed as hate)

•Example:

-Two-coworkers fight all the time because they are actually very attracted to each other.

- A woman who doesn’t want her child before it is born becomes overly protective after his birth, refusing to leave the child’s side.

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Undoing

Acting out the reverse of unacceptable behavior

-Example:

- Mother brings dinner to child after punishing child for misdeeds.

- Obsessive-compulsive behavior (e.g. repeated hand washing) is undoing.

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Passive-aggressive• Passive (indirect) expression of hostility

* Example:

- A physician ignores and does not answer the direct questions of a patient whom he finds annoying.

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Dissociation (fantasy)• Separates self from one's experience.

• Example:

- An individual who is living in poor area spends his spare time imagining him living in Sweden.

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Humor

- Overt expression of feelings and thoughts without personal discomfort

* Example:

- A man laughs when told he is going to be fired.

- A terminally ill cancer patient makes fun of his condition.

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Sublimation• Channeling the unacceptable impulse into a

socially acceptable direction.

• Examples:

- An aggressive young man becomes a star boxer.

- Childless couple treats pet dog like child, showering it with love and affection.

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SuppressionConscious decision to postpone attention to conflict.

* Examples:

- A student decides to forget about a pending exam to go out and have a good time for an evening.

- A terminally ill cancer patient puts aside his anxiety and enjoys a family gathering.Forget, but remember that you forgot.

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Compensation

*Real inadequacy alleviated by substituting another goal to maintain self respected.

Example:

- A boy compensates for his lack of sports ability by focusing on his studies.

- A blind person becomes a writer

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