Personality

1. Personality Modules 28-29 Notes

2. Psychodynamic Perspective on Personality • Sigmund Freud proposed psychology’s first and most famous theory on personality: • Personality- a person’s characteristic thoughts and behaviors • Personality emerges from tensions generated by unconscious motives and unresolved childhood conflicts

3. Psychodynamic Perspective on Personality • Psychoanalysis- • Therapeutic technique that attempts to provide insight into thoughts and actions by exposing and interpreting the underlying unconscious motives and conflicts • This was accomplished by having the patient lay on a couch facing away from Freud and just freely talking about whatever came to mind

4. Psychodynamic Perspective on Personality • Psychodynamic 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 development • Maintains the emphasis on the unconscious mind

5. 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 cause • Freud 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

6. Freud’s View of the Mind • Freud used an iceberg to illustrate the mind • The conscious mind is like the tip of the iceberg • Just below the water’s surface is the preconscious mind- info that is not conscious but is retrievable • Deepest level is the unconscious- mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

7. Freud’s View of the Mind • Personality grows out of basic human contact between the various levels of the mind: • Id • Superego • Ego

8. Freud’s View of the Mind • Id • Present at birth • Strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive needs • Pleasure principle- demands instant gratification

9. Freud’s View of the Mind • Superego • Internal ideal and judgment (your conscience) • Develops as children interact with parents, peers, and society • Basically focuses on what we should do • Wants perfection- weak superegos give in to temptation, strong superegos feel guilty

10. Freud’s View of the Mind • Ego- • Largely conscious part of the personality that negotiates the demands of the id, superego, and reality • Reality principle- satisfy the id in ways that realistically being pleasure rather than pain

11. Defense Mechanisms • Anxiety occurs when the id’s wishes and desires come into conflict with the superego’s rules • Defense mechanisms are the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

12. Defense Mechanisms • Repression • Banishing provoking thoughts from consciousness • Aim of psychoanalysis was to draw repressed conflicts back into the consciousness to allow healing

13. Defense Mechanisms • Regression • A person retreats to a more comfortable stage of life • Older sibling will want to be held in the presence of a newborn baby

14. Defense Mechanisms • Denial • Refusing to admit that something unpleasant is happening • Thoughts of invincibility- “I can text and drive, nothing bad will happen to me”

15. Defense Mechanisms • Reaction Formation • Making an unacceptable impulse into its opposite

16. Defense Mechanisms • Projection • Attributing threatening impulses to others • “I don’t trust you” means that I really don’t trust myself

17. Defense Mechanisms • Rationalization • 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

18. Defense Mechanisms • Displacement • Shifting an unacceptable impulse towards a less threating object or person • Punching a wall when you’re mad at a friend, for example

19. Defense Mechanisms • Sublimation • Transforming negative emotions or actions into more positive behaviors • Being a really aggressive person might make you good at playing football or rugby

20. Psychosexual Stages • During each of these childhood stages, the Id is focused on different parts of the body • Unresolved conflicts in any of these stages could cause problems later in life

21. Psychosexual Stages • Oral Stage- • 1st 18 months of life • Chewing, sucking, biting • Weaning can be difficult • Fixation results in drinking, overeating, smoking, or nail biting

22. Psychosexual Stages • Anal stage- • Lasts 18 months to 3 years • Bowel and bladder function • Potty training can be difficult • Fixation results in either wastefulness/messiness OR obsessiveness

23. Psychosexual Stages • Phallic Stage- • Ages 3-6 • Pleasure shifts to genitals • Freud believed that boys felt love for their mothers and fear/jealously towards fathers

24. Psychosexual Stages • Latency Stage- • 6 years old to puberty • Grow closer to same-sex parent • How we gain our gender identity • Ego and superego develop • Fixation results in lack of social and communication skills

25. Psychosexual Stages • Genital Stage- • Puberty to Death • Start experiencing sexual feelings • If other stages have been completed successfully, one is well-balanced, warm, and caring

26. Assessing/Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspective • Projective 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

27. Assessing/Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspective • Rorschach Test- • 10 inkblots are shown to patients • Responses are compared to “average” responses • Not a reliable test

28. Assessing/Evaluating Psychodynamic Perspective • Weaknesses of Freud’s work: • Based on cases studies of troubled, upper-class, Austrian women 100 years ago • Development does not end in childhood • Gender identity is not dependent on traditional family model (mother and father present) • Underestimates peer influence on personality • Children under 3 are not capable of emotional trauma • Freud’s methods involved leading questions • Research is biased towards males • Theory is not scientific

29. Humanistic Perspective • Focuses on conscious experiences • Focuses on free will and creative abilities • Studies all factors relevant to human condition (not just observable behaviors) • While Freud only studied “sick” patients, Humanists believe “healthy” should be studied as well

30. Humanistic Perspective • Maslow and self-actualization • Must satisfy basic needs before moving on to higher levels • Used people such as Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt as benchmarks for living a “productive and rich” life

31. Humanistic Perspective

32. Humanistic Perspective • Carl Rodgers and Person-Centered Approach • People will flourish when given acceptance, genuineness, and empathy • Unconditional positive regard- total acceptance toward another person • We mature by being genuine about our feelings and aren’t afraid to disclose details to others • We also need to be empathetic about other’s feelings

33. Humanistic Perspective • To assess personality, humanists have patients evaluate their self-concept (our thoughts and feelings about ourselves)

34. Humanistic Perspective • Problems with Humanistic Perspective • Unconditional positive regard for children can be interpreted as never disciplining, criticizing, or denying a child (saying no)

35. Trait Perspective • Traits- aspects of personality that relatively consistent • In the early days, personality was associated with body types • Overweight people were jolly • Thin people were high strung

36. Trait Perspective • Most accepted model of Trait perspective is known as the “Big 5” • Conscientiousness • Agreeableness • Neuroticism • Openness • Extraversion

37. Trait Perspective

38. Trait Perspective • Testing is done through personality inventories, which gauge a range of feelings and behaviors • Testing can be faulty as we may behave one way in certain situations, and different in others • Testing also does not tell us why we behave the way we do- just how we behave

39. 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

40. Social-Cognitive Perspective • Personal Control • Our perception on how much we control our environment • External locus of control- forces outside ourselves determine our fate • Internal locus of control- you are in control of your fate

41. Social-Cognitive Perspective • Learned helplessness • Feeling that you can’t avoid bad events • Can lead to depression • Positive psychology • Study of optimal human functioning and the factors that allow people to thrive • Optimism is a key factor- but can be overdone

42. Social-Cognitive Perspective • Issues with the perspective: • Makes humans into stimulus-response creatures • Unseen motives (greed, revenge) are discounted • Bottom line: personality cannot be clearly defined by one perspective of study