4.4 Introduction to Personality and 4.5a Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theories of Personality: Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Theories

Personality

An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Psychodynamic theories

Theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences

Psychoanalysis

1. Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

2. Sigmund Freud’s therapeutic technique; Freud believed the patient’s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences — and the analyst’s interpretations of them — released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight

Unconscious

According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories; according to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware

Free association

In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives; the id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

Ego

The partly conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality; the ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain

Superego

The partly conscious part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations

Age of oral stage

0-18 months

Focus of oral stage

Pleasure centers on the mouth — sucking, biting, chewing

Age of anal stage

18–36 months

Focus of anal stage

Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

Age of phallic stage

3-6 years

Focus of phallic stage

Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings

Age of latency

6 years to puberty

Focus of latency stage

A phase of dormant sexual feelings

Age of genital stage

Puberty on

Focus of genital stage

Maturation of sexual interests

Defense mechanisms

In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Regression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

Reaction formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Projection

Disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

Sublimation

Transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

Collective unconscious

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history

Terror-management theory

A theory of death-related anxiety; explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death

Thematic Apperception Test

A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

Projective test

A personality test, such as the TAT or Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics and explore the preconscious and unconscious mind

Rorschach inkblot test

A projective test designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing how they interpret 10 inkblots