CDC Module 2.1: Theories of Personality Development

Who is Sigmund Freud?

• Founder of psychoanalysis

• Father of modern psychology

Freud’s Deterministic View of Human Behavior

• Theorized that human behavior results from forces beyond conscious control (not their own free will)

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

• In psychoanalysis, treatment places emphasis on past development, especially childhood experiences

According to Freud, what are the 3 levels of mind awareness?

• Conscious

• Subconscious (or preconscious)

• Unconscious

[Freud’s 3 Levels of Mind Awareness] Conscious

• What we see at work

• Processing and conscious thoughts

[Freud’s 3 Levels of Mind Awareness] Subconscious (Preconscious)

• Contains memories (easily recalled) just below immediate awareness

• Sum of our past experiences

• Molds expressions and reactions

[Freud’s 3 Levels of Mind Awareness] Unconscious

• All past life experiences

• Repressed and painful conflicts

• Virtually impossible to recall memories

• Source of emotional pain

Freud’s Theory of Personality Development

• Personality determined by the interaction of 3 psychological forces

  • Id (selfish beast)

  • Ego (executive of personality)

  • Superego (conscience and ego ideal)

Id

• Operates from the unconscious level

• Present from birth

• Pleasure principle (seek pleasure, avoid pain)

• Sources of instinctual drives (which are sexual and aggressive)

• Generates mental images and fantasies

• Primitive part of mind

• Source of creativity and fun

Ego

• Primarily in conscious mind

• Not present at birth

• Operates according to reality principle

• Holds id in check

• Helps evaluate and judge reality

• Mediates between id and external world

• Works out compromises between id and superego

Superego

• Partly in conscious mind

• Outgrowth of learned moral values

• Referred to as “conscience”

• Enforces ego to restrain id demands

• Punishes behavior that breaks moral code with guilt

• Rewards good behavior with pride

[Freud] Ego Ideal

• The standard of perfect conduct of the superego

Freud recognized what 3 types of anxiety?

• Reality

  • Fear of real dangers

• Neurotic

  • Fear that threatening impulses will break down ego controls

• Moral

  • Fear of one’s conscience

[Freud] Ego-Defense Mechanisms

• Eliminate painful anxiety by pushing painful ideas out of consciousness

• Gives a “distorted view of reality” rather than dealing with the problem directly

Freud’s Psychosexual Development Theory

• Everyone goes through a series of 5 psychosexual development stages

• Outcome of each stage has a major impact on personality

  • Personality formed in first few years of life

  • Theory fails to explore phases of adult life due to Freud’s emphasis on early life

[Freud] Psychosexual Development Stages

• Oral

• Anal

• Phallic

• Latency

• Genital

[Psychosexual Development Stages] Oral

• Age: Birth - 2

• Erogenous Zone: Mouth

• Ability to form interpersonal attachments

[Psychosexual Development Stages] Anal

• Age: 2 - 3

• Erogenous Zone: Anal membrane

• Behavior is focused on anal pleasure and activities

[Psychosexual Development Stages] Phallic

• Age: 3 - 6/8

• Erogenous Zone: Genitalia

• Development of conscience and guilt

[Psychosexual Development Stages] Latency

• Age: 6 - 12/puberty

• Erogenous Zone: None

• Ability to be with others without sexual or aggressive feelings

[Psychosexual Development Stages] Genital

• Age: Puberty and after

• Erogenous Zone: Genitalia

• Ability to sustain a loving heterosexual relationship

The application of Freud’s psychoanalysis theory results in the psychoanalytical therapeutic approach, which utilizes two techniques. What are they called?

• Free association

• Dream analysis

[Freud] Free Association

• Common words are relayed in quick succession to the client, and they are to say the first thing that comes to mind

• Expectation is that associations will reveal unconscious conflicts

[Freud] Dream Analysis

• According to Freud, fantasies and dreams are generated by id and are rooted in unconscious, so analyzing dreams will provide insight into wants, desires, and conflicts

Erik Erikson’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development - Introduction

• Each represent a critical stage during which development must take place successfully (add strength to personality( or unsuccessfully (result in various maladaptive behavior patterns)

• During each phase, there are two opposing energies/forces (positive and negative)

  • Two forces must be synthesized for healthy personality development

Erik Erikson’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development

• Birth - First Year

• Second Year

• Third Year - Fifth Year

• Sixth Year - Onset of Puberty

• Adolescence

• Early Adulthood

• Middle Adulthood

• Old Age

[EE’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development] Birth - First Year (Infant)

• Psychosocial Crisis: Trust vs. Mistrust

• Significant Relations: Maternal Person

• Other: Developing a loving, reliable relationship with the primary caretaker

  • Success = Trust and hope

  • Failure = Withdrawal.

[EE’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development] Second Year (Toddler)

• Psychosocial Crisis: Autonomy vs. Shame

• Significant Relations: Parental Person

• Other: Achieving self-control and self-esteem

  • Success = Autonomy

  • Failure = Shame, doubt, lack of healthy autonomy

[EE’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development] Third Year - Fifth Year (Preschooler)

• Psychosocial Crisis: Initiative vs. Guilt

• Significant Relations: Basic Family

• Other: Developing new skills and language

  • Success = Purpose, self evaluation

  • Failure = Self-denial, restriction

[EE’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development] Sixth Year - Onset of Puberty (Grade-Schooler)

• Psychosocial Crisis: Industry vs. Inferiority

• Significant Relations: Neighborhood, School

• Other: Developing scholastic and social competency

  • Success = Competence, perseverance

  • Failure = Withdrawal from peers

[EE’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development] Adolescence (Teenager)

• Psychosocial Crisis: Identity vs. Role Confusion

• Significant Relations: Peer Groups

• Other: Integrating childhood identification with social roles

  • Success = Coherent sense of self

  • Failure = Confusion

[EE’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development] Early Adulthood (Young Adult)

• Psychosocial Crisis: Intimacy vs. Isolation

• Significant Relations: Partners in Friendship and Sexual Relationships

• Other: Making intimate commitments and meaningful work

  • Success = Love, commitment

  • Failure = Impersonal relationships

[EE’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development] Middle Adulthood (Middle-Aged Adult)

• Psychosocial Crisis: Generativity vs. Stagnation

• Significant Relations: Divided Labor and Shared Household

• Other: Focus on younger generation

  • Success = Creativity, productivity

  • Failure = Self-indulgence

[EE’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development] Old Age (Older Adult)

• Psychosocial Crisis: Integrity vs. Despair

• Significant Relations: Humankind

• Other: Accepting one’s life and death

  • Success = Acceptance, worth

  • Failure = Sense of loss, contempt

What is the basic principal of Harry Stack Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory?

• Past and present interpersonal relationships influence our personality

• According to Sullivan, children develop a “good-me” or “bad-me” self-image early in life, based on their relationship with their primary caregiver

Sullivan’s Security Operations Theory

• For children to protect themselves against anxiety, they develop security operations (similar to Freud’s defense mechanisms)

Sullivan’s 4 Security Operations

• Somnolent Detachment (sleep to avoid anxiety)

• Apathy (emotional detachment or numbing)

• Selective Inattention (tuning out or not noticing details which are associated with anxiety)

• Anger (anxiety changed to anger)

Sullivan’s 7 Personality Developmental Stages

• Infancy

• Early Childhood

• Later Childhood

• Juvenile Era

• Preadolescence

• Early Adolescence

• Late Adolescence 

[7 Personality Developmental Stages] Infancy (Birth - 18 months)

• Development of self-concept begins

• Quality of feeding experiences leads to good-me or bad-me

[7 Personality Developmental Stages] Early Childhood (18 months - 3)

• Sense of power during toilet training

• Caregiver’s response to feces affects self-concept established during infancy

[7 Personality Developmental Stages] Later Childhood (3 - 6)

• Language development

• Children replace personal language with universal language

[7 Personality Developmental Stages] Juvenile Era (6 - 10)

• Crucial for health adult personality

• Peers replace parents as primary source of security and companionship

• Develop the ability to compete and compromise

[7 Personality Developmental Stages] Preadolescence (11 - 12)

• Great interest in their peer group

• Deep loving relationship with same-sex peer

• Lear to prioritize others’ needs, a prerequisite for later heterosexual relationships

[7 Personality Developmental Stages] Early Adolescence (12 - 17)

• Shift from same-sex peer relationship to relationships with opposite-sex peers due to sexual urges

[7 Personality Developmental Stages] Late Adolescence (18+)

• Incorporation of intimacy with sexual urges

• Mark of adult maturity (though full maturity may take longer)

Jean William Fritz Piaget was the first modern theorist to emphasize what?

• Infants are actively exploring and trying to master their surroundings from their very first breath

  • Desire is inherited by all infants and proceeds through a series of developmental phases

  • Each phase is dependent upon completion and success in mastering the elements of the preceding phase

    • Skipping a phase may create gaps in cognitive funcitonality

According to Piaget, what are the two fundamental processes that human beings adopt that make all of the master and success possible?

• Assimilation

  • “Taking in” of experiences as a whole and filtering/using information selectively to compliment personal needs and intellectual desires

• Accommodation

  • The way you look at things changes as you grow

Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive (Intellectual) Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (0 - 16/24 months)

• Stage of Preoperational Thought (2 - 6)

• Stage of Concrete Operations (6 - 12)

• Stage of Formal Operations (12+)

[4 Stages of Cognitive (Intellectual) Development] Sensorimotor Stage (0 - 16/24 months)

• At this age, children are unable to reason

• Child deals with reality in terms of sensations and motor movement

[4 Stages of Cognitive (Intellectual) Development] Stage of Preoperational Thought (2 - 6)

• During this stage, child is capable of symbolic thought

• Rapidly acquires the ability to use language

[4 Stages of Cognitive (Intellectual) Development] Stage of Concrete Operations (6 - 12)

• Child has ability to reason like an adult in every way except for reasoning of abstract concepts such as…

  • Justice

  • Infinity

  • Meaning of life

[4 Stages of Cognitive (Intellectual) Development] Stage of Formal Operations (12+)

• By this stage, most have progressed to full adult cognition, including the ability to reason using abstract concepts

Behavioristic Theory Approach

• Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, can be credited with the first work using behavioristic approach

Ivan Pavlov’s Work

• Famous experiment, salivary responses in dogs, led to the concepts of conditioned reflex and conditioning

  • Unconditional Response vs. Respondent (Classical) Conditioning

Watson’s Work

• Watson’s approach emphasized social environment in conditioning personality development and behavior

• First to apply stimulus-response theories of learning to study of child development (conditioned response)

  • “Little Albert”

• As a result of Pavlov and Watson’s work, many believed all learning is based on conditioned reflex

Thorndike’s Concept

• Formulated “Law of Effect” (concept of reward and punishment to control behavior)

Skinner’s Development

• Developed Thorndike’s concept by stating that the most important determinants of behavior are in the environment and not the individual

  • Felt that these determinants could be manipulated to control behavior

Skinner’s Basic Principles of Behavioristic Approach

• Operant conditioning

• Reinforcement

• Generalization and discrimination

• Modeling and shaping

[Skinner’s Basic Principles of Behavioristic Approach] Operant conditioning

• When we respond to some stimulus to achieve a goal, it is operant conditioning

[Skinner’s Basic Principles of Behavioristic Approach] Reinforcement

• Strengthening new response by its repeated association with some unconditioned stimulus

  • Stimulus = reinforcer (may be positive or negative)

[Skinner’s Basic Principles of Behavioristic Approach] Generalization and discrimination

• When one stimulus elicits a like response as others that are similar, that response is a generalization

• The opposite, discrimination, means that an individual learns to distinguish between stimuli and respond differently

[Skinner’s Basic Principles of Behavioristic Approach] Modeling and shaping

• Modeling = parents and other important persons in a child’s life demonstrate the desired response patterns

• Shaping = way to bring about new responses by reinforcing responses that are desired

Humanistic Approach

• Emphasis on self-growth and self-actualization rather than on cure of disease

  • Consequently, practitioners do not usually work with people suffering from serious mental disorders

• Focus is on the future, and less attention is place on unconscious processes

What are the 3 basic principles of the humanistic approach?

• Self as a unifying theme

• Value and personal growth

• Positive view of human nature

[3 Basic Principles of Humanistic Approach] Self as a Unifying Theme

• Self includes identity, relationship to the world, self-fulfillment, and evaluation

• Emphasizes individuality

[3 Basic Principles of Humanistic Approach] Value and Personal Growth

• Develop values based on personal experiences to form identity and understand oneself

[3 Basic Principles of Humanistic Approach] Positive View of Human Nature

• Under favorable conditions, basic personality is good

• Aggression results from distortion, denial, and frustration

Humanistic Intervention

• Aimed at fostering personal growth toward a socially constructive and personally fulfilling way of life

• Methods include:

  • Encounter groups

  • Awareness training

  • Building satisfying relationships

  • Effective methods of coping

Describe Charlotte Buhler’s 5 phases of goal-orientation.

• Childhood (0 - 15)

  • First grasp idea that lives are their own

  • Analyze experiences so far

  • Think about needs and potential

• Adolescence and Young Adulthood (15 - 25)

  • Adopt more specific, definite goals

• Young and Middle Adulthood (25 - 45/50)

  • Take stock in past and revise future planning

• Old Age (65/70)

  • Rest from concentration on achieving goals

Describe Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (starting from the bottom)

• Physiological needs (food, water, air, elimination, sex)

• Safety needs (need to be/feel safe from physical and psychological dangers)

  • Protection

  • Stability

  • Well-being

  • Health

  • Financial Security

• Belonging needs (first of the “growth needs,” includes what we need for psychological well-being)

  • Friendships

  • Family

  • Social groups

  • Community

  • Intimacy

• Esteem needs (related to self-respect and self-admiration, need to feel good about ourselves)

  • Self-confidence

  • Independence

  • Respect

  • Acknowledgement

• Self-Actualization (occurs when functioning at full creativity and fulfilling greatest potential)

  • Desire to accomplish everything possible

  • Become the most that one can be

What do existentialists place an emphasis on?

• Person’s irrational tendencies and difficulties encountered in reaching self-fulfillment

What are the 2 basic concepts of existentialism?

• Existence (given life)

• Essence (what we make of it is up to us)

In existentialism, making something of our lives is not easy, and our traditional values/beliefs are constantly being challenged, which causes confusion and emotional turmoil. How can we solve this problem?

• Give up the search and find satisfaction by conforming

• Trying for increased self-definition in the reality of our existence (best option)

What is the importance of choices in existentialism?

• Our essence is created by our choices, and in making these choices we are seen to have absolute freedom

• When making choices, we must have the courage to seek values that offer self-fulfillment and the courage to break away from old patterns that have little meaning

What is will-to-meaning?

• Individuals find values and live their lives adhering to them

Existentialists believe that we can only find self-fulfillment by…?

• Obligating our lives to each other and by living socially constructive lievs

Existential Anxiety

• Caused by the awareness of our inevitable death, nonbeing, or nothingness

• A concern of whether or not we’re leading a meaningful and fulfilling life

Existential Therapy

• Therapist’s focus is to help pt clarify values and work out a meaningful way of “being in the world”

• Goal is to help lead pt toward personal growth, a socially constructive life, and a personally fulfilling life

How do existentialists see abnormality?

• A failure to develop our potential