4.4 Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theories to Personality

Psychodynamic Perspective

Imagined by Sigmund Freud; believes that a person’s personality and behaviors are shaped by their conscious and unconscious mind

8 defense mechanisms for the ego

Denial, Displacement, Projection, Rationalization, Reaction formation, regression, Sublimation, Repression

Denial

When an individual refuses to accept their reality, essentially blocking external events or emotions from an individual’s awareness 

Displacement

When an individual redirects their reaction or emotional response from one situation to another 

Projection

When an individual attributes their thoughts and feelings to someone else 

Rationalization

When an individual justifies an uncomfortable thought or behavior to make it seem more acceptable 

Reaction Formation

When an individual acts in the opposite way they feel 

Regression

When an individual reverts to behaviors of an earlier developmental stage, generally this happens when an individual experiences heightened stress 

Sublimation

When an individual takes unacceptable impulses and channels them into socially acceptable actions 

Repression

when an individual pushes distressing memories or thoughts out of their conscious awareness

What mechanism of defense: A mother refuses to believe her child is a disrupter in class, instead she claims the teacher is biased

Denial

What mechanism of defense: School stress causes a person to become short tempered or lash out on friends

Displacement

What mechanism of defense: You fear roller coasters, even though your daughter is just on a marry-go-round, you continually ask if she is okay.

Projection

What mechanism of defense: You fail to get a job, and instead of being down, you tell everyone you didn’t want or need a job anyways

Rationalization

What mechanism of defense: You secretly like a girl but instead of showing affection you ignore and are rude to her

Reaction formation

What mechanism of defense: After finals week all you want to do is sit down and eat snacks in front of the TV

Regression

What mechanism of defense: A person is overly aggressive so he decides to play a sport and release his aggression on the field

Sublimation

Ego

plays a crucial role in personality by regulating impulses, interacting with external stimuli, and mediating between the ID and superego

Superego

located in a person’s preconscious, represents a person’s ideals, moral values, and judgements; strives for moral rightness and awareness of consquences

ID

resides in the unconscious, strives to satisfy a person’s most basic needs; does not worry about morality or consequences but instant gratification

Projective Personality tests

tests that has open responses and does not limit the test taker to a select group of answers, helps to understand an unconscious mind, Rorschach Inkblot test, and Thematic Apperception

Objective personality tests

a test with limited answers and seeks specific responses from test takers, such as the Myer-Briggs Personality test

Humanistic Psychology

Emphasizing the inherent good of people and their desire to continue to grow and reach their full potential

Unconditional Positve regard

Accepting and valuing someone with any conditions or requirements

Conditional Positive regard

acceptance or approval is given only if the individual meets certain conditions

Positive regard

Support, love, and acceptance an individual gets from others

Self Concept

how a person sees and describes themselves, including their personality, skills, roles, and physical traits, more unconditional positive regard leads to a healthier self concept

Self esteem

How positively a person views themselves; concept = what you think about yourself, esteem, what you feel about those thoughts

Self actualization tendency

innate drive within a person to grow, improve, and reach their full potential; what pushes a person to be creative, authentic, and live a fulfilling life

Self actualization

when an individual is motivated to strive for their full potential

Self transcendence

When an individual goes beyond their own self-interest to pursue something larger than oneself; spiritual beliefs, Greater good of society

Q-sort technique

Qualitative measure used by Humanistic psychologists, that describe a person’s self concept by having them descriptive statements into categories based on howe well they describe them

Congruence

After the Q-sort technique, how closely a person is and who they want to be is called congruence, higher the congruence usually means less psychological distress