Theories of Personality Final Exam

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• First child of his parents

• aware that he was his mother’s favorite

• parents had 10 kids- 8 biological, 2 from his father’s previous marriage.

• Adulthood led him on up-and-down ride to success and acclaim

In 1900, published the interpretation of dreams:

• developed theory about the basic structures and working principles of the human psyche

• views were ridiculed and medical institutions that taught them were boycotted. An international psycho analytic association was founded in 1910.

Psychodynamic Perspective Overview

1. Basic Assumptions- The ID, Ego, Superego

2. Instincts and Psychic Energy- Ego Defense Mechanisms

3. Regions of the mind- Psychosexual stages of development

Psychic Determinism

There is a psychic meaning underlying all thoughts, feelings, and behavior

Influence of the unconscious mind

all thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are determined by unconscious forces

Personality as a closed system

• There is a limited amount of energy

• energy can be blocked but doesn’t “just go away” instead it gets expressed in some other manner, a long a path of least resistance

• the mind functions to achieve a state of homeostasis

Life instinct (libido)

impels people toward the preservation and reproduction of the organism

Death Instinct

The destructive, dark motivational force to use psychic energy to get what you want

Unconscious mental contents

are parts of the mind of which we are unaware and cannot become aware except under special circumstances

preconscious level

contains mental contents of which we could easily become aware if we attended to them

Conscious levels

includes thoughts of which we are aware

The Id

• the core of personality, operates on the pleasure principle

• present at birth, gets pushed into the unconscious early in life

• source of psychic energy and instincts, below primary censorship point

Ex: Michael Scott

The Ego

• trying to manage

• develops in response to the demands of the real world, operates on the reality principle

• functions to meet the demands of the Id within the confines of reality and morality

Ex: “play the game”, below and above primary censorship point

The Superego

• the moral authority of personality

• only one above waterline

• develops as the internalized voice of society; a conscience

Ex: Rodd and Todd

Balance is key

He believed we’re closed system, it is possible to rearrange Id, ego, and superego energy, could play the game enough to get Ids needs met.

Psychoanalytic Theory

• Freud attempted to understand the properties of the unconscious by analyzing a variety of psychological phenomena: slips of the tongue, neuroses, psychoses, works of art, rituals, dreams

Ex: beauty and the beast, moana, breaking bad (I’m the one who knocks)

Psychodynamic perspective overview

purpose: assist the ego to deal with the conscious and unconscious threats of anxiety, distracting from the truth

Healthy vs Unhealthy use

• selective use in conscious awareness can serve as an effective temporary strategy

• excessive unconscious activation can result in the development of psychopathology

Repression

the most basic defense mechanism, put the memory away, no longer aware

Denial

distort reality to make it more comfortable

reaction formation

expressing the opposite feeling, ex: “i hate arrogant men”

Projection

YOU have the problem!

Displacement

kicking the dog after a big argument (hurt people hurt people)

Rationalization

talking yourself into it

Regression

becoming child-like

undoing

making up for your guilt indirectly

Sublimation

Finding a socially appropriate outlet

Psychosexual Stages of Development

• development occurs in a series of distinct steps, or stages

• in each stage, we look for successful resolution which propels us to the next stage, or we can get “fixated” by either indulging or repressing the desire

Oral Stage

(0-2years old) conflict associated with weaning from breastfeeding→initial sense of self→ego establishment

• development of oral incorporative or oral aggressive/sadistic personality characteristics

Anal Stage

(2-3years old) conflict associated with toilet training→ bladder and anal tension→ delay of gratification

• development of anal retentive/sadistic personality characteristics

Phallic Stage

(3-7years old)- Oedipus complex with feelings of castration anxiety or Electra complex of penis envy→ identifying with same-sex parent→ superego establishment

• development of a value system inconsistent with society

Latency

(7-11 years old) relaxation at libido→ interacting with same-sex peers→ refinement of appropriate sex-role behavior

Genital Stage

(11 years and older) resurgence of libido→ developing emotional attachment to members of the opposite sex

• participation in sexual relationships only on lustful desire, not on respect and commitment

Healthy Personality

Personality development

Maladaptive personality

regression fixation

Stage 1

Trust versus mistrust

Stage 2

Autonomy versus shame and doubt

Stage 3

Initiative versus guilt

Stage 4

Industry versus inferiority

Stage 5

Identity versus role confusion

Stage 6

Intimacy versus isolation

Stage 7

Generativity versus stagnation

Stage 8

integrity versus despair

Carl G. Jung (1875-1961)

• relationship with Freud both professional and personal- the person who would carry on Freud’s psychoanalytic tradition after Freud’s death, the successor.

Broke with Freud on 2 key points:

• libido not a sexual instinct, but a generalized life energy

• personality is an open system, not a closed system→ kicked Jung out

Personal Unconscious: power, security, love, and inferiority complex

• human brain igullon jug- survival, thinking, social behavior (majority)

Collective Unconscious- transpersonal knowledge, self, archetypes

• open systems

Collective Unconscious

holds cumulative experiences of past generations; is universal.

Archetype

universal thoughts, images, or symbols that have a lot of emotion attached to them. Seen in fairy tales, dreams, myths, and some psychotic thoughts. we tend to instinctively recognize and react to them. This recognition is evidence that they are buried in our collective unconscious.

Ex: step-mother→ cinderella, hero→ frodo/aragorn, sidekick-gimli, legolas

Persona

predisposition to conform to social norms

shadow

primitive aspects of personality

animus

masculine aspects of females

anima

feminine aspects of males

self

central, unifying aspect of all aspects of the individuals personality

complex

a collection of thoughts, feelings, and attitudes that center on a particular concept

Jung Summary

• Neo-Freudian, psychodynamic theory of personality

• emphasis on people’s struggle with opposing forces

• fundamental personal tasks:

1. life is a journey to know your true self

2. own the acceptable and unacceptable parts of the self

3. integrate various opposing forces of the psyche

A phenomenological theory, Rogers

Central Concerns: The nature of the self, and the tension between being yourself versus wanting to be liked by other people.

Phenomenological- individuals subjective experience, conscious perceptions of the present

Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

• grew up a bright kid in a devout Christian family

• studied his college education at the university of Wisconsin, majoring in agriculture

• after two year decided to enter the ministry and went to union theological seminary to become a missionary

• after experiencing a crisis of faith, left seminary, receive Ph.D ion 1931 from columbia university

• went to become the president of the American Psychological association in 1946

• developed the idea that outmost fundamental motivation is toward positive growth

The Subjectivity of Experience

• the reality we observe is a “private world of experience”

• subjective construction that reflects our personal needs

Feelings of Authenticity

1. People are prone to a distinctive form of psychological distress

“thinks but doesn’t feel an attachment”

• instinctive reactions, potential source of wisdom

The positivity of human motivation

2. the core of our nature is essentially positive

• gain understanding of how his clients experience the world

Structure: the self

• the individual perceives external objects and experiences and attaches meaning to them

Self Concept

represents an organized consistent patterns of perceptions

Ideal Self

concept individual is most likely to possess, the self we believe we’re now and the ideal in the future

actual self

the present reality of the person

Q-Sort technique

set of cards describing personality characteristics, more of me on one end→ least characteristic on the other (stephenson)

1. interesting balance between fixed and flexible measures

2. can be administered to individuals more than once in order to assess both the actual self and the ideal self

The Semantic Differential

the individual rates a concept on a number of 7-point scales defined by polar ad, such as good-bad, strong-weak, or active-passive

Process: Self-actualization

“ the organism has one basic tendency and striving to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism”

• simple entity→complex, dependence→independence, fixity→change

Rogers himself never developed a measure of the self-actualizing motive

Self- Consistency and Congruence

People seek self-consistency and a sense of congruence between their sense of self and their everyday experience

Self-consistence (Lecky)

the organism doesn’t seek to gain pleasure and to avoid pain, but instead seeks to maintain its own self-structure, value system.

Anxiety

the result of discrepancy between experience and the perceptions of the self

subception

we can be aware of an experience that is discrepant with the self-concept before it requires consciousness

Denial

preserve the self-structure from threat by denying it conscious expression

distortion

allows the experience into awareness but in a form that makes it consistent with the self

The need for positive regard

• need for acceptance, respect from others

• the person is basically active and self-actualizing

• seek to maintain congruence between self and experience

• may deny or distort experiences that threaten the system

Growth and Development

1. Parent-Child interaction

2. Internal Psychological structures

• Self-esteem: enduring personal judgment of worthiness, not amomentary good or bad feeling resulting from a particular situation

1. degree of acceptance, warmth expressed by the parent

2. permissiveness and punishment

3. democratic or dictorial

• social relations, self-actualization, and well-being later in life

Alfred Adler (1870-1987)

• active member of the vienna psychoanalytic society, ut became dissatisfied with Freud’s deterministic and sexual approach

• was a sickly baby who did not walk til 4 years old. He struggled to keep up with his peers in childhood

• his theories were based more on “social interest” the desire to relate to others and cooperate

• suggested we had more conscious control of the self

• a move towards ego psychology and individual psychology

Adler’s basic approach

how a person copes with inferiority becomes a distinctive aspect of his or her personality functioning. our early wounds force us to compensate

Striving for Superiority

efforts to go beyond compensation to reach one’s full potential. ones full potential is always met through social interest

Adler Quote

“ It is the feeling of inferiority, inadequacy, insecurity, which determines the goal of an individuals existence”

Freudians

see an extremely aggressive woman as expressing penis envy

Jungians

aggressive complex; warrior archetype

Adlerians

sees such persons as in a normal developmental process compensating for stereotyped feminine role of weakness and inferiority. so it is still a psychodynamic theory of personality, but with a continuing shift to a developmental and growth perspective, created birth order theory

Birth Order Effect

the pampered child vs the rejected child. special advantages and disadvantages to each situation, compensating that leads to striving for superiority, he was only a bit right.

Modern Birth Order Theory

Based off Adler’s theories, but less deterministic (lines up better with data), more related to avaliability of roles (what lane is not take that is most authentic to you?)

Karen Horney (1885-1952)

among the first females to pioneer the field of psychology

• '“when we realize the great import of cultural conditions on neuroses, the biological and physiological conditions, which are considered by Freud to be the root, recede into the background'“

• studied the role of culture in the development of gender identity

Social security

the main driving force in her theory. emphasis in neurotic functioning is on how individuals attempt to cope with child’s anxiety of feeling isolated and helpless

Conflict among 3 ways of responding to this basic anxiety

moving toward, moving against, or moving away

Moving toward

person deals with anxiety by an excessive interest in being accepted, needed, and approved of

Moving Against

person assumes that everyone is hostile and that life is a struggle against all

Moving away

person shrinks away form others into neurotic detachment

Womb Envy

concept of penis envy the result of a male bias in psychoanalysis who treat neurotic women in a particular social context. Horney answered this concept by theorizing about “womb envy”

Is gender a factor in personality?

• yes, but the personality differences between genders is small, complex, and nuanced and with many counter-examples

• those differences are changing over time

• descriptive or prescriptive?

Emotional Expressiveness

• females demonstrate more self-report expressions of emotions, no gender differences when using objective meausres

• self-report emotion differently

Variation in emotional expressiveness

• except for aggression, females display more facial and verbal emotional expression, experience their emotions more intensely, and express their emotions in a more socially acceptable manner

Self-esteem and confidence

tend to be lower in women than in men, women tend to underestimate their competence, men tend to overestimate

Overt physical aggression

across various cultures and at an earlier age of onset, males tend to exhibit more acts of physical aggression than females

Passive/Indirect aggression

Across various cultures, greater female aggression includes gossiping, name calling, and social rejec

Love

• females experience and report being in love more often and more intense feelings while in love

• females report more pragmatic expectations and tend to be more cautious about falling in love

• men tend to fall in love more quickly

Sexuality

• general patterns: males have more casual attitudes about and have more sex than females, females seek sex for intimacy while males seek gratification; both sexes report similar levels of sexual satisfaction

Typical Male Brain

connections front and back in the same brain hemisphere-could account for spatial skills and motor (muscle) control in men

Typical female brain

side to side connections across the left and right hemispheres of the brain-could account for better verbal shifts and intuitive abilities

Harry Stack Sullivan (1892-1949)

• an american psychiatrist, known primarily for his theory of interpersonal relations

• he was interested in a psychodynamic approach to understanding personality, but was turned off by Freud’s deterministic and sexual approach

• his work in mental health hospitals led him to observe the connection between mental illness and loneliness and disconnnection

• observed that feelings of anxiety or connection in childhood seemed to relate to how people deal with the complexities of relationships in adulthood

Bowlby’s Attachment behavioral system (ABS)

We have a fundamental need for secure attachment

• secure attachment starts in childhood with a secure base from which to explore

• separation distress is seen as normal and healthy

• securely attached children grow into adolescents who feel safe enough to individuate and form healthy attachments outside the family system

• securely attached adolescents grow into adults with healthy boundaries ex: rubber band

Boundaries: smallest possible distance in relationship where I can love me and you at the same time

• vulnerably invest in intimate relationships

• maintain an appropriate sense of self that is not defined by how they feel in any particular relationship

• does not see these two things as a contradiction