Chapter 14: Personality

Effect of Environment on Personality - Twin Studies

Numerous personality traits are influenced by genetics, however, all correlations are below 1.0, suggesting that nonshared environmental factors also influence personality and shared childhood environment plays little role in adult personality

Structure of Personality

Freud proposed that the mind is divided into three components: id, ego, and superego, and that the interactions and conflicts among the components create personality.

Freud proposed that we use defense mechanisms to cope with anxiety and maintain a positive self-image

Id

Our basic instincts, operate on the pleasure principle (need for immediate gratification).

For example, if you are craving chocolate, this will make you feel like chocolate is the only thing that matters right now to satisfy your pleasure

Superego

Our sense of morality, delays the search for gratification until there is an appropriate outlet.

For example, if you are craving chocolate, this will make sure you aren't snatching the chocolate bar your friend is about to enjoy

Ego

Principal decision maker. Controlled by the reality principle, is what prevents you from acting on these urges.

For example, if you are craving chocolate, this will make you wait until you can get your own chocolate bar

Freudian Defense Mechanisms

Used by the ego to minimize anxiety

Repression Defense Mechanism

Motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses.

For example, a person who witnesses a traumatic combat scene finds themself unable to remember it

Denial Defense Mechanism

Motivated forgetting of distressing experiences.

For example, a parent who loses a child in a car accident insists that the child is alive.

Reaction-formation Defense Mechanism

Transforming an anxiety-producing experience into its opposite.

For example, a married woman who is sexually attracted to a co-worker experiences hatred and revulsion toward them (enemies to lovers)

Projection Defense Mechanism

Unconscious attribution of our negative qualities onto others.

For example, a married man with powerful unconscious sexual impulses toward women complains that other women are always “after him.”

Displacement Defense Mechanism

Satisfying an impulse with a substitute object (ඞ).

For example, a manager screams at an employee and the employee doesn't scream back—but he may yell at his spouse later that night

Regression Defense Mechanism

A defense mechanism where a person deals with stress by behaving in an immature or age-inappropriate way rather than dealing with it in an adult-like manner → This is a movement pack in psychological time when one is faced with stress.

For example, a person is having a horrible day, so they might go home, cuddle up with their mom (like they did when they were a child) so they feel better.

Sublimation Defense Mechanism

Transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired and socially valued goal, or satisfying an impulse with a substitute object (but the socially acceptable way!).

For example, a person gets upset but they don’t get angry or take it out on someone else and rather take all that anger and go to the gym and fuel their workout – something constructive

Rationalization Defense Mechanism

Providing reasonable-sounding explanations for unreasonable behaviours or failures.

For example, a political candidate who loses an election convinces themself that they didn’t really want the position after all

Intellectualization Defense Mechanism

Avoiding the emotions associated with anxiety-provoking experiences by focusing on abstract and impersonal thoughts.

For example, a woman whose husband cheats on her reassures herself that “according to evolutionary psychologists, males are naturally sexually promiscuous, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Stages of Psychosexual Development

The erogenous zone associated with each stage serves as a source of pleasure. Being unsatisfied at any particular stage can result in fixation

Oral - Psychosexual Development

Birth to 12–18 months, sucking and drinking

Anal - Psychosexual Development

18 months to 3 years, alleviating tension by expelling feces (WHAT)

Phallic - Psychosexual Development

3 years to 6 years, genitals (penis or clitoris). Girls develop a sexual attraction to their dad, mom is in the way OR boys develop a sexual attraction to their mom, dad is in the way

Latency - Psychosexual Development

6 years to 12 years, dormant sexual stage

Genital - Psychosexual Development

12 years and beyond, sexual impulses awaken and typically begin to mature into romantic attraction towards others

Oral - Consequences of Fixation

Caused by unmet oral needs. This creates a persistent need for oral stimulation, causing oral behaviors like smoking, nail biting, and biting pencils in adulthood

Anal - Consequences of Fixation

Retentive individuals: obsessively neat, organized, disciplined, and orderly. Expulsive individuals: messy and disorganized

Phallic - Consequences of Fixation

Oedipus complex: Conflict during the stage in which boys supposedly love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals.

Electra complex: conflict during the stage in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals (WTF).

If girls do not develop a good relationship with their father, they might seek that comfort in a male partner, same for boys

Latency - Consequences of Fixation

Can result in immaturity and an inability to form fulfilling relationships as an adult

Genital - Consequences of Fixation

Can cause difficulties establishing intimate love attachments and sexual relationships in adulthood

The Big Five Model of Personality

Five traits that have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures; these five emerge too in an analysis of a dictionary, called the lexical approach.

Predict many important real-world behaviors:

• Job performance and grades in school

• Physical health and life span

Openness to Experience - Big Five

Intellectually curious and unconventional

Conscientiousness - Big Five

Careful and responsible.

Extroversion - Big Five

Social and lively.

Agreeableness - Big Five

Friendly and easy to get along with.

Neuroticism - Big Five

Tense and moody