Unit 4 - Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theories of Personality

Personality

an individual's characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting

Psychodynamic theories view of personality

view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, including associated motives and conflicts

Sigmund Freud

personality is attributed to thoughts and actions due to unconscious motives and conflicts

• Expose and interpret unconscious tensions

• Free association

Unconscious

Beneath our conscious mind is a larger mind with mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories that we are unaware of

Free Association

psychoanalytic therapy method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever come to mind, not matter how trivial or embarrassing

• This would lead to painful unconscious memories from childhood that could be retrieved. 

ID

• Unconscious portion of personality

• Primitive & Instinctive component

• Seeks immediate Satisfaction

SUPEREGO

• Tells us what we should and should not do

• Values/ Morals

• too much SE  guilty, shy, fearful, withdrawn… it monitors the id and hands out rewards (pride, satisfaction) or punishments (shame, guilt) 

• Develops first 5 years of life

Ego

the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality

• Develops during first 5 years

Defense mechanisms

are unconscious strategies that people use to protect themselves from anxiety or threats to their self-esteem

Repression

the banishment of threatening thoughts, feelings, and memories into the unconscious mind; unconsciously forgetting information that is too painful to recall

• ex: witness a murder and when the police ask you what happened, you forget

Regression

reverting back to childlike behavior to get the attention you got when you were younger or to get your way

• ex: anxious on a first day of school, a child may result to a “thumb sucking” phase to help him/her get through

Reaction Formation

the tendency to act in a manner opposite to one's true feelings

• ex: “I hate him” may really mean, “I love him”

Projection

the attribution of one's undesirable feelings to others; blaming another person for the feelings you have

• ex: “He doesn’t trust me,” may mean “I don’t trust him.”

Rationalization

the providing of socially acceptable reasons for one's inappropriate behavior

• ex: students who don’t study may think, “All work and no play makes me a boring person”, or someone who is an alcoholic may say, “I only drink in social settings.”

Displacement

the expression of feelings toward a person/thing who is less threatening than the true target of those feelings; taking out one’s anger or frustration on a person or object that is not the cause of the offense

• ex: bullying

Denial

Refusing to acknowledge or accept reality, often to avoid painful or threatening information

• ex: see your boyfriend cheating, but still don’t believe it

Sublimation

the expression of sexual or aggressive impulses through indirect, socially acceptable outlets

• It is possible that smokers have graduated from earlier stages of thumb-sucking and pencil-chewing, neither of which would be acceptable behavior in adult society. Smoking is a socially acceptable outlet for oral needs.

Alfred Adler

• Childhood tensions are social, not sexual.

• Healthy individuals overcome inferiority by engaging with society, fostering self-worth and concern for others.

• Some prioritize selfishness over social interest.

• Inferiority Complex: Persistent insecurity from perceived inferiority, impacting life and relationships.

• Birth Order Theory: Birth order influences personality.

Karen Horney

• Psychoanalytic Social Theory: Social and cultural conditions in childhood shape personality.

• Lack of love in childhood → basic hostility → leads to basic anxiety.

• To cope, people adopt one of three styles:

  • Moving toward people: Seeks affirmation, appears needy/clingy.

  • Moving away from people: Avoids others, appears cold/aloof.

  • Moving against people: Controls others, appears domineering/unkind.

• Personality Types:

  • Aggressive: Sees others as enemies, self-serving.

  • Compliant: Prioritizes others' needs.

  • Detached: Seeks independence, may become isolated.

Carl Jung

• Jung & Freud: Initially Freud’s protégé but later criticized his Oedipus complex theory in 1912.

• Collective Unconscious: Shared human reservoir of images from our past.

• Archetypes: Universal symbols in myths, art, and literature (e.g., Hero vs. Villain).

• Personality Types: Four opposing pairs, with one dominant in each person:

  • Extroversion/Introversion

  • Sensing/Intuition

  • Thinking/Feeling

  • Judging/Perceiving

• Balance: Ideal self-realization comes from balancing extroversion and introversion.

  • Introverts: Reflective, insightful, inward-focused.

  • Extroverts: Engage with the external world, action-oriented.

Projective Test

personality test that provides ambiguous stimuli and test-takers tell a story about it

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

• Developed by Henry Murray 

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

Rorschach Inkblot Test

• Designed by Hermann Rorschach 

• Most widely used projective test with a set of 10 inkblots

• It seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretation of the inkblots

• What do you see?

Projective Test: Criticism

Critics argue that projective test lack both reliability (consistency of results) and validity (predicting what it is supposed to)

Preconscious

includes stored information about yourself or your environment that you are not currently aware or thinking of but can easily call to mind when asked

Humanistic Psychology

emphasized human potential, focused on the ways “healthy” people strive for self determination and self-realization

Unconditional Positive Regard

we are all born with a need for acceptance and love from others independent of how we behave, and positive self-regard from ourselves

Self-Actualization

motivation to fulfill potential and to become a fully functioning person