Untitled Flashcards Set

Personality: Psychodynamic Approach 

Personality definition 

• Personality: Pattern of emotions, distinctive thoughts, and behaviors that are how an individual interacts with the world

• Psychodynamic approach feels much of our personality is primarily in our unconscious mind

Sigmund Freud

• Freud believed that all psychological disorders had to do with the conflict between unconscious sex drive and the morality of civilized society

• Believed hysteria (somatoform disorders) had to do with unfulfilled desired (not always sexual)

  • In reality, “hysteria” was usually women who spoke out against their husbands/fathers

Structure of personality

• Freud believed we all have three parts of our personality: id, ego, and superego

• Id: unconscious desires often against in pleasure and sometimes against the societal norms

  • Instinctual 

• Superego: of personality

  • involved in conscience and morality

• Ego: deals with the demands of reality, aims to the pleasure within the demands of the society

  • Involved in reasoning, problem solving, and decision making 

  • Tries to appease the id and superego within the bounds of society

Defense mechanisms

• Ways the ego copes with the id and superego

• Can include denial (ignoring your failing grade), displacement (beating up your little brother rather than your teacher), sublimation (fighting in MMA to bash people in), projection (homophobes who are gay themselves), and repression (forgetting painful past experiences) or regression (reverting to an earlier stage of life)

Psychosexual Stages of Development

• Freud believed that much of our personality was developed by the age of six, with lesser development after that.

• Each of 5 stages was aligned with an enhanced sexuality around a certain body zone

• Adults who did became fixated at a certain stage would display certain characteristics

Oral stage

• From birth to about 18 months

• Children chew, suck and bite to produce pleasure

• Adult fixations include chewing gum, smoking, eating, kissing and drinking

• Sublimations include knowledge, humor, sarcasm, and being a foodie or oenophile

• Reaction formation (opposite of stage) includes being a grammar snob, following food fads, not drinking alcohol and disliking milk

Anal Stage

• From 18 to 36 months, usually during toilet training

• Freud believed children felt pleasure from controlling their bodily functions

• Adult fixations include bathroom humor, extreme messiness, notable interest in toileting

• Sublimations include fine arts, being overly giving, interest in statistics

• Reaction formations include disgust of the toilet, fear of dirt, being a prude

Phallic Stage

• From 3 to 6 years old

• Focus is on the genitals and pleasure from them

• Freud believed this was when boys went through the Oedipal complex (desire to sleep with their mother)

• To prevent the father from cutting off his penis (castration anxiety), the boy would identify with the father and become male gendered.  This anxiety was in the id and helped develop the superego

• Girls developed penis envy, but did not develop as strong of a superego, making them morally inferior to men (Electra complex – Carl Jung)

• Adult fixations include flirtiness, excessive self-gratification and virility

• Sublimations include love of poetry, romance, acting skills, drive for success

• Reaction formations include extreme modesty and Puritanical views toward sex

Latency stage

• Form 6 years old to puberty

• Freud felt no psychosexual development happened at this stage

• In reality, a lot of our personality develops at this time

Genital stage

• Puberty through adulthood

• When we discovered sexuality outside of the self and family

• Still struggle with the id and the sexual conflict of adulthood

Critiques of freud 

• Sexuality is not the dominant force of personality 

• Personality is not so dependent on childhood (0-5 years of age)

• Unconscious mind is not that large of a factor on personality and development 

• Sociocultural side is just as (or more important) than biology and psychosexual

Other psychodynamic and humanistic approaches to personality

• Karen Horney (sociocultural)- men and women BOTH envy each other

  • We are motivated by security, not sex

• Carl Jung (analytic) - collective unconscious (cultural ancestral experiences) affect personality 

  • Archetypes in the collective unconscious create common art, literature, dreams and religion

  • The passive anima (female) and assertive animus (male) are two major archetypes

• The persona is the public image we present to all

• Alfred Adler (individualism): our personality is driven by the pursuit of perfection

  • Our genetic abilities work towards our own perfection

  • Can also lead to an inferiority complex

  • We compensate for weaknesses and work to overcome inferiority

• Birth orders can affect us (firstborns lose all attention, last borns are spoiled, middle born are best off) but does not define us

Overall Psychodynamics  

• Personality is from our present and our past

• Personality involves from physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes

• Experiences affect personality

• Conscious vs. unconscious

• Inner mind vs. outside world

• Think unconscious mind having something to do with our personality 

Maslow’s approach 

• Believed that a person’s capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities affect personality

• We should all aspire to be like those who reached self-actualization (peak experiences, pursuing greater good, tolerant of others, spiritual insight)

• Leads to self-transcendence: fulfillment beyond the physical self (“I” vs “We”) 

  • This can be considered the 6th stage 

• The levels of needs

Carl Rogers's approach (self-concept)

• We are all born with the ability to live a fulfilling life, we just need the right conditions to thrive (self-worth)

• We also have an innate sense of what is good or bad for us (self-image)- genuineness

• We also want to be accepted positively by others

• All work to make a positive personality outlook 

Happiness vs. Unhappiness

• Rogers delt that we want to be accepted unconditionally (unconditional positive regard/ ideal self)

• Most people will only accept us on their own terms (condition of worth) - lack of empathy

• As we get older, we do things to make others accept us, which can lead to our own unhappiness

How to be happiest 

• To be truly happy, we need others to accept us unconditionally, be empathetic to us, and being true to ourselves (genuineness)

• In general, humanists believe that our perceptions of yourself create most of our personality, although that can lead to narcissism

Social cognitive perspectives 

Walter Mischel 

• Believed that behavior and traits were not cross-situational (being outgoing does not mean you are outgoing in every situation)

• Instead behavior is discriminatory, adapting to each unique situation

• The more obvious the situation (being quiet in church), the more likely we are discriminatory

• Behavior adapt to the situation 

CAPS Theory

• Cognitive affective processing systems- the belief that our own thoughts and emotions affect our personality in the long term

• Children who can delay grabbing a cookie or marshmellow in an experiment often grew up to be able to delay gratification as they got older (studying vs partying)

• Personality is all about situation vs. simply traits

• Personality has a lot of factors involved beyond just traits

• Our personality has a sense of planning (long-term) built in for some scenarios 

Brain and personality 

• Different brains (same regions) respond differently to the same stimuli 

• This shows that our individual biology has an impact on personality

Hans Eysenck’s RAS Theory 

• Reticular Activation System Theory (RAS)

• We all have an optimal level of arousal with the outside world

• Extrovert feel they are below this level, while introverts are above this level

• This is why extroverts want more arousal and introverts want less arousal 

Jeffrey Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory

• Behavioral activation system (BAS) seeks positive outcomes while Behavioral Inhibition system (BIS) seeks to avoid negative outcomes

• BAS orientation leads to extroversion, BIS orientation leads to neuroticism 

Neurotransmitters and personality 

• More dopamine= extroversion (BAS)

• Less Serotonin = neuroticism (lack of binding to thalamus) Also involved in aggression (excess dopamine) and depression (less serotonin

• Environment can aggravate or sedate these conditions 

Behavioral genetics

• Study of genes as related to behavioral characteristics 

• Often done with twins (identical vs fraternal) genes affect traits (about 50%), but environment can also play a factor 

OCEAN- Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism

• Openness to Experience: someone’s willingness to explore something

• Conscientiousness: how dependable, organized, and self-disciplined someone is in their approach of work 

• Extroversion: Measures how energized someone is by interacting with others and how well they perform in collaborative environments

• Agreeableness: tendency to cooperate, assist others, and maintain harmony

• Neuroticism: emotions influence their decisions and their ability to remain calm under pressure