*psychodynamic perspective

Personality

  • Definition: Personality refers to distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize an individual's responses to various situations.

What is Personality?

  1. Common Observations Leading to the Concept of Personality

    • Individuals exhibit meaningful differences in how they typically think, feel, and act.

    • People tend to behave in a relatively consistent manner over time and across different contexts.

  2. Standards for Evaluating Personality Theories

    • Components of Identity: Distinctive features that distinguish one person from others.

    • Perceived Internal Causes vs. External Factors: Personality is understood as an internal cause of behavior, rather than as a result stemming from external influences.

    • Organization & Structure: The various components of personality must fit together cohesively and meaningfully.

Psychodynamic Theory

  1. Conversion Hysteria:

    • Conversion hysteria involves the sudden appearance of physical symptoms (e.g., paralysis or blindness) without any obvious medical cause.

  2. Freud's Insights into the Unconscious Mind:

    • Observations: Symptoms of conversion hysteria improved or vanished when patients re-experienced traumatic memories or unacceptable feelings.

    • Conclusion: Freud concluded that an unconscious part of the mind critically influences behavior.

    • Techniques to Access the Unconscious:

      • Hypnosis

      • Free association

      • Dream analysis

Psychic Energy & Mental Events

  1. Hydraulic Systems as an Influence on Freud’s Concepts:

    • Psychic Energy: Acts as a driving force behind mental activity, perpetually seeking to be released either directly or indirectly.

    • Instinctual Drives: Represent the pressure exerted by this psychic energy.

    • Defense Mechanisms: Function to regulate the release of psychic energy.

    • Behavior: The manifestation of how this energy is finally expressed.

    • Unconscious Mental Events: Include wishes, feelings, and impulses that remain outside of conscious awareness.

Structure of Personality

  1. Freud's Three Structures:

    • ID:

      • Operates based on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification.

      • Lacks direct connection to the external world.

    • EGO:

      • Evolved to engage with reality.

      • Functions according to the reality principle, determining when and how impulses can be safely satisfied.

    • SUPEREGO:

      • Moral aspect of personality that develops around ages 4-5 through identification with parental figures.

      • Internalizes societal values and ideals, thereby replacing external controls (rewards and punishments) with self-control.

      • Seeks perfection rather than pleasure or reality, often blocking gratification altogether and may induce feelings of guilt, particularly regarding sexual matters deemed "dirty."