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What is Personality?

• Definition: Personality is the distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a person's responses to life situations.

• Observations Leading to Concept:

  • People differ in how they think, feel, and act.

  • People behave consistently over time and across situations.

Evaluating Personality Theories

• Three Standards for Usefulness:

  • Distinguishing components of identity.

  • Caused primarily by internal factors.

  • Behaviours fit together in a coherent manner.

The Psychodynamic Perspective

• Focus: Inner conflicts and unconscious determinants of behavior.

• Sigmund Freud’s Influence:

  • Freud's psychoanalytic theory was the first and most influential.

  • Emphasis on childhood experiences and unconscious motives.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

• Key Discovery:

  • Conversion hysteria patients’ physical symptoms link to repressed memories.

• Techniques for Accessing Unconscious:

  • Hypnosis, free association, dream analysis.

• Publication: "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1900).

Mental Events

• Conscious Mind: Awareness of thoughts and feelings.

• Preconscious: Memories that can be called into awareness.

• Unconscious Mind: Contains repressed wishes and impulses.

Structure of Personality

• Id:

  • Exists entirely in the unconscious; operates on the pleasure principle.

• Ego:

  • Functions at a conscious level; operates on the reality principle.

• Superego:

  • Moral arm of personality; internalizes societal values through recognition of right and wrong.

Conflict, Anxiety, and Defense Mechanisms

• Defense Mechanisms: Strategies used by the ego to manage anxiety due to conflicts between the id and superego.

• Major Defense Mechanisms:

  • Repression: Pushing anxiety-arousing thoughts into the unconscious.

  • Denial: Refusal to acknowledge anxiety-arousing aspects of reality.

  • Displacement: Redirecting impulses to safer targets.

  • Projection: Attributing one’s unacceptable thoughts to others.

Psychosexual Development

• Stages of Development:

  • Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital.

  • Fixation due to deprivation or excessive gratification can impact personality.

Research on Psychoanalytic Theory

• Limitations: Concepts of classical psychoanalysis are often seen as ambiguous and hard to measure.

• Modern Studies: Research on aspects like repression and defense mechanisms.

Freud’s Legacy: Neoanalytic Approaches

• Criticism: Neoanalysts argue Freud overemphasized childhood and sexuality, neglecting social factors.

• Key Figures: Alfred Adler (social interest) and Carl Jung (collective unconscious and archetypes).

Humanistic Perspective

• Self-Actualization: The goal of realizing one’s full potential; contrasts Freud’s darker view of humanity.

• Carl Rogers’ Self Theory:

  • Centered on the self-concept and its development through experiences and relationships.

  • Emphasizes self-consistency and congruence.

Trait and Biological Perspectives

• Trait Theorists:

  • Critique about the number of traits; Cattell (16 traits), Eysenck (3 traits), Big Five Model (OCEAN).

• Biological Basis of Traits: Genetics and brain functioning influence personality.

Social-Cognitive Theories

• Reciprocal Determinism: Interaction between behavior, environment, and personal factors shapes personality.

• Self-Efficacy: Confidence in one’s abilities to achieve goals influenced by experience and others’ support.

Personality Assessment

• Methods:

  • Interviews: Gather direct, personal information through structured or unstructured methods.

  • Behavioral Assessment: Observation of specific behaviors in different contexts.

  • Remote Behavioral Sampling: Collecting data in natural settings via technology.

  • Personality Scales: Standardized instruments measuring traits through self-report.

  • Projective Tests: Tests like Rorschach Inkblots and TAT that gauge unconscious processes.

Conclusion

• Assessment methods must adhere to standards of reliability and validity to accurately reflect personality.