UNIT 4.5 psychodynamic and humanistic theories of personality

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective: Exploring the unconscious

4.5-1 How did Freud’s treatment of psychological disorders lead to his view of unconscious mind, and what was his view of personality?

Psychodynamic theories: view personality as with a focus on the unconscious mind and the importance of childhood experiences

• the unconscious forces determine behavior and influence personality

• descended from Freud’s psychoanalysis

  • Psychoanalysis: attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts

• Mind is separated into 3 levels of consciousness

  • consciousness: sense of reality

  • preconscious: forces that drive a person’s personality to operate under the surface

    • thoughts feelings and impulses not presently in awareness but can be more or less readily called into consciousness

  • unconscious: memories, emotional conflicts, wishes beyond our awareness but where the most action takes palce and has effects on our thoughts and behavior

Sigmund Freud

• psychoanalysis

  • free association: a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind no matter how embarrassing

• id: unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives

  • operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of desires

  • libido: life energy source that fuels our pleasure-seeking

• Ego: partly conscious “executive” part of personality that mediates between the demands of the id and the constraints of reality, operating on the reality principle

  • reality principle: guiding principle in ways to satisfy that the Id’s primitive needs while negotiating reality

superego: partly conscious part of personality that represents internalized ideals moral and provides standards and values, acting as the conscience

• morality principle: internalized need to comply with parental other authority

Defense mechanisms

4.5-2 How did freud think people defended themselves against anxiety?

defense mechanisms: unconscious strategies employed by the ego to protect itself from anxiety and threats

• distort reality and help individuals cope with unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or impulses

Examples of defense mechanisms

• repression: reducing anxiety by unconsciously blocking anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories from consciousness

  • ex. when asked about Jasmine, Brandon may say “Who?, I have not thought about her for awhile.”

• regression: reducing anxiety by retreating to an earlier period of psychological development or behavior when stressed

  • ex. sleeping with your old favorite childhood stuffed animal again

• displacement: shifting sexual or aggressive impulses to a more acceptable or less threatening object/person

  • ex. Brandon may take his anger on another kid by bullying

• projection: Attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or impulses to another person to disguise them

  • ex. telling everyone how mad your parents are at the coach

• denial: ego refusing to believe or perceive painful realities because doing so would produce unbearable anxiety

  • ex. Brandon may act like he is still together with Jasmine - He may hang out by her locker and plan dates with her

• reaction-formation: defending against anxiety-arousing thoughts by switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites to conceal them

  • ex. Expressing the opposite of how one truly feels- Brandon claims he hates Jasmine

• rationalization: Justifying one's actions or beliefs with seemingly logical reasons to avoid confronting the true, underlying motives

  • ex. Brandon thinks he will find a better girlfriend- “Jasmine was not all that anyway!”

• sublimation: transferring unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable or productive activities

  • Sometimes a healthy defense mechanism

  • Brandon starts to learn how to play the guitar and writing songs