Ch 11 Personality Day 1 (1)

Personality Overview

• Definition: Personality refers to an individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

• Personality Theory: Describes and explains how people are alike, how they differ, and why each person is unique.

Perspectives on Personality

• Four Major Perspectives:

  • Psychoanalytic Perspective

  • Humanistic Perspective

  • Social-Cognitive Perspective

  • Trait Perspective

Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Core Idea: Emphasizes the role of unconscious processes and early childhood experiences.

• Key Figure: Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), physician and researcher.

• Freud's Clinical Context:

  • Investigated the medical use of cocaine, later deemed addictive.

  • His daughter, Anna Freud, became a prominent psychoanalytic theorist.

Theoretical Foundations of Freud

• Self-Analysis & Patient Observation: Critical processes in developing psychoanalysis.

• Technique of Free Association: Patients report their thoughts and feelings freely, revealing unconscious material.

• Dream Analysis: Freud attributed significant meaning to dreams, considering them as paths to unconscious desires.

Freud’s Dream Interpretation

• Every Dream is Meaningful: Dreams contain symbols that reveal hidden urges.

• Association Method: Patients link dream elements to their personal meanings rather than relying on a standard interpretation.

• Dreams as Fulfillment: Dreams disguise repressed childhood wishes, with latent meanings that may differ from surface impressions.

Freud’s Dynamic Theory of Personality

• Psychoanalysis as Therapy: Both a theory of personality and a therapeutic approach.

• Personality as Interplay of Forces: Behavior results from conflicts among the id, ego, and superego.

• Unconscious Motivation: Key causes of behavior lie buried in the unconscious mind.

Levels of Awareness in Personality

1. Conscious: Current thoughts and feelings.

2. Preconscious: Memories easily retrievable.

3. Unconscious: Deep-seated thoughts, feelings, and drives that influence consciousness.

Structure of Personality Components

Id

• Characteristics:

  • Unconscious and irrational.

  • Seeks immediate gratification and pleasure (pleasure principle).

Ego

• Characteristics:

  • Partly conscious and rational.

  • Mediates between id and real-world restrictions (reality principle).

  • Internalizes rules and social values (Freud’s analogy: "id is a horse; ego is the rider").

Superego

• Characteristics:

  • Self-evaluative and moralistic.

  • Formed through the internalization of societal and parental guidelines.

  • Evaluates behavior and provides sense of pride or guilt.

Ego Defense Mechanisms

• Purpose: Reduce anxiety when id or superego demands overwhelm ego.

• Types of Mechanisms:

  • Repression: Excluding anxiety-inducing memories from consciousness.

  • Displacement: Redirecting emotional impulses toward a less threatening target.

  • Sublimation: Transforming sexual urges into productive activities.

  • Rationalization: Offering acceptable reasons for one’s behavior instead of acknowledging true motives.

  • Projection: Attributing one's feelings or urges to others.

  • Reaction Formation: Behaving in a manner opposite to one's desires.

  • Denial: Refusing to acknowledge unpleasant information.

  • Regression: Resorting to behaviors characteristic of an earlier developmental stage.

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development

• Five Stages:

  1. Oral

  2. Anal

  3. Phallic

  4. Latency

  5. Genital

• Focus of Sexual Energies: Each stage represents a different focus for the id’s energies; foundational personality traits develop during these stages.

Fixation Consequences

• Definition: Unresolved conflicts in any psychosexual stage.

• Effects: Result in unmet needs or overindulgence, leading to fixation and challenges in adulthood.

The Oedipus Complex

• Definition: A child's unconscious sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent and hostility towards the same-sex parent.

• Critical Conflict Resolution: Necessary for healthy development, especially during the phallic stage.

• Resolution Process: Boys emulate fathers; girls identify with mothers.

Latency Stage and Genital Stage

• Latency: Repressed sexual urges; children bond with same-sex peers.

• Genital Stage: Final resolution of the Oedipus complex; urges surface but are directed towards socially acceptable relationships.

Neo-Freudian Contributions

• General Agreement: Importance of the unconscious and early childhood.

• Key Differences from Freud:

  • Dispute over sexual motivation as the primary driver of behavior.

  • Questions the determinative role of early childhood experiences on personality.

  • More optimistic view of human nature.

Carl Jung's Theories

• Collective Unconscious: Inherited images (archetypes) shared across cultures.

• Archetypes Examples: Represent universal themes such as hero/villain and ideas of wisdom, strength.

Karen Horney's Contributions

• Emphasis on Social Relationships: Focus on cultural influences over sexual conflicts in psychological development.

• Concept of 'Womb Envy': Suggests men envy women’s reproductive capabilities.

Alfred Adler's Theories

• Striving for Superiority: Central human motivation based on feelings of inadequacy during childhood.

• Importance of Compensation: Encouragement of individual growth and talents due to feelings of inferiority.

Evaluating Psychoanalysis

• Contributions:

  • Validated the unconscious's role in mental life.

  • Highlighted early childhood's impact on adult relationships.

  • Informed therapeutic practices.

• Limitations:

  • Evidence inadequacy.

  • Difficulty in testability.

  • Possibility of sexism and a biased perspective of gender roles.