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Introduction to Psychodynamic UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO Theories of Personality PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY Structure 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Objectives 1.2 Personality 1.3 Psychodynamics 1.3.1 History 1.3.2 Freudian Psychodynamics 1.3.3 Jungian Psychodynamics 1.3.4 Positive Psychology 1.4 Psychoanalysis 1.4.1 Key Terms of Psychoanalytical Theory 1.4.2 Strengths of Psychoanalysis 1.4.3 Criticisms of Psychoanalysis 1.5 Psychodynamic Theory of Personality 1.5.1 Psychodynamic Treatment 1.6 Other Psychodynamic Theorists 1.7 Let Us Sum Up 1.8 Unit End Questions 1.9 Suggested Readings 1.0 INTRODUCTION Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that make a person unique. Personality is fundamental to the study of psychology. In this unit we will introduce the theory of Personality based on Psychodynamic approach. The term psychodynamic refers to a wide group of theories that emphasise the overriding influence of instinctive drives and forces, and the importance of development experiences in shaping personality. Early in their development, these theories focused solely on the influence of unconscious drives and forces, but they received much criticism and subsequent revision. Most recent psychodynamic theory places greater emphasis on conscious experience and its interaction with the unconscious, in addition to the role that social factors play in development. Psychodynamic theories are in basic agreement that the study of human behaviour should include factors such as internal processes, personality, motivation and drives, and the importance of childhood experiences. Classic theories about the role of the unconscious sexual and aggressive drives have been re-evaluated to focus on conscious experience, resulting in, for example, the birth of ego psychology. Psychodynamic approach involves the description of personality in terms of 5 Psychodynamic and unconscious factors, psycho sexual developmental stages etc. The unit will cover Humanistic Theories of Personality Freud’s and Jungians Concept of Personality development. 1.1 OBJECTIVES After going through this unit, you will be able to: l Define and explain personality; l Discuss the concept involved in psychodynamics; l Explain the concept of psychoanalysis; and l Analyse the psychodynamic approach to personality; l Explain Freud’s approach to development of personality; and l Explain Jung’s approach to the development of personality. 1.2 PERSONALITY Before we proceed let us define Personality. Large number of definitions have been put forward by Psychologists and these vary from one theorist to another. Personality has been defined in terms of body types, constitution, traits, behaviour etc., One of the important definitions of personality is that it is an interaction between hereditary factors, environmental factors and time factors in terms of readiness for development. While hereditary factors do play an important role in the development of Personality, environment also has an equal if not less important role in the development of personality. Personality is what makes a person unique, which is recognisable soon after birth. There are several components of personality, viz., temperament, environment, and character. Temperament is the child’s set of genetically determined traits that determine the child’s approach to the world and how the child learns about the world. There are no genes that specify personality traits, but some genes do control the development of the nervous system, which in turn controls behaviour. Both temperament and environment influence the development of a person’s personality. While temperament is dependent on genetic factors, high-quality parenting plays a critical role in the development of a child’s personality. The third component of personality is character which is a set of emotional, cognitive, and behavioural patterns learned from experience that determines how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. A person’s character continues to evolve throughout life, although much depends on inborn traits and early experiences. 1.3 PSYCHODYNAMICS Psychodynamics is the systematised study and theory of psychological forces that underlie human behaviour. It emphasises the interplay between unconscious and conscious motivation. The concept of “psychodynamics” was developed by Sigmund Freud who suggested that psychological processes are flows of psychological energy in a complex brain, establishing “psychodynamics” on the basis of psychological energy, referred to as the libido. According to Freud’s Psychodynamic theory, personality development goes through various stages and is completed by the time the individual is five years of age. The personality that the individual will have at this time is the one he will carry 6 throughout life. Further more, Freud introduced the concepts of Id, Ego and Super ego whose Introduction to Psychodynamic interplay determines the personality development. According to him the child is born Theories of Personality with certain hereditary potentials and these include amongst others, intuitions, needs etc. The Id consists of the many needs, desires and wishes in the individual. The needs have to be gratified in order that the individual survives and is in a state of balance. These needs arise from time to time and demand gratification. Initially most of these needs are related to the individual. As the child grows, the ego emerges in the satisfaction of these needs. The ego is the executive arm of the personality. It is in touch without and outside world and it functions on the principles of Reality in contrast to the Id which functions on pleasure principle. The ego looks for things in the outside world and tries to satisfy the demands of the Id. If the object for satisfying the need is not available the ego postpones the gratification of the need until the object is available, or creates an image which could satisfy the need. As the process of development continues, the third part of Personality viz. the Superego emerges in response to the many disciplinary measures introduced by parents and society. The Superego is the moral arm of personality which restrains the ego from satisfying the needs of the Id. It incorporates the various do’s and don’ts of parents and society and functions as moral authority to the individual. It is also not in touch with reality like the Id and whenever the undesirable demands of the Id are satisfied it makes the person feel guilty. The ego tries to restrain the Superego through reality oriented measures and restrains the Superego’s demands and that of the Id’s demands and brings about a balanced state of functioning of the personality. The interaction amongst these three components of personality (Id, Ego and Superego) determines how the individual’s personality will shape and how the individual would behave. Another concept introduced by Freud was the “unconscious”. He conceived of the mind like an Iceberg, the tip of which is called the conscious, a small portion as subconscious and the remaining large portion as the Unconscious. The conscious is what we are aware of, and the subconscious is what we can access and retrieve some of the materials in the subconscious. Most of the experiences of unpleasant and undesirable nature, the many undesirable wishes etc. remain away from the conscious and are repressed into the unconscious. While the materials in the unconscious are not accessible because of the restraining influence of the Superego, some of the materials try to enter the conscious and thus influence the behaviour of the individual. However the individual is not aware of this unconscious factor though he/she behaves in accordance with it. To cite an example, suppose an individual had a very humiliating experience in the boss’s house and does not want to do anything with the boss. This humiliating experience is so shameful and painful that it has been repressed into the unconscious. Let us say the boss invites this person for dinner on a particular day to his home. However, for reason not known to the individual, he forgets the dinner date and misses it. According to Freud, such forgetting happens because of the unconscious, in which the individual’s humiliating painful experience has been repressed. According to Freud, every behaviour is motivated and in this unconscious plays an important role. Thus the personality development depends a lot on the unconscious factor in addition to the interaction amongst the Id, Ego, Superego and the outer world. 7 Psychodynamic and Also, the personality development takes place through stages and these were named Humanistic Theories of Personality by Freud as Oral, Anal, Phallic stages of development. The oral stage starts from birth to the end of 1st year, the Anal from 18th month end to 3 years and phallic from 3 years to 5 years of age. At the end of this stage personality development of the individual is complete. This stage is followed by latency and adolescent stages. While latency is a relatively calmer period with the stabilisation of personality the adolescent stage of development is full of storm and stress. Libido is another concept put forward by Freud and this has storage of psychic energy. This Psychic energy is constant and is distributed amongst the Id, Ego and Superego for their functioning. Quite often, the ego may require more energy and the other two components will get less energy and so on. In the process of personality development, the ego becomes strong or weak depending upon how successfully it has handled the needs of the Id and the demands of Superego. In order to retain its balance and stability the ego may resort to use of defence mechanism. To give an example, let us say a child has failed in an examination, and to accept failure is highly anxiety producing and the anxiety causes a state of imbalance. Every organism tries to return back to a state of balance whenever there is imbalance created by Id or Superego demands.
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