Personality Has Three Structures: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego

Psychodynamic

Sigmund Freud (1858-1939): Psychoanalytical theory that focuses on the unconscious- Id-Ego-Superego, Father of Psychoanalysis. See development notebook # 7 Freud’s Psychosexual stages

Personality has three structures: the id, the ego, and the superego. Id: consists of instincts, which the individual’s reservoir of psychic energy. The id works according to the pleasure principle, meaning it always seeks pleasure and avoids pain. Ego: formed as children experience the demands and constraints of reality. The ego abides by the reality principle and tries to bring the individual pleasure within the norms of society. It is the rational self and mediates between the id and the superego. Superego: the moral branch of personality. It is often called the “conscience” and considers whether the id’s impulses can be satisfied in moral terms.

Psychosexual Stages Oral (0-8 months) – oral pleasures, needs met Anal (18-36 months) – anal pleasure – coping with demands for control Phallic (3-6years) – coping with incestuous sexual feelings, Oedipus and Electra complexes Latency (6-puberty) – maturation of sexual interests - Fixation: Freud believed that problems in adulthood are caused by fixation in one of the stages.

Karen Horney: Critical of Freud’s theories. She said that personality is continually molded by current fears and impulses, rather than being determined solely by childhood experiences and instincts. She insisted that Freud’s ideas be backed up with data, and countered his “penis envy” with “womb envy”. She believed that the need for security, not sex or aggression, is the prime motive in human existence. She suggested three different strategies people might use in their effort to cope with anxiety. They might move toward people, move away from people, or move against people.

Alfred Adler: Neo Freudian, believed that childhood social not sexual tensions are crucial for personality formation. Alfred Adler developed individual psychology, which views people as being motivated by purposes and goals, being creators of their own lives. Unlike Freud, he believed that people have the ability to consciously monitor their lives and believed that social factors are more important than sexual motivation in shaping personality. He thought that everyone strives for superiority, seeking to adapt, improve, and master the environment, and he called this compensation. Typology: Getting or Leaning type are those who selfishly take without giving back. These people also tend to be anti-social and have low activity levels. Avoiding types are those that hate being defeated. They may be successful, but have not taken any risks getting there. They are likely to have low social contact in fear of rejection or defeat in any way. Ruling Dominant type strive for power and are willing to manipulate situations and people, anything to get their way. People of this type are also prone to anti-social behavior. The Social Useful types are those who are very outgoing and very active. They have a lot of social contact and strive to make changes for the good. Birth Order: Adler believed that the firstborn child would be loved and nurtured by the family until the arrival of a second child. This second child would cause the first born to suffer feelings of dethronement, no longer being the center of attention. Adler believed that in a three-child family, the oldest child would be the most likely to suffer from neuroticism and substance addiction. As a result, Adler predicted that this child was the most likely to end up in jail or an asylum. Youngest children would tend to be overindulged, leading to poor social empathy. Consequently, the middle child, who would experience neither dethronement nor overindulgence, was most likely to develop into a successful individual.

Carl Jung: People had conscious and unconscious awareness-two layers of unconscious archetypes- personal/collective. Carl Jung believed in the collective unconscious, the impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind, shared by all human beings because of their common ancestral past. It is expressed through archetypes, the emotionally laden ideas and images in the collective unconscious that have rich and symbolic meaning for all people. The concept of introversion vs. extraversion The concept of the complex Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was inspired by Jung's psychological types theory. Socionics, similar to MBTI, is also based on Jung's psychological types.

Erik Erikson: People evolve through 8 stages over the life span. Each stage marked by psychological crisis that involves confronting “who am I” see cognitive notebook Social Development – Erikson, Marcia, development notebook # 5 & 6 Erikson notes and Article – Eight Stages of Man: Erikson Stages of Psychosocial development: Stage 1 (Oral-Sensory): from birth to one, trust vs. mistrust, feeding; Stage 2 (Muscular-Anal): 1-3 years, autonomy vs. doubt, toilet training; Stage 3 (Locomotor): 3-6 years, initiative vs. inadequacy, independence; Stage 4 (Latency): 6-12 years, industry vs. inferiority, school; Stage 5 (Adolescence): 12-18 years, identity vs. confusion, peer relationships; Stage 6 (Young Adulthood): 18-40 years, intimacy vs. isolation, love relationships; Stage 7 (Middle Adulthood): 40-65 years, generativity vs. stagnation, parenting; Stage 8 (Maturity): 65 years until death, integrity vs. despair, acceptance of one's life.

James Marcia: Adolescence, identity states Identity states: Foreclosure (just conform), Diffusion (wanderer), Moratorium (searcher), Achievement (finds identity).

Gordon Allport: Three levels of traits: 1. Cardinal trait-it is the dominant trait that characterizes your life; 2.Central trait-one common to all people; 3. Secondary trait- it surfaces in some situations and not in others

Object Relations Theory: Neo-Freudian theory that places less emphasis on the drives of aggression and sexuality as motivational forces and more emphasis on human relationships as the primary motivational force in life. People are relationship seeking rather than pleasure seeking as Freud suggested. (See article in notebook)

Object relations theory is the idea that the ego-self exists only in relation to other objects, which may be external or internal. The internal objects are internalized versions of external objects, primarily formed from early interactions with the parents. There are three fundamental "affects" that can exist between the self and the other - attachment, frustration, and rejection. These affects are universal emotional states that are major building blocks of the personality. Object relations theory was pioneered in the 1940s and 50's by British psychologists Ronald Fairbairn, D.W. Winnicott, Harry Guntrip, and others.

H. Rorschach: He developed one of the first projective tests, the Inkblot test. The subject reads the inkblots and projects to the observer aspects of their personality. It uses 10 standarized inkblots