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Unit 6: Personality

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Unit 6: Personality Define Personality Describe your own personality - DEFINITION - APPROACHES: PSYCHODYNAMIC – FREUD, ROGERS ADLER EXPLAIN FREUD’S THREE STRUCTURES OF PERSONALITY EXPLAIN FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT Pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions and behaviors that characterize the way a person adapts to the world FOUR BASIC PERSPECTIVES (APPROACHES) 1. Psychoanalytic 2. Trait 3. Humanistic 4. Social-cognitive Based on SIGMUND FREUD theory: Proposes that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality Viennese physician Thought his patients’ problems were more emotional than physical Began his work by using hypnosis and eventually switched to psychoanalysis He said that people had NO FREE WILL and that human nature is BAD Freud used cocaine and tobacco and died from oral cancer More than 100 years later, his work is still influential and very controversial Freud attributes our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts Techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions Divided into three parts: 1. ID: primitive part of the personality Provided all the energy that runs the psyche Operates on the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE Wants sex, food and aggression ALL THE TIME Demands immediate gratification Only cares about itself 2 substructures: 1. EROS: life instinct 2. THANATOS: Death instinct 2. EGO: begins at 6 months - Develops out of the ID to control it - Operates on the REALITY PRINCIPLE - Knows there are limits - “You can’t eat, have sex, and kill all the time.” - Known as the “executive of the personality” - Largely the conscious part of the personality - Satisfies the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain 3. Superego NORMAL PERSON - Selfless - Cares about EVERYONE ELSE ID EGO - Social part of the personality SUPEREGO - provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations - 2 substructures - CONSCIENCE: keeps you from doing what is morally wrong - EGO IDEAL: motivates you to do what is right Study of the Id, Ego, and the Superego Freud argued: Ego will cater to the ID b/c it provides the energy Human nature is bad…people are naturally bad!! CHILDHOOD is the most important time in one’s life First 6 years of life According to Freud, everyone has this psychosexual energy that travels around your body LIBIDO: energy that comes from EROS FIXATION: some of the libido becomes permanently invested in a certain part of the body RETENTIVE – Occurs when parents are too strict or conservative EXPULSIVE – Occurs when parents are too lax or liberal 1. ORAL: birth to 1 ½ years Libido in mouth Due to food Too strict: oral retentive Adults don’t do much orally (speak, anorexia) Too lax: oral expulsive Adults who tend to talk a lot, smoke, drink 2. ANAL: 1 ½ to 3 years Potty training occurs during this time Freud: biggest part of life Too strict: anal retentive Very frugal with money, bottle –up emotions, clean houses, OCD Too Lax: anal expulsive Adults who blow their money on anything and live in filth 3. PHALLIC 3 to 6 years old Tend to touch themselves a lot BOYS: become just like dad and heterosexual OEDIPAL COMPLEX Wants to have sex with mom and kill dad CASTRATION ANXIETY Afraid that dad will cut his parts off GIRLS: become just like mom and heterosexual (Freud thought that women were inferior to men) ELECTRA COMPLEX Wants to have sex with dad and kill mom PENIS ENVY Mom cut off her penis and she works hard to get it back so she marries a man and has sons 4. LATENCY 6 years to puberty Due to drama from the previous stage, conscious puts all sexual interest aside Comes out in dreams 5. GENITAL Adolescence to adulthood Sexual reawaking 2 marks are reached: love and work Freud said that conflict will still arise due to the ID pressing for expression Freud’s Psychosexual Stages STAGE FOCUS Oral Pleasure centers on the mouth-- (0-18 months) sucking, biting, chewing Anal Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder (18-36 months) elimination; coping with demands for control Phallic Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with (3-6 years) incestuous sexual feelings Latency Dormant sexual feelings (6 to puberty) Genital Maturation of sexual interests (puberty on) EGO is very sensitive Anxiety: creates stress in ego Ego protects itself from anxiety Defense mechanisms become ways to protect the ego 1. REPRESSION: cram unpleasant or unacceptable events into the unconscious “Wooly Mammoth Theory” 2. REGRESSION: when you behave as if your in an earlier stage of development 3. DISPLACEMENT: direct aggression to source other than original - hitting, alcohol abuse 4. RATIONALIZATION: people justify what happened 5. DENIAL: deny something even happened 6. PROJECTION: attributes bad traits to someone else 7. SUBLIMATION: socially- approved displacement - getting it out in a healthy way; exercise, play video games POSITIVE: Pointed out the unconscious part of the mind that affects you Argued for the importance of a good childhood NEGATIVE: Not empirical (cannot be measured) Cannot be reproduced!!! Good in retrospect, but has very little predictive power Place more emphasis on Ego, not the id 1. CARL JUNG: believed that we all born with all of the knowledge that has been learned up to this point - Collective unconscious - Archetypes: emotionally laden ideas and images that have symbolic meaning in all people (p. 389 – 390) 2. ALFRED ADLER (p. 390) .
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