Personality An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Personality Chapter 13 Spring, 2010 Guest Lecturer: Sara Branch Each dwarf has a distinct and dominant personality 1 2 trait. Theories of Personality Psychodynamic Perspective • View of the causes and motives underlying • “A man should not strive to eliminate his personality and personality development complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his 1. The Psychodynamic Approach conduct in the world.” 2. The Humanistic Approach -Sigmund Freud 3. The Trait Approach 4. The Social-Cognitive Approach 4 1 Psychodynamic Perspective Psychodynamic Perspective In his clinical practice, Freud’s clinical Freud encountered experience led him to patients suffering from develop the first nervous disorders. Their comprehensive theory of complaints could not be personality, which explained in terms of included the unconscious purely physical causes. mind, psychosexual Culver Pictures Culver Culver Pictures stages, and defense mechanisms. Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) (1856-1939) 5 6 Model of Mind Psychoanalysis The mind is like an iceberg. It is mostly hidden, and • Freud’s theory of below the surface lies the unconscious mind. The personality that attributes preconscious stores temporary memories. thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating disorders by exposing and interpreting unconscious tensions. 7 8 2 Exploring the Unconscious Dream Analysis A reservoir (unconscious mind) of mostly Another method to analyze the unconscious mind is through unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and interpreting manifest (what we remember) and latent (what it memories. Freud asked patients to say whatever came means, symbolically) contents of dreams. to their minds (free association) in order to tap the unconscious. http://www.english.upenn.edu http://www.english.upenn.edu 9 The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli (1791) 10 Model of Mind Dream Analysis The mind is like an iceberg. It is mostly hidden, and below the surface lies the unconscious mind. The • “Learn to communicate preconscious stores temporary memories. with your subconscious mind which speaks to you in symbols through your dreams while providing practical insight into our emotional and mental state by analyzing hidden meanings.” 11 12 3 Personality Structure ID Personality develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses (id) • The Id unconsciously and social restraints (superego). strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives, operating on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification (Pleasure Principle) United States of Tara: “Gimme” 13 14 Ego Superego • The ego functions as • The superego provides the “executive” and standards for judgment mediates the demands (the conscience) and of the id and superego for future aspirations. (Reality Principle). • Moral compass • Seeks to gratify the id’s impulses in • Focuses on how we ought to behave realistic ways 15 16 “Where id was, there ego shall be.” -Freud 4 Id, Ego and Superego Personality Development The Id unconsciously strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives, operating on the pleasure Freud believed that personality formed during the principle, demanding immediate gratification first few years of life divided into psychosexual (Pleasure Principle). stages. During these stages the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on pleasure sensitive body areas The ego functions as the “executive” and mediates called erogenous zones. the demands of the id and superego (Reality Principle). The superego provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations. 17 18 Psychosexual Stages Oedipus Complex Freud divided the development of personality into A boy’s sexual desire for his mother and feelings of five psychosexual stages. jealousy and hatred for the rival father. A girl’s desire for her father is called the Electra complex. Males: Fear of castration Females: Penis envy These fears/anxieties result in identification of same sex parent (but motivation is stronger for males because they have something to lose). 19 20 5 Identification Defense Mechanisms Children cope with The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by threatening feelings by unconsciously distorting reality. repressing them and by From the K. Vandervelde private collection Vandervelde From the K. identifying with the rival 1. Repression banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, parent. Through this feelings, and memories from consciousness. process of identification, their superego gains strength that incorporates 2. Regression leads an individual faced with their parents’ values. anxiety to retreat to a more infantile psychosexual stage. 21 22 Defense Mechanisms Defense Mechanisms 3. Reaction Formation causes the ego 5. Rationalization offers self-justifying to unconsciously switch unacceptable impulses into their explanations in place of the real, more opposites. People may express threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s feelings of purity when they may be suffering anxiety from actions. unconscious feelings about sex. 6. Displacement shifts sexual or aggressive 4. Projection leads people to impulses toward a more acceptable or less disguise their own threatening threatening object or person, redirecting anger impulses by attributing them to others. toward a safer outlet. 23 24 6 The Neo-Freudians The Neo-Freudians Like Freud, Adler believed • Although Freud was controversial, he attracted in childhood tensions. followers However, these tensions were social in nature and • Accepted Freud’s basic ideas (id, ego, superego; not sexual. A child unconscious; defense mechanisms) struggles with an inferiority National Library of Medicine • Differed in two ways: complex during growth and – More emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in strives for superiority and interpreting experience and coping with the power. Emphasized the environment importance of belonging. – Doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming Alfred Adler (1870-1937) motivations 25 26 The Neo-Freudians The Neo-Freudians Like Adler, Horney Jung believed in the collective Akron Psychology/ University of American Archive of the History of believed in the social unconscious, which contained a aspects of childhood common reservoir of images growth and development. derived from our species’ past. She countered Freud’s This is why many cultures share certain myths and images assumption that women Corbis Archive/ The Bettmann have weak superegos and (archetypes) such as the mother suffer from “penis envy.” being a symbol of nurturance. Types: Introvert/Extravert; Feeler/Thinker Karen Horney (1885-1952) Carl Jung (1875-1961) 27 28 7 Assessing Unconscious Processes Projective Personality Tests Evaluating personality from an unconscious mind’s perspective would require a psychological • Measures aspects of personality by asking individuals to respond to ambiguous stimuli instrument (projective tests) that would reveal the hidden unconscious mind. • Assumes that the meaning the person projects onto the ambiguous stimuli reflects unconscious core aspects of personality • Examples: – Thematic Apperception Test (Constructive) – Rorschach Test – Rotter Incomplete Sentence Test (Completion) 29 Thematic Apperception Test Rorschach Inkblot Test (TAT) Developed by Henry Murray, the TAT is a projective The most widely used projective test uses a set of 10 test in which people express their inner feelings and inkblots and was designed by Hermann Rorschach. It seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing interests through the stories they make up about their interpretations of the blots. ambiguous scenes. Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Inc. Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, Inc. Lew Merrim/ Photo Researcher, 31 32 8 Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Projective Tests: Criticisms Perspective Critics argue that projective tests lack both reliability Modern Research (consistency of results) and validity (predicting what it is supposed to). Personality develops throughout life and is not fixed in childhood. When evaluating the same patient, even trained . Freud underemphasized peer influence on the raters come up with different interpretations individual, which may be as powerful as (reliability). parental influence. Projective tests may misdiagnose a normal . Gender identity may develop before 5-6 years of individual as pathological (validity). age. 33 34 Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective Perspective Modern Research Freud's psychoanalytic theory rests on the repression . There may be other reasons for dreams besides of painful experiences into the unconscious mind. wish fulfillment. Verbal slips can be explained on the basis of cognitive processing of verbal choices. The majority of children, death camp survivors, and . According to Freud, suppressed sexuality leads battle-scarred veterans are unable to repress painful to psychological disorders. But, sexual inhibition experiences into their unconscious mind. has decreased, but psychological disorders have not. 35 36 9 Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective Perspective Freud was right about the unconscious mind. The scientific merits of Freud’s theory have been Modern research shows the existence of criticized. Psychoanalysis is difficult to test. Most of nonconscious information processing. its concepts arise out of clinical practice,