Personality
Psychodynamic Approach Sigmund Freud / The psychodynamic perspective was developed by Sigmund Freud and emphasized the role and influence of the unconscious and early childhood memories as influential towards personality development. / Freud used projective tests, which are tests designed to project or reveal, unconscious thoughts. These tests, however, proved to be unreliable as people reported different opinions- which were often influenced by their mood or present emotions / Two examples of projective tests are the Rorschach test, viewing 10 inkblots, and the TAT test, comprising of ambiguous scenes, which patients would then tell a story. Subjects were asked to report what they saw in each of these tests, which led to unconscious conflicts and motivation.
Levels of awareness / Conscious awareness- consciously aware of stimuli presently around you at a given point / An example of conscious awareness would be listening and understanding what your teacher is discussing during a lecture.
Preconscious awareness- (memories) easy to retrieve into conscious awareness / An example of preconscious awareness would be remembering what you had for dinner last night. Even though you were not presently thinking about what you ate last night- it is easy to bring that memory of last night’s dinner into conscious awareness.
Unconscious awareness- information that you are not aware of, but impacts and controls your personality / An example of the unconscious would be traumatic memories, which could affect your personality- ex: childhood neglect could cause intimacy issues in adolescence.
Personality Structure
(Psychodynamic) / Freud believed that personality is the result of conflicts and battles between the Id and the Superego, leaving the Ego to mediate, or find a solution, to the conflict / Id, ego, and superego are similar to the “Loony Tunes cartoons” The Id represents the bad cat, the superego represents the good cat, and the ego represents Sylvester the Cat, which is often trying to satisfy the bad and the good.
Id- component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle, which focuses on immediate gratification and survival. / The Id is present at birth and demands immediate gratification, which is why babies cry hysterically when they want something.
An example of the Id would be how animals behave. The Id is largely instinctual, which is why when animals kill they do not experience remorse or guilt. They are operating solely on the Id.
Libido- psychic energy contained in the Id
Thanatos- contained in the Id; responsible for aggression / Eros- contained in the Id; source of energy that preserves life
Ego- component of personality that operates according to the reality principle, which takes into account realistic and societal standards as a method to mediate between the demands of the Id and the expectations of the Superego / Everyone’s Ego, or personality, is different and unique because the Ego ultimately chooses, or compromises between the Id and Superego. A person who is aggressive may have a dominating Id, while people who are often worried may have an overactive Superego.
Superego- component of personality that represents our sense of right and wrong- your conscience / The Superego is influenced by how people are raised, which could explain why some people hear their mother’s voice in their head while making a decision.
Psychosexual Stages Development
Psychodynamic Perspective / Psychosexual stages are characterized by the Id searching different erogenous zones, (parts of the body) for pleasure and gratification. / When the Id is not given adequate time to explore a certain erogenous zone during the correct developmental stage, fixation can occur later in life. Fixation is characterized by an obsession or an over- indulgence of activities associated with achieving pleasure in that particular erogenous zone during adulthood. / An example of fixation would be if you were not allowed to have ice cream as a child. As an adult you may overindulge in ice cream. Partly why this occurs is because you always wondered why you could never have ice cream.
Oral stage- occurs from birth to 18 months, when the Id focuses on the mouth region for pleasure. This includes the activities of breast feeding, pacifiers, putting toys and objects in mouth / Examples of adult oral fixation would be adults who obsessively or unconsciously smoke, eat, chew gum, bite fingernails, etc. This is classified as fixation and not boredom because people who are orally fixated are unaware (remember it is occurring within the unconscious) that they are chewing on something thus gratifying the Id. A person is surprised when told to stop biting their fingernail because he or she was unaware that they were biting their fingernail.
Anal stage- occurs from 18 months until 3 years, where the Id focuses on the anal area. This includes applying control and independence in the toilet training process / An example of anal fixation would be anal retention in adulthood, which is characterized by people who are excessively neat and become bothered when other people move a personal possession. The Id is making up for a lack of control during the anal stage, particularly toilet training. If a child is not left alone during the toilet training process then fixation could occur.
Phallic stage- occurs 3-6 years and the genital area is the Id’s concern
(also occurring during this stage is the emergence and resolution of the Oedipus complex and development of the superego)
*Freud did not study women so it is undetermined whether girls go through something similar to the Oedipus complex*
Some theorists in turn suggest that girls go through the electra complex, but most researcher’s question this event. / The superego develops during the phallic stage through resolution of the Oedipus complex. The Oedipus complex occurs when a boy is sexually attracted to his mother and resentful of his father. Once a boy realizes that societal restraints do not allow such a relationship towards the mother, the boy’s attitude switches favorably towards his father allowing the defense mechanism of identification to emerge resulting in the development of the superego. Because the boy identifies with his father, the boy willingly then listens to his father. This relationship allows the superego to develop as the father can now teach the son right and wrong. / For example, a mom who cannot discipline her son may state, “Go talk to your father- you don’t listen (identify) to me.” Some theorists believe if a father is not present at home during the phallic stage, the superego may not accurately develop because the identification process does not take place resulting in discipline problems. The boy could compensate for this by identifying to a male coach or a teacher to develop the superego.
Latency stage occurs from age 6 to puberty and the Id’s sexual energy lays dormant, or does not exist. / During the latent stage, usually upper elementary school time, boys hang out with other boys, and girls interact with just girls. Girls and boys do not have any interest in one another at this point in their life.
Genital stage- occurs from puberty throughout life and sexual energy reemerges directed towards the opposite sex. / Successful completion of the psychosexual stages results in healthy, productive relationships in adulthood, without any type of fixation.
Defense Mechanisms / The Ego uses defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety and guilt caused by constant conflict between the Id and the Superego
Repression- automatic, no conscious thought, ejection or rejections of traumatic or negative desires and thoughts / A person may not be able to recall childhood traumatic events, such as abuse due to that memory being automatically or unconsciously repressed from conscious thought.
Regression- consciously retreating back to an infantile reaction, or time period / A woman starts to cry when she gets pulled over by a police officer because when she was a little girl she would cry and get out of trouble
Denial- refusing to accept the truth / Alcoholism may continue as a person lives in denial about their problem
Reaction formation- saying or doing the opposite of what you are actually thinking / A boy who likes a girl may make fun of her to hide, or cover up his true feelings of how he actually feels because he is embarrassed.
Projection- projecting, or directing weaknesses and thoughts onto other people / A person who is overweight may constantly make fun of other people for being overweight to feel better about himself or herself.
Rationalization- providing justifications, or excuses, to make behavior or thoughts acceptable / A student who fails an exam may provide excuses(it was too hard, or the teacher did not cover the material) to make themselvesfeel better.
Displacement- taking out anger or feelings on a less threatening target- someone or something that cannot fight back / A person slams their locker because their teacher made them mad. Any hostility towards teacher would have resulted in suspension- but the locker can’t fight back.
Undoing- occurs when one action is meant to make up for a previous bad action. / A boy may buy his girlfriend flowers to make up for lying to her about the previous night’s activities.
Neo-Freudians (Post-psychodynamic thought) / Neo-Freudians were followers of Freud who modified Freud’s theories
Carl Jung / Jung thought that each person has a collective unconscious, which contained information passed from generation to generation that aided growth and survival / Jung believed that within the collective unconscious are archetypes, symbols that represent various ideas and thoughts. For example, snakes represent evil, or a mother represents nurturing. Jung argued that children are inherently afraid of snakes, because this knowledge is contained in the collective unconscious passed from generation to generation, promoting survival and protection.
Jung also developed the terms introvert and extrovert to describe personality. / Introverts are shy people who like to be by themselves and prefer quiet events. / Extroverts are people who are outgoing, like social events, and enjoy talking to other people.
Alfred Adler / Adler believed that the inferiority complex guided personality through providing motivation and desire to overcome childhood inferiorities through being superior in life during adulthood / Children often argue with parents about being able to do something by themselves. Adler believed children wanted to show their parents that they are capable of doing things on their own and are not dependent on them and hence inferior. Adler also believed that people brag to cover up to make other people forget or not notice their inferiorities.
Karen Horney / Horney thought that Freud was too male-dominated, and believed social relationships were responsible for personality development.She described what people stress or need in 3 types of different relationships: / 1. Moving toward relationship- excessive need for approval / People who are classified as this relationship become bothered, or act differently when they are not given enough attention or support from friends and family.
2. Moving against relationship- excessive need for power / People who are classified with this relationship become irritated and act differently when they are not in control or allowed to make decisions in group settings.
3. Moving away relationship- desire to be independent / People in this relationship become upset when they are not given enough “alone time”, or are constantly being asked questions by others.
Humanistic Perspective / The goal of the humanistic perspective is help people reach their human potential through development of a healthy self-concept, and the emphasis of free will, which is allowing people to discover their own strengths and weaknesses
Carl Rogers- Person Centered Approach / Actualizing tendency- an innate drive within a person that pushes him or her to reach their potential and live life to their fullest / An example of the actualizing tendency is the “little voice” within us to try harder and never give up. Some people believe that competitiveness cannot be taught; but rather is something that resides inside a person. In other words, it is something you are born with, or is innate.
Self-concept- set of perceptions or beliefs a person has about him or herself. According to Rogers, these beliefs affect the personality and its development. / Factors that affect the self-concept
Conditional positive regard- (conditional love) occurs when certain people only show love or affection for others when certain conditions or requirements are met or satisfied. / A boy who believes that his parents will only show love and approval when he is successful at school will have a tendency to only tell his parents successful outcomes, as the boy understands when he does not perform well at school his parents will not show affection. This results in incongruence, when the self-concept- thoughts about oneself- and actual experience do not match. The boy knows he is not doing well in school, but continues to lie to his parents to gain their approval.
Unconditional positive regard (unconditional love) occurs when a person expresses their love and affection for others without conditions being met / Some people know no matter what they do, their parents, friends, etc. will still love them. This understanding leads to congruence, when a person’s self-concept matches what they actually say and do.
Trait Perspective / Traits are characteristic patterns or predispositions (adjectives) to behave / A person who has a caring trait will behave in a caring way in most situations
Gordon Allport was on of the first theorists to research the role of traits in determining behavior and personality
Allport’s Source traits- (also called central traits)- are few in number and considered to be the roots or source of personality / Allport’s Surface traits- (also called secondary traits) are traits that are easily observed by other people that may not actually describe who the person really is / A good way to distinguish between source and surface traits is through the following statement, “On the surface (traits that are easy observed by others) he seemed like a nice guy, but as I got to know him (the source of who he is) he turned out to be liar- (source traits take more time to identify and are an indication of who someone is)
Raymond Cattell useda factor analysis, which is a mathematical formula that shows how traits predict or relate to other traits / A factor analysis would show that a person who is caring would also probably be dependable, or a person who is a cheater is probably also a liar. From a factor analysis Cattell developed the 16 Personality Factor test- 16 source traits
Robert McCrae and Paul Costa developed the Big Five Personality Source Traits, which are considered the building blocks of personality
*Remember Canoe or Ocean* / The Big Five Source Traits- you either lean to one trait or the other:
Conscientiousness- organized or disorganized
Agreeableness- trusting or suspicious
Neuroticism- (sometime called emotional stability)- calm or anxious
Openness- imaginative or practical
Extraversion- affectionate or reserved
Hans Eysenck identified 3 dimensions of biological traits, traits he believed people were born with / On a spectrum he believed that people fell somewhere between the two opposite dimensions:
Extraversion ______+______Introversion
Extraversion (outgoing) – Introversion (shy) dimension / A person who is outgoing, likes to go out, and being around other people would fall closer to the extraversion dimension than someone who stays at home and likes quiet time, which is more introversion.
Neuroticism (very emotionally unpredictable) – emotional stable dimension / A person who is moody would fall closer to the neuroticism dimension than a person who is not overly emotional, which would lean more to the emotional stable dimension.
Psychoticism dimension- overall welfare for other people / A person who is high in the psychoticism dimension is someone who has no remorse, or feelings for another person; a person who is low in the psychoticism dimension has feelings for other people
Objective personality tests contain direct questions that have specific answers. These tests are comprised of multiple-choice, true-false questions and answers. *Unlike projective tests, which rely on interpretation, objective tests can be easily scored, very cheap, and can be quickly administered* / The MMPI is the mostly widely used objective personality test. This test is empirically derived, which means that the questions are written from objective data and past experiences of people who have taken the test. The MMPI was originally written to measure abnormal behavior.
Social-Cognitive Perspective / Social-cognitive perspective emphasized the interaction of cognitive, behavioral, and environmental and learning factors, which affect personality.
Albert Bandura
Reciprocal determinism / Bandura developed reciprocal determinism- personality is the result of cognitive, behavioral, environmental factors / According to Bandura, personality is influenced by the thoughts (cognition), the way a person acts (behavior), and the environment one grows up in.
Bandura also believed that self-efficacy beliefs, the beliefs or opinions a person has about him or herself, also influence personality. / The thought of “I think I can” would positively affect the way a person acts when performing a task or activity
Julian Rotter
Expectancy Theory / Rotter believed that learning results in expectancies, which are our expectations of the outcome of a situation. / These expectancies guide behavior, for example personal effort, through what we think is going to happen- this can also be influenced by our sense of control in a situation / External locus of control- the belief that you have no control, or are controlled by other outside factors- the expectation to fail because you did not write the test, or don’t know what is going to be on the test / Internal locus of control- the belief that you control your own fate- you control how long and how much you study, resulting in the expectation that you can pass the test
Martin Seligman
Learned helplessness / Seligmanbelieved that learned helplessness results when people who repeatedly attempt something and continuously fail will eventually give up / Seligman, through his research on the effects and prevention of learned helplessness, developed positive psychology, which focuses on optimism and helping people work more effectively through difficulties and becoming successful.
Submitted by Mike McLane, Sterling Heights High School, Michigan: