Unit 10 Personality

1. Unit 10 Personality

2. Introduction • Personality

3. Two Main Theories • Psychodynamic Theory: Freud’s theory that calls attention to motivation, especially unconscious motives, and the influence of our past experiences on the formation of personality. • Humanistic Theory: focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment “Man is Good” philosophy

4. Psychodynamic Theory • First theory on personality (early 1900s) • We are driven by unconscious forces (sexual and aggressive forces). • Psychoanalysis • Hypnosis • Dreams – latent and manifest • Free association

5. What is the iceberg analogy of consciousness?

6. Levels of Consciousness: Iceberg theory • 1. Conscious mind – like the top of the iceberg, only a small portion of our mind is accessible to us. • 2. Preconscious mind – outside awareness but easily accessible. Forgotten memories, but easily recalled • 3. Unconscious mind – is completely outside of our awareness (could produce anxiety if made conscious). a reservoir of unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings emotions, and memories

7. Parts of Personality • 1. Id – “pleasure principle” unconsciousimpulses that want to be gratified, without regard to potential punishment. • 2. Ego “reality principle” – moderates between the id and superego. • 3. Superego – the “moral principle” of our personality which tells us right from wrong our conscience

9. What TV characters, especially Simpsons characters, are driven by the ID?

10. ID

11. ID leads us to eating and drinking

12. How about Superego?

13. Superego

14. How about ego, our voice of reason?

15. Ego

16. Id controlling Marge.

17. Exploring the UnconsciousPersonality Development • Psychosexual stages • Oral • Anal • Phallic • Latency • Genital

18. Oral Stage

19. Oral Stage • The pleasure center is the mouth. • If not gratified at this stage becomefixated • do things with mouth for pleasure • Ex. Smoking, eating, gum chewing, nail biting • exhibit passive dependence Ex. lack of self-confidence, indecisiveness, and a tendency to cling to and seek support from others. • exaggerated dependence • Ex. Acting tough, sarcastic

20. Anal Stage

21. Anal stage • Fixation occurs if potty training occurs too early or if potty training not encouraged • Too early - Anal retentive are overly-neat and organized (Type A personality) • Haphazardly - Anal expulsive are overly messy and irresponsible.

22. Phallic stage • Genitals are the pleasure zone. • Oedipal complex – boys have erotically tinged preference for their mother – compete with their father for mother’s attention • Gender identity occurs during this stage

23. Phallic stage cont. . . • Must cope with incestuous sexual feelings • Not resolving the Oedipal conflict may result in boy not identifying with father, sexual deviance/disfunction • Electra complex (girls’ equivalent to Oedipus) • Girls have penis envy and blame and resent their mothers for their anatomical deficiency.

24. Latency Period • Latency – “cooties stage” - sexuality is hidden (latency = hidden) • Children in same sex groups. • Boys hang with father. Girls with mother. • Begins around age 6

25. Genital stage (puberty ++) • Libidinal energy is not focused on your own genitals (like in the phallic stage) but on other people’s genitals. • Fixation in earlier stages will hinder this stage. • If all stages successfully completed person should be sexually matured and mentally healthy

26. Exploring the UnconsciousPsychosexual Stages

27. What are ego Defense Mechanisms? • How our personality (ego) deals with unpleasant emotions and thoughts. • 8 Defense Mechanisms – tactics that reduce anxiety by distorting reality • Repression • Rationalization • Reaction formation • Projection • Regression • Displacement • Sublimation • Denial

28. 8 Defense mechanisms • 1. Repression: “motivated forgetting” the suppression of unpleasant thoughts. We push unpleasant thoughts into unconscious so that we can’t access them. • E.g., a child who is molested, may suppress the traumatic event so that he/she has no memory for the event.

29. 2. Rationalization – we justify something bad we’ve done You run over a person and tell yourself “I’m sure he would have died soon anyway.” • You steal and say, “Well, I spend a lot of money at this store!”

30. Everybody else is doing it! New Orleans looting after Katrina

31. 3.Regression • Dealing with problems by “regressing” or going backward in terms of maturity. • Ex: Soldiers crying for “mommy” • Ex: Fighting couples acting immature.

32. 4. Displacement-you take out your anger & frustration on a person or object not the actual target of your anger in a negative way • E.g., After being grilled by your boss, you go home & yell at your partner or the dog/cat. • Peeing on the teacher’s car.

33. 5. Projection – You attribute your negative characteristics to another person. • When people project their own faults onto others, they generally do not deny that they themselves possess those faults. • E.g., Your partner tells you how selfish you are, when they are in fact selfish. • If you have a strong dislike for someone, you might instead believe that he or she does not like you

34. 6. Reaction Formation – acting the opposite of how you feel. • You do the opposite of how you feel to defend your own doubts. • E.g., A person who doubts his faith may act like a religious zealot to defend his religion. • E.g., A person who is angry with a colleague actually ends up being particularly courteous and friendly towards them.

36. 7. Denial- refusing to believe something unpleasant has occurred. • We refuse to accept horrible news, even with evidence to the contrary. • E.g., you hear a friend has died & won’t believe it’s true.

37. “I don’t have drinking problem”

38. 8. Sublimation –Making something bad about yourself into something positive. • Don’t mix up with displacement (kicking dog) • E.g., Aggressive impulses are transformed into the urge to engage in competitive sports. • A person who has an obsessive need for control and order becomes a successful business entrepreneur • Most desirable way of dealing with unacceptable id impulses.

40. Neo-Freudian Theorists • Accept Freud’s basic ideas • Id, ego, superego • Importance of unconscious • Personality develops in childhood • Different • More emphasis on conscious mind • Disagreed with the importance of childhood sexual instincts

41. The Neo-Freudian Theorists • Neo-Freudians • Adler - inferiority complex • Horney - sense of helplessness • Jung’s - collective unconscious • Ex. Different cultures share same legends • Psychodynamic theory

42. Assessing Unconscious Processes • Projective Test • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) • Rorschach Inkblot Test

43. Criticisms of Freud’s theory: 1.   Freud had no scientific data to support his theories. 2.   Freud’s theories (unconscious, libido, etc.) cannot be observed. 3.   Theory explains behavior (post-hoc) after the fact. 4.   **Doubt that conscience and gender identity form as child resolves Oedipus complex at age 5-6—we gain gender identity early and become masculine or feminine even without a same sex parent 5. **Research contradicts that painful memories are repressed

44. Criticism’s of Freud 6. Neural networks not mature enough to sustain the emotional trauma as Freud assumed 7. Freud overestimated parental influence and underestimated child abuse and peer influence 8. New ideas of why we dream dispute Freud’s belief that dreams disguise and fulfill wishes. 9. Slips of tongue can be explained through competition between similar verbal choices in our memory network 10. The modern unconscious mind • False consensus effect • Terror management theory

45. Pros of Freud’s theory • 1. Argued that childhood experiences are important in personality development. • 2. Information outside of awareness does influence us – ie. Procedural memory (implicit) • 3. Defense mechanisms—good descriptions of some of our behaviors. • 4. Research agrees - conscious awareness of what goes on in our minds is very limited

46. Humanistic Psychology • 1960’s people became sick of Freud’s negativity and Skinner’s mechanistic behaviorism. • Freud studied the ill, humanists studied the healthy and ways they strive for self determination and self actualization

47. Abraham Maslow’s Self Actualizing Person • Hierarchy of Needs • Self- actualization - process of fulfilling our potential. • Self-transcendence – meaning purpose and communion beyond the self • Studied healthy people

48. Who did Maslow study?

49. Self-Actualized People They share certain characteristics: • They are self aware and self accepting • Open and spontaneous • Loving and caring • Not paralyzed by others’ opinions. • They are secure in who they are.

50. Self-Actualized People • Problem centered rather than self-centered. Focused their energies on a particular task. Few deep relationships, rather than many superficial ones.