Personality Theories and Assessment

1. Personality Theories and Assessment College reading pages 288 – 312 Reading tonight, 285 - 297 Chapter 8 Prepared byJ. W. Taylor V

2. Personality A person’s internally based characteristic ways of acting and thinking

3. Describe the following people’s personalities in 3 words • President Obama • Ms Prentoulis • You • The person sitting to your right (or left, if no one to the right)

4. We’ll be learning about • The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality • The Humanistic Approach • Social-Cognitive Approach • Trait Theories of Personality and Personality Assessment

5. The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality Freudian Classical Psychoanalytic Theory Neo-Freudian Theories (Alfred Adler, Karen Horney)

6. Who was Freud? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q9IRY_VXPs • Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist (medical doctor) who studied source of emotional pain. Became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis. • Born: May 6, 1856, Austria • Died: September 23, 1939, London, England • (I’ve been to his house in London!)

7. Common modern-day Freudisms • Freud remains an important influence in Western culture • Controversial • “he’s so anal” • Freudian slip • “she’s in denial”

8. Documentary questions part 1 • What did Freud do as a doctor that was “new”? • What did he believe about the source of people’s troubles/emotional pain? • Describe the times he lived in and how they may have contributed to his theory.

9. Freud’s Three Levels of Awareness 1. The conscious mind is what you are presently aware of, what you are thinking about right now 2. The preconscious mind: not presently aware of but can gain access to 3. The unconscious mind: part of mind of which we cannot become aware

10. Unconscious mind • Contains the primary motivations for all of our actions and feelings • our biological instinctual drives (such as for food and sex) • repressed unacceptable thoughts • memories • feelings • unresolved conflicts from our early childhood experiences • hypnosis accesses the unconscious

11. Freud’s Three-Part Personality Structure Id Ego Superego

13. The Id • Personality part present at birth, out of which the other two parts of our personality emerge • Resides in the unconscious mind • Includes our biological instinctual drives, primitive parts of our personality located in our unconscious • Life and death instincts for survival, reproduction, pleasure, aggression • Operates on a pleasure principle; demands immediate gratification for these drives without the concern for the consequences • Like a spoiled child – wants what it ants NOW

15. The Ego • Starts developing during first year of life to find realistic and socially-acceptable outlets for the id’s needs • Operates on thereality principle, finding gratification for instinctual drives within the constraints of reality (the norms and laws of society) • Part unconscious (tied to the id) and part conscious and preconscious (tied to the external world). • Makes sure you function within norms, acceptable behavior, do the right thing

17. The Superego • Represents one’s conscience and idealized standards of behavior in their culture • Operates on a morality principle, threatening to overwhelm us with guilt and shame • The demands of the superego and the id will come into conflict and the ego will have to resolve this turmoil within the constraints of reality • To prevent being overcome with anxiety because of trying to satisfy the id and superego demands, the ego uses what Freud called defense mechanisms, processes that distort reality and protect us from anxiety

20. Ego’s conflict…. Kinda like… • Wow! You’ve won two tickets to the Grammy’s. Who’s coming with you? • Your BF/GF? • You best friend? • Sis/Bro? • Handicapped neighbor kid who has a birthday coming up? • Tough decision. Someone’s gonna get hurt. You’re in the middle.

21. Id, ego or superego? Desire Guilt Conscious awareness Satisfy Socially acceptable Pleasure principle Reality principle Instant gratification Moral Amoral Rational Unconscious Drive Sex Mediator Righteous behavior

22. Freud’s Defense Mechanisms – when the ego does not do a good job of finding a socially-acceptable outlet for the id’s desires, it creates defense mechanisms to distort reality and prevent anxiety

26. Defense mechanisms • "I'm not angry with him!“ • I think he's really great! • "That professor hates me." • "I hate the stupid secretary at work“ • "He's so critical because he's trying to help us do our best. • “Let's shoot spitballs at people!“ • "I'm going to write a poem about anger."

27. Unhealthy Personalities • Develop not only when we become too dependent upon defense mechanisms, but also when the id or superego is unusually strong or the ego unusually weak • Id too strong: • Superego too strong: • Conflict between superego and id:

28. Analyze Rihanna’s personality using Freud’s psychodynamic model • Describe her personality in 5 words. • Describe Rihanna’s id, ego and superego. Give examples of how she expresses each. • What experiences have contributed to her personality? • Has Rihanna gotten “stuck” in any psychsexual stage (oral, anal, phallic. Latent?) • What are some defense mechanisms Rihanna has or might have used to cope with her difficult life?

29. Psychoanalyse this person • Brenda suffers from intense headaches and anxiety when she goes to work. She hates her boss who is a domineering

30. College level reading due MONDAY • Page 298 to 301

31. Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory • An erogenous zone is the area of the body where the id’s pleasure-seeking psychic energy is focused during a particular stage of psychosexual development • Stages: oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital • Fixation occurs when the id’s pleasure-seeking energy remains in a stage • because of excessive gratification or frustration of our instinctual needs • Causes problems throughout the person’s life and impacts their behavior and personality traits

32. Silly vid – psychosexual stages • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvOoYX45G_0’

33. Five Psychosexual Stages Oral Stage (birth to 18 months) Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years) Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years) Latency Stage (6 years to puberty) Genital Stage (puberty to adulthood)

36. Freud’s Psychosocial States of Personality Development

37. Fixation – Getting “stuck” in a psychosexual stage leads to unhealthy response throughout life • The id’s instinctual drives are excessively or insufficiently gratified • An oral fixation: • Excessive oral gratification as infant: • Insufficient oral gratification as infant: • An anal fixation: • Excessive anal gratification as infant: • Insufficient anal gratification as infant:

38. Anal Stage conflict - Potty Training • Parents try to get the child to have self-control during toilet training • anal-retentive personality develops when child reacts to harsh toilet training by • withholding bowel movements • trying to get even with the parents by bein stubborn, controlled • As adult, uptight, orderly, neat, stingy, obstinate • The anal-expulsive personality child rebels against harsh training • Bowel movements whenever/wherever • As adult, slobby, unreliable, no self control

39. Phallic Stage Conflicts • In the Oedipus conflict, the little boy • becomes sexually attracted to his mother and fears the father (his rival) will find out and castrate him • In the Electra conflict, the little girl is • attracted to her father because he has a penis; she wants one and feels inferior without one (penis envy)

41. Identification • In the process of identification, the child adopts the characteristics of the same-sexed parents and learns their gender role • Identifying is only safe way to resolve difficult, conflicting, murderous feelings toward same-sex parent • identification is when superego develops

43. Evaluation of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality • Freud’s notion of an “unconscious” level of awareness is not accessible to anyone and is impossible to examine scientifically • We do process unconsciously, but not with the 3 structure model (id, ego, superego) Freud devised • Childhood experiences are important, but there is little evidence for Freud’s psychosexual stages

44. Evaluation of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality • Contemporary researchers think repression, seldom, if ever, really occurs • We understand today how Freud’s questioning during therapy may have created such “repressed’ memories in his patients • We do fight to maintain self esteem but not using defense mechanisms as freud suggested

45. Freud documentary part 2 • Why did Freud decline to use hypnosis as a therapeutic technique? What technique did he develop instead? • What bold claim did Freud make about the origin of hysteria? • What prompted Freud to begin self evaluation analyze dreams? What did he believe dreams were? • How has Freud’s work changed society today?

47. Neo-Freudian Theories of Personality • Agree with many of Freud’s basic ideas, but differ in one or more important ways Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious Alfred Adler’s Striving for Superiority Karen Horneyand theNeed for Security

48. Carl Jung – a neofreudian • extroverted and introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious.  • Born: July 26, 1875, Switzerland • Died: June 6, 1961, Switzerland

49. Do you…? • Prefer to hang out in big groups or with one or two friends • Enjoy spending time alone • Find parties fun, but a little draining • Need time to think, reflect, look inward • Gain energy from social events • Post tons of stuff on facebook/twitter/other social media? • Enjoy getting lost in books • Imagine a ball of energy by you. Where is it?

50. Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious • Jung proposed two main personality attitudes, extraversion and introversion. • You have an outward self and an inner shadow. • Jung also proposed four functions/styles of gathering information • Sensing is the reality function in which the world is carefully perceived • Intuiting is more subjective perception • Thinking is logical deduction • Feeling is the subjective emotional function • The two personality attitudes and four functions are the basis for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, still in wide use today