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Personality

Personality. Individual’s unique patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality Theory. Attempt to describe and explain how people are similar, how they are different, and why every individual is unique. Personality Perspectives.

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Personality

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  1. Personality Individual’s unique patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving

  2. Personality Theory Attempt to describe and explain how people are similar, how they are different, and why every individual is unique

  3. Personality Perspectives • Psychoanalytic—importance of unconscious processes and childhood experiences • Humanistic—importance of self and fulfillment of potential • Social cognitive—importance of beliefs about self • Trait—description and measurement of personality differences

  4. Psychoanalytic Theory Personality According to Sigmund Freud

  5. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) • Founder of psychoanalysis • Proposed the first complete theory of personality • A person’s thoughts and behaviors emerge from tension generated by unconscious motives and unresolved childhood conflicts. Learn more about Freud at: www.freud.org.uk www.lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/freud

  6. Psychoanalytic Approach • Psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and a theory of personality • Emphasizes unconscious motivation • the main causes of behavior lie buried in the unconscious mind

  7. Psychoanalysis as a Therapy • A therapeutic technique that attempts to provide insight into one’s thoughts and actions • Does so by exposing and interpreting the underlying unconscious motives and conflicts

  8. Psychodynamic Perspective • A more modern view of personality that retains some aspects of Freudian theory but rejects other aspects • Retains the importance of the unconscious mind • Less emphasis on unresolved childhood conflicts

  9. The Psychodynamic Perspective:Freud’s View of the Mind

  10. Free Association • Freudian technique of exploring the unconscious mind by having the person relax and say whatever comes to mind no matter how trivial or embarrassing The Couch

  11. Conscious Mind • All the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that you are aware of at this particular moment represent the conscious level

  12. Preconscious Mind • A region of the mind holding information that is not conscious but is easily retrievable into conscious awareness • Holds thoughts and memories not in one’s current awareness but can easily be retrieved (childhood memories, phone number)

  13. Unconscious Mind • A region of the mind that includes unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories • Not aware of these thoughts, wishes, etc… but they exert great influence over our conscious thoughts & behavior. • Freud felt that dreams were “The royal road to the unconsciousness” – behind the surface image (manifest content) lied the true hidden meaning (latent content). • Can also surface as “slips of the tongue” or Freudian Slips. • Examples of Slips

  14. Psychoanalytic Approach • Conscious – all things we are aware of at any given moment

  15. Psychoanalytic Approach • Preconscious – everything that can, with a little effort, be brought into consciousness

  16. Psychoanalytic Approach • Unconscious –inaccessible warehouse of anxiety-producing thoughts and drives

  17. The Psychodynamic Perspective:The Id, Ego, and Superego

  18. Psychoanalytic Divisions of the Mind • Id—instinctual drives present at birth • does not distinguish between reality and fantasy • operates according to the pleasure principle • Ego—develops out of the id in infancy • understands reality and logic • mediator between id and superego • Superego • internalization of society’s & parental moral standards • focuses on what the person “should” do • Develops around ages 5-6. • Partially unconscious • Can be harshly punitive using feelings of guilt

  19. Freud’s Concept of the “Id” • The part of personality that consists of unconscious energy from basic aggressive and sexual drives • Operates on the “pleasure principle” - the id demands immediate gratification • Is present from birth

  20. Id: The Pleasure Principle • Pleasure principle—drive toward immediate gratification, most fundamental human motive • Sources of energy • Eros—life instinct, perpetuates life • Thanatos—death instinct, aggression, self-destructive actions • Libido—sexual energy or motivation

  21. Freud’s Concept of the “Ego” • The part of personality that mediates the demands of the id without going against the restraints of the superego • Follows the reality principle

  22. Ego: The Reality Principle • Reality principle—ability to postpone gratification in accordance with demands of reality • Ego—rational, organized, logical, mediator to demands of reality • Can repress desires that cannot be met in an acceptable manner

  23. The Personality Id: “I want” Superego: “I should” Ego: “I will”

  24. Defense Mechanisms Unconscious Self-Deceptions Traditionally, A LOT of MC questions have been about DMs!

  25. Defense Mechanisms • Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

  26. Repression • Puts anxiety-producing thoughts, feelings, and memories into the unconscious mind • The basis for all other defense mechanisms

  27. Denial • Lets an anxious person refuse to admit that something unpleasant is happening

  28. Regression • Allows an anxious person to retreat to a more comfortable, infantile stage of life

  29. Reaction Formation • Replacing an unacceptable wish with its opposite

  30. Projection • Reducing anxiety by attributing unacceptable impulses or problems about yourself to someone else

  31. Rationalization • Displaces real, anxiety-provoking explanations with more comforting justifications for one’s actions • Reasoning away anxiety-producing thoughts

  32. Displacement • Shifts an unacceptable impulse toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

  33. Sublimation • A form of displacement in which sexual urges are channeled into nonsexual activities that are valued by society

  34. Undoing • Unconsciously neutralizing an anxiety causing action by doing a second action that undoes the first.

  35. The Psychodynamic Perspective:Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

  36. Psychosexual Stages • In Freudian theory, the childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure seeking energies are focused on different parts of the body • The stages include: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital • A person can become “fixated” or stuck at a stage and as an adult attempt to achieve pleasure as in ways that are equivalent to how it was achieved in these stages

  37. Oral Stage (birth – 1 year) • Mouth is associated with sexual pleasure • Pleasure comes from chewing, biting, and sucking. • Weaning a child can lead to fixation if not handled correctly • Fixation can lead to oral activities in adulthood

  38. Freud’s Stages of Development

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