Sigmund Freud

• Personality


  All relatively permanent traits or characteristics that render some consistency to a person's behavior
• Psychodynamic Theories


  • Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis
  • Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology
  • Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology
  • Karen Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory
  • Erik Erickson: Psychosocial/Post-Freudian Theory
  • Melanie Klein: Object Relations Theory
  • Eric Fromm: Humanistic Psychology
  • Harry Stack Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory
• Six criteria determining the usefulness of a scientific theory

  • Generates research
  • Is falsifiable
  • Organizes and explains knowledge
  • Suggests practical solutions to everyday problems
  • Is internally consistent
  • Is simple or parsimonious
• Disposition Theories

  • Gordon Allport: Psychology of the Individual
  • Hans Eysenck: Biologically Based Factor Theory
  • Robert McCrae & Paul Costa Jr.: Five Factor Trait Theory
  • Raymond Cattell: 16 Personality Factors
  • Henry Murray: Psychogenic Needs
• Levels of mental life

  • Conscious
  • Preconscious
  • Unconscious
• Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg Moravia in 1856 and spent most of his life in Vienna Austria
• Theory


  A set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate a testable hypothesis
• Dimensions for a concept of humanity

  • Determinism vs. Free Choice
  • Pessimism vs. Optimism
  • Causality vs. Teleology
  • Conscious vs. Unconscious Determinants of Behavior
  • Biological vs. Social Influences on Personality
  • Uniqueness vs. Similarities
• Humanistic/Existential Theories

  • Abraham Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory
  • Carl Rogers: Person-Centered Theory
  • Rollo May: Existential Psychology
• Sigmund Freud was driven out of Austria by Nazis in 1938 and died in London in the same year
• Provinces of the mind

  • Id (Das es)
  • Ego (Das Ich)
  • Superego (Das Uber Ich)
• Learning Theories

  • B.F. Skinner: Behavioral Analysis
  • Albert Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory
  • Rotter & Mischel: Cognitive Social Learning Theory
  • George Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
• Ego


  Executive of personality, in contact with the real world, and in service of the REALITY PRINCIPLE
• Realistic Anxiety is fear of real-world events, usually easily identified, and the most common way of reducing this anxiety is to avoid the threatening object
• Ego-Ideal


  Part of the Superego that contains the standards for moral behavior
• Provinces of the Mind

  • Id (Das es)
  • Ego (Das Ich)
  • Superego (Das Uber Ich)
• Defense mechanisms are processes used by the ego to distort reality and protect a person from anxiety
• Neurotic Anxiety is the unconscious worry that we will lose control of the id's urges, resulting in punishment for inappropriate behavior
• Displacement involves taking out frustrations, feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening
• Instincts are known only indirectly
• Psychosexual Stages of Development

  • Oral
  • Anal
  • Phallic
  • Latency
• Regression is a defense mechanism where one returns to an earlier, safer stage of one’s life to escape present threats
• Projection is a defense mechanism in which anxiety-arousing impulses are externalized by placing them onto others
• Denial functions to protect the ego from things with which the individual cannot cope
• Superego

  Serves the moral and IDEALISTIC PRINCIPLES and begins to form after the Oedipus complex is resolved
• Id


  Unconscious, chaotic, out of contact with reality, and in service of the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
• Two sources of unconscious processes

  • Repression
  • Phylogenetic Endowment
• Moral Anxiety comes from threats of punishments from the superego and involves a fear of violating our own moral principles
• Defense Mechanisms

  • Reaction Formation
  • Displacement
  • Fixation
  • Denial
  • Repression
  • Projection
  • Sublimation
  • Regression
  • Rationalization
• Drives


  • Libido or Sex Drive
  • Thanatos or Aggression/Destructive Drive
• Repression is a defense mechanism that pushes threatening thoughts into the unconscious
• Reaction Formation is a defense mechanism that pushes away threatening impulses by overemphasizing the opposite in one’s thoughts and words
• Fixation refers to the point in the individual’s development at which certain aspects of the emotional development are not advanced
• Sublimation is a defense mechanism where dangerous urges are transformed into positive, socially acceptable forms
• Rationalization is a defense mechanism where after-the-fact logical explanations for behaviors that were actually driven by internal unconscious motives are provided
• Characteristics of Psychosexual Stages of Development

  • Oral: Birth – 1, Erogenous Zone: Mouth, Pleasure derived from sucking, Fixation leads to individuals taking much interest in smoking, eating, kissing, oral hygiene, and drinking, Weaning away from mother’s breast
  • Anal: 1-3, Erogenous Zone: Anus, Toilet training interferes with gratification received from defecation, Anal Retentive, Anal Expulsive, Toilet training
  • Phallic (Independent Stage): 4-5, Erogenous Zone: Genitals, Incestuous Fantasies, Superego Development, Awakening of Sexuality, Masturbation, Oedipus and Electra Complex
  • Latency: 6-puberty, Sexual urges are sublimated into sports and hobbies, Same-sex friends also help avoid sexual feelings
• Anal Fixation Types

  • Anal Retentive
  • Anal Expulsive
• Genital Stage


  1. Development of sex-role identity and adult social relationships

  2. Social Roles
• Anal Expulsive


  Disorderly, messy, destructive, or cruel. Lack of self-control, generally messy and careless
• Phallic Stage Characteristics

  • Erogenous Zone: Genitals
  • Incestuous Fantasies
  • Superego Development
  • Awakening of Sexuality
  • Masturbation
  • Oedipus and Electra Complex