Personality

• Personality


  An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
• You don't have to be a psychologist to speculate about personality
• Personality is a part of "everyday" language
• Novelists, filmmakers, playwriters make constant use of the personality of key figures in their stories
• Personality


  It is what makes our actions, thoughts, and feelings consistent
• Sigmund Freud


  One of the earliest figures to develop a comprehensive theory of personality (i.e., psychoanalysis, or the Freudian theory of personality)
• Freud's theory assumed that unconscious motivations and needs have a role in determining our behaviour
• Freud's Personality Structure


  The mind has three systems: Id, Ego, and Superego
• Freud's Idea of the Mind

  It's like an iceberg. The id is totally unconscious, but the ego and the supergo operate both consciously and unconsciously. The id, ego, and supergo also interact.
• Id


  Operates on the pleasure principle; unconsciously strives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress. Has two drives: eros (a drive for life, love, growth, and self preservation) and thanatos (a drive for aggression and death)
• Superego


  Focuses on ideal behavior; strives for perfection; acts as a moral conscience. Has two components: conscience (images of what deserves punishment, serving the basis for guilt) and ego ideal (images of what is rewarded or approved of, serving the basis for pride)
• Ego


  Operates on the reality principle; seeks to realistically gratify the id's impulses to bring long-term pleasure; mediates between id impulses, superego directives, and the real world. Conflicts can lead to three types of anxiety: neurotic anxiety, moral anxiety, and reality anxiety
• Freudian Psychosexual Development


  Freud believed that adult personality problems were the result of early experiences in life. He believed that we go through 5 stages of psychosexual development, and that at each stage of development we experience pleasure in one part of the body than in others.
• Erogenous zones


  Parts of the body that have especially strong pleasure-giving qualities at particular stages of development
• Freudian Fixation


  The psychoanalytic defense mechanism that occurs when the individual remains locked in an earlier developmental stage, because their needs are under/over-gratified
• Oral stage


  0 – 18 months, the infant's pleasure centers on the mouth. Examples of fixation behaviours in adulthood: smoking, gum-chewing, nail-biting, overly talkative or sarcastic
• Anal stage


  18 to 36 months, the child's greatest pleasure involves the anus or eliminative functions associated with it. Examples of fixation behaviours in adulthood: obsessive cleanliness or messiness, wastefulness, overly controlling or easily submissive
• Phallic stage


  3 – 6 years, the child's pleasure comes from penis/genitals through self-stimulation. Freud thinks this stage has a special importance in personality, as this period may trigger the Oedipus/Electra Complex – an intense desire to replace the parent of the same sex and enjoy the affection of the opposite sex parent. Examples of fixation behaviours in adulthood: recklessness, narcissism, self-obsession
• Latency stage


  6 years to puberty, the child represses interest in sexuality and develops social and intellectual skills. Examples of fixation behaviours in adulthood: issues with forming and maintaining social relationships
• Genital stage


  Puberty to adulthood, the final stage of psychosexual development. Freud believes this is the time of sexual reawakening, but the source of sexual pleasure now becomes someone outside the family.
• Defense Mechanisms


  Tactics that reduce and redirect anxiety by reality distortion, functioning indirectly and unconsciously
• Six Defense Mechanisms


  • Regression
  • Reaction formation
  • Projection
  • Rationalization
  • Displacement
  • Denial
• Regression


  Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated
• Reaction Formation


  Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites
• Projection


  Disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
• Rationalization


  Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions
• Displacement


  Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person
• Denial


  Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities
• There are a few other defense mechanisms that we will not cover (repression, sublimation, introjection, etc.). Reasons: they may have less research evidence, they may be less relatable/common, they may be less "theorized".
• Neo-Freudians


  Accepted many of Freud's ideas, placed more emphasis on the consciousness mind and on social motives than sexual- or aggression-related ones
• Contemporary psychodynamic theorists


  Reject Freud's emphasis on sexual motivation, view mental life as primarily unconscious, contend that childhood social experiences influence adult personality and attachment patterns
• Modern research contradicts many of Freud's ideas, for example: development is lifelong, not fixed in childhood; parental influence is overestimated, and peer influence is underestimated; Oedipus/Electra complex is questioned; Freud's research method is criticized; little empirical evidence for repression
• But, Freud still made very major contributions to the field: drew attention to the importance of our unconscious mind, addressed conflicts between biological impulses and social restraints, identified forms of defense mechanisms and unconscious terror-management defenses
• Projective test


  A personality test that provides ambiguous stimuli, designed to trigger the projection of one's inner dynamics and reveal unconscious motives
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)


  A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
• Rorschach Inkblot Test


  The most widely used projective test, consisting of a set of 10 inkblots designed by Hermann Rorschach, seeking to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
• Trait Theories


  Attempt to define personality in terms of stable and enduring behaviour patterns, aiming to describe differences rather than trying to explain them
• Personality Inventory


  Questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviours, used to assess selected personality traits
• The Big Five Personality Factors

  The most widely accepted picture of personality: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness, Extraversion
• Extraversion - Introversion


  Extraverts tend to draw energy from time spent with others, introverts tend to gain energy from time alone. Introverts are NOT shy, shyness is a result of lack of comfort in social situations.