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• Personality


  A pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person's behavior
• Traits


  Contribute to individual differences in behavior, consistency of behavior over time, and stability of behavior across situations
• Characteristics


  Unique qualities of an individual that include such attributes as temperament, physique, and intelligence
• Theory


  A scientific theory is a set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses
• Perspectives in theories of personality

  • Psychodynamic Theories
  • Humanistic-Existentialist Theories
  • Dispositional Theories
  • Biological-Evolutionary Theories
  • Learning-(Social)Cognitive Theories
• Psychodynamic Theories


  • Focused on the importance of early childhood experience and relationships with parents as guiding forces that shape personality development
  • Sees the unconscious mind and motives as much more powerful than the conscious awareness
  • Traditionally used dream interpretation to uncover the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and impulses as a main form of treatment of neurosis and mental illness
• Humanistic-Existentialist Theories


  • Also known as "positive psychology"
  • The primary approach is that people strive toward meaning, growth, well-being, happiness, and psychological health
  • States of positive emotion and happiness foster psychological health and pro-social behavior
  • Existential theorists assume that not only are we driven by a search for meaning, but also that negative experiences such as failure, awareness of death, death of a loved one, and anxiety, are part of the human condition and can foster psychological growth
• Dispositional Theories


  • Argue that the unique and long-term tendencies to behave in particular ways are the essence of our personality
  • These unique dispositions, such as extraversion or anxiety, are called traits
  • The field has converged on the understanding that there are five main trait dimensions in human personality

  
• Biological-Evolutionary Theories


  • Emphasizes that what we think, feel, and do is always an interaction between nature (biological) and nurture (environment)
  • Personality have been shaped by forces of evolution
  • Behavior, thought, feelings, and personality are influenced by differences in basic genetic, epigenetic, and neurological systems between individuals

  
• Learning-(Social)Cognitive Theories


  • Focuses only on behavior, not on hypothetical and unobservable internal states such as thoughts, feelings, drives, or motives
  • All behaviors are learned through association and/or its consequences
  • Personality is shaped by how we think and perceive the world

  
• Dimensions for concept of humanity

  • Determinism versus free choice
  • Pessimism versus optimism
  • Causality versus teleology
  • Conscious versus unconscious
  • Biological versus social influences on personality
  • Uniqueness versus similarities
• Psychoanalytic Theory


  • The first formal theory of personality created by Freud
  • Emphasized unconscious forces, biologically based drives of sex and aggression, and unavoidable conflicts in early childhood
• Levels of mental life

  • Unconscious
  • Preconscious
  • Conscious
• Unconscious


  • Contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of our words, feelings, and actions
  • Freud felt that its existence could be proved only indirectly
  • This is the explanation for the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and certain kinds of forgetting (repression)
  • Unconscious processes often enter into consciousness but only after being disguised or distorted enough to elude censorship
  • By the time these memories enter our conscious mind, we no longer recognize them for what they are; instead, we see them as relatively pleasant, nonthreatening experiences
  • In most cases, these images have strong sexual or aggressive motifs, because childhood sexual and aggressive behaviors are frequently punished or suppressed
  • Punishment and suppression often create feelings of anxiety, and the anxiety in turn stimulates repression, that is, the forcing of unwanted, anxiety-ridden experiences into the unconscious as a defense against the pain of that anxiety
  • Freud believed that not all unconscious processes originate from childhood experiences, some are inherited from our early ancestors
  • He called these inherited unconscious images as phylogenetic endowment
  • If childhood experiences were inadequate to explain the unconscious of a person, Freud would resort to phylogenetic endowment
  • Unconscious drives may appear in consciousness, but only after undergoing certain transformations
  • The unconscious mind of one person can communicate with the unconscious of another without either person being aware of the process
  • Forces in the unconscious constantly strive to become conscious, and many of them succeed, although they may no longer appear in their original form
• Preconscious


  Contains all those elements that are not conscious but can become conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty
• Conscious


  • Contains all those mental elements in awareness at any given point in time
  • The only level of mental life directly available to us
  • Ideas can reach consciousness from two different directions: from external stimulus and from within mental structures
  • Perceptual Conscious System-acts as a medium for the perception of external stimuli
  • What we perceive through our sense organs, if not too threatening, enters into consciousness
  • Ideas that are anxiety-inducing in their raw form are prevented from emerging to the consciousness
• Id


  • Hypothetically found at the core of personality and completely unconscious
  • Strives constantly to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires
  • Serves the pleasure principle and operates through the primary process
  • It has no contact with reality as well as no morality, but not immoral
  • It can be represented by a newborn infant who seeks to satisfy needs regardless of what is possible or proper
• Ego


  • Partly conscious, preconscious and unconscious
  • The only province in contact with reality
  • As a result, the ego is the decision-making or executive branch of personality
  • Serves the reality principle and operates through secondary process
  • The ego grows out of the id when the infants learn to distinguish themselves from the outer world
  • At times, the ego can control the id but there are also times that the id dominates
  • Nevertheless, the ego only borrows its energy from the id
  • Constantly reconciles the id, superego and the external world
  • When the 3 forces become conflicting, the ego becomes anxious and will use defense mechanisms to protect itself from the anxiety
• Superego


  • Stems from the ego, it develops as children reach the age of 5 or 6 years when they identify with their parents and learn what should and should not be done
  • Seeks moral perfection but has no contact with the external world
  • Serves the moralistic and idealistic principles
  • Has two subsystems: conscience and ego-ideal
  • Conscience – results from punishments for improper behavior and tells us what we SHOULD NOT DO
  • When the ego acts in contrary with the conscience, we feel guilt
  • Ego-Ideal – results from rewards for proper behavior and tells us what we SHOULD DO
  • When the ego fails to meet the ego-ideal's standard of perfection, we experience inferiority feelings
  • The superego controls sexual and aggressive impulses by ordering the ego to do repression
  • Not concerned with the happiness of the ego
• Drives


  • Stimuli within a person that operate as a constant motivational force
  • Cannot be avoided through flight
  • Originate from the id, but are controlled by the ego
  • Characterized by: Impetus – amount of force exerted, Source – region of the body in a state of excitation or tension, Aim – to seek pleasure by removing excitation or tension, Object – person or thing that serves as the means of achieving the aim
  • Includes two major drives: sex and aggression
• Sex


  • Also known as Eros
  • Has the psychic energy called libido
  • Aims for pleasure through reduction of sexual tension, but not limited to genital satisfaction
  • Mouth and anus can also produce sexual pleasure, and are called erogenous zones
  • Believed that the entire body is invested with libido
  • The path by which the aim is satisfied varies
  • For Freud, all pleasurable activity is traceable in the sex drive
  • The object can also be transformed or displaced
  • Sex can take in many forms, including narcissism, love, sadism, and masochism
  • Primary Narcissism – infants are investing libido to their own ego and become self-centered; universally experienced
  • Secondary Narcissism – preoccupation with personal appearance and other self-interests; common during puberty
  • Love – develops when people invest their libido to an object or person other than themselves
  • Children's first love is the person who takes care of them
  • Expression of love to family is ordinarily aim-inhibited
  • Love and narcissism are closely interrelated
  • Sadism - need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain or humiliation on another person
  • Masochism – need for sexual pleasure from suffering pain and humiliation inflicted either by themselves or by others
  • Both sadism and masochism are a common need when in moderation
  • Both has components of sex and aggression
  • They can become extreme and perverted when aggression becomes the primary drive
• Aggression


  • Also known as Thanatos
  • The aim is to return the organism to an inorganic state (i.e., death or self-destruction)
  • Also flexible like the sexual drive and can take the forms of gossiping, teasing, humiliation and enjoyment of other's suffering
  • Aggressive tendency is present to everyone
• Secondary Narcissism


  Preoccupation with personal appearance and other self-interests; common during puberty
• Love


  Develops when people invest their libido to an object or person other than themselves
• Children's first love


  The person who takes care of them
• Expression of love to family

  Ordinarily aim-inhibited
• Love and narcissism


  Are closely interrelated
• Sadism


  Need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain or humiliation on another person
• Masochism


  Need for sexual pleasure from suffering pain and humiliation inflicted either by themselves or by others
• Both sadism and masochism are a common need when in moderation
• Both has components of sex and aggression
• They can become extreme and perverted when aggression becomes the primary drive
• Aggression


  Also known as Thanatos, the aim is to return the organism to an inorganic state (i.e., death or self-destruction)
• Aggression


  Also flexible like the sexual drive and can take the forms of gossiping, teasing, humiliation and enjoyment of other's suffering
• Aggressive tendency is present to everyone
• Throughout a lifetime, sex and aggression compete for supremacy but are both controlled by reality
• Sex and aggression create anxiety when not fulfilled
• Anxiety


  Felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger
• Neurotic Anxiety


  Apprehension about an unknown danger and originates from the id
• Moral Anxiety


  Conflict between realistic needs and the dictates of the superego