osych 203

• Personality


  A characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving that is unique to each individual and remains relatively consistent over time and situations
• Sigmund Freud's proposed theory

  • Believed that both conscious and unconscious processes controlled our behaviour
• The Three Regions Of The Mind

  • Conscious mind
  • Unconscious mind
  • Preconscious mind
• Conscious mind


  Your current awareness, containing everything you are aware of right now
• Unconscious mind


  A much more vast and powerful but inaccessible part of your consciousness, operating without your conscious endorsement or will to influence and guide your behaviours
• Preconscious mind


  Impulses and drives we are consciously aware of, such as hearing or seeing something that makes you remember to do something you had planned to do
• Psychodynamic Theory


  Posits that psychic or instinctive energy moves among the conscious and unconscious structures of the personality called the id, ego, and superego
• Id


  Represents a collection of basic biological drives, including those directed toward sex and aggression. Operates on the Pleasure Principle: seek out immediate gratification, pleasure, and relief. Unconscious.
• Superego


  Reflects an individual's moral conscience. Internalization of society's rules for right and wrong. Can be consciously accessed.
• Ego


  Attempts to balance the pleasure needs of the id and the rules and demands of society. Operates based on needs of reality. Can be consciously accessed.
• The id, ego, and superego operate simultaneously and can be balanced or imbalanced - Threats to the balance of the three structures can create anxiety.
• Defence Mechanisms


  Protective behaviours and strategies the ego uses to reduce or avoid anxiety. Operate in the unconscious mind. Channel self-destructive harmful energy into something constructive or more manageable.
• Types of Defence Mechanisms

  • Denial
  • Displacement
  • Sublimation
  • Identification
  • Projection
  • Rationalisation
  • Reaction formation
  • Repression
• Denial


  Refusing to acknowledge unpleasant information
• Denial


  • Coping with stress/trauma through substances
• Displacement


  Redirecting an impulse toward a more neutral substitute target
• Displacement


  • Taking anger out on spouse instead of boss
• Sublimation


  Transforming unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable or even pro-social alternatives
• Identification


  Unconsciously assuming the characteristics of a more powerful person in order to reduce feelings of anxiety/or negative feelings about the self
• Identification


  • A child who is frequently left alone may try to take on the characteristics of a parent to lessen their fears, copying a celeb
• Projection


  Perceiving in other people the qualities that you do not want to admit to possessing yourself
• Projection


  • Insecure, tyrannical parent who sees hostility/attitude in others
• Rationalisation


  Justify difficult/or unacceptable feelings with seemingly logical reasons and explanations
• Rationalisation


  • Believing people get what they deserve to avoid the fear of experiencing negative outcomes
• Reaction formation


  Goes beyond denial of an impulse and consciously behaves in the opposite way to which they think/feel
• Reaction formation


  • Freud claimed that gay men who feel their sexual orientation is unacceptable may develop harsh prejudices against homosexuality to convince themselves of their heterosexuality
• Repression


  Keeping distressing information out of conscious awareness by burying it in the unconscious
• Repression


  • Victims of violence/abuse may repress these memories
• Freud's Five Psychosexual Stages

  • Oral
  • Anal
  • Phallic
  • Latency
  • Genital
• Oral Stage


  Innate pleasure-seeking focused on actions of the mouth. Successful= infant develops a basic sense of security and empowerment. Unsuccessful= develop an oral fixation ( dependent, addictive personality)
• Anal Stage


  Pleasure in controlling and releasing bowels. Toilet training is a source of conflict. Successful= sense of competence and confidence. Unsuccessful = Low self-esteem
• Phallic Stage


  Libido is focused on the genitals. Awareness of physical sex differences begins to form sparking complex emotions. Successful= form a healthy relationship with parents. Unsuccessful= plagued with jealousy, preoccupied with sex, competitiveness, and power
• Latency Stage


  Libido is dormant. Focus on external activities (education, hobbies, hanging w/ friends). Personality is mostly formed by the end of this stage.
• Genital Stage


  A person emerges into a mature adult personality. (capable of productive work, loving relationships). Those fixated at previous stages have underdeveloped personalities.
• Humanistic Theories


  • Suggestion about Human Nature: Self-Actualization: maximizing their full potential
• Big 5 Personality Traits (OCEAN)

  • Extraversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Conscientiousness
  • Neuroticism
  • Openness to Experience
• Extraversion


  Talkative, outgoing sociable- seeks out social interaction and social attention, more likely to assume leadership roles
• Agreeableness


  Trusting sympathetic, kind - avoids conflict and seeks to maintain harmonious social relationships
• Conscientiousness


  Organized, neat, self-disciplined—more engagement in health-promoting behaviours, less engagement in risky behaviours.
• Neuroticism


  Anxious, hostile, self-conscious - more reactive to challenges and stress