Psychodynamic and Humanistic Perspectives on

Personality

Personality- Individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

We consider the psychodynamic and humanistic perspectives, two different viewpoints on how personality develops and how it can be assessed.

Psychodynamic- view of personality that retains some aspects of Freudian theory but is less likely to see unresolved childhood conflicts a source of personality development.

Humanistic- Humanistic psychology was instead focuses on the study of conscious experience, the individual’s freedom to choose, and the individual’s capacity for personal growth

Psychodynamic and Humanistic Perspective

Austrian physician who proposed psychology’s first and most famous theory of personality.

He believed that individual’s personality emerges from tensions generated by unconscious motives and unresolved childhood conflicts.

He used an approach called psychoanalysis (a therapeutic technique that attempts to provide insight into thoughts and actions by exposing and interpreting the underlying unconscious motives and conflicts.

First comprehensive theory of personality

Sigmund Freud

Freud’s View of MindHe compared the human mind to a big iceberg and divided to 3 regions: the conscious, pre- conscious, and unconscious.

The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

7 defense mechanisms:o Repressiono Regressiono Denialo Reaction formationo Projectiono Rationalizationo Displacement

Defense Mechanisms

Repression anxiety is reduced by banishing provoking thoughts ex. A little girl’s memory of being molested when she was a toddler might become a repressed memory.

The little girl will completely forget about this experience, until the memory might resurface years later. Regression anxiety is reduced by moving back to a previous

psychosexual stage

ex. A teenager not being able to go to a party so she yells at her parents and throws a temper tantrum

Denial anxiety is reduced by refusing to admit that something unpleasant has happened

ex. A drug addict or alcoholics Reaction anxiety is reduced by making unacceptable impulses

look formation like opposites. ex. Saying you despise your ex-

boyfriend but really loving him

7 Defense Mechanisms

Projection anxiety is reduced by attributing threatening impulses to others

ex. An angry man might accuse someone else of being hostile

Rationalization anxiety is reduced by self-explaining things in a way that hides the

behavior’s actual reasonex. Taking money from

a rich friend and justifying it by saying he doesn’t need it

Displacement anxiety is reduced by diverting aggressive feelings to an

acceptable objectex. the father getting mad at the mother. The mother then takes her anger out on her son, the son in turn yells at his little sister, the little sister kicks the dog, and the dog bites the cat.

7 Defense Mechanisms cont.

Freud’s Psychosexual stages

Agreed with Freud’s views of the importance of childhood experiences

Thought social tensions (not sexual) were crucial in development of personality

Centered on feelings of inferiority

If we start to organize our thoughts based on our perceived shortcomings or mistakes, we might develop an inferiority complex.

Alfred Adler

Believed that we not only have a individual unconscious but also a collective unconscious- a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our ancestors.

He saw evidence of the collective unconsciousness in the archetypes (universal symbols) found in stories, myths, and art

Carl Jung

Pointed out that Freud’s theory was male dominated and that his explanation of female development was inadequate.

Stated that social variables, not biological variables, are the foundation of personality development.

Felt that social expectations, not anatomy, created the psychological differences between males and females.

Karen Horney

A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests though the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

The images are deliberately ambiguous so you can’t really tell what’s happening.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

The most widely used projective test.

A set of 10 inkblots that a therapist uses to identify a person’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the inkblot.

Rorschach inkblot test

Humanistic psychologists wanted a psychology what o emphasized conscious experienceo Focused on free will and creative abilitieso Studied all factors (not just observable behaviors)

relevant to the human condition

Humanistic Perspective

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Humanistic psychologist who stressed the importance of acceptance, genuineness, and empathy in fostering human growth

He believed in the unconditional positive regard which is an attitude of total acceptance toward another person

Carl Rogers

http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/hist_humanistic.htm

http://listverse.com/2007/11/15/top-7-psychological-defense-mechanisms/

Sources