PersonalityChapter 10

Freud and the Psychoanalytic Perspective• Focuses on three factors:• Influence of unconscious mental processes• Importance of sexual and aggressive instincts• Enduring consequences of early childhood experiences

Psychoanalysis -cont-• Levels of awareness:•Conscious - thoughts or motives a person is currently aware of or is remembering• Preconscious – thoughts, motives and memories that can be voluntarily brought to mind•Unconscious – thoughts, feelings, motives and memories blocked from conscious awareness• Not directly accessible• Explored through free association – method in

which a person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind

Freud’s idea of the mind’s structure

Psychoanalysis -cont-• Personality structure• Id – completely unconscious• Innate sexual and aggressive instincts and

drivse• Impulsive, irrational and immature• Operates on a pleasure principle, seeking to

achieve immediate gratification and avoid discomfort• Ex: Your id wants to use your graduation

money to buy a car instead of paying for college

Psychoanalysis -cont-•Superego – partly conscious• Internalized parental and societal standards•Operates on a morality principle and seeks to enforce ethical conduct• Ex: Your superego would make you feel guilty about putting graduation money towards a car

Psychoanalysis -cont-•Ego – both in conscious and preconsicous• Rational and practical• Operates on a reality principle and

mediates between the demands of the id and the superego• Ex: Your ego guides you to use most of

the money for college tuition while setting some aside for a less-expensive, used car

Psychoanalysis -cont-Freud’s psychosexual stages :

id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

Stage FocusOral (0-18 mos)

Pleasure centers on the mouth – sucking, biting, chewing

Anal (18-36 mos)

Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

Phallic (3-6 yrs)

Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings; Oedipus complex – boy’s sexual desires for mother and jealousy toward father

Latency (6-puberty)

Dormant sexual feelings

Genital (puberty on)

Maturation of sexual interests

Psychoanalysis -cont-• Ego defense mechanisms – unconscious distortions of

reality used by the ego to reduce anxiety• Repression – preventing anxiety-producing thoughts and painful

feelings from entering consciousness• First and most basic form of anxiety reduction• Ex: Forgetting the details of what you said when you broke up

with your boyfriend/girlfriend• Projection – transferring one’s own unacceptable thoughts,

motives or personal qualities to others• Ex: You feel dislike for a coach and then insist she dislikes you

• Denial – protecting oneself from anxiety-producing information by refusing to acknowledge it• Ex: Refusing to admit you have a drinking problem even

though you drink every day

• Reaction formation – thinking or behaving in a way that is the opposite of your own unacceptable thoughts and feelings• Ex: Taking care of a sick relative whom you actually hate

• Displacement – redirecting anger and other unacceptable impulses toward a less-threatening person or object• Ex: Yelling at a teammate after being criticized by your coach

• Rationalization – justifying one’s actions by using socially acceptable explanations• Ex: Dealing with the disappointment of being rejected by a college

by saying you really didn’t want to attend such an elitist institution• Regression – retreating from a threatening situation by reverting to a

pattern of behavior characteristic of an earlier stage of development• Ex: Throwing a temper tantrum when your parents refuse to

extend your curfew

The Neo-Freudians• Neo-Freudians accepted Freud’s basic ideas•Personality structure• Importance of unconscious•Shaping of personality n childhood•Dynamics of anxiety and defense mechanisms

• Placed more emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience and coping with the environment• Placed less emphasis on sex and aggression

The Neo-Freudians: Alfred Adler• Believed infants and young children are

helpless and dependent upon others• Produces an inferiority complex

• We deal with inferiority in two ways• Compensating for real or imagined weakness by striving to improve themselves and by developing their talents and abilities• Overcompensating for their feelings of inferiority by developing a superiority complex in which they exaggerate their accomplishments and deny their limitations

The Neo-Freudians: Carl Jung• Stressed importance of unconscious process

but distinguished between personal unconscious and collective unconscious• Personal conscious – experiences that are

unique to each person• Collective unconscious – part of a person’s

unconscious that is common to all human beings• Includes ideas like the wise grandfather, the innocent child, and the rebellious son

Assessing the Unconscious• Projective tests – use ambiguous

images (inkblots and pictures of people) that are open to a number of interpretations•Subject’s response is a projection of his/her unconscious conflicts, motives and personality traits into the test images• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) – people

view ambiguous pictures and then make up stories about them

• Rorschach Inkblot Test – people describe what they see in a series of inkblots• Developed by

Hermann Rorschach in 1921

•Critics argue that projective tests are time-consuming, expensive and subjective

Criticisms of Freud and the Psychoanalytic Perspective• Developmental psychologists see development as

lifelong, rather than fixed in childhood• Freud’s generalizations are based on evidence drawn

from a small number of patients• Key concepts are impossible to measure empirically

• Freud never claimed psychoanalysis was a predictive science• Theories often reflect a sexist view of women• It is most likely that high stress situations enhance

rather than repress memories• There is evidence that we utilize defense

mechanisms but these are motivated more by our need to protect our self-image

The Humanistic Perspective: Abraham Maslow• Proposed we are motivated by a

hierarchy of needs• Stressed humans have a natural drive

to find self-fulfillment and realize their potential

The Humanistic Perspective: Carl Jung• Believed people are innately good • Self-concept is the cornerstone of a person’s

personality• Set of perceptions and beliefs that individuals have

about their own nature and behavior• Matching self-concept and life experiences result in high

self-esteem and better mental health• A growth-promoting climate required• Genuineness• Acceptance – offering unconditional positive regard –

attitude of total acceptance toward another person• Empathy

The Humanistic Perspective• Assessment•Self-evaluations•Some see this as depersonalizing

• Criticisms of the humanistic perspective•Concepts are vague and subjective•Emphasis on individualism can lead to self-indulgence, selfishness and erosion of moral restraint• It is naively optimistic

The Trait Perspective• Early trait theories

• Trait – relatively stable personal characteristic that can be used to describe how an individual consistently behaves

• Gordon Allport• Used a comprehensive dictionary to develop a list of 4,504

adjectives that could be used to describe specific personality traits and arranged them in three levels:• Cardinal traits – dominate and shape a person’s outlook• Central traits – influence most of our behavior• Secondary traits – only seen in certain situations

• Traits were confusing and overlapping• Raymond Cattell used factor analysis to reduce Allport’s list to

171 terms and later refined those to 16 personality factors• Factor analysis – statistical procedure that identifies clusters of

correlated test items that tap basic components of intelligence

The Trait Perspective -cont-• Assessing traits• Personality inventories – longer questionnaires that cover a wide range of feelings and behaviors and are designed to assess several traits at once• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)• Contains over 500 statements (“I am very tense on the

job,” or “I wish I could do over some of the things I have done.”)

• Is used to diagnose psychological disorders• Proponents argue that self-report inventories are standardized, objective and relatively inexpensive•Critics argue that respondents can lie

The Trait Perspective -cont-• The Big Five Factors•Openness• High scores = curious, open to experience,

interested in cultural pursuits, sensitive to beauty• Low scores = conventional thinkers, prefer

straightforward answers, regard arts and sciences with suspicion

• Conscientiousness• High scores = self-disciplined, well-organized,

motivated to achieve personal goals• Low scores = careless, impulsive and

undependable

The Trait Perspective -cont-• Extroversion• High scores = sociable, talkative, enthusiastic,

draw attention to themselves in groups• Low scores = reserved, quiet, prefer time alone

• Agreeableness• High scores = trusting, cooperative, helpful• Low scores = suspicious, argumentative,

uncooperative• Neuroticism• High scores = insecure, easily upset, anxious,

moody• Low scores = calm, easy going, emotionally stable

The Trait Perspective -cont-•Current research shows Big Five traits are stable in adulthood•Our personality traits seem stable but the consistency of specific behaviors vary from one situation to the next• Can make personality test scores weak

predictors of behavior• Our average behavior across situations

is predictable

The Social-Cognitive Perspective• Social cognitive perspective – views behavior as

influenced by the interaction between people’s traits and their social context• Proposed by Albert Bandura• Bandura also conducted research in self-efficacy – feelings

of self-confidence or self-doubt that people bring to a specific situation• Reciprocal determinism – interacting influences of behavior,

internal cognition and environment• Different people choose different environments• Out personalities shape how we interpret and react to

events• Our personalities help create situations to which we react

The Social-Cognitive Perspective -cont-• Personal control – extent to which people perceive

control over their environment rather than feeling helpless• External locus of control – believing most situations are

governed by chance and lucky breaks• Internal locus of control – accepting personal responsibility

for one’s life experiences• Achieve more in school and work, act more

independently, enjoy better health, feel less depressed• Evaluating the social-cognitive perspective• Utilizes psychological research more than other

perspectives• Critics argue it overemphasizes the situation at the

expense of inner traits

Exploring the Self• Self – assumed to be the center of

personality, and the organizer of our thoughts, feelings and actions

• Spotlight effect – overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance and blunders

• Self-serving bias – a readiness to perceive oneself favorably• People accept more responsibility for good deeds than bad•Most people see themselves as better than average

Culture and the Self• Individualism- giving priority to one’s

own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications• Collectivism – giving priority to the

goals of one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly