An individuals characteristic pattern of thinking, acting, and feeling

Figure 15.7 The biopsychosocial approach to the study of personalityMyers: Psychology, Eighth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Sigmund Freud- Austrian founder of psychoanalysis

Techniques included:◦ Free association to unlock the unconscious

motivators◦ Freud believed that the chain of thought leading

to the unconscious would reveal memories that were painful and that trauma could be released

“iceberg theory”- the mind is mostly made up of unconscious desires that are beneath the surface, the conscious mind floats on the surface

To Freud nothing was accidental Dreams were the key to unconscious desires Jokes were expressions of repressed sexual

and aggressive tendencies

Figure 15.1 Freud’s idea of the mind’s structureMyers: Psychology, Eighth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Personality results from efforts to resolve conflicts between our impulses and our social restraints against these impulses◦ Id our internal drive to satisfy unconscious desires that

operates on the pleasure principle◦ Ego contains our partly conscious perceptions and

thoughts. Also seeks to gratify the id’s impulses in a realistic ways

◦ Superego the voice of conscience that strives for perfection, judges actions; someone that is superego driven may be extremely virtuous but guilt ridden

Freud thought that personality forms from life’s early years and he thought that his patients problems stemmed from unresolved conflict

Children pass through psychosexual stages that focus on satisfying distinct pleasure centers of the body called erogenous zones

Emphasis on fixation or progress through early psychosexual ages;

Experiences in early childhood (ex. pacifiers, toilet training) can leave lasting mark on adult personality

Oral (birth-18 months)◦Stimulation is feeding◦mouth, tongue, lips◦Not fed enough- nail biting, thumb sucking ◦Too much feeding- smokers, compulsive

eaters, talkative people, obesity

Passive dependence=didn’t meet needs at id stage; dependent upon another OR

Acting tough & criticizing others=denial of dependence

Gratify their oral desire by smoking and or eating excessively

Anal (19-36 months)◦Stimulation is potty training◦Bowels, rectum, anus, coping with demands

for control◦Rigid potty training- obsessively neat,

obsessed with cleanliness, perfectionistic, cruelty, coldness

◦Neglectful potty training- messy appearance, sloppy behavior

Phallic (3-6 years)◦Coping with incestuous sexual feelings◦Genitals◦Oedipus complex (male will remain childlike

and seek out maternal figures)◦Electra complex (female will seek out father

figures in relationships)

Latency (6- puberty)◦Dormant sexual feelings◦Repression of sexual and aggressive desires

◦Learn gender roles◦Unresolved conflict leads to jealousy, egocentric sex

◦Preference for the same sex◦Excessive modesty and shame

Genital (puberty onward)◦Maturation of sexual interests◦Awakening of your libido = sex drive or sexual energy

◦Social inferiority◦Low sex drive◦Hyper sex drive

Oedipus complex during the phallic stages boys feel unconscious sexual desires for their mothers and jealous/hatred for their fathers

Girls feel a parallel called the Electra complex Children cope with the feelings through repression and

by identifying with the rival parent Through this process the child’s superego gains strength

as they incorporate their parents values and develop gender identity

Unresolved issues in various stages could cause a person to fixate on the pleasure seeking energies in the various stages

Refers to an inability to satisfy needs.

Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious

A traumatized soldier has no recollection of the details of a close brush with death.

Channeling prohibited impulses into socially acceptable activities

People who have an oral fixation would smoke (instead of using a pacifier)

Attributing one’s own thoughts, motives, or feelings to another

An employee doesn’t like his boss, so the employee says “My boss doesn’t like me.”

Diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target

After parental scolding, a girl may fight with her brother

Behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one’s true feelings

A parent who unconsciously resents a child spoils the child with outlandish gifts

A reversion to immature patterns or behavior

An person (older than a toddler) has a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get his own way

Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior

Students watch TV instead of studying, saying that “additional studying won’t do any good anyhow.”

Bolstering self esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group

An insecure student joins a fraternity/sorority to boost his/her self-esteem.

Adopting a reassuring contrary belief

You’ve found out that person you care about deeply has a terminal disease and you say this person will get better soon.

Substituting an imaginary and wish-filled world for a real threatening one

Imaginary friends

Removing oneself from an anxiety provoking situation

Jane doesn’t like large parties so she goes into the kitchen and helps all clean up during the party

Repetitive, ritualistic action designed to get rid of unwanted thought or feeling

Grandma dusts the glassware every day, even though it’s clean

Not a defense mechanism, but goes hand in had with defense mechanisms

Consciously choose NOT to think about something

We know that we’ll have summer reading to do for next year’s classes, but we don’t think about it until the night before the first day of school

Alfred Adler (inferiority complex), Karen Horney, Anna Freud (more defense mechanisms), Carl Jung (collective unconscious)

Most placed emphasis on social and NOT sexual development

Boy born in 1858 Has severe asthma Tended to catch colds & coughs easily Was small & thin for age Very curious about nature Read a lot because of illnesses Couldn’t shoot a rifle well Couldn’t defend himself in fistfights well

Became a New York assemblyman

Was a North Dakota cowboyNew York GovernorLieutenant colonel of “Rough Riders”

AuthorYoungest president of the U.S.

Adler’s QuestionHow is it that someone so sickly should become so healthy, vigorous, and successful? Why is it that some children, sickly or not, thrive, while others wither away? Is the drive that Roosevelt had peculiar to him, or is it something that lies in each of us?

http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/adler.html

All have “aggression” or “assertiveness” drive (eat, sleep, affection, accomplish/be frustrated)

Boys are encouraged to be aggressive & girls are encouraged to be compliant

Freud was a “reductionist” (least common denominator) while Adler was a “holist”—people are to be understand in their entirety

Childhood experiences are important

Social (not sexual) tensions are most important in forming the personality

Adler says we all have problems

How do we handle problems?

Adler’s inferiority complex (I just can’t do math!)

Problem becomes a neurosis—a life size problem

“I’m just better than others”—bullies, people who brag, dictators

Broke with Freud’s ideas about male-centered therapy

Social tensions are most important to development of personality

Some children suffer from anxiety—fear of abandonment

Medical doctor early 1900s Struggled with depression throughout life All need affection & approval, yet The “neurotic” wants this to an extreme Neurosis is a continuous line (all of us try to

make life more bearable)

All of us need affection/attention! Healthy people don’t expect affection/attention all the time from people in all situations. If a neurotic person doesn’t receive this attention, the neurotic person will experience anxiety.

Compliance—the neurotic please others, someone takes over your life and makes decisions for you

Aggression—the neurotic need to dominate others & have power over othersWithdrawal—the neurotic’s need to NOT ask for help (even when needed), need for perfection

Freud says that girls/women have “penis envy” (the desire to be male) & Horney says that women envy men’s power; Horney stated that boys/men have “womb envy”—the ability to give life.

Followed Freud; had an argument with Freud

All of us have a collective unconscious—common images that are shared across cultures

Iliad (Indo European) Sundiata (West african) Ramayana (Aryan) Epic of Gilgamesh (Middle Eastern Odyssey (southern european) Star Wars Lord of the Rings Matrix Harry Potter

Humans are essentially good; your environment inhibits growth and corrupts

Emphasized human growth and potential Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers Focus on what makes healthy people healthy

instead of the sick Genuineness, acceptance Humans seek self actualization (fulfilling ones

human potential)

Case studies from clinical practice of client-centered therapy

Actualizing tendency (motive to develop capacities and experience personal growth) & self-actualizing tendency (motive to maintain self-concept and behave in ways that are consistent with self-concept)

Most of self-concept matches actual experience results in congruence

Only a little bit of self-concept matches actual experience results in incongruence

Children who receive unconditional love have less need to be defensive; they develop more accurate, congruent self-concept; conditional love fosters incongruence

Incongruence between roots & actual experiences (inaccurate self-concept); overdependence on others for approval and sense of self

Projective tests- provide a stimulus and ask a test taker to describe a story about it◦ Thematic Apperception Test view pictures and tell a

story about it◦ Rorschach inkblot test a series of inkblots that seeks to

identify ones inner feelings Critics of projective tests cite their lack of:

◦ Reliability◦ Validity◦ Open to interpretation

Figure 15.2 The TATMyers: Psychology, Eighth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Figure 15.3 The Rorschach testMyers: Psychology, Eighth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Gordon Allport Define personality in terms of fundamental

traits Gordon Allport thought that psychoanalysis

went too deep Allport thought less about explaining

behavior and more about describing

Extroverts vs. introverts Emotional stability vs. instability The trait perspective use questionnaires to

assess personality and to develop inventories◦ MMPI is typically used to identify emotional

disorders

Specific behavior varies from time to time and from situation to situation

Figure 15.4 Two personality factorsMyers: Psychology, Eighth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

A model was needed to discuss personality traits rather than personality attributes

(Description rather than “Why are we like this?)

Allport (1936) wrote down 18,000 words from the dictionary that described personality

Moods or temporary states (afraid, elated, rejoicing)

Excellent, worthy, irritable—subjective words

Traits should remain similar in a variety of circumstances

Major criticism of Big 5—traits vary from situation to situation; aren’t consistent

Says that personality is determined by 46 surface traits or 16 source traits

These 16 “source traits” predict the 46 surface traits

Several others over the next 40 years furthered the theory by compiling the traits into 5 broad (or ‘Big’) traits

Table 15.2Myers: Psychology, Eighth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Talkative, assertive, energetic

Good-natured, cooperative

Conscientiousness—orderly, responsible, dependable

◦

Emotional stability versus neuroticism

(calm versus easily upset)

Emphasizes the interaction of people and their situations

This perspective is based on the work of Albert Bandura

We learn behaviors through conditioning, modeling and observing others

AND how we THINK about our situations affects our behaviors

Reciprocal determinism ◦ Refers to how behavior, internal factors, and

environmental influences operate together

External locus of control◦ The idea that chance or outside forces determine our

fate Internal locus of control

◦ The belief that a person controls their own destiny “Internals” achieve more in school, act more

independently, enjoy better health, and feel LESS depressed than “externals”

Self control (the ability to control impulses and delay gratification) predicts good adjustment, better grades, and social success

Learned helplessness◦ Passive resignation when one cannot escape

punishment initially learn a sense of helplessness in that when they can escape punishment they opt not to try escape

Optimism vs. Pessimism ◦ Having a pessimistic attributional style attribute poor

performance to their lack of ability (“I cant do this and there is nothing I can do about it”)

◦ These people are more likely to continue to get poor grades than those with an optimistic attributional style

◦ Optimists see their setbacks as flukes and a means to develop a new approach to a problem

This perspective doesn’t take into consideration our INDIVIDUAL traits, emotions, and differences