Unit X: PersonalityMs. Justice

AP Psychology

2014-2015

Unit X - Overview

55 – Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective

56 – Psychodynamic Perspectives

57 – Humanistic Theories

58 – Trait Theories

59 – Social-Cognitive Theories & Exploring the Self

Unit X: Personality Module 55

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective

Freud’s View of the Unconscious Mind

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Personality

An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Each dwarf has a distinct personality.

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Psychoanalytic Perspective

• In his medical practice, Sigmund Freud encountered patients suffering from nervous disorders.

• Their complaints could not be explained in terms of purely physical causes.

• In his quest for answers, he “discovered” the unconscious.

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Exploring the Unconscious

• Freud said the unconscious mind is a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.

• He used psychoanalysis to retrieve and release painful, embarrassing unconscious memories through free associationand dream analysis.

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Personality Structure 55-2

Freud’s Model of the Mind

• The mind is like an iceberg.

• It is mostly hidden, and below the surface lies the unconscious mind.

• The preconscious stores temporary memories.

Figure 55.1 p. 557

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Freud’s View of Personality

Personality develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses and social restraints.

Figure 55.1 p. 557

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Id, Ego and Superego

The id unconsciously strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives, operating on the

pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

The ego functions as the “executive” and mediates the demands of the id and superego.

The superego provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations.

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Personality Development 55-3

Personality Development

• Freud believed that personality formed during the first few years of life, which is divided into psychosexual stages.

• During these stages the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on pleasure sensitive body areas called erogenous zones.

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Psychosexual Stages

Freud divided the development of personality into five psychosexual stages:

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Oedipus Complex

• A boy’s sexual desire for his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

• A girl’s desire for her father is called the Electra complex.

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Identification

• According to Freud, children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with the rival parent.

• Through this process of identification, their superego gains strength that incorporates their parents’ values.

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Defense Mechanisms 55-4

Defense Mechanisms 55-4

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective

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Modern Research & Freud’s Ideas

• Freud offered after-the-fact explanations, which cannot be tested scientifically

• Many of his ideas have been disputed by modern research:

Development is not fixed in childhood Gender identity can develop without a same-sex

parent present Dreams do not exist to disguise wishes Suppressed sexuality does not lead to psychological

disorders Stressful situations lead to enhanced memories, not

repressed ones

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