Theories of Personality: Psychoanalytic Theory

Theories of Personality - Psychoanalytic Theory: Psychoanalytic theory refers to the idea that childhood experiences and our unconscious desires influence behavior (developed by Freud) A main drive in this theory is the concept of libido (natural energy source that fuels the mechanisms of our mind) → conflicts obtained during the psychosexual development can have lifelong effects You can break it down into an iceberg (outside the water is the conscious) Id is the unconscious part of our mind that develops immediately after birth and demands immediate gratification Ego is involved in our perceptions, thoughts, and judgements and demands long term gratification Superego develops around age of 4 and is our moral compass and is involved with conscience (an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior) Id is like the devil on one shoulder demanding immediate gratification while the superego is on the other should preaching moral righteousness. The ego is therefore you, deciding what to do and how to please both parties - - - - Humanistic Theory: Humanistic theory explains that individuals have free will and that we can actively develop ourselves to our highest potential and reach self-actualization → focuses on the conscious mind rather than the unconscious States that people are inherently good and that we are self-motivated to improve in order to reach self-actualization Maslow (hierarchy of needs), Carl Rogers (self-actualization is something that is nurtured early in life and in a growth promoted climate) This theory focuses that we can develop our own personality/behavior but Freud states that it is primarily driven by the unconscious and what happens during out childhood (something that we can’t necessarily control) Biological Theory: Biologic theory states that behavior is primarily based on genetic material (can vary depending on who considers more important, such as evolution or the brain) Can study genes through identical twins grown in different environments Social potency trait is the degree to which a person assume leadership or mastery in role situations (correlated with genes) Traditionalism is the tendency to follow authority (correlated with genes) Achievement (not so closely related) Behavioral Theory: Behavioral theory is that personality is the results of the interaction between the individual and their environment (basically an environmental approach) Based more on observable/measurable behavior rather than mental/emotional behavior BF Skinner was a strict behaviorist with his theory of operant conditioning Pavlov is considered as the father of behaviorism with his classical conditioning Both believed that our behavior was largely shaped and influenced by our environment Cognitive theory treats thinking as a behavior (considered the bridge between behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory) Trait Theory: Trait theory describes personality as identifiable patterns of behavior (describes traits instead of explaining them) 1. 2. 3. - - These are stable characteristics that cause individuals to act in consistent ways Myers-Briggs Personality Test gives you four letters that categorize you into one of 16 personality types Allport came up with 4500 traits and divided them into 3 separate categories: Cardinal traits are those that direct most of a person’s personality and influence all of our other traits (dominant) Central traits are things like shyness, honesty, sociability Secondary traits are things like hating meat (more preference based) Ramon Cattell proposed that we all have 16 essential personality traits (“16-Personality Questionnaire”) Hans Eysenck developed his personality theory by saying that we all have 3 basic dimensions which encompass all traits that we all possess (but the degree to which we express them is differed) Extraversion is our degree of sociability Neuroticism is our emotional stability Psychoticism is the degree to which reality is distorted Big 5 is found in all people of all populations (OCEAN) Openness is if an individual is if we are independent/conforming, imaginative/critical Conscientiousness is if the individual is careful/careless, organized/disorganized Extraversion is the person talkative/quiet, fun loving/sober Agreeableness is if the person is kind/cold, appreciative/unfriendly Neuroticism is if the person is stable/tense, calm/anxious Factor analysis is a statistical method that categorizes our major categories of traits (Big 5, Eysenck, and Cattell) Observational Learning: Bobo Doll Experiment & Social Cognitive Theory: Bobo doll experiment (by Albert Bandura) refers to when children saw a man hit and abuse a bobo doll experiment. Then the children were given an impossible puzzle, where many often started abusing the doll in the same manner as the dude did before Learning-Performance Distinction is that learning and performing a behavior are two different things, you can learn a behavior but not perform it (not performing it doesn’t mean you didn’t learn it) Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory refers to attention, memory, imitation, and motivation (“AM I Motivated?”) Someone teaching you how to draw a star, would require attention, memory, imitation, and the motivation to actually do it Freud - Death Drive, Reality Principle, and Pleasure Principle: Pleasure principle is something most exhibited during childhood, where you want something immediately and don’t want to wait in order to avoid suffering Reality principle seeks longer term gratification (waiting/delaying due to social principles) Eros is the drive for life, to be healthy, safe, and reproduce (basically work with others to promote your own well being) Thanatos refers to patterns that lead to self destruction or harm towards others (i.e. fear, anger - either inward or outward) Both of these are drives that are intrinsic, universal drives