Chapter 11 Personality Theories Part 1

Chapter 11 Personality Theories Part 1 ● Personality: Individual's unique and relatively stable pattern of thoughts, emotional responses, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, acts ● Tend to think about characteristics first (ex. Kind, reserved) Psychodynamic Theory (Sigmund Freud): ● Patient that can’t move their arm, checks and sees nothing is wrong with it/nerves and checked preconscious, so thinks that it's affected by mind and fix it ● Conscious: what you are aware of ● Preconscious: not currently aware of but can become aware of (assessable) ● Unconscious: things that remain unaware of but do affect behavior ● Believed that unconscious mind was the most important determining factor in human behavior and personality ● Saw that unconscious mind affects the conscious mind ● Consciousness at top in the sky, Preconscious mind at the surface of the water, unconscious mind in the ocean so can’t access it (ocean diagram) ● EGO and Superego is conscious is all of them, ID is only unconscious Id (only unconscious): most basic, primitive/primary part of personality ● Behaviors driven by basic needs, necessary for life, creates libido (physic energy) ● Pleasure Principle: instant gratification, seeks pleasure, avoids pain, immediate, if it feels good do it, no regard for the consequences ○ Ex. Infants do things right now without thinking (not rational) ● Thought to be totally buried within each individual The Ego (conscious and unconscious): logical and rational ● The Reality Principle: The Id has desires so the Ego must consider the constraints of the real world to appropriately express these, demands of Id only when negative consequences will not result ● Developed over time; ex. Infant will only take something when mother not looking to avoid punishment “if it feels good, do it only if you can get away with it” The Super-Ego (conscious and unconscious): created by learned experiences & norms ● Developed over time and works equally with the ego (morals) ● Conscience: memories of things where we’ve been punished/guilty; sense of wrong, produces guilt depending on how acceptable behavior is ● Ego Ideal: memories where we’ve been praised/feel proud; sense of right The Dynamics of Psychodynamic Theory Defense Mechanisms: when ego and super-ego aren’t enough to do the job, unconscious distortions of person’s perception of reality to reduce stress ● Denial: refusal to recognize/acknowledge a threatening situation ○ Ex. Mother won’t acknowledge son was killed during military deployment ● Repression: “pushing” conflicting/threatening impulses from consciousness ○ Difficult to maintain, sexually assaulted as child butdon’t remember at all ● Rationalization: making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior ○ Ex. Not having breakfast to eat dessert later without hurting diet ● Projection: putting own unpleasant impulses “onto” someone else ○ Aren't own thoughts when pass onto someone else, projecting as if its someone else is thinking it, convincing oneself it's not from self ○ Ex. Attracted to sister’s husband, but denies and thinks he attracted to her ● Reaction Formation: extreme opposite reaction to the unacceptable impulses ○ Ex. Like someone but then thinks abt how much you hate them ● Displacement: expressing feelings on a less threatening substitute target ○ Ex. Sandra fights with her husband instead of her boss when yelled at ● Regression: falling back on childhood patterns when coping with stress ○ Ex. 4-year-old wets bed when parents bring home new sibling ● Identification: trying to become someone else to deal with own anxiety ○ Ex. Tries to copy the popular girl’s behavior and clothes ● Compensation/Substitution: trying to make up in poor areas by becoming superior in another area ○ Ex. Bad at athletics so puts all energy into being an academic scholar ● Sublimation: turning a socially unacceptable impulse into an acceptable one ○ Best method; best of a bad lot by doing a version that’s acceptable ○ Ex. Very aggressive so becomes a martial arts fighter Modern Critiques on Freud ● ● ● ● Focused on sex too much as primary motive Inherent sexism; females wanted to be men so they can’t be same level Major personality development <6yr; too much emphasis on early childhood Non-falsifiable; if patient says no then Freud would say you’re projecting