Theories of

Personality

Personality
A
pattern
of
enduring,
distinctive
thoughts,
emotions,
behaviors
that
characterize the way an individual adapts
to the world.
Is personality innate or learned?
Is personality conscious or unconscious?
Is personality influenced by internal of
external factors?

PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVES

Psychodynamic
Perspectives
View personality as being primarily
unconscious and as developing in stages
Emphasizes that early experiences with
parents play an important role in sculpting
the individuals personality.
Behavior
is
merely
a
surface
characteristic.
To truly understand someones personality
we have to explore the symbolic
meanings of behavior.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
SIGMUND FREUD (1917)
EARLY LIFE:
Born in Austria in 1856 and
died in London at the age of
83,
As a child, Freud was
regarded as a genius by his
siblings.
Has his own romantic
attachment to his mother.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
SIGMUND FREUD (1917)
BELIEFS:
The unconscious mind holds
the key to understanding
behavior, that our lives are
filled with tension and
conflict.
Believed that dreams hold
important clues to our
behavior.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
THE ICEBERG ANALOGY
The conscious mind is the
part of the iceberg above
water, the unconscious mind
the part below water. Notice
that
the
id
is
totally
unconscious, while the ego
and superego can operate at
either the conscious or the
unconscious level.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
THE ICEBERG ANALOGY

id consists of instincts,
which are the individuals
reservoir
of
psychic
energy.
ego deals with the
demands of reality.
superego deals with
morality

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
Defense Mechanisms
- The egos protective methods for reducing
anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
DEFENSE
MECHANISMS

HOW IT WORKS

EXAMPLE

Repression

The
ego
pushes
unacceptable
impulses
out
of
awareness,
back
into
the
unconscious mind.

A young girl was

sexually abused by
her uncle. As an
adult,
she
cant
remember anything
about her traumatic
experience.

Rationalization

The ego replaces a

less
acceptable
motive with a more
acceptable one.

A college student
does not get into
the fraternity of his
choice. He says that
if he had tried
harder, he could
have gotten in.

Displacement

The
ego
shifts A woman cant take
feelings toward an her anger out on

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
DEFENSE
MECHANISMS

HOW IT WORKS

EXAMPLE

Sublimation

The ego replaces an

unacceptable
impulse
with
a
socially acceptable
one.

A man with strong

sexual
urges
becomes an artists
who paints nudes.

Projection

The ego attributes

personal
shortcomings,
problems, and faults
to others.

A man who has a

strong
desire
to
have
an
extramarital
affair
accuses his wife of
flirting with other
men.

Reaction Formation

The ego transforms

an
unacceptable
motive
into
its
opposite.

A woman who fears

her sexual urges
becomes a religious
zealot.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
DEFENSE
MECHANISMS

HOW IT WORKS

EXAMPLE

Denial

The ego refuses to

acknowledge
anxiety-producing
realities.

A
man
wont
acknowledge
that
he has cancer even
though a team of
doctors
has
diagnosed
his
cancer.

Regression

The ego seeks the

security
of
an
earlier
developmental
period in the face of
stress.

A woman returns
home to mother
every time she and
her husband have a
big argument.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
Erogenous zones parts of the body that have
specially strong pleasure-giving qualities at
particular stages of development.
5 STAGES OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Oral Stage (18 months old) The infants greatest
pleasure centers on the mouth. Chewing, sucking,
and biting are the chief sources of pleasure.
Anal Stage (18-36 months old) The childs
greatest pleasure involves the anus. The exercise
of anal muscles reduces tension.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
Phallic Stage (3-6 years old) The name of Freuds
third stage comes from the Latin word phallus,
which means penis. Pleasure focuses on the
genitals as the child discovers self-stimulation is
enjoyable.
Oedipus complex the young childs development
of an intense desire to replace the parent of the
same sex and enjoy the affections of the opposite
sex parent.
Latency Stage (6 years old to puberty) The child
represses all interest in sexuality and develops
social and intellectual skills.
Genital Stage (adolescence and adulthood) The
time of sexual reawakening.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
DEFENSE MECHANISM AND FREUDIAN STAGES
STAGE

ADULT
EXTENSIONS

SUBLIMATION
REACTION
S
FORMATIONS

Oral

Smoking, eating,
kissing,
oral
hygiene, drinking,
chewing gum

Seeking
knowledge,
humor,
wit,
sarcasm, being a
food
or
wine
expert

Speech
purist,
food
faddist,
prohibitionist,
dislike of milk

Anal

Notable interest in
ones
bowel
movements, love
of
bathroom
humor,
extreme
messiness

Interest
in
painting
or
sculpture,
being
overly
giving,
great interest in
statistics

Extreme
disgust
with feces, fear of
dirt, prudishness,
irritability

Phallic

Heavy
reliance
on masturbation,
flirtatiousness,
expressions
of

Interest in poetry, Puritanical

love
of
love, attitude towards
interest in acting, sex,
excessive
striving
for modesty
success

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
PSYCHODYNAMIC DISSENTERS AND
REVISIONISTS
KAREN HORNEY (18851952)

Emphasizes womens positive

qualities and self-evaluation.
Rejected
the
concept
that
anatomy is destiny.
- Cautioned that Freuds ideas are
only hypotheses.
- Believed that the need for security
was the prime motive in human
existence.
- Suggested that people usually
develop strategies in their effort to
cope with anxiety with their move
toward people, move away from
people, and move against people.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
CARL JUNG (1875-1961)
- Swiss psychiatrist who developed
the concepts of the collective
unconscious and archetypes.
- Collective unconscious Jungs
terms for the impersonal, deepest
layer of the unconscious mind,
shared by all human beings
because
of
their
common
ancestral past.
- Archetypes the name Jung gave
to the emotionally laden ideas
and images in the collective
unconscious that have rich and
symbolic meaning.

Freuds Psychoanalytic
Theory
ALFRED ADLER (1870 1937)
- Individual psychology the term for
Adlers approach, which views
people as motivated by purposes
and goals, being creators of their
own lives.
- Overcompensation his term for the
individuals attempt to deny rather
than acknowledge a real situation.
2 patterns of overcompensation:
1. Inferiority
complex

for
exaggerated feelings of inadequacy.
2. Superiority
complex

for
exaggerated
self-importance
invoked to mask feelings of
inferiority.