Psyc 1315 EXAM 3 Notes Professor Verne Cox CHAPTER 12 PERSONALITY Freud s Theory started the idea of psychodynamic perspectives where personality is primarily unconscious behavior is only a surface characteristic and to understand one s behavior we must find symbolism from the inner mind childhood experiences shape us sexual drive is the most important motivator of human activity anything that is pleasurable is sex it s all about childhood and unconscious motivation Id it consists of unconscious drives and is the individual s reservoir of sexual energy is a pool of amoral and often vile urges pressing for expression the id has no contact with reality and it works according to the pleasure principle meaning the id always seeks pleasure Ego I structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality ego abides by the reality principle meaning it tries to bring the individual pleasure within the norms of society helps us test reality to see how far we can go without getting into trouble and hurting ourselves ego is partly conscious houses our higher mental functions reasoning problem solving and decision making ego acts as a mediator the id and ego don t consider whether something is right or wrong Superego above I harsh internal judge of our behavior what we often call conscience and evaluates the morality of our behavior does not consider reality only considers whether the id s impulses can be satisfied in acceptable moral terms Conscious Unconscious Iceberg Analogy Id is totally unconscious ego and superego can operate at either conscious or unconscious level Example Ego I will have sex only in a committed relationship and always practice safe sex Id screams Sex Now Super ego Sex Don t even think about it Defense Mechanisms tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality Repression the master defense mechanism the ego pushes unacceptable impulses out of awareness back into the unconscious mind Freud said our early childhood experiences were sexually laden and too threatening for us to deal with consciously so we use repression to reduce anxiety from childhood conflict Ex a young girl sexually abused can t remember it as an adult Rationalization the ego replaces a less acceptable motive with a more acceptable one Ex college student does not get into fraternity that he wants tells himself it s because the frat is very exclusive and a lot of students could not get in Displacement the ego shifts feelings toward an unacceptable object to another more acceptable object Ex a woman can t take anger out on her boss so she does on her husband Projection the ego attributes personal shortcomings problems and faults to others Ex a man who has a strong desire to have an extramarital affair accuses his wife of flirting with other men Regression the ego seeks the security of an earlier developmental period in the face of stress Ex a woman returns home to mother every time she and her husband have a big argument Reaction formation the ego transforms an unacceptable motive into its opposite Ex a woman who fears her sexual urges becomes a religious zealot Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development each stage we experience sexual pleasure in one part of the body more than in others an individual may become stuck in any of these stages if they are over or under indulged at a given stage you change until lock in personality at age 25 29 Ex high divorce rate when marry at age 20 because of personality changes Oral stage first 18 months the infant s pleasure centers on the mouth Chewing sucking and biting are the chief sources of pleasure that reduce tension in the infant dependent and needy Anal stage 18 to 36 months during a time when most children are experiencing toilet training the child s greatest pleasure involves the anus and urethra and their functions Freud recognized that there is pleasure in going and holding it as well as in the experience of control over one s parents in deciding when to do either eventual acceptance of moral rules as an outcome through toilet training Phallic stage 3 to 6 years pleasure focuses on the genitals as the child discovers that self stimulation is enjoyable has special importance in personality development because it triggers the Oedipus complex at age 4 boy s intense desire to replace his father and enjoy the affections of his mother eventually the boy fears punishment from his father and has castration anxiety which is eventually repressed into the unconscious and serves as the foundation for the development of the superego girls instead compare herself to boys and realizes that she is missing a penis and doesn t have castration anxiety a girl cannot develop a superego in the same sense that boys do so Freud concluded that women are morally inferior to men girls experience castration completed where the intense desire to obtain a penis through marrying and having a son the only hope for women s moral development was education emergence of gender identity of Oedipus complex boys or electra complex girls psychological identification with same sex parent when the child fears retaliation for sexual attraction to parent Latency period 6 years to puberty not a developmental stage but rather a kind of psychic time out after the drama of the phallic stage the child sets aside all interest in sexuality Freud felt that this was a time in which no psychosexual development occurred Genital stage adolescence and adulthood time of sexual reawakening a point when the source of sexual pleasure shifts to someone outside the family Freud believed that in adulthood the individual becomes capable of two hallmarks of maturity love and work however we are subject to intense conflict and the id is pressing for expression adulthood still involves reliving the unconscious conflicts of childhood emergence of adult sexuality influenced by phallic stage Traits lasting personality characteristics trait theories theoretical views stressing that personality consists of broad enduring dispositions traits that tend to lead to characteristic responses Big five factors of personality five broad traits that are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality O C E A N Neuroticism related to feeling negative emotion more often than positive experiencing more lingering negative states relates more to health complaints where individuals suffer in silence people have difficulty detecting how neurotic another person is Extraversion more likely than others