CH13- PERSONALITYPersonality- an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and actingPsychodynamic theories- view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the impt. of childhood experiences-view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between conscious and unconscious mind-descended from Freud’s psychoanalysisunconscious- according to Freud: place of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories that we repress or block from consciousness because they would be too unsettling to acknowledge. According to contemporary psychologists: info. Processing of which we are unaware.Preconscious- thoughts stored temporarily, can retrieve them into conscious awareness.Psychoanalysis- Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interrupt unconscious tensions- free association- method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing. Mental dominoes: distant past -> troubled present: retracing the chain of thought to retrieve and release painful unconscious memories from childhoodFreud: nothing is accidental. Believed he could see the unconscious seeping into people’s free associations, beliefs, habits, symptoms and slips of the tongue/pen.-viewed jokes as expressions of repressed sexual and aggressive tendencies-dreams are the road to the unconscious: inner conflicts->manifest content: the remembered content of the dream->latent content: the underlying unconscious wishesPersonality StructureFreud: human personality arises from conflict b/n impulse & restraint – between out aggressive pleasure-seeking biological urges & our internalized social controls over these urges.->”personality” arises from our efforts to resolve this conflict-> to express these impulses in ways that bring satisfaction WITHOUT bringing guilt/punishment3 interacting systems when trying to resolve this conflict-id: unconscious psychic energy: stives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, aggress. - Pleasure principle: seeks immediate gratification- Ex: newborn crying for satisfaction, not carrying about anything else- Ex: people who only think in the present and not into their future. “party now, work and succeed later”Ego: largely conscious “executive” part of personality: mediates among the “id” demands, superego and reality.- Reality principle- seeks to gratify “id” impulses in realistic ways that will bring long-term pleasure4-5y.o: child’s ego recognizes demands of the superegosuperego: represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement and future aspirations.- How we ought to behave- Judges actions and producing positive feelings of pride OR guilt.- Someone with strong superego: virtuous but guilt-ridden- Weak superego: self-indulgent and remorselessPersonality DevelopmentFreud: personality develops during the first few years of life-children pass through psychosexual stagespsychosexual stages- childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which the Id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones - Phallic stage- genital stimulation->unconscious sexual desires for mother/father and jealousy/hatred for mother/father(rival)->guilt/fear of punishment/castration by fathero Oedipus conflicto Electra conflict ~children eventually cope by repressing the feelings and identifying (trying to become like) with the rival parentidentification: when children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing stages- Identification with the same sex parent -> gender identity*conflicts unresolved during a psychosexual stage -> maladaptive behavior in adult yearsat any point in oral, phallic, anal stages: strong conflict can fixate person’s pleasure seeking energies in that stagefixation: lingering focus of pleasure seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage in which the conflicts were unresolved- Ex: someone orally indulged/deprived -> fixate at the oral stage.o Adult can exhibit: passive dependence (nursing infant) or exaggerateddenial of dependency (acting tough)o Deprived at the oral stage: Continue to seek oral gratification by smoking/excessive eatingDefense Mechanisms- ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality- All defense mechanisms function indirectly and unconsciouslyRepression- defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories from consciousness.- Underlies all the other defense mechanisms- Is often incomplete -> appear as symbols in dreams or slips of the tongueRegression- retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated. Facing a mild stressor, children will regress/retreat to the comfort of earlier behaviors like clinging to their caregivers.- Ex: little boy reverts to the oral comfort of thumb sucking in the car on the way to his school, child who starts wetting the bed again from stress caused by parents divorceReaction formation- switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Act in ways opposite your true feelings- Ex: repressing angry feelings->exaggerated friendliness- “I hate that guy” when you really like him. - Someone scared of snakes -> studies snakesProjection/false consensus effect- disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. your unacceptable thoughts and feelings are placed onanother person. - Ex: you’re lusting after someone but you say “wow THEY keep looking at ME!”Rationalization- self-justifying explanations in place of the real threatening unconscious reasons for your action- not getting the job you really wanted, “I didn’t want it anyways it was too far away”- habitual drinker saying she drinks “just to be sociable”Displacement- shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable orless threatening obj. or person- little girl mad at mom, kicks her dog instead- yelling at your roommate when you’re mad at your professorDenial- refusing to believe or perceive painful realities- denying evidence of your loved one’s affair/infidelity Sublimation- unacceptable thoughts/feelings channeled into socially acceptable areas- arsonist -> fire fighter- serial killer -> surgeonNeo-Freudian and s TheoristsNeo-freudians: accepted Freud’s basic ideas: