Chapter 10 Study Guide Psychodynamic humanistic and social cognitive perspectives o Psychodynamic theoretical views emphasizing that personality is primarily unconscious beyond awareness According to this viewpoint the patterns that make up our personalities are largely unavailable to our conscious awareness Psychodynamic theorists believe Behavior is only a surface characteristic and that to truly understand someone s personality you must explore thee symbolic meanings behind it Childhood experiences play a large role in adult personality Freud is considered the architect of psychoanalytic theory He discovered psychoanalysis through this work with patients suffering from hysteria physical symptoms that have no physical cause o Humanistic theoretical views stressing a person s capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities o Social Cognitive theoretical views emphasizing conscious awareness beliefs expectations and goals Trait theories theoretical views stressing that personality consists of broad enduring dispositions traits that tend to lead to characteristic responses Ego Superego and Id the three structures of personality that Freud described o Id in Latin means it is the part of the person that Freud called the it consisting of unconscious drives the individual s reservoir of sexual energy The id has no contact with reality and urges for expression o Ego in Latin means I the Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality The ego is developed as a child when we experience the constraints of reality that we cannot always do exactly what we may want to do Therefore the ego abides by the reality principle it tries to bring the individual pleasure within the norms of society The ego is partly conscious and houses our higher mental functions like reasoning problem solving and decision making Acts as a mediator of sorts between the Id and super ego o Superego in Latin means above I the Freudian structure of personality that serves as a harsh internal judge of our behavior what we often call our conscience It does not consider reality it only considers whether the id s impulses can be satisfied in acceptable moral terms Defense Mechanisms tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality They are unconscious and if used in moderation are not necessarily unhealthy o Denial the ego simply refuses to acknowledge anxiety producing realities o Displacement directing unacceptable impulses at a less threatening target Provides the foundation for sublimation o Sublimation a special form of displacement in which the person expresses an unconscious wish in a socially valued way For example a boxer may sublimate his aggressive drive in a boxing ring o Projection we see in others those impulses that we most fear or despise in ourselves o Repression pushes unacceptable id impulses back into the unconscious mind Psychosexual Stages of Development Freud believed that everyone goes through universal stages of personality development and at each developmental stage we experience pleasure more in one part of the body than in others o Oral stage Birth 18 months Pleasure centers on the mouth Chewing suckin and biting reduce tension in the infant o Anal stage 18 36 months Greatest pleasure involves anus and urethra and their functions Pleasure in learning potty training going and holding it o Phallic stage 3 to 6 years Pleasure focuses on the genitals as child learns that self stimulation is enjoyable Triggers Oedipus Complex a boy s intense desire to replace his father and enjoy the affections of his mother Experience castration anxiety intense fear of being mutilated by father as a result of these desires and adopts the male gender role exhibited by his father instead Castration anxiety is repressed and serves as a foundation for the development of the superego Girls instead experience penis envy the intense desire to obtain a penis by eventually marrying and bearing a son Freud asserted that because women never experience castration anxiety repression they lack the development of an early superego o Latency period 6 years to puberty period of time out when child sets aside all interest in sexuality Today this time is considered extremely important to sexuality o Genital stage adolescence until adulthood source of sexual pleasure shifts to someone outside of the family Becomes capable of both love and work o Freud also argued that the individual may become stuck in any of the developmental stages if he or she is under indulged or overindulged at any stage Criticisms of Freud o In time many of Freud s theories on personalities were revised while others have been thrown out all together Further developments have found that Sexuality is not the pervasive force behind personality that Frued believed and the Oedipus complex is not universal First five years of life are not as instrumental as once Ego and conscious thought processes play a more dominant role in our personality than Freud believed Sociocultural factors are more important than Freud thought believed Karen Horney Believed man of Freud s concepts were merely hypotheses thouh they d been treated as theories Pointed out that women may experience penis envy because of the power placed upon it not because of the actual member Also believed hat the need for security is the primary motivation in human existence Carl Jung coined the term collective unconscious the deepest layer of the unconscious mind shared by all human beings because of their common ancestral past Also believed that the collective unconscious contained archetypes emotionally laden ideas and images in the collective unconscious that have rich and symbolic meaning for all people They arise in art and are essentially predispositions to respond to the environment in particular ways Also coined the terms anima our passive feminine side and aminus our assertive masculine side Furthermore the persona archetype represents the public mask we all wear during social interactions Alfred Adler Coined individual psychology a view that people are motivated by purposes and goals and that perfection not pleasure is thus the key motivator in human life Argued that people have the ability to take their genetic inheritance and environmental experiences and act on them creatively to become the person they want to be Compensation Adler s term tor the individual s attempt to overcome imagined or real inferiorities or weaknesses by developing
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