Module 40 42 Personality 03 19 2012 Module 40 Psychodynamic Approaches to Personality Psychodynamic approaches to personality based on the idea that personality is motivated by inner forces and conflicts about which people have little awareness over which they have no control Freud s Psychoanalytic Theory Mapping the Unconscious Mind Psychoanalytic theory conscious experience is only a small part of our psychological makeup our behavior is motivated by the unconscious part of the personality that contains the memories and instincts of which the individual is not aware Freudian slip slip of the tongue is revealing the speaker s unconscious sexual desires Unconscious contains instinctual drives wishes desires demands and needs Structuring Personality 3 components o Id the raw unorganized inborn part of personality Pleasure principle goal is the immediate reduction of tension and maximization of satisfaction o Ego developed soon after birth strives to balance the desires of the id and the realities of the objective outside world executive of personality Reality principle instinctual energy is restrained to maintain the individual s safety and help integrate the person into society o Superego final personality structure represents the rights and wrongs of society as taught and modeled Conscience prevents us from behaving in a morally improper way by making us feel guilty if we do wrong Developing Personality Psychosexual Stages o Psychosexual stages children encounter conflicts between the demands of society and their own sexual urges Oral stage birth to 12 18 months interest in oral gratification from sucking eating mouthing biting Anal stage 12 18 months 3 years gratification from expelling and withholding feces coming to terms with society s controls relating to toilet training Phallic stage 3 5 6 years interest in genitals coming to terms with oedipal conflict leading to identification with same sex parent Oedipal conflict male unconsciously begins to develop a sexual interest in his mother and sees his father as a rival Identification process of wanting to be like a another person as much as possible Latency stage 5 6 years adolescence sexual concerns largely unimportant Genital stage adolescence to adulthood reemergence of sexual interests and establishment of mature sexual relationships o Fixations conflicts or concerns that persist beyond the developmental period in which they first occur o Defense mechanisms Anxiety an intense negative emotional experience a danger signal to the ego Defense mechanisms unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by concealing its source from themselves and others Repression unacceptable or unpleasant id impulses are pushed back into the unconscious o Evaluating Freud s Legacy Strong impact on psychology Lack of compelling scientific data to support it Case studies Built on unobservable abstract concepts The Neo Freudian Psychoanalysts Building on Freud Neo Freudian psychoanalysts place greater emphasis on the functions of the ego saying that it has more control over the id in day to day activities Jung s Collective Unconscious o Collective unconscious a common set of ideas feelings images and symbols that we inherit from our relaitves the whole human race and even nonhuman animal ancestors from the distant past o Archetypes universal symbolic representations of a particular person object or experience Horney s Neo Freudian Perspective o First feminist psychologist o Personality develops in the context of social relationships and depends particularly on the relationship between parents and child and how well the child s needs are met o Women don t have penis envy they envy the independence success and freedom that men are allowed o First to stress the importance of cultural factors in the determination of personality Adler and the other Neo Freudians o Primary human motivation is striving for superiority in a quest for self improvement and perfection o Inferiority complex situations in which adults have not been able to overcome the feelings of inferiority they developed as children when they were small and limited in their knowledge about the world Module 41 Trait Learning Biological and Evolutionary and Humanistic Approaches to Personality Trait theory seeks to explain in a straightforward way the consistencies in individuals behavior all people possess certain traits but the degree to which a particular trait applies to a specific person varies Traits consistent personality characteristics and behaviors displayed in different situations Allport s Trait Theory 3 fundamental categories of traits o Cardinal single characteristics that directs most of a person s activities o central individual s major characteristics handful of central traits that make up the core of personality o secondary traits characterisitcs that affect behavior in fewer situations and are less influential than central or cardinal traits Cattell and Eysenck Factoring Out Personality o Factor analysis statistical method of identifying associations among a large number of variables to reveal more general patterns o Factors fundamental patterns or combinations of traits underlie participants responses o 16 pairs of source traits represent the basic dimensions of personality The Big 5 Personality Traits o Big 5 openness to experience conscientiousness extraversion agreeableness and neuroticism Evaluating Trait Approaches to Personality o Learning Approaches We Are What We ve Learned Skinner s Behaviorist Approach o Personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns o Humans are infinitely changeable through the process of learning new behavior patterns o Attitudes about the potential for resolving personal and societal problems through treatment strategies based on learning theory Social cognitive approaches to personality o Emphasize the influence of cognition thoughts feelings expectations and values as well as observations of others behavior on personality o Observational learning viewing the actions of others and observing the consequences o Children who view a model behaving in an aggressive behavior tend to copy the behavior Self efficacy belief in one s personal capabilities How much consistency exists in personality o Bandura sees personality is considerably more variable form one situation to another o Situationism personality cannot be considered without taking the particular context of the situation into account Self esteem the component of
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