Personality cannot be separated from the interpersonal world in which the person lives Personality Notes What is Personality Enduring patterns of behavior o Actions feelings thoughts interactions o Predispositions Relatively consistent over time and across circumstances Largely defined in the context of how we relate to others o Harry Stack Sullivan Basic Questions What How When is personality o What are the basic elements is personality shaped o What are the basic forces does it happen o Are we born with it o Are there certain important periods Influences on Personality Behavior genetics focuses on three broad sets of influences o Genetic factors Account for some but not all variation in adult personality o Shared environmental factors Seem to account for very little Work to make those within family more alike o Non shared Environmental factors Play an important role but not clear which ones Work to make those within family dissimilar Personality Theories Formal attempts to describe and explain o Answer questions like what how when Like all theories they are propositions not facts Theories like the people who create them are bound in time and culture MAJOR THEORIES o Psychodynamic o Humanistic o Behavioral Social Learning o Trait Psychodynamic Theories Sigmund Freud Practicing neurologist in the late 19th century in Europe Seeing patients with hysterical physical symptoms o So the theory shaped by his observations of these particular problems o Also by the cultural context time and place Postulated unconscious as explanatory mechanism Theory of Unconscious Three types of mental processes o Conscious Immediate awareness Rational goal directed o Preconscious o Unconscious Can be accessed fairly readily Out of awareness Irrational The Unconscious Freud saw the unconscious as the key to understanding the human experience and especially to understanding human problems The unconscious is the centerpiece of Freud s psychodynamic theory Motivated Unconscious o Purposeful exclusion of information or material from conscious awareness Because it is threatening to the stability and integrity of the self o Self protective function Freud s Drive Model Theory of Instincts psychic energies Instincts Drives as inborn psychic energies o Arising from basic biological needs Two instincts o Life instincts Libido Eros Survival and reproduction o Death Aggression Thanatos the aim of all life is death Freud s Structural Model 3 systems that make up the structure of personality o Id Original system Completely instinctive In contact with bodily needs Reservoir of libidinal energy Operates according to the pleasure principle Maximize pleasure Minimize pain Primary process thinking Unconscious irrational wishful primitive o Ego Develops out of id Operates according to reality principle Restrains id impulses in accordance with demands of external world Need fulfillment can be realistically accomplished Secondary Process thinking o Logical rational goal oriented realistic o Superego Internalized standards and ideals of culture Two aspects Ego ideal and conscience Harsh demanding unrealistic and unforgiving Personality dynamics is reflected in the relative distribution of psychic energy among the three systems Ego and Superego both restrain id Superego also non rational so ego must use most of the energy to balance the forces Ego is the executive striking balance Freud s Structural Model o Reasonable rational Good psychological health ego If balance is threatened anxiety results o Neurotic anxiety Defense mechanisms o Unconscious processes generated by ego to protect from anxiety and distress o All defense mechanisms have 2 characteristics Operate unconsciously Involve the denial or distortion of reality so as to make it less threatening o Present in normal and abnormal functioning Freud s Developmental Model Learning to deal with libidinal energy is a major developmental task Focused on different biological functioning and tasks as the child grows Erogenous zones from Eros o Part of the body that is source of pleasure Different zones at different stages Psychosexual Stages of Development o Oral 0 18 months o Anal 2 3 years o Phallic 3 6 years o Latency 6 puberty o Genital puberty and beyond Stage resolution important in personality development o Fixations o Regression Unresolved stage conflicts persisting beyond the period Reverting to conflicts of earlier stage under stress Evaluating Freud Observant narrative of human development and experience o Elaborative thoughtful theory o Intuitive appeal in some ways Remember the context o Victorian Europe o Observations of patients with hysteria Contributions and Criticisms o Recognition of the unconscious experience and awareness o Importance of early childhood experience Exclusive focus on childhood o Recognition that we are biological creatures Little emphasis on social context o Recognition of basic needs and instincts Excessive focus on sex instincts Pathology oriented Non parsimonious o Comprehensive and rich theory Little scientific support Contemporary Psychodynamic Theory o Attempts to explain both normal development and psychopathology Less exclusive focus on childhood sex aggression and unconscious conflict More ego less id More emphasis on culture social influnces Examples o Adler o Horney o Jung Assumption of primacy of unconscious insufficient attention to conscious