Modules 4.4 - 4.5a

Intro to Personality�Freud’s Psychanalytic Theory�

LEARNING TARGETS:

• Explain what psychologists mean by personality, and identify the theories that inform our understanding of it.
• Explain how Freud’s treatment of psychological disorders led to his view of the unconscious mind, and describe his view of personality.
• Explain how Freud thought people defended themselves against anxiety.
• Explain which of Freud’s ideas his followers accepted or rejected.
• Explain how contemporary psychologists view Freud’s psychoanalysis, and describe how modern research has developed our understanding of the unconscious.
• Explain projective tests and how they are used, and describe some criticisms of them.

Personality

• An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving
• Personality Theories - Attempt to describe and explain how people are similar, how they are different, and why every individual is unique

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Issues in Personality Theory

• Free Will or Determinism:
• Are we free to choose our own fate or victims of biological factors, unconscious forces or external stimuli?
• Nature or Nurture:
• Is our personality inherited or shaped by the environment?
• Past, Present, or Future:
• When does personality development occur?
• Is personality influenced by past or present experiences or by future goals?
• Uniqueness or Universality:
• Is each personality of each person unique or are there personality patterns that can apply to many people?
• Equilibrium or Growth:
• Are we primarily tension-reducing, pleasure-seeking animals or does the need for growth motivate us?
• Optimism or Pessimism:
• Are human beings essentially good or evil?

Personality Perspectives

• Psychoanalytic—importance of unconscious processes and childhood sexuality
• Humanistic—importance of growth and self-fulfillment
• Social cognitive—interaction of our traits/thinking & social settings/context
• Trait—description and measurement characteristic patterns of behavior

Psychoanalytic Theory

Personality According to

Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalytic Theory�Sigmund Freud �(1856-1939)

• Founder of psychoanalysis
• Proposed the first complete theory of personality
• A person’s thoughts and behaviors emerge from tension generated by unconscious motives and unresolved childhood conflicts.
• Theory reflected the Victorian era of male dominance & sexual repression.

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Learn more about Freud at:

www.freud.org.uk

www.lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/freud

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Psychoanalysis as a Therapy

• A therapeutic technique that attempts to provide insight into one’s thoughts and actions
• Does so by exposing and interpreting the underlying unconscious motives and conflicts
• Freud believed that psychological trouble was rooted in men’s and women’s unresolved conflicts with their expected roles.
• His job was to expose these hidden conflicts and help you work through them.

Free Association

• Freudian technique of exploring the unconscious mind by having the person relax and say whatever comes to mind no matter how trivial or embarrassing
• Hope is that it reveals something that we can trace to your distance past that is causing you conflict at the unconscious level.
• Hypnosis – Relaxing a person into a highly suggestive state to uncover unconscious memories or conflicts

Freud’s Couch

Unconscious Mind Reveals Itself

• DREAMS - “The royal road to the unconsciousness”
• Behind the surface image (manifest content) lies the true hidden meaning (latent content).

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• FREUDIAN SLIP:
• “Slips of the tongue” where unconscious desires sneak out in our speaking.

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Freud’s Concept of �the Mind

• Most of the mind is hidden
• Personality comes from the conflict that arises between our biological impulses and society’s should & should nots.
• 3 parts to the mind
• 3 Parts to Personality

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Unconscious Mind

• A region of the mind that includes unacceptable anxiety causing thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories
• Not aware of these thoughts, wishes, etc… but they exert great influence over our conscious thoughts & behavior.

Preconscious Mind

• A region of the mind holding information that is not conscious but is easily retrievable into conscious awareness
• Temporarily holds thoughts and memories not in one’s current awareness but can easily be retrieved (childhood memories, phone number)

Conscious Mind

• All the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that you are aware of at this particular moment represent the conscious level

FREUD’S ICEBERG MODEL OF THE MIND

Freud’s Personality Structure:�The Id, Ego, & Superego

Freud’s Concept of the “Id”

• The part of personality that consists of unconscious energy from basic aggressive and sexual drives
• Operates on the “pleasure principle” - the id demands immediate gratification
• Is present from birth

Id: The Pleasure Principle

• Pleasure principle—drive toward immediate gratification, most fundamental human motive
• Sources of energy
• Eros—life instinct, perpetuates life
• Libido—sexual energy or motivation
• Thanatos—death instinct, aggression, self-destructive actions

Superego

• The Shoulds & Should Nots of Society – How we OUGHT to behave
• Your Conscience
• Moralistic, judgmental, Perfectionist dimension of personality
• Gives you a sense of pride or guilt

Freud’s Concept of the “Ego”

• The part of personality that mediates the demands of the id without going against the restraints of the superego
• Rational, organized, logical, mediator to demands of reality
• Reality principle - ability to postpone gratification in accordance with demands of reality/society
• Can repress desires that cannot be met in an acceptable manner

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The Personality According to Freud

Id: “I want”

Superego: “I should”

Ego: “I will”

How Do These Characters Demonstrate the 3 Parts of Freud’s Personality Theory?

Psychoanalytic Approach

Conscious

Ego

Superego

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Psychosexual Stages

• In Freudian theory, the childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure seeking energies are focused on different erogenous zones of the body
• The stages include: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital
• A person can become “fixated” or stuck at a stage and as an adult attempt to achieve pleasure as in ways that are equivalent to how it was achieved in these stages

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Oral Stage (birth – 18 mo.)

• Mouth is associated with sexual pleasure
• Pleasure comes from chewing, biting, and sucking.
• Weaning a child can lead to fixation if not handled correctly
• Fixation can lead to oral activities �in adulthood (smoking, chewing on nails)

Freud’s Stages of Development

Anal Stage (1 – 3 years)

• Gratification comes from bowel and bladders functions.
• Toilet training can lead to fixation if not handled correctly
• Fixation can lead to anal retentive or expulsive behaviors in adulthood

Freud’s Stages of Development

Phallic Stage (3 – 6 years)

• Focus of pleasure shifts to the genitals
• Sexual attraction for opposite sex parent
• Boys cope with incestuous feelings toward their mother and rival feelings toward their dad (Oedipus Complex). For girls it is called the Electra Complex.

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• Child identifies with and tries to mimic the same sex parent to learn gender identity.

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Oedipus Complex

• Castration Anxiety results in boys who feel their father will punish them by castrating them.
• Resolve this through Identification – imitating and internalizing one’s father’s values, attitudes and mannerisms. (Formation of gender identity & superego)
• The fact that only the father can have sexual relations with the mother becomes internalized in the boy as taboo against incest in the boy’s superego.

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• Boys feel hostility and jealousy towards their fathers but knows their father is more powerful. This leads to…

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Electra Complex

• Girls also have incestuous feelings for their dad and compete with their mother.
• Penis Envy – Little girl suffer from deprivation and loss and blames her mother for “sending her into the world insufficiently equipped” causing her to resent her mother
• In an attempt to take her mother’s place she eventually identifies with her mother
• Fixation can lead to excessive masculinity in males and the need for attention or domination in females

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Freud’s Stages of Development

Latency Stage (5 – puberty)

• Sexuality is repressed (Latent means “hidden”) due to intense anxiety caused by Oedipus complex
• Children participate in hobbies, school, and same-sex friendships that strengthen their sexual identity

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Freud’s Stages of Development

Genital Stage (puberty on)

• Incestuous sexual feelings re-emerge but being prohibited by the superego are redirected toward others who resemble the person’s opposite sex parent.
• Healthy adults find pleasure in love and work, fixated adults have their energy tied up in earlier stages

Freud’s Stages of Development

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious Self-Deceptions

or Illusions

Defense Mechanisms

• Unconscious mental processes
• Used by the Ego to diffuse tension from the conflict of your Id and Superego
• Reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
• You are never aware your mind is doing a defense mechanism. If you were aware, they wouldn’t reduce anxiety!

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Repression

• Pushes anxiety-producing thoughts, feelings, and memories into the unconscious mind
• Unconscious forgetting
• The basis for all other defense mechanisms

Regression

• Going back to a safer, simpler way of being.
• Assuming childlike behaviors when facing stress or trauma

Reaction Formation

• Replacing an unacceptable wish with its opposite
• Behaving in ways that are exactly opposite of how we truly feel.

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Projection

• Attributing something that we don’t like about ourselves to someone else.
• Blame other people or things for our own failings

Rationalization

• Displaces real, anxiety-provoking explanations with more comforting justifications for one’s actions
• Reasoning away or making excuses to reduce anxiety-producing thoughts

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Displacement

• Shifts an unacceptable impulse toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person
• “Taking out” an emotion on a safe or more accessible target than the actual source of the emotion.

Sublimation

• Substitute an undesirable emotion or drive with a socially acceptable one.
• A socially acceptable outlet for your Id’s impulses

Socially Unacceptable Aggression

Socially Acceptable Aggression

Denial

• Rejecting the truth of a painful reality.

Undoing

• Unconsciously neutralizing an anxiety causing action by doing a second action that undoes the first.

The Psychodynamic Perspective:�Neo-Freudians

Psychodynamic Perspective

• A more modern view of personality that retains some aspects of Freudian theory but rejects other aspects
• Neo-Freudians - Followers of Freud’s theories but developed theories of their own in areas where they disagreed with Freud
• Agreed with Freud’s ideas on:
• Importance of unconscious
• Personality Structures of Id, Ego, Superego
• Shaping of personality in childhood
• Defense mechanisms to protect us against anxiety
• Disagreed with Freud on:
• Conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience & environment
• Role of sex & aggression as motivating factors for our behaviors

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Updating Freud’s Theory

• Most psychodynamic psychologists agree:
• Sex is not the basis of personality.
• People do not “fixate” at various stages of development.
• Much of a person’s mental life is unconscious.
• Childhood experiences shape us socially and psychologically.
• People struggle with inner conflicts and regulating their impulses, emotions and thoughts toward what society deems acceptable.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

• Agreed with Freud on the importance of early childhood but thought social tensions were more important than sexual tensions
• Believed psychological problems were the result of feelings of inferiority from childhood
• Inferiority Complex - A condition that comes from being unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings

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Alfred Adler

• Most fundamental human motive is striving for superiority
• Arises from universal feelings of inferiority that are experienced during childhood
• People compensate for their weaknesses by emphasizing their talents and abilities or by working hard to improve themselves.
• If unable to compensate or when feelings of inferiority are too great a inferiority complex can result where person feels inadequate, weak & helpless and are unable to try to improve.
• If people overcompensate for their feelings of inferiority then they develop a superiority complex where one exaggerates achievements and importance to cover up their own limitations.

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Karen Horney (1885-1952)

• Believed childhood anxiety (not sexual tension) trigger our need for love and security.
• Found psychoanalysis negatively biased against women.
• Women didn’t have “penis envy” it was instead that they envied men’s superior status in society.
• Instead said men have “womb envy” and compensate by making creative achievements in their work.

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It’s Horn-EYE!

NOT Horny!

Karen Horney

• Looked at anxiety related to security and social relationships, especially parent-child relationships.
• Basic anxiety— “the feeling of being isolated and helpless in a hostile world”
• Deal with this anxiety by.
• Moving Toward Other People – having an excessive need for approval & affection
• Moving Against Other People – having an excessive need for power over other people
• Moving Away from Other People – having an excessive need for independence making them aloof and detached from others.
• Felt that healthy personalities are flexible in balancing these needs but unhealthy people are stuck in one of ways of dealing with anxiety.

Carl Jung (Yoong)(1875-1961)

• Rejected Freud’s assertion that human behavior is directed by unconscious sex & aggression.
• Believed in general psychic energy that pushes us to grow psychologically.

• Believed that humans share a collective unconscious—set of common themes, or archetypes inherited from the wealth of human experience & shared by all people.
• “The whole spiritual heritage of mankind’s evolution born anew in the brain structure of every individual.”
• First to describe introverts & extroverts

Jung’s Archetypes Chart

Archetypes

Archetypes – Mental images of human instincts, themes and preoccupations that are shared by all cultures.

• Often expressed in a culture’s mythology & folk tales.

1. The Persona (The Social Mask)

Example: Olivia is a reserved and introverted person, but when she’s at work, she presents herself as outgoing and confident to impress her clients and colleagues.

2. The Shadow (The Dark Side of the Psyche)

Example: Mark sees himself as a kind and generous person, but he often gets irrationally angry when he sees others being selfish—unaware that he is repressing his own selfish tendencies.

3. The Anima/Animus (Feminine/Masculine Aspects of the Psyche)

Example (Anima - Feminine Side in Men): Jake, who has always considered himself tough and unemotional, finds himself deeply moved by poetry and art, revealing a softer, intuitive side he never embraced.

Example (Animus - Masculine Side in Women): Sarah, a nurturing and gentle person, takes charge in a crisis with decisiveness and authority, showing strength she didn’t realize she had.

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4. The Hero (The Champion or Savior Figure)

Example: Despite his fears, David stands up to defend a coworker who is being unfairly treated, proving to himself and others that he has the courage to fight for what’s right.

5. The Wise Old Man (The Mentor or Sage Figure)

Example: After years of experience in the business world, Mr. Thompson shares invaluable advice with young entrepreneurs, guiding them toward success with his wisdom.

6. The Great Mother (The Nurturer and Caregiver)

Example: Grandma Lucy always welcomes people into her home with warmth, offering love, comfort, and advice to anyone who needs it.

7. The Trickster (The Deceiver or Joker Figure)

Example: Alex is always pulling pranks on his friends, but sometimes his jokes reveal deeper truths about people’s behaviors and attitudes.

8. The Self (The Fully Integrated Individual, Wholeness)

Example: After years of self-reflection and personal growth, Mia feels at peace with both her strengths and flaws, accepting every part of herself and living authentically.

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Archetypes�(continued)

Evaluation of Psychoanalysis

• Evidence is inadequate— Freud’s data is developed from a small number of case studies from upper class patients or from self-analysis. (skewed sample)
• All of Freud’s data was from him so was he imposing his own ideas onto his patients or seeing only what he expected to see?
• Theory is not testable—lack of operational definitions and no way to measure results. Good at explaining the past but not at prediction.
• Lacks Falsifiability - Many psychoanalytic concepts impossible to disprove because even contradictory information can be used to support Freud’s theory.
• Sexism—believed that women were weak and inferior. Used male psychology as basis for all people
• Said women were more vain, masochistic, and jealous than men and influenced more by their emotions and had a lesser moral and ethical sense than men.

Evaluation of Psychoanalysis (Continued)

• Little Support for Defense Mechanisms disguising sexual & aggressive impulses
• Today sexual inhibition has diminished and yet psychological disorders which Freud said resulted from these unconscious sexual desires have not.
• Repression not supported
• Reality shows us that high stress & stress hormones enhance memory

Modern View of the Unconscious Mind

• Unconscious today is seen as dealing with information processing that occurs outside our awareness.
• Examples:
• Schemas influence our perceptions & interpretations.
• Priming can get your brain unconsciously focused on something.
• Split-Brain Patients can reveal with their left hand what the silent right hemisphere is aware of.
• Implicit/Procedural memories can be stored and accessed in people like HM with damaged hippocampus.
• Emotions can be triggered before we’re consciously aware why they are being triggered.
• Stereotypes and implicit bias can influence how we process information about and treat others.

Modern Evidence for Freud

• Reaction Formation – Some people with strong anti-gay sentiments actually get aroused when watching gay sex videos.

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• Projection – Aggressive people tend to view other people’s faces as being aggressive even when they are neutral.

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• Terror-Management Theory – Thinking about death creates anxiety which we work to reduce unconsciously (like defense mechanisms).
• Death anxiety increased aggression towards rivals & heightened self esteem while strengthening world views about life’s meaning.

Assessing the Unconsciousness

Projective Techniques

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• Interpretation of an ambiguous (neutral) stimulus to trigger projection of one’s inner thoughts and feelings (an x-ray of one’s inner self)
• Used to determine unconscious motives, conflicts, & psychological defenses & traits

Thematic Apperception Test�(TAT)

• Person views an ambiguous picture & then makes up a story about it.
• Story is thought to be a projection of their inner feelings or conflicts.
• Answers are scored based on themes, motives, and anxieties of main character who it is believed to be a projection of the person telling the story.

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Rorschach Inkblot Test

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• Personality test that seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of 10 inkblots
• Numerous scoring systems exist
• Used more as an icebreaker or reveal hidden themes in a person’s mind

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Drawbacks to Projective Tests

• Examiner or test situation may influence individual’s response
• Scoring is highly subjective
• Tests fail to produce consistent results (reliability problem)
• Tests are poor predictors of future behavior (validity problem)