Personality Chapter 12

1. PersonalityChapter 12

2. Personality • An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. • How assess? Case Studies vs Surveys Each dwarf has a distinct personality.

4. Types of Personalities Type A Type B Feel time pressure. Easily angered. Competitive and ambitious. Work hard and play hard. More prone to heart disease than rest of population. Relaxed and easygoing. But some people fit in neither type.

5. Biological Theories of Personality What % of personality is inherited –heritability? We are not sure BUT temperaments do seem to be stable from infants to old age.

6. Somatotype Theory A biological Theory by William Sheldon. Endomorphs (Fat) tend to be friendly and outgoing. Mesomorphs (muscular) tend to be more aggressive. Ectomorphs (thin) tend to be more shy and secretive. Study has not been replicated.

7. Culture & Self-Concept • Individualistic Cultures vs Collectivist Cultures

8. Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) What’s on the human mind? Fathered by Sigmund Freud. 1st comprehensive theory of personality Used Case Studies of the Mentally Ill to develop theory Unconscious Mind Defense Mechanisms Psychosexual Stages --Idea of the Libido moving to different parts of our body (id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on erogenous zones).

9. Stages of Psycho-Sexual Development • Oral (fixation) • Anal (retentive vs expulsive) • Phallic (identity -- Oedipus & Electra Complexes) • Latent (Libido hidden – cooties & fixation = sexual issues • Genital (fixation = normal)

10. Mind = Iceberg Conscious- things we are aware of. Preconscious- things we can be aware of if we think of them (temporary memories). Unconscious- deep hidden reservoir that holds the true “us”. All of our desires and fears.

12. Unconscious Mind & Psychoanalysis Treatment • Reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. • Freud used free association – whatever comes to mind (retrieve & release embarrassing memories) • Dream Analysis – Manifest vs Latent Content

13. Personality (Psyche) • Develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our biological impulses (id) and social restraints (superego).

14. Id https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfP9AIJA72E Exists entirely in the unconscious (so we are never aware of it). Our hidden true animalistic wants and desires. Works on the Pleasure Principle Avoid Pain and receive Instant Gratification.

15. Ego If you want to be with someone. Your id says just take them, but your ego does not want to end up in jail. So you ask her out and just “mac” it hard. Develops after the Id Works on the Reality Principle Negotiates between the Id and the environment. In our conscious and unconscious minds. It is what everyone sees as our personality.

16. Superego Develops last at about the age of 5 Ideal Principle It is our conscience (what we think the difference is between right and wrong) The Ego often mediates between the superego and id.

17. Defense Mechanisms Movies The ego has a pretty important job…and that is to protect us from threatening thoughts in our unconscious minds. One way it protects us is through defense mechanisms. You are usually unaware that they are even occurring.

18. Scenario Jasmine Brandon Drew Quarterback of the high school football team, Brandon, is dating Jasmine. Jasmine dumps Brandon and starts dating Drew, president of the chess club.

19. Repression Pushing thoughts out of our conscious mind and back into our unconscious. When asked about Jasmine, Brandon may say “Who?, I have not thought about her for awhile.” Why don’t we remember our Oedipus and Electra complexes?

20. Denial Not accepting the ego-threatening truth. Brandon may act like he is still together with Jasmine. He may hang out by her locker and plan dates with her.

21. Projection Believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself. Brandon insists that Jasmine still cares for him.

22. Reaction Formation Expressing the opposite of how one truly feels. Cootie stage in Freud’s Latent Development. Brandon claims he hates Jasmine.

23. Regression Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior. Brandon begins to sleep with his favorite childhood stuffed animal, Mr. Snuggles.

24. Rationalization Coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable outcome. Brandon thinks he will find a better girlfriend. “Jasmine was not all that anyway!” I really did not want to go to ……..anyway, it was too ……

25. Intellectualization Undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic. Brandon starts doing a research paper on failed teenage romances.

26. Displacement Redirecting one’s feelings toward another person or object. Often displaced on less threatening things. Brandon may take his anger out on another kid by bullying.

27. Sublimation Channeling one’s frustration toward a different goal. Sometimes a healthy defense mechanism. Brandon starts to learn how to play the guitar and writing songs (or maybe starts to body build).

28. Criticisms of Freud It is not all about SEX! His results are not empirically verifiable (really hard to test). No predictive power. Limited sample – he really only studied wealthy individuals in Austria. Karen Horney said he was sexist with the “penis envy” and there is an actual “womb envy”.

29. Criticisms of Freud • Horney argued that there was a need for security, not sex, and that this need was the prime motive in human existence. • Horney argued that previous research about how women function was limited by the fact that those that described women were men.

30. Neo-Freudians: Psychodynamics • Alfred Adler • Childhood Tensions • Social tensions not sexual • EGO = InferiorityvsSuperiority & Power • Inferiority Complex • Birth Order & Personality • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zw8_SQLZ-A Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

31. Adler’s Individual Psychology According to Adler, individual psychology is when people are motivated by purposes and goals. It is perfection, not pleasure, that is the key motivator. He believed that social factors were more important than sexual motivation in shaping personality.

32. Erik Erikson Social Development not Sexual development 8 Stages of psychosocial development Neo-Freudians: Psychodynamics Erik Erikson (1902-1994) 32

33. Jung’s Analytical Theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLNShGOgqWQ • The collective unconsciousis the impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind. • Archetypes are emotionally laden ideas and images that have a rich and symbolic meaning for people. Two of the main archetypes are the anima, which is a woman, and the animus, which is a man.

34. Psychodynamics Today Hypnosis Dream Interpretation Free Association Projective Tests (tests that delve into and reveal the unconscious mind). Examples are TAT and Inkblot Tests. Reliability & Validity of Projective Tests?

35. TAT TestThematic Apperception Test Henry Murray Giving the subject a picture that is ambiguous (can have several meanings) and ask them what is occurring. Their answers reveal the manifest content. Therapist can then discover the Latent Content.

39. Rorschach Inkblot Test • Hermann Rorschach • The most widely used projective test • A set of ten inkblots designed to identify people’s feelings when they are asked to interpret what they see in the inkblots.

49. Psychoanalysis • Projective Tests Reliable? Valid?

50. Evaluating the Psychodynamic Perspectives • Some of the psychodynamic theories in place today still share some of the same principles of Freud. Personality is determined both by current experiences and those experienced earlier in life. Personality can be better understood by looking at it developmentally. People mentally transform their experiences. The mind is not all consciousness. An individual’s inner world conflicts with the outer demands of reality. Personality and judgment are rightful and important topics of psychological inquiry.