PSYC-1105EL Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Martha Bernays, Joseph Breuer, Psychosexual Development
11 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 12: Personality
A. Definition
- Individuals' unique and relatively stable patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and
feelings
B. Psychoanalytic Approach
1. Sigmund Freud
- Born in Czech Republic, moved to Vienna at age of four
- Son of his father's second wife; mother's favourite child but cold relationship
with his father
- Obtained his medical degree and entered private practice
- Married Martha Bernay's at age of 26 and had six children
- Developed his personality theory with Joseph Breuer
- Smoked heavily, developed cancer
- Fled the Nazis in 1938 and went to England
- Died in 1939 of throat cancer
2. Freud's personality theory
Conscious: threshold of conscious experience
Preconscious: can easily be brought into the conscious
Unconscious: most has been actively repressed
Ego: mostly conscious, mediates between id impulses and superego inhibitions; reality
principal (rational)
Superego: all levels of consciousness but mostly preconscious, ideals and morals;
conscious; incorporated from parents
Id: unconscious, basic impulses such as sex and aggression; pleasure principle (seeks
immediate gratifications); irrational and impulsive
Libido: the psychic energy that powers all mental activity
Fixation: excessive investment of psychic energy in a particular stage of psychosexual
development, which results in various types of psychological disorder
Oedipus complex: in Freud's theory, a crisis of psychosexual development in which
children must give up their sexual attraction to their opposite-sex parent
Defense Mechanism: techniques used by the ego to keep threatening material out the
consciousness (reduce anxiety)
Repression: "forgetting" unacceptable thought/impulse
Rationalization: conjuring up socially acceptable reasons for thought/action of
unacceptable motives
Displacement: redirection of an emotional response from a dangerous object to a safe
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
one
Projection: transfer to others of unacceptable motives
Regression: responding to a threatening situation in a way appropriate to an earlier age
Psychosexual Stages of Development
- Innate sequence of stages through which all human beings pass
Oral Stage: pleasure is centered in the region of the mouth (0-2 years)
Anal Stage: pleasure is focused primarily on the anal zone (2-3 years)
Phallic: pleasure is centered in the genital region, the Oedipus complex develops by
which children give up their sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent (3-7 years)
Latency: follows resolution of the Oedipus complex; sexual desires are relatively weak
(7-11 years)
Genital: individuals acquire the adult capacity to combine lust with affection (11 years to
adult)
Freud's belief that dreams carry messages from the unconscious has no scientific bases
- Subliminal conditioning of attitudes in research supports the notion that
behaviour is sometimes influenced by thoughts, feelings or ideas one can't bring to mind
- Theory is unscientific
- Sometimes inconsistent with modern research findings
- Theory cannot be falsified
3. Non-Freudian psychodynamic theories
- Carl Jung believed there existed a collective unconscious which holds all
experiences shared by all human beings
- Archetypes are the manifestations of the collective unconscious which manifest
themselves in sleep
- Animus is the male side of females while anima is the female side of males
- First suggested the dimension of introverts and extroverts
- Karen Horney disagreed with Freud on his views regarding penis envy
- She also believed psychological disorders had primarily social factors
- Alfred Alder viewed personality development as stemming primarily from one's
efforts to overcome childhood feelings of weakness due to children's small size
- Called importance to birth order
C. Humanistic approach
- Emphasize personal responsibility, focus on the present and stress the
importance of personal growth
1. Carl Rogers
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Suggests that if uninterrupted, humans move through life showing positive
characteristics and will eventually become fully functioning persons
- If they don't succeed, it is because gaps have developed between their self-
concept and their perception of their self-concept or because they have received
conditional positive regard as children
- Client-centered therapy focuses on providing unconditional positive regard
2. Abraham Maslow
- Psychologically healthy people have attained self-actualization in the needs
hierarchy, in which they have achieved their fullest potential
Peak Experiences
- Instances when self-actualized people have powerful feelings of unity with the
universe and feel tremendous waves of power and wonder
- Interest in the self-concept has remained a focus of research
- Many of the concepts of humanistic theory are loosely defined
Maslow's Need Hierarchy
D. Trait theories
Personality Traits: specific dimensions along which individuals' personalities differ in
consistent, stable ways
Trait Theories: theories of personality that focus on identifying the key dimensions along
which people differ
1. Alport's theory
A. Central Traits: the five or ten items that best describe a person's personality
B. Secondary traits: traits that exert relatively specific and weak effects upon
behaviour
C. Cardinal traits: a single trait that dominates a person's entire personality
Functional Autonomy: maintenances of patterns of behaviour by motives other than the
ones originally responsible for the behaviour's occurrence
2. The "big five" theory
A. Extraversion: a dimensions ranging from sociable, talkative, fun-loving,
affectionate, and adventurous at one end to retiring, sober, reserved, silent, and
cautious at the other
B. Agreeableness: a dimension ranging from good-natured, gentle, cooperative,
trusting, and helpful at one end to irritable, ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative and
headstrong at the other
C. Conscientiousness: a dimension ranging from well-organized, careful, self-
disciplined, responsible, and precise at one end to disorganized, care-less, weak-willed,
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Freud"s personality and of to throat threshold of conscious. 1938 and entered private developed went to vienna at age of. Individuals" unique and relatively stable patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and. Son of his father"s second wife; mother"s favourite child but cold relationship with father. Married martha bernay"s at age of 26 and had six children. Ego: mostly conscious, mediates between id impulses and superego inhibitions; reality principal (rational) Superego: all levels of consciousness but mostly preconscious, ideals and morals; conscious; parents. Id: unconscious, basic impulses such as sex and aggression; pleasure principle (seeks immediate impulsive activity. Fixation: excessive investment of psychic energy in a particular stage of psychosexual development, which types of psychological disorder. Oedipus complex: in freud"s theory, a crisis of psychosexual development in which children must give up their opposite-sex parent. Defense mechanism: techniques used by the ego to keep threatening material out the consciousness anxiety) Rationalization: conjuring up socially acceptable reasons thought/action of unacceptable motives.
