PSYC 1101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Self-Image, Extraversion And Introversion, Projective Test
6 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Notes on Personality
Introduction to Personality and Psychodynamic Theories
What is Personality?
● Personality → an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
● Freud - sexuality and unconscious motives affect personality
Psychodynamic Theories
● Psychodynamic theories → view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the
importance of childhood experiences
● Psychoanalysis → Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to
unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological
disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective: Exploring the Unconscious
● Freud came up with ego, repression, projection, complex, sibling rivalry, Freudian slips,
and fixation
● Freud observed patients and questioned whether neurological diseases might have
psychological causes
● Unconscious → according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes,
feeling, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing
of which we are unaware.
● I.e. blindness or deafness are caused by not wanting to see or hear something
● Free association → in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which
the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or
embarrassing
● Mind is mostly hidden
● Repress unacceptable knowledge or thoughts
● Troublesome thoughts and feelings that are not expressed can have influences on daily
habits
Personality Structure
● Personality comes from struggle to resolve internal conflict of hidden thoughts and
feelings
● Id, ego, superego
● Id → a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy
basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding
immediate gratification
● Ego → the largely conscious, ‘executive’ part of personality that, according to Freud,
mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego operates on the
reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure
rather than pain
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● Superego → the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals
and provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations
● Ego struggles to reconcile id and superego
Personality Development
● Psychosexual stages → the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency,
genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on
distinct erogenous zones
● Oedipus complex → according to freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and
feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
○ Eventually child decides to become like other parent
● Identification → the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their
parents’ values into their developing superegos
● Identification with same sex parent - gender identification
● Fixate → according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier
psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
● Continue to seek some type of gratification (i.e. oral by smoking or eating)
Defense Mechanisms
● Anxiety because of civilization
● Defense mechanisms → in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of
reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
● Work unconsciously
● Repression → in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from
consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
● Shown in misspeaking things - saying bills when you mean pills but are financially
oppressed
● Table on 576 that shows defense mechanisms
The Neo-Freudian and Later Psychodynamic Theorists
● Neo-freudians - believed in Freud’s work and were psychoanalysts
● Horney and Adler agreed with Freud but thought childhood social tensions, rather than
sexual tensions had a greater impact
● Adler - inferiority complex
● Horney - childhood anxiety triggers desire for love and security, attempted to balance
Freud’s masculine bias
● Jung - less social, more unconscious, explained religion
● Collective unconscious → Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory
traces from our species history
Assessing Unconscious Processes
● Most personality tests only have to do with the consciousness
● Projective tests → a personality test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous
stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● ‘Psychological X-ray’
● People see hopes fears and dreams
● Project feelings into pictures
● Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) → a projective test in which people express their
inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
● Daydreaming
● View pictures and make up stories about them
● Rorschach inkblot test → the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots,
designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing
their interpretations of the blot
● Some like Rorschach, others skeptical
Evaluating Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective and Modern Views of the Unconscious
Modern Research Contradicts Many of Freud’s Ideas
● Recent research contradicts Freud
● Development is lifelong
● Childhood experiences do not necessarily affect the outcome of someone’s life
● Dreams and slip-ups don’t necessarily show hidden desires
● Lack of scientific evidence
● Drew attention to unconscious and importance of sexuality
Modern Research Challenges the Idea of Repression
● Sometimes we do hide threatening thoughts
● Generally repression is rare and in response to mental trauma
The Modern Unconscious Mind
● Mind has large unconscious
● Unconscious now thought more of information processing without awareness
● Involves:
○ Schemas
○ Split brains
○ Amnesia
○ Emotions
○ Stereotypes
● Projection - contributing threatening impulses to others - false consensus effect
● Unconsciously defend ourselves against anxiety
● Terror-management theory → a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people’s
emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
● People act to enhance self-esteem
● Fear of death affects worldviews
Humanistic Theories and Trait Theories
Humanistic Theories
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Personality an individual"s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Freud - sexuality and unconscious motives affect personality. Psychodynamic theories view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences. Psychoanalysis freud"s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions. Freud came up with ego, repression, projection, complex, sibling rivalry, freudian slips, and fixation. Freud observed patients and questioned whether neurological diseases might have psychological causes. Unconscious according to freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feeling, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware. I. e. blindness or deafness are caused by not wanting to see or hear something. Free association in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.
