Understanding Personality: The Psychoanalytic Perspective

1. Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY (7th Ed) Chapter 15 Personality Psychoanalytic Perspective James A. McCubbin, PhD Clemson University Worth Publishers

2. Fact vs. Falsehood • 1. Freud believed that boys develop sexual desires for their mother when they are between 3 and 6 years of age. • 2. One of the most reliable and valid measures of personality is the Rorschach inkblot test. • 3. Dreams are disguised wish fulfillment that can be interpreted by skilled analysts. • 4. Psychologists generally agree that painful experiences commonly get pushed out of awareness and into the unconscious. • 5. A surprisingly strong relationship exists between body type or physique and personality. • 6. Most people recognize that personality descriptions based on horoscopes are invalid. • 7. Research has indicated that there is virtually no relationship between a students being conscientious on one occasion (promptness) and being similarly conscientious on another occasion (turning in work on time). • 8. The elderly and the sick are happiest when they do not have to take responsibility for everyday decisions that affect their lives. • 9. The majority of people suffer from low self-esteem. • 10. Compared to collectivist, individualist experience greater rates of divorce, homicide, and stress-related disease.

3. What is Personality? • Personality • an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting • basic perspectives • Psychoanalytic • Humanistic

4. The Psychoanalytic Perspective • From Freud’s theory which proposes that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality

5. The Psychoanalytic Perspective • Psychoanalysis • Freud’s theory of personality that attributes our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts • techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

6. The Psychoanalytic Perspective • Free Association • in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious • person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing • This traces the chain of thought back to unconscious • Nothing is ever accidental (Freudian slips) • Manifest vs. latent dream content • “Friends” clip

7. The Psychoanalytic Perspective • Unconscious • according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories • contemporary viewpoint- information processing of which we are unaware

8. Ego Conscious mind Unconscious mind Superego Id Personality Structure • Freud’s idea of the mind’s structure

9. Id • contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy • strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives • operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

10. Superego • the part of personality that presents internalized ideals • provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations

11. Ego • the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality • mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality • operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain

12. Personality Development • Psychosexual Stages • the childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones • Oedipus Complex • a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQwanviHe5U • Electra Complex • a girl’s desire toward her father and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival, mother.

13. Psychosexual stages: Freud • Oral: focus on the mouth, choking hazard stage • Anal: focus on elimination, potty training stage • Phallic: discovery of boy/girl parts as special

14. Freud’s stages continued Latency: cootie stage Genital: post-puberty

15. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Stage Focus Oral Pleasure centers on the mouth-- (0-18 months) sucking, biting, chewing Anal Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder (18-36 months) elimination; coping with demands for control Phallic Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with (3-6 years) incestuous sexual feelings: Oedipus/Electra Latency Dormant sexual feelings: “Cootie” stage (6 to puberty) Genital Maturation of sexual interests (puberty on) Personality Development

16. Personality Development • Identification • the process by which children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos • Fixation • a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved

17. Defense Mechanisms • Defense Mechanisms • the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality • Repression • the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness

18. Defense Mechanisms • Regression • defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated I want my mommy!!!!!

19. Defense Mechanisms • Reaction Formation • defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites • people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings “Mommy, I love you” “I hate my mom” “I can’t hate my mom, that’s wrong”

20. Defense Mechanisms I can’t believe she gave us all this homework She hates all her students I hate her, no I can’t hate that’s wrong • Projection • defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

21. Defense Mechanism Rationalization defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions

22. Defense Mechanisms • Displacement • defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person • as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet She’s not calling on me. I wish I could hit her! How dare you speak to me!!

23. Assessing the Unconscious • Projective Test • a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics • 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

24. Assessing the Unconscious--TAT

25. Assessing the Unconscious • 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 blots

26. Assessing the Unconscious--Rorschach

27. Neo-Freudians • Alfred Adler • importance of childhood social tension • Karen Horney • sought to balance Freud’s masculine biases • Agreed with Adler than tension is/was social not sexual • Carl Jung • emphasized the collective unconscious • concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history

28. Freud’s Ideas in Light of Modern Research • General • Development doesn’t end in childhood • Gender identity is former earlier than he thought and doesn’t depend on same sex parent • Sexual abuse of children does happen • Accidents do happen (slips of the tongue) • Sexual suppression doesn’t always equal a disorder • Is Repression a Myth? • Most people remember horrible things all to well • Scientific Theory? • Freud can’t/didn’t show cause and effect

29. Jung’s archetypes