Defense Mechanisms and Freud Theory

• Personality refers to the relatively enduring characteristics that differentiate one person from another
• Personality leads people to act in a consistent and predictable manner in different situations and over extended periods
• Personality is the enduring or lasting patterns of behavior and thought, across time and situation

Four Major Perspectives on Personality

• Psychoanalytic, including unconscious motivations
• Trait, including specific dimensions of personality
• Humanistic, including inner capacity for growth
• Social-Cognitive, including influence of environment

Sigmund Freud

• Born in 1856 and died in 1939
• Attended the University of Vienna in 1873
• Regarded as a voracious reader and a medical school graduate
• Specialized in nervous disorders, some had no physical cause

Sigmund Freud's Theories

• Psychoanalysts believe behavior stem from parts of personality that remain unconscious
• Freud identified 3 levels of awareness/consciousness: the conscious mind, the preconscious mind, and the unconscious mind

Psychoanalysis - The Unconscious

• The mind is like an iceberg that is mostly hidden
• Conscious awareness is the small part above the surface like (Preconscious) memories
• Unconscious lies below the surface, including thoughts, feelings, wishes, and memories
• Repression banishes unacceptable thoughts and passions to unconscious, such as dreams and slips

Freud's Theory of Personality

• Three levels of consciousness:
• Conscious mind includes things focused on
• Preconscious mind includes things not currently aware of, but which we could focus on
• Unconscious mind is that which we are unaware of
• Freud's theory suggests that personality is composed of the id, the ego, and the superego
• Id is the unorganized, inborn part of personality, created to immediately reduce tensions relating to hunger, sex, aggression, and other primitive impulses
• Ego restrains instinctual energy in order to maintain individual safety and helps the person be a member of society
• Superego embodies the rights and wrongs of society, which consists of the conscience and the ego-ideal

Freud and Personality Structure

• Id constantly strives to satisfy basic drives (pleasure principle)
• Ego seeks to gratify the id in realistic ways (reality principle)
• Super ego embodies a voice of conscience that focuses on how we ought to behave

Freud's Theory of the ID

• The id uses the most primitive thinking process
• Biological urges (e.g., hunger, self-protection) are basic
• The id operates on the pleasure principle
• The id seeks pleasure and avoids pain
• The id operates completely at an unconscious level
• The id has no direct contact with reality
• The id has 2 major instincts: eros and thanatos
• Eros (life instinct) motivates people to focus on pleasure-seeking tendencies (e.g., sexual urges)
• Thanatos (death instinct) motivates people to use aggressive urges to destroy
• The energy for the id's instincts comes from the libido (the energy storehouse

Freud's Theory of the Ego

• The ego consists of conscious faculty for perceiving and dealing intelligently with reality
• The ego acts as a mediator between the id and the superego
• The ego is partly conscious
• The ego deals with the demands of reality
• The ego makes rational decisions
• The ego serves the ID and is a rational part of personality that maintains contact with reality
• The ego is governed by 'reality principle'
• The ego is the executive of the personality and controls higher mental processes, reasoning, and problem solving
• The ego uses higher mental processes to help satisfy the urges of the ID

Freud's Theory of the Superego

• Superego is the moral part of personality
• Superego comes from internalized rules of parents and society
• Superego consists of:
• Conscience with notions of right and wrong
• Ego Ideal of how one ideally likes to be
• Superego constrains from gratifying every impulse (e.g., murder) because they are immoral

Freud: Superego, ID and Ego

• Feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are the result of the interaction of the id, the superego, and the ego

Freud's Theory of Personality

• The id, the ego, and the superego are continually in conflict with one another
• Conflict generates anxiety
• Overwhelming anxiety results if the ego cannot effectively handle it; prevents a person for carrying out tasks
• The ego tries to control anxiety (i.e., reduce anxiety) through the use of ego defense mechanisms

Defense Mechanisms

• Results when the inner war gets out of hand and the result is anxiety.
• The Ego protects itself via Defense Mechanisms
• Defense Mechanisms reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality

Ego Defense Mechanisms

• A psychology tendency used by the ego to help prevent people from becoming overwhelmed by any conflict (and resulting anxiety) among the id, the ego, and the superego
• Defense mechanisms operate at an unconscious level
• Persons are usually unaware of them during use
• Persons may later become aware of their previous use

Freud's Theory - Defense Mechanisms

• Repression involves pushing unacceptable and anxiety-producing thoughts into the unconscious through intentional forgetting, but not consciously done; repressed material can be memories or unacceptable impulses
• Rape victims sometimes cannot recall the details of the attack
• Regression involves acting in ways characteristic of earlier life stages or an earlier stage of personality
• For example, a young adult, anxious on a trip to his parents home, sits in the corner reading comic books, as he often did in grade school
• Reaction formation involves replacing an anxiety-producing feeling with its exact opposite, typically going overboard; repressed thoughts appear as mirror opposites
• A man who is anxious about his attraction to gay men begins dating women several times a week
• Rationalization means creating false but believable excuses to justify inappropriate behavior; real motive is not accepted by the ego
• A student cheats on an exam, justifying the cheating as legitimate on an unfair examination
• Denial is when one is claiming that which is actually true, is false
• For example, a person disbelieves she is getting old.
• Displacement involves redirecting emotional feelings (e.g., anger) to a substitute target and directing unacceptable impulses onto a less threatening object/person
• For example, a husband, angry at the way his boss treated him, screams at his children or an individual expresses his anger at a slow driver on the commute home instead of his professor.
• Projection attributes unacceptable feelings or beliefs to others and perceiving the external world in terms of one's own personal conflicts
• For example, a worker who is tempted to steal merchandise also suspects others are stealing.
• Sublimation substitutes socially acceptable behavior for unacceptable impulses
• For example, playing video games instead of getting in a fight.

Freud: Stages of Personality Development

• Personality develops through a series of stages, each of which is associated with a major biological function
• People pass through several systematic stages of psychosexual development in their personality as they age
• At each level there is a conflict between pleasure and reality
• Resolution of conflict determines personality.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

• Personality forms during the first few years of life, rooted in unresolved conflicts of early childhood

Psychosexual Stages:

• Oral (0-18 months) centers on the mouth
• Anal (18-36 months) focuses on bowel/bladder
• Phallic (3-6 years) focuses on genitals/Oedipus Complex; Identification & Gender Identity
• Latency (6-puberty) the point where sexuality is dormant
• Genital (puberty on) with sexual feelings toward others
• Fixation can cause conflict at Stages 1, 2 or 3

Freud's Stages of Personality Development

• Oral stage occurs during the first year of life
• Anal stage lasts from approximately age 1 to age 3
• Phallic follows with interest focusing on the genitals
• Latency period lasts until puberty
• Genital stage after puberty begins

Oral Stage of Development

• Occurs from birth to 18 months
• Erogenous zone is the mouth
• Gratification received through sucking and swallowing
• Oral fixation has two possible outcomes:
• Oral receptive personality is preoccupied with eating/drinking and tension reduce through oral activity, is passive and needy/sensitive rejection
• Oral aggressive personality is hostile and verbally abusive to others

Anal Stage of Development

• Occurs from age 1 1/2 to 3 years of age
• Erogenous zone is the anus
• Conflict surrounds toilet training
• Anal fixation has two possible outcomes:
• Anal retentive personality is stingy, compulsive orderliness, stubborn, perfectionistic
• Anal expulsive personality suffers from a lack of self control, messy, careless

Phallic stage of development

• Occurs from ages 3 to 6 years
• Erogenous zone is the genitals with self-stimulation
• At age 5 or 6 experience the Oedipal conflict (boys) or Electra conflict (girls) in their identities
• Oedipus complex (boys) vs Electra complex (girls)
• Child is sexually attracted to the other sex parent and wishes to replace the same sex parent

Phallic stage of development

• Oedipus complex (little boys)
• Castration anxiety stems from the belief that the father knows of desire for the mother, resulting in fear castration, repressed desire and defensive identification with the father.
• Electra complex (little girls)
• Penis envy stems from an initial attachment to mom, shift of attachment when she recognizes she lacks a penis
• Little girls desire their fathers and they want a penis substitute (a child).

Latency Period

• Little girls and little boys socialize only with members of their own gender
• Children minimize the awareness of "sexuality."

Genital Stage

• The 5th stage of psychosexual development
• Individuals develop secondary sexual characteristics (e.g., pubic hair)
• Physical sexual characteristics "re-awakens" people's sexual urges
• No longer able to successfully repress sexual desires, impulses, and urges
• Individuals begin searching for a marital mate, with whom they can share sex and intimacy

Freud and Personality Summary

• Theories explain observations and offer testable hypotheses
• Freud's theories based on recollections and interpretations of patients' free associations, dreams & slips of the tongue
• Freud does not predict behavior or traits

4 Types of Personality Theories:

• Psychodynamic
• Humanistic
• Trait
• Social Cognitive

Psychodynamic Personality Theories:

• Source of information from people in therapy.
• Cause of behavior, thoughts, and feelings stem from unconscious internal conflict along with childhood experiences and pleasure-seeking impulses
• Outlook on humans is negative, but the comprehensiveness of theory is great
• Neo-Freudians placed less emphasis on sex:
• Carl Jung focuses on Personal vs. Collective Unconscious and Balance between introversion and extroversion
• Alfred Adler focuses on Striving for superiority and his Notion of an Inferiority Complex
• Karen Horney emphasized that personality is cultural rather than biological

Humanistic Personality Theories:

• Source of information about personality comes from self-reports
• Cause of behavior, thoughts, and feelings stem from self concepts, self-actualizing tendencies, conscious feelings about oneself
• Outlook on humans is positive
• Comprehensiveness of theory is fairly comprehensive
• Humanistic theories use the view of "Healthy" rather than "Sick"
• Humanism regards an individual as greater than the sum of test scores

Humanistic Personality Theories: Maslow and Rogers

• The Humanistic approach (Third Force) rejected Freud and the behaviorist approaches
• More optimistic/positive about human nature
• Humans are free and basically good and inner-directed
• Everyone has the potential for healthy growth and self actualization
• “Be all you can be“
• Given the right environmental conditions, we can reach our full potential

Roger's Person-Centered Perspective

• Approach suggests people are basically good with actualizing tendencies
• With the correct environmental conditions, people will develop to their full potentials
• Genuineness, acceptance, and empathy are key
• Self Concept is a central feature of personality

Humanistic Personality Theories: Carl Rogers

• Self-concept embodies our image or perception of ourselves (Real Self versus Ideal Self)
• There is a need for positive regard/approval from others and conditions of worth or conditional positive regard
• These conditions influence under which other people will approve, we change our behavior to obtain approval.
• What we need is: unconditional positive regard
• Anxiety suggests that we are not being true to our ideal self
• Well-adjusted persons have congruent self-concept & experience.
• Poorly adjusted persons self-concept & experience are misaligned

Abraham Maslow's Humanistic Personality Theories

• Self-actualization is a culmination of a lifetime of inner-directed growth and improvement
• The characteristics of the self-actualized person are creative and open to new experiences
• Self-actualized persons are committed to a cause or a higher goal
• Self-actualized persons are trusting and caring of others, yet not dependent
• Self-actualized persons possess the courage to act on their convictions

Trait Personality Theories:

• Source of information comes from observation and questionnaires
• Stable internal characteristics and genetic emphasis cause behavior, thoughts, and feelings
• The outlook on humans is neutral

Trait Personality Theories:

• Trait approaches identify the most basic and relatively enduring dimensions
• Measured dimensions are known as traits

Trait Personality Theories (Allport):

• Important personality traits reflect values
• Three kinds of traits:
• Cardinal: a single personality trait that directs most of a person's activities (e.g., greed, lust, kindness)
• Central: a set of major characteristics that make up the core of a person's personality
• Secondary: less important personality traits that do not affect behavior as much as central and cardinal traits

Trait Personality Theories (Eysenck)

• Found two (2) major trait dimensions:
• Introversion versus extroversion (quiet versus sociable)
• Neuroticism versus emotional stability (moody versus calm)

Trait Personality Theories (cont): Cattell's Theory of Personality:

• Identified Cattell's Trait Theory which consists of 3 types of traits including dynamic, ability, and temperament
• Cattell also identified surface traits (less important to personality)
• Source Traits are more important basic underlying traits.
• There are 16 traits and the 16PF was developed to measure these traits

Trait Personality Theories:

• Personality theorists have begun to converge on a view of 5 basic personality dimensions:
• Emotional stability versus neuroticism indicates whether a person is calm versus anxious
• Extraversion versus introversion indicates whether a person is outgoing versus shy
• Openness versus close-mindedness indicates imagination versus practicality
• Agreeableness versus disagreeableness indicates kindness versus ruthlessness
• Conscientiousness versus undependable indicates organization versys recklessness

Trait Theories of Personality

• Traits consist of characteristics or typical ways of acting
• Consistency is seen across situations, over time
• Distinctiveness results in each personality being unique
• Explain why individuals behave in certain ways
• There are many traits, thus there is no easy to answer or little consensus

Assessing Personality Traits

• Assessments aim to simplify a person's behavior patterns
• MMPI is a used personality inventory
• MMPI assesses psychological disorders
• MMPI items selected based upon how well they discriminate between groups of traits

Trait-Situation Debate

• Walter Mischel argued that behavior is not consistent across time or situation and, therefore, not meaningful
• Situationism says, that behavior is influenced more by the situation than any internal "trait."
• Interactionism states that internal traits and the situations are important determinants of behavior.

Social-Cognitive (Learning) Approaches to Personality Theories:

• Experiments, observations of behavior, and questionnaire responses gather information
• Behavior is caused by people's cognition

Social-Cognitive Personality Bandura's Social Learning Theory

• Sources comes from behaviorism
• Emphasized the role of learning in personality
• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
• and Modelling

Social-Cognitive

• Focuses on what is outside the person in their environment, rather than traits

Social-Cognitive Personality Bandura Social Learning Theory

• Emphasizes the importance of cognition in personality development
• Develop a sense of self-efficacy or beliefs about our ability to achieve goals
• Individuals with higher self-efficacy accept greater challenges and try harder to meet those challenges
• Consists of the notion of Reciprocal Determinism
• Person and environment influence each other

Social-Cognitive Theories

• Suggest Personal/ Cognative Factors, Environment Factors, Behavior
• Inner and Outer World

Social-Cognitive Personality Theories: Personal Control

• Internal Locus of Control (You pretty much control your own destiny)
• External Locus of Control (Luck, fate and/or powerful others control your destiny)
• Methods of Study:
• Correlate feelings of control with behavior
• Experiment by raising/lowering people's sense of control

Social-Cognitive Personality Theories: Outcomes of Personal Control

• Learned Helplessness:
• Uncontrollable bad events lead to to a perceived lack of control, resulting in helpless behavior

Personality Assessment

• Personality assessment involves the techniques for systematically gathering information about a person
• Personality assessment aids understanding and predicting behavior.
• Goal of personality assessment to obtain reliable, valid measures of individual differences