Freud's Contribution to Personality

Freud's Contribution to Personality

• Freud revealed the unobservable parts of personality, a hallmark of his theory
• Later theorists revised and reshaped his work
• Freud claimed that personality does not change after early childhood
• Psychoanalysis has little value for individuals over 50, as their personalities are rigidly set and cannot be altered

Tripartite Theory of Personality

• The Ego: performs rational, executive functions of the mind, uses defence mechanisms to keep the Id out of conscious awareness
• The Id: the deepest part of the unconscious mind, seeks fulfillment of desires that could lead to unacceptable aggressive or sexual acts
• The Superego: the organized part of personality, includes ego ideal, spiritual goals, and conscience, criticizes and prohibits drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions

Functions of the Ego

• Cognition: performs integration, analysis, and synthesis of thought, directs behavior, and engages in second-order thinking
• Defence Mechanisms: strategies used to protect the conscious mind from unwanted material in the unconscious
• Affect Regulation: the ability to regulate emotions
• Reality Testing: the capacity to evaluate one's affect, behavior, and thoughts, and correct them based on observations and cognitive processes
• Identity Integration: having an integrated concept of self and others, consistent image of self, and consistent behavior

Levels of Ego Functioning

• Neurotic, Borderline, and Psychotic levels of functioning, characterized by informational function, emotional rewards, and other factors

Cognitive Perspective

• Views people as driven by the desire to predict and control their experiences
• Emphasizes coping mechanisms people use to manage stress

Midlife Crisis: Theories and Findings

• Derived from an age-stage approach to personality in adulthood
• The term originated in the 1970s to describe radical changes in personality that supposedly accompanied entry into midlife (age 40-45)
• Theories propose that people experience extensive questioning of goals, priorities, and accomplishments, self-scrutiny, and heightened awareness of death's inevitability

Levinson's Theory of Adult Development

• Life structure: the basic pattern or design of a person's life at a given time
• Evolves through an orderly series of universal stages in adulthood, alternating between periods of tranquility and transition

Midlife Crisis: Critique

• Little empirical support for the existence of the midlife crisis as a universal phenomenon
• Criticisms include heavy reliance on age as a marker of development, vagueness on the exact age it is supposed to occur, and lack of specificity

Vaillant's (2000) Theory of Defence Mechanisms

• Emphasizes the development of defence mechanisms over the course of adulthood
• Defence mechanisms are automatic strategies to protect the conscious mind from the unconscious
• They are present throughout adulthood and may be adaptive or maladaptive
• Mature defences (e.g., sublimation and humor) can make an enormous difference in mental health, whereas immature defences (e.g., projection and hypochondriasis) can be pathological