Introduction to Personology

Introduction to Personology

• Personology involves understanding human behavior, and psychologists try to explain human functioning despite their differing views.
• Studying personology offers a systematic view of psychological theories, enhancing our understanding of human behavior.
• Everyday knowledge of human behavior, though common, is limited and often unreliable, even among those considered good judges of people.
• Sources of information include cultural traditions, direct communications, observations, and self-observation
• Cultural wisdom found in novels, dramas, and idioms contains information that can be inaccurate
• Personologists aim to improve everyday knowledge of people by using scientific methods.
• Personology is, therefore, the scientific counterpart to our informal understanding of human nature.
• Personality theories offer the most comprehensive insights within personology.

Basics of Personality Theories

• Every personality theory is composed of: An underlying view of the person
• Proposals about the structure of personality and its functions
• Ideas about what motivates people
• Description of human development including ideas about ideal human development
• Reflections on the nature and causes of behavioral problems
• Explanation of how behavior can be changed and controlled
• Ideas about how to study human behaviour

Divergent Personality Theories

• Over 30 personality theories exist due to the complexity of human behavior.
• Human behavior is influenced by biological, environmental, social, cultural, contextual, psychological, and spiritual factors.
• It's difficult to have complete understanding because a singular theory cannot provide the whole truth of human function, but does improve it
• Practical and ethical issues limit research to random studies rather than comprehensive manipulation and observation of people.
• Theories differ due to pre-scientific assumptions about humans and the nature of science.

Definitions of Key Concepts

• Person, originating from actors' masks, refers to the individual human being and implies free decision-making.
• Some theorists object to his definition and prefer alternate terms
• Personality, in everyday language, often reflects a person's social dimension or general behavioral patterns.
• In personology, personality refers to the qualities defining an individual and enabling behavior predictions.
• Different theories offer alternate viewpoints on what characteristics determine a person’s behaviour

Distinctions in Personality

• People show some stability while continuously changing in other respects.
• An individual’s traits are interconnected and influence one another.
• Contexts influence behavior alongside personality.
• Character relates to behaving in congruence with ethical standards and is shaped by socialization.
• Temperament captures a person's emotional demeanor, focusing on biological and psychological emotional aspects, and is often inherited.
• Interactions between individuals and situations is important

Conceptual Frameworks

• Personism suggests behavior stems from individuals' fixed characteristics, yet overemphasizes personality influence.
• It is often considered naïve and extreme, but has been espoused historically
• Situationalism counters personism by emphasizing environmental influence on attributes, downplaying genetic factors.
• Interactionalism, under names like systems theory, views behavior as a result of the entire physical, social, and cultural system.
• Transactionalism extends interaction to threefold: the person also reacts to the behavior they produce in the situation.

Historical Origins of Theories

• Depth psychology suggests behavior is determined by unconscious forces within individuals, varying on control levels and force nature.
• Early theorists emphasized biological forces; modern ones highlight social orientation.
• Behavioral and learning theories focus on observable behavior and environmental influences.
• Extreme behaviorists believe all behavior can be explained without needs or conscious experiences.
• Social cognitive learning theory acknowledges learning through imitation and the role of cognition.
• Person-oriented approaches aim to encompass all aspects of a person, viewing depth psychology and behaviorism as limited.
• Socially-contextualized perspectives emphasize the person's embeddedness within social contexts.
• The ecosystemic approach states individuals can only be understood in totality of systems which they are a part of, playing an important role in psychotherapy.

Depth Psychology: Freud

• Freud's theories were shaped by his family dynamics, including a close relationship with his mother and conflicts with his father.
• Experiences with cancer, WWI, and antisemitism led to concept of Thanatos: an unconscious human drive to die.
• The victorian era, social & historical context he lived in, also influenced his theories
• The era was defined by an over-emphasis on sex, gender roles, the female body being covered etc.
• Freud's personal sexual conflicts contributed to his neurosis and physical ailments.
• He used his experiences to cultivate his theories of neurosis
• Ernst Wilhem Brucke insisted on observation to explain biological processes which influenced Freud
• Freud saw human functioning as energy usage
• Using the analogy of the psyche and a steam engine to describe personality
• Current scientists disagree with his theories but psychoanalysis remains fundamental to all psychological studies
• Freud based his theory off of three assumptions about the human psyche and science: psychosocial conflict, biological and psychic determinism and mechanistic assumptions

Foundational Assumptions

• Psychosocial conflict: Conflict that occurs between drives of the psyche and societal norms
• Biological and psychic determinism: Drives are physiologically based, take place in the psyche.
• Mechanistic assumption held that human beings function in a mechanistic way

Personality Structure

• Consisting of id, ego, and superego and the levels of consciousness including the unconscious, preconscious and conscious
• The individual is a singular unit that have three goals which consist of survival, experience pleasure, minimisation of guilt

Levels of Consciousness

• Conscious: Current thoughts, feelings, and experiences that constantly change
• Preconscious: Information easily recalled to consciousness, including memories and observations
• Unconscious: Forbidden drives, painful memories that cannot be recalled to the conscious mind
• Id and ego operate on different levels and have individual functions

Id, Ego, and Superego

• Id is directly linked to body and obtaining the energy for all behaviors and is operated almost exclusively on the unconscious level.
• Ego develops from the id to ensure survival, using cognitive processes to evaluate situations, and operates on all three levels of consciousness.
• Superego develops from the ego, enforcing moral behavior through guilt and holding a moral ideal of ideal behavior.
• All function on different levels of consciousness
• People are subjected to simultaneous cathexist and anticathexis desires which causes anxiety

The Id

• Functions according to primary processes and pleasure principle
• Seeks gratification for drives without considering anything else
• Incapable of any thought, self-reflection or planning and cannot find appropriate objects in environment that could satisfy its drives
• The only form of drive satisfaction is wish fulfilment
• Creates images of the desired object and fantasising that they have appeased their drive
• Because it cannot find satisfaction without real and imagined food, a reality-oriented sub-system is necessary, this is the ego

Ego

• Develops from the id because it is necessary to ensure survival
• Functions according to secondary process and reality principle
• Evaluates and weighs up a situation before any action is undertaken
• Able to reflect upon and plan satisfaction of drives and postpone satisfaction to an appropriate time and situation based on physical and social reality
• Cathexis is the ego's investment of psychic energy in certain selected objects appropriate for drive satisfaction
• Operates in terms of id, reality and superego
• The id threatens the ego with discomfort if drives are not satisfied
• Superego threatens ego with punishment and guilt
• Uses conscious, preconscious cognitive processes, sensory perception, rational thinking, memory and learning
• Begins to develop during the first year of life and learns new ways of drive satisfaction throughout its life

Superego

• Develops from the ego and forces individual to feel guilty about immoral wishes
• Functions according to the moral principle
• Holds a perfectionistic ideal of moral behaviour: ego-ideal
• Obtains the energy needed for this pressure from the id aggressive drive/ Thanatos
• Functions on all levels of consciousness, even the preconscious level
• Anticipates what causes a reaction from the ego

Defense Mechanism: Anticathexis

• A moral taboo that is placed on an object by the superego
• Takes place when ego blocks or suppresses cathexist desires of the id
• Individuals are constantly subjected to simultaneous cathexis and anticathexis of objects, which is experienced as anxiety
• People develop defense mechanisms in order to protect from anxiety
• Psychological problems are based on these serious conflicts

Motivation: Freud’s Drive Theory

• Explained psychological functioning with mechanism, energy transformation and conservation

Characteristics of Drives

• They all have a source, impetus/energy, goal, and object in common
• Source: Body, specifically various parts of the body
• Impetus/Energy: Intensity that is affected by the condition of the energy source and the lapse of time since the last satisfaction of the drive
• Goal: Satisfaction, which is experienced subjectively as desires to accomplish something specific. The pressure remains until the drive is satisfied
• Object: Something or person suitable for drive’s satisfaction
• Satisfaction achieved by investing psychic energy (cathexis)
• Displacement: Objects can be substituted when earlier object is no longer available

Types of Drives

• Reduced to two basic inclinations of living organisms: to develop constructively and to disintegrate and die
• Life drives (eros): Preserve life and function constructively differentiated into ego drives and sexual drives.
• Death drives (Thanatos): Has the general tendency to break down and represents the tendency of the living organism to die
• The Internal moral code resides in the superego

Psychological Functioning

• Ego drive will satisfy basic life needs
• Satisfaction of ego drives do not include sex and are not rigidly controlled by moral codes
• Does not cause conflicts of conscience and also feelings of guilt
• Ego drives are responsible for the development of the ego and provide the energy necessary for its functioning Differences From Sexual Drives
• Related to the survival of the individual
• Sexual drives are related to the survival of the species
• Not associated with moral prescriptions and guilt feelings
• Ego provides the energy required for the functioning of the ego

Sexual Drives

• Main concern is survival of the species and primary function is erotic
• Provide erotic pleasure, but the absence of satisfaction creates discomfort
• Present at birth but only start functioning in service of reproduction after puberty Strict Moral Codes
• Cause problems for the individual
• Lead to conflict and playing a significant role in the development of mental disturbance
• Can result in the development of mental disturbance

Death Drives

• Forces must be from within the personality
• Find an intrapsychic explanation for phenomena such as war, aggression, violence, suicide and death
• Original object of the death drive is an individual’s body
• Death drive is immediately brought into conflict with the life drives and the conflict is projected outwards in the form of aggression and destruction towards other people and things
• Death drive plays an important role in human development and psychopathology

Regulating the Death Drive

• Exercised in socially acceptable ways
• Superego uses aggressive drive energy to cause feelings of guilt
• All forms of self-inflicted harm, performance errors, accident proneness and suicide are the unconscious result of the death drive Nirvana
• The death drive reverts back to its original object
• Death will achieve a totally tensionless state
• “The goal of all life is death”
• The Death drive is regulated by moral codes

Defence Mechanisms

• Shared characteristic include: denials and distortions of reality
• Operates unconsciously
• Geared towards keeping anxiety-provoking material unconscious

Repression & Resistance

• Basic defence mechanism that repressed drives, wishes or memories that are unacceptable to the superego and unconscious
• Different from suppression that occurs when a person consciously and purposefully wants to forget
• Usually uses other defense mechanisms
• Repressed drives and wishes maintain their energy and constantly try to break through to the conscious

Projection

• Subjectively changing or projecting the focus to the drives or wishes of other people
• Thereby ignoring the impulses within themselves

Reaction Formation

• Tries to keep a forbidden desire unconscious
• Person adopts a fanatical stance that gives the impression that he or she experiences the exact opposite desire
• Frequently occurs in conjunction with other defence mechanisms, especially projection

Rationalisation

• An attempt to explain behavior by providing rational reasons, even if untrue to intent
• Different from lying as individuals aren't aware of real reasons behind their behavior

Displacement and Sublimation

• Geared towards alleviating anxiety
• Do not reduce energy attached to unconscious and anxiety provoking sexual and aggressive drives
• The cause of anxiety remains and forces ego to keep up its defenses
• Leads to vicious cycle Enforced concentration on defence mechanisms hinders ego in accomplishing its primary task, the satisfaction of drives
• Becomes a ‘weak ego’ which ultimately can escape to psychopathology such as hysterical symptoms or psychosis Displacement
• Finding substitute object that society’s moral codes forbid which uses psychic energy
• However, displaced object is never as satisfying as original

Fixation and Regression

• Psychological development gets stuck at a particular age
• Behaves appropriately for an earlier stage or stage
• Regression occurs for the same reasons
• The individual regresses to the stage at which he or she was previously fixated
• Partial or total return to behavior of an earlier stage of development in which less anxiety and frustrations were experienced

Identification

• Person symbolically represents themselves within another person
• Special significance during the phallic stage of development

Development of Personality

• Focuses on development of the sex drive and how the child and society deals with the accompanying problems (psychosexual theory)
• Parents conduct will influence how well the child will cope with the problems of each stage
• Social circumstances cause individual differences in development and personality attributes that will emerge Development stages
• Oral stage (0-1)
• Anal stage (1-2)
• Phallic stage (3-6)
• Latent stage (6-12)
• Genital stage (puberty-)
• Personality characteristics are permanently fixed during first three stages when sexual development doesn't deal with procreation

Oral, Anal, and Phallic Personality Types

Oral Stage and Personality

• Lips and mouth are main erogenous zones and a source of sexual drive
• Factors that cause fixation include freedom to satisfy urges, little satisfaction causing frustration, and experiences that cause anxiety. Development of Death Drive Directed towards external objects Structures of personality
• Ego and superego develop in contrast to inborn id
• Parents punishment and reward helps to learn moral rules Consequences
• Inordinate dependence on other people or excessive optimism
• Can also lead to selfishness, self-loathing, pessimism, and generosity

Anal Stage and Personality

• Anus and excretory canal constitute most important erogenous zone
• Children receive sexual pleasure
• Parents influence children's sexual pleasure during toilet training which influences personality The Death Drive makes children:
• Refuse to, or excrete at the incorrect time in order to punish parents
• Faeces are also a way of satisfying sexual pleasure
• Anal personality characterised by traits related to toilet training Consequences: excessive neatness, thriftiness, obstinacy or development of sadism or obsessive compulsive neuroses

Phallic Stage

• Physiological change in boys and girls are different Boys
• Experience with sexual and aggressive wishes repressed as well as castration anxiety Girls
• Experience hatred towards mother, whom she blames for her defect
• Develops sexual desires with father as object because she thinks she can obtain a penis from him

Fixation

• Occurs because the superego undergoes it's major development during this stage Consequences
• An overly strict rigid rule
• Child’s superego becoming unyielding
• Harsh superego develops when there is not enough encouragement

Latent Stage and Personality

• No New energy comes to the fore but sexual drive
• Children are concerned with learning their gender and show little interest in the opposite sex
• Children engage with friends who are a similar gender in order to consolidate their appropriate behaviours

Genital Stage

• Final stage of psychosocial development that lasts until the end of a person’s life
• Physiological changes of puberty increase the amount of drive energy
• The result of finding means of satisfying urges without experiencing guilt
• Pre-genital sexual urges experienced during this stage are partially satisfied through heterosexual relationships and by using substitutive sexual objects and actions
• Consequences of men and woman who are substitutes from their parents
• Aggressive Urges are partially satisfied through work/ sport

Optimal Development

• There is no difference between healthy and psychologically disturbed individuals Differences in development
• Genital stage of development is obtained without any fixations on pre-genital stages
• There can be a strong ego that is not strict and is capable of effective reality testing Consequences
• They have a satisfactory relationship with someone who is the opposite sex
• They find fulfilment in their work