Unit 10: Personality

Essential question From where do one’s personality traits derive, and how do they affect one’s life experiences?

Unit 10-A: The Psychoanalytic perspective

How do you define personality? Do now Discussion: How do you define personality?

Sigmund freud An Austrian neurologist who became known as the father of psychoanalysis

psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts 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 embarassing

Unconscious: According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware

Personality structure Id: Contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy, that 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 the personality that mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. Superego: The part of the personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations

Personality development Psychosexual Stages: The childhood stages of development during which the id’s pleasure- seeking energies focus on distinct pleasure-sensitive areas known as erogenous zones

Personality development Oedipus Complex: A boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father during the phallic stage Identification: The process by which children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos Fixation: A lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at the oral, anal, or phallic stages in which conflicts were unresolved

Defense mechanisms Defense Mechanisms: The ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety- arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__8GQcUVpx0

The neo-Freudian and psychodynamic theorists Alfred Adler: An Austrian psychotherapist known for his work in the inferiority complex recognizing that isolation plays a key role in personality development Karen Horney: German psychoanalyst who founded Feminist Psychology in response to Freud’s theory of penis envy. She also disagreed with Freud in that the inherent psychological differences between men and women can be found in society and culture rather than biology Carl Jung: Swiss psychotherapist who theorized that the unconscious contains more than repressed thoughts and feelings and that we also have a collective unconscious (a common reservoir of images derived from our species’ universal experiences)

Projective tests Projective Tests: A personality test 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

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

Modern unconscious mind Terror Management Theory: A theory proposed by Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski of death-related anxiety that explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death

Unit 10-A review What is psychoanalysis? Who is the father of psychoanalysis? What are the psychosexual stages of development?