PERSONALITY PART I

PERSONALITY DEFINED A person’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Using the definition above…Tell us about your personality

2 PRIMARY THEORIES RE:PERSONALITY Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory: proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality. The Humanistic Approach: Focused on our inner capacities for growth and fulfillment.

THE RESEARCH IS CHANGING A LITTLE Today’s theories about personality are a bit more focused and down-to-earth than research in the past.

GETTING IN TO FREUD

FREUD’S LEGACY All of these terms are common in our vocabulary thanks to Freud: Fixated: Stuck on a particular object or way of behaving Repressed: to have suppressed thoughts, feelings, or memories that are too painful to bear Regressed: To act in a more immature way

Anal-Retentive: To be obsessively neat and organized Oedipus Complex: A condition in which a boy loves his mother and hates his father Rationalize: To explain away a problem or justify one’s own behavior

PERSONALITY STRUCTURE BY FREUD Id: Operates on the Pleasure Principle. Seeks immediate gratification. Ego: Seeks to gratify the id’s impulses in realistic ways that will bring long-term pleasure. Operates in the Reality Principle. Superego: Our moral compass. Forces the ego to consider not only the real, but the ideal as well.

HOT TIP Think of the old cartoons with the Angel and Devil on the shoulder. Devil: Id Angel: Superego Character: Ego

ANOTHER FREUDIAN TERM Identification: the process by which children incorporate their parents’ values in to their developing superegos. HOW IS THIS TRUE WITH YOU?

DEFENSE MECHANISMS Repression: bans thoughts from consciousness Regression: retreating to a child-like stage of development Reaction Formation: Ego unconsciously makes unacceptable impulses look opposite. Ex—”I love my dad” when you really hate him. Projection: Disguises threatening impulses by attributing them to others. Ex—”He doesn’t trust me” when you don’t really trust him. The thief thinks everyone else is a thief.

DEFENSE MECHANISMS ( CONT.) Rationalization: Occurs when we generate self-justifying explanations to hide from ourselves the real reasons of our actions. Thus habitual drinkers may say that they drink with their friends “just to be sociable.” ANY MORE EXAMPLES???

MORE DEFENSE MECHANISMS Sublimation: re-channeling unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities. Denial: People refuse to believe or even perceive painful realities.

DENIAL D on’t E ven k N OW I A M L ying

THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST Developed by Henry Murray, the TAT is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

RORSCHACH INKBLOK TEST The most widely used projective test uses a set of 10 inkblots and was designed by Hermann Rorschach. It seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretatio ns of the blots.

THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH

HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE By the 1960s, psychologists became discontent with Freud’s negativity and the mechanistic psychology of the behaviorists. Key People: Maslow and Carl Rogers

TRAIT PERSPECTIVE