1. Personality
Characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, acting

2. Personality theorists attempt to answer the following:

3. How are the mind and body related?

4. Is personality inherited or learned?

5. Do humans have “free will?”

6. Is there a “self” (me)?

7. Is the “self” knowable?

8. Is our behavior guided by experiences buried inside of us?...

9. … personal experiences or communal experiences?

10. Psychoanalytic Approach
Behavior is determined by the past
Conscious conflicts with unconscious

11. Thoughts & feelings that we are aware of
Conscious
Thoughts & feelings that we are aware of

12. Thoughts and memories we are not aware of (easily retrieved)
Pre Conscious
Thoughts and memories we are not aware of (easily retrieved)

13. Unconscious
Contains desires, wishes, feelings, memories, impulses that are most UNACCEPTABLE

14. Sigmond Freud Inner conflict approach to personality
Push thoughts, fears, urges to unconscious

15. Sigmond Freud (cont.)
iii. Exploration of unconscious a. psychoanalysis: therapeutic technique 1. “talking-cure” 2. Relaxed setting 3. Free association: say whatever comes to mind b. dream analysis: dreams reveal our unconscious c. hypnosis: hypnotist suggests that events, situations will occur d. Freudian Slips: slips from the unconscious are true representations of our personality

16. Consists of three regions
Human Mind
Consists of three regions

17. ID: represents basic drives (present at birth)
Aggression, sexual energy, hunger etc.
Unconscious
Demands pleasure through instant gratification
Ignores: laws, social customs, needs of others
Pleasure principle
“Child”

18. EGO: begins in childhood as a result of not being able to meet instant gratification
Represses improper impulses of ID
Satisfies the ID in a realistic way
Reality principle
“Adult” (results in compromised struggle between ID and Superego)

19. SUPEREGO: functions according to moral principle
Internalized ideals and standards of society
Floods EGO with guilt
Societies definition of “right and wrong”
“Parent”

20. Ego’s Job Satisfy the Id’s impulses
Not to offend the moralistic character of superego.

21. What drives the Id, Ego and Superego?
1. Sex Drive (Life Force)
a. Drive to:
i. live
ii. Prosper
iii. Produce offspring
2. Aggression Drive (Death Force)
a. drive to:
i. stay alive
ii. Stave off threats
iii. power

22. When the Ego has difficulty satisfying the id and superego it employs
DEFENSE MECHANISMS!

23. Denial
going against anxiety-producing stimuli by stating “It doesn’t exist”
Denying you have cancer by seeking 2nd, 3rd opinion

24. Displacement Taking out impulses on less threatening target
Punching the wall
Yelling at your little sister or dog when that’s not what’s really bothering you
Explains some CRIMES

25. Intellectualization
Avoiding emotions by focusing on intellectual aspect
Focus on details of funeral instead of sadness or grief
Focusing on the flowers of a funeral for example.

26. Projection Placing unacceptable impulses in yourself on someone else
Saying “that’s dumb” when you’re really thinking, “why didn’t I think of that, now I feel dumb.”

27. Rationalization
Supplying a “comforting” justification instead of a real reason
Stating you got a low test score because you had a bad teacher instead of that you forgot to study.
Saying you can’t pass your drivers test because you had a bad driver’s ed teacher
Blaming someone else or “passing the buck”

28. Reaction Formation
Taking the opposite belief because the true belief causes anxiety
Having a bias against a race, culture, person and then embracing it to the EXTREME.
Someone who had an abortion being Pro-Life
Befriending an individual who you truly dislike
Hypocritical

29. Regression Returning to previous stage of development Crying
Wetting the bed
Tantrum to get your way
Mid life crisis

30. Repression PULLING into the unconscious
Forgetting about sexual abuse from childhood due to trauma
Forgetting about being beat up, or other trauma
You DO NOT make a conscious decision to forget, your brain just does it because you can’t handle it.

31. Sublimation
Acting out unacceptable impulses in a socially acceptable way
Lifting weights
Boxing
Hitting a punching bag
Throwing a ball up in the air and then catching it.

32. Suppression PUSHING into the unconscious
Trying to forget something that causes anxiety
You MAKE the decision.
After my Grandpa died, I thought “I can’t deal with this so I’m not going to think about it”
If you and your best friend had a huge fight and decided to never talk about it ever again.
Just like Repression, only this time you DECIDE to not think about it, where with repression, you just erase it, no thought put into it.

33. Inability to use defense mechanisms may result in problems