Personality: Psychodynamic Theories

Personality

• The distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a person’s responses to life situations.

• Study of personality is guided by the psychologist’s perspective, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand how they are all studying the same thing.– It seems hard to believe that all the theorists are

talking about the same creature, who is now angelic, and now depraved, now a black-box robot shaped by reinforcers and now a shaper of its own destiny, now devious… and now hardheadedly oriented to solid reality. (Stone and Church, 1968)

Evaluating Theories

• Truth, in personality studies, is often less important than usefulness.

– after all, the study design and results interpretation is itself influenced by the personality of the psychologist

• A theory is only useful in so far as it1. Provides a comprehensive framework within which

known facts can be incorporated2. Allows us to predict future events with some

precision3. Stimulates the discovery of new knowledge

Personality Theories

Psychodynamic Trait Theories Learning Theories

Social Learning Theory

Bandura

Rotter

Mischel

Cardinal Traits(Allport)

Surface and Source Traits

(Cattell)

Introversion/Extroversion(Eysenck)

Psychoanalytic(Freud)

Humanistic

Unconditional Positive Regard

(Rogers)

Self-Actualization(Maslow)

Structure And Dynamics

PsychosexualDevelopment

PsychoanalyticTheories

Analytic Psyc(Jung)

Individual Psyc(adler)

Collective Unconscious

Inferiority Complex

Ego Psychologists

Neo-Freudian

Psychosocial Theory(Erikson)

Significant Others

Basic Anxiety/Hostility(Horney

Biological Theory

Radical Behaviorism(Watson/Skinner)

Personality Theories

Is Human Nature Good or Evil?

Is Man Rational or Irrational?

Is Man’s behavior Determined or Free?

Psychodynamic Evil Irrational Determined

Behavioristic and Social-cognitive

Neutral Neutral Determined

Humanisitic Good Rational Free

Psychoanalytic Theory

Personality Theories

Psychodynamic

Psychoanalytic(Freud)

Structure And Dynamics

PsychosexualDevelopment

PsychoanalyticTheories

Analytic Psyc(Jung)

Individual Psyc(adler)

Collective Unconscious

Inferiority Complex

Ego Psychologists

Neo-Freudian

Psychosocial Theory(Erikson)

Significant Others

Basic Anxiety/Hostility(Horney

Freudian Theory: Psychic Energy

Superego

Ego

Id

• Altruism Principle: what is best for others?

• Reality Principlewhat is best for everyone involved?

• Pleasure Principle: what is best for me?

EgoEgo“Joe Normal”

SuperEgoSuperEgo“The Saint”

IdId“All About Me!”

Freudian Theory: Psychic Energy

• Id: Develops first; exists in unconscious mind; wants immediate gratification– Instincts and Energy

• Eros: life instincts (sexual desire)

• Thanatos: death instincts (aggression)

• Libido: energy that directs life instincts

• Ego: Develops second; negotiates between the desires of the Id, and the limitations of the environment– Exists in conscious mind and the unconscious mind

• Superego: conscience; determines what is right, and what is wrong– Exists in conscious mind and the unconscious mind

Freudian Theory

• Personality is how we resolve the three psychic energies.– Use of Defense Mechanisms

• Essentially set in childhood based on relative success during Psychosexual Stages of development.– Oral (birth-2 years) – Anal (2-3 years)– Phallic (4-5)– Latency (5-12 years) no effect– Genital (12-19+ years)

Freudian Theory: Development Normal Development

– Oral– Anal– Phallic– Latency– Genital

[Toward Normal Adulthood]

Abnormal Development:

– Oral– Anal– Phallic– Latency– Genital

Regression: satisfies earlier stages

The Breakup

• Muffy, the captain of the high school cheerleading squad, decides to leave her boyfriend of two years, Biff, the star wide receiver of the football team, for Alvin, the star of the school’s chess team.

• Needless to say, Biff is devastated, but his ego can choose from a variety of defense mechanisms with which to protect him.

Defense Mechanisms I

• Acting Out: Reducing anxiety aroused by forbidden desires by permitting their expression– Biff begins serial-dating. (Dating multiple girls at the same

time.)

• Displacement: Redirecting one’s feelings toward another person or object. Negative emotions are often displaced onto less threatening people.– Biff could displace his feelings of anger onto his little brother,

pet hamster, or football.

• Projection: Believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself.– Biff insists that Muffy still cares for him.

Defense Mechanisms II• Emotional Insulation: Reducing self-involvement by

withdrawing into passivity to protect the self from hurt.– Biff stops going out with friends, and begins missing football games

to stay at home.

• Reaction Formation: Expressing the opposite of how one truly feels.– Biff claims he loathes Muffy.

• Regression: Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior.– Biff begins sleeping with his favorite childhood stuffed animal, “Mr.

Fuzzy”

• Rationalization: Coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable occurrence.– Biff believes that he can now find a better girlfriend, after all, Muffy

isn’t really that pretty/smart/fun to be with.

Defense Mechanisms III

• Repression: Blocking thoughts out from conscious awareness.– When asked how he feels about the breakup, Biff replies, “Who?

Oh, yeah, I haven’t thought about her in a while.”• Denial: Not accepting the ego-threatening truth.

– Biff continues to act as if he and Muffy are together. He waits by her locker, calls her, and plans their future dates.

• Intellectualism: Undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic.– Biff embarks on an in-depth research project about failed teen

romances.• Sublimation: Channeling one’s frustration toward a

different goal. – Biff devotes himself to writing poetry and publishes a small

volume before he graduates high school.

Psychodynamic Theory:Neofreudians

• Carl Jung: Believed Unconscious consisted of two parts– Personal:

painful/threatening memories that are repressed (complexes)

– Collective: archetypes passed down through the species, explaining similarities between cultures

• Ex: universal fear of the dark; importance of the circle

• Alfred Adler: focused on the conscious role of the ego, believed people were motivated by two things:– Inferiority: fear of failure– Superiority: desire to

achieveAlso, first to research the

importance of birth order on personality and development.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Activity! Woo!