• Interview
Adv = tailored to the individual’s previous
answers
Disadv = low reliability
• Observation
• Self-report
focus on the # of time a particular behavior occurs –
good reliability
10 primary scales measure personality dimensions
used to diagnose psychological disorders
•Projective Techniques
individual provides an interpretation of
ambiguous material (subjective)
Personality
A person’s pattern of thinking,
feeling and acting.
1. Explain Sigmund Freud’s
structural concepts of personality.
2. Describe Carl Jung and other
Neo-Freudian’s theory of
personality.
Psychoanalytic Perspective
founder of the theory
emphasized the power of the
unconscious & believed the mind
(psyche) functioned at 3 levels…
• the unconscious
•the preconscious
•the conscious
Our Personality
• Conscious- things we
are aware of.
• Preconscious- things
we can be aware of if
we think of them.
• Unconscious- deep
hidden reservoir that
holds the true “us”.
All of our desires and
fears.
Freud's Early Exploration into
the Unconscious
• Used hypnosis and free
association (relax and
say it all) to delve into
unconscious.
• Mapped out the “mental
dominoes” of the patients
past in a process he
called psychoanalysis.
Freud's Personality Structure
• Ego
• Superego
• Id
Id
• Unconscious energy
that drives us to
satisfy basic sexual
and aggressive drives.
• Id operates on the
pleasure principle,
demanding immediate
gratification.
Id
• Exists entirely in the
unconscious (so we are
never aware of it).
• Our hidden true
animalistic wants and
desires.
• Works on the
Pleasure Principle
• Avoid Pain and receive
Instant Gratification.
Superego
• Part of personality
that represents our
internalized ideals.
• Standards of
judgment or our
morals.
Superego
• Develops last at
about the age of 5
• It is our conscience
(what we think the
difference is
between right and
wrong)
• The Ego often
mediates between
the superego and id.
Ego
• The boss
“executive” of the
conscious.
• Its job is to
mediate the desires
of the Id and
Superego.
• Called the “reality
principle”.
Ego
If you want to be with someone. Your id says just take
them, but your ego does not want to end up in jail.
• Develops after the Id
• Works on the Reality
Principle
• Negotiates between
the Id and the
environment.
• In our conscious and
unconscious minds.
• It is what everyone
sees as our
personality.
Freud's Stages of
Psychosexual Development
•
•
•
•
• Fathered by Sigmund
FreudFreud.
believed that your
• Idea of the Libido moving
personality
developed
in your childhood.
to different
parts of our
body.
Mostly
from unresolved problems in the
• Stages of Psycho-Sexual
early Development
childhood.
1. Oral
Believed
that children pass through a
2. Anal
series
of psychosexual stages.
3. Phallic
4. Latent
The5.idGenital
focuses it’s libido (sexual energy)
on a different erogenous zone.
Oral Stage
• 0-18 months
• Pleasure center is
on the mouth.
• Sucking, biting
and chewing.
Anal Stage
• 18-36 months
• Pleasure focuses on
bladder and bowel
control.
• Controlling ones life
and independence.
• Anal retentive
Phallic Stage
• 3-6 years
• Pleasure zone is
the genitals.
• Coping with
incestuous
feelings.
• Oedipus and
Electra complexes.
Latency Stage
• 6- puberty
• Dormant sexual
feeling.
• Cooties stage.
Genital Stage
• Puberty to death.
• Maturation of
sexual interests.
• Lifelong partner…
Fixation
• A lingering focus of
pleasure-seeking
energies at an earlier
psychosexual stage.
• Where conflicts were
unresolved.
Orally fixated people may need to chain smoke or chew gum.
Or denying the dependence by acting tough or being very sarcastic.
Anally fixated people can either be anal expulsive or anal retentive.
Defense Mechanisms
• The ego’s protective methods of
reducing anxiety by distorting reality.
• Never aware they are occurring.
• Seven major types.
Repression
• The Mac Daddy defense
mechanism.
• Push or banish anxiety
driven thought deep
into unconscious.
• Why we do not
remember lusting after
our parents.
• “Keeping distressing
thoughts and feelings
buried in the
unconscious.”
Regression
• When faced with anxiety
the person retreats to a
more infantile stage.
• Thumb sucking on the
first day of school.
“A reversion to immature
patterns of behavior.”
Reaction Formation
• Ego switches
unacceptable
impulses into their
opposites.
• Being mean to
someone you have a
crush on.
• it entails behaving
completely contrary to
how one truly feels
Projection
• Disguise your own
threatening impulses by
attributing them to
others.
• Thinking that your spouse
wants to cheat on you
when it is you that really
want to cheat.
• “Attributing one’s own
thoughts, feelings, or
motives to another.”
Rationalization
• Offers self-adjusting
explanations in place
of real, more
threatening reasons
for your actions.
• You don’t get into a
college and say, “I
really did not want to
go there it was too far
away!!”
• Creating false but
plausible excuses to
justify unacceptable
behavior.”
Displacement
• Shifts the
unacceptable
impulses towards a
safer outlet.
• “Diverting emotional
feelings (usually
anger) from their
original source to a
substitute target.”
Sublimation
• Re-channel their
unacceptable impulses
towards more acceptable or
socially approved activities.
• Channel feeling of
homosexuality into
aggressive sports play.
• “The transformation of
unwanted impulses into
something less harmful”
A surgeon turns aggressive
energies and deep desires to cut
people into life-saving acts.
IDENTIFYING DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Label each statement with the correct defense mechanism from the list:
A. Repression
B. Denial
C. Reaction Formation
D. Rationalization
E. Displacement
F. Sublimation
G. Projection
C
____1.
Sarah is heavily involved with an anti-pornography campaign & fights her own erotic interest in it. She
A hopes her campaign will convince others of her purity.
____2. A young woman who was assaulted & raped a number of years ago in a terrifying attack has forgotten the
incident.
E
____3. Your boss yelled at you, you yelled at your co-worker, your co-worker yelled at his wife , his wife spanked
the kid & the kid kicked the dog.
G
____4.”Stop asking me ! I don’t want any ice cream. I think YOU want more ice cream!”
____5.
Eduardo reads an article about skin cancer. He goes home & examines the marks on his leg. He then
B
comments to his friend on the tendency for his family to have very dark moles with irregular borders.
D
___6. Joshua had a bad semester & was put on academic probation. Instead of returning to college, he quite to
“pursue something worthwhile.”
E
___7. Mia is usually an angry, hostile person. But since she’s been playing on the volleyball team her mood has
improved.
D You got fired & couldn’t make your car insurance payments, so you’re riding your bike. You tell friends, “I
___8.
really prefer to ride my bike. I need the exercise.”
C
___9. A young woman who finds herself attracted to other women proclaims that she hates lesbians & joins a
vicious anti-gay group.
B
___10. The parents of Jim say that “everyone goes through a drinking stage; it’s not a problem” even though Jim
just received his third DUI.
A
___11. Soldiers exposed to traumatic experiences in concentration camps sometimes had amnesia & were unable
F to recall any of their ordeal.
___12. A priest converts his sexual energy into running a busy soup kitchen to feed the poor.
G A woman with a strong sexual drive constantly criticizes her female co-workers for dressing seductively &
___13.
flirting.
How do we assess the
unconscious?
We can use hypnosis or free
association.
But more often we use projective
tests.
Projective Tests
• A personality test.
• Provides an ambiguous stimuli
designed to trigger projection of
one’s inner dynamics.
Examples Are:
TAT
Thematic Apperception Test
• A projective test which people
express their inner feelings through
stories they make about ambiguous
scenes
TAT
Rorschach Inkblot Test
• The most widely used projective
test
•A set of ten inkblots designed to
identify people’s feelings when
they are asked to interpret what
they see in the inkblots.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Neo-Freudians
• Psychologists that took some premises
from Freud and built upon them.
Alfred Adler
Karen Horney
Carl Jung
Alfred Adler
• Childhood is important
to personality.
• But focus should be on
social factors- not
sexual ones.
• Our behavior is driven
by our efforts to
conquer inferiority and
feel superior.
• Inferiority Complex
Karen Horney
• Childhood anxiety is
caused by a dependent
child’s feelings of
helplessness.
• This triggers our desire
for love and security.
• Fought against Freud’s
“penis envy” concept.
• “power envy”
Carl Jung
• Less emphasis on social
factors.
• Focused on the
unconscious.
• We all have a collective
unconscious: a
shared/inherited well of
memory traces from our
species history.
comfortable socializing
lots of friends
fired-up by contact w/people
physical / material
world (85%)
reality – factual
down-to-earth
use their head
hard data & reasoning
straightforward
stick to their guns
follow routines
commit to schedules
make minds up quickly
establish deadlines & make lists
comfortable alone
few, long-time friends
energy from private activities
abstract
daydreamer
vivid & complex imaginations
emotional
concern for others
decisions are influenced
don’t want to hurt anyone
spontaneous
clutter is OK
look for opportunities
followers who later revised Freud’s theory
generally agreed
with Freud but
broke away
because they each
emphasized
different issues,
such as the
formation of the 1st
five years & the role
of social & cultural
issues
“inferiority complex”
& the compensating
“will-to-power”
“collective
unconscious”
&”archetypes”
“basic anxiety” &
“power envy”
Erik Erikson
• Eight stages of personality development
– Trust vs. mistrust
– Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
– Initiative vs. guilt
– Industry vs. inferiority
– Identity vs. role confusion
– Intimacy vs. isolation
– Generativity vs. stagnation
– Ego integrity vs. despair