1. Chapter 15: Personality

2. Personality: An individual’s unique, consistent, patterned methods of behaving in relation to the environment
What words are important in that definition?
Unique
Consistent
Pattern

3. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Sigmund Freud ( ) Background
Victorian Era
Prim and Proper
Position
View on sex

4. The Psychoanalytic Approach
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 embarrassing. Freud began to use Free Association to unlock the unconscious when he realized that not all his patients were capable of being hypnotized.

5. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Psychoanalysis
Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

6. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Three Levels of the Mind

7. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Conscious:
All our thoughts and perceptions of which we are currently aware

8. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Preconscious: A level of mental activity that is not currently conscious but of which we can easily become conscious
Examples: memories, stored knowledge

9. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Unconscious: Region of the mind that is a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, desires, feelings, and painful memories
Examples: immoral urges, violent motives, shameful experiences, selfish needs, fears, drives, etc.

11. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Unconscious
Freudian Slips:
an unconscious error or oversight in writing, speech, or action that is held to be caused by unacceptable impulses breaking through the ego’s defenses and
exposing the individual’s
true wishes or feelings.

12. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Freud’s Dream Theory
Why do we dream? We dream to fulfill unconscious, socially unacceptable urges
What’s the problem with dreaming openly? If we dreamed openly we would have the same anxiety and embarrassment as we would if we consciously thought about it

13. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Two types of dream content
Manifest Content: The part of the dream we can recall. The plot line of the dream. The surface/literal meaning of the dream
Latent Content: The true hidden meaning of the dream, which can only be discovered through dream interpretation and by analyzing the symbols and stripping away the displacement

14. The Psychoanalytic Approach
How do we disguise our dreams?
Symbols: Something that stands for something else
Displacement: When we shift our attention away from the true meaning of the dream onto a seemingly insignificant part

15. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Id, Ego, Superego (three parts of the personality)

16. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Freud believed that the 3 parts of the personality overlapped and should not be separated and analyzed separately. He believed one was an outgrowth of the other. ID
Ego
Superego

17. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Id: The part of the personality that emerges first. When we are an infant we are almost all Id
Pleasure Principle: the Id is hedonistic. It seeks pleasure and avoids pain
Energy Source: the Id is the major source for all psychological energy

18. The Psychoanalytic ApproachId
Drives and Instincts: basic inborn needs
Libido: the sex drive
Aggression:
Thanatos: the death instinct
Eros: love for life

19. The Psychoanalytic ApproachId
Primary Process: the need for immediate and instant gratification

20. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Ego: the second part of the personality to emerge. It is more logical and practical than the id
Reality Principle:
the ego’s awareness of
the external world
Secondary Process:
the ability to delay
gratification

21. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Super Ego: The sense of morality
Ego Ideal: the child’s
perception of what
they think their parents
think is morally good
Conscience: the child’s
perception of what they
think their parents think
is morally bad

22. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Superego
Identification: the process of associating the self closely with other individuals and their characteristics or views. Identification operates largely on the unconscious level.

23. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Stages of Development: Freud believed that an individual develops through a series of five Psychosexual Stages. Each of these stages was associated with the part of the body that gave the individual the most pleasure at that time.

24. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Oral Stage (Birth – 18 months)
Pleasure comes from the
mouth—sucking, biting,
chewing

25. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Anal Stage (18 months-3 years old):
Pleasure focuses on bowel
and bladder function;
the child must cope with
demands for control

26. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Fixation: Being stuck in a psychosexual stages.
Fixation can occur because of either too much or too little pleasure in a stage.

27. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Anal Retentive: The anal retentive person is neat, orderly, organized, and overly concerned with CONTROL
This is caused by too strict of toilet training
resulting in a lack of pleasure
Anal Expulsive: The anal expulsive person is messy, disorganized,
It is caused by too lax toilet training
resulting in too much pleasure

28. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Phallic Stage (3-6 years):
The pleasure zone is
the genitals; the
child must cope with
incestuous feelings

29. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Oedipus Complex:
A pattern described by Freud
in which a boy has sexual
desire for his mother and
wants to eliminate his
father’s competition for
her attention
What does a child learn from this stage?

30. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Latency Stage (6 years old-puberty):
During this stage sexual impulses stay in the background as the child focuses on education, same-sex
peer play, and the
development of social
skills

31. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Genital Stage (Puberty )
It is during this stages that sexual impulses appear at the conscious level

32. Defense Mechanisms
See Handout

33. Defense Mechanisms Definitions
The Ego’s way of satisfying the id without overstepping the bounds of the superego
The Ego’s unconscious attempt to defend against our anxiety

34. Defense Mechanisms Four aspects of all defense mechanisms
They are all unconscious
They all involve self-deception
They all give us time to get over anxiety producing events in our life
They are all normal methods of dealing with our anxiety if……

35. NAME OF DEFENSE MECHANISM DEFINITION EXAMPLE
RATIONALIZATION
Sweet Lemons
Sour Grapes
We give ourselves false reassurances about an anxiety producing experience in order to reduce our anxiety.
What we have we love and think is great
What we can’t have we tell ourselves we didn’t want anyway.
REACTION FORMATION
We act in a manner that is completely opposite of how we are truly feeling.
REPRESSION
Unconsciously blocking unpleasant or anxiety producing thoughts from consciousness.
*SUPPRESSION
When we consciously avoid thinking about something.

36. NAME OF DEFENSE MECHANISM
DEFINITION
EXAMPLE
PROJECTION
The tendency to see in others the undesirable traits and qualities that we possess.
IDENTIFICATION
Identifying with a group by taking on some of their behaviors.
DISPLACEMENT
Taking our anxiety out on other, safer objects.
SUBLIMATION
We find socially acceptable ways to fulfill socially unacceptable urges.
REGRESSION
Returning to earlier modes of dealing with anxiety.

37. FANTASY/ DREAMS/ ESCAPE UNDOING COMPENSATION DENIAL
Avoiding anxiety by escaping into a fantasy/dream world
UNDOING
Reducing anxiety by making amends for unethical thoughts or deeds.
COMPENSATION
We pursue success in one area to reduce our anxiety about our failure in another.
DENIAL
Defending against anxiety-producing realities by failing to perceive or recognize them.

38. Identifying Defense Mechanisms
My girlfriend recently broke up with me after we had dated seriously
for several years. At first, I cried a great deal and locked myself in my
room, where I pouted endlessly. I was sure that my former girlfriend
felt as miserable as I did. I told several friends that she was probably
lonely and depressed. Later, I decided that I hated her. I was happy
about the breakup and talked about how much I was going to enjoy my
newfound freedom. I went to parties and socialized a great deal and
just forgot about her. It’s funny—at one point I couldn’t even
remember her phone number! Then I started pining for her again. But
eventually I began to look at the situation more objectively. I realized
that she had many faults and that we were bound to break up sooner or
later, so I was better off without her.

39. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Neo-Freudians: Followers of Freud who kept the main points of his theory but proposed changes. Some noted Neo-Freudians are:
Carl Jung
Alfred Adler
Karen Horney
Erik Erikson

40. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Neo-Freudians
Points of agreement
Three personality structure of the id, ego & superego
The importance of the unconscious
The shaping of personality in childhood

41. The Psychoanalytic Approach
Neo-Freudians
Points of disagreement
The overemphasis of the importance of sex
The underemphasis of the conscious mind

42. Psychodynamic Theorists
Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology)
Believed that social tensions are more important than sexual tensions. He said we are motivated by a striving for superiority which is triggered by feelings of inferiority

43. Psychodynamic Theorists
Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology)
Feelings of Inferiority: Normal feelings of inadequacy that are brought on by childhood dependence
Inferiority Complex:
The inability to overcome
feelings of inadequacy

44. Psychodynamic Theorists
Karen Horney (Horn- eye)
She believed that we are driven
by feelings of basic anxiety
(Feelings of being isolated and
helpless in a potentially hostile world). These feelings of basic anxiety arise out of parental indifference and inconsistency

45. Psychodynamic Theorists
Karen Horney
Horney also objected to Freud’s chauvinistic view of psychology. She objected to his assumption of penis envy and countered that instead, men have “womb envy”

46. Psychodynamic Theorists
Carl Jung (Analytical Psychology):
Like Freud he believed in the importance of the unconscious. He termed the unconscious that Freud described the “personal unconscious”

47. Psychodynamic Theorists
Carl Jung (Analytical Psychology):
Collective Unconscious: The part of the unconscious that, according to Jung, is common to all humankind and contains the inherited accumulation of primitive human experiences in the form of ideas and images called archetypes

49. Psychodynamic Theorists
Carl Jung
Introvert:
An introvert is a person whose thoughts and feelings are directed inward. He/she withdraws interest from external world and typically spends little time interacting with others
Extrovert:
An extrovert is an outgoing individual who wants to interact with others and stay in touch with events in the outside world. They are out-going, sociable, and excitement-seeking

51. Psychodynamic Theorists
Erik Erikson vs Freud

52. Assessing Unconscious Processes
Projective Tests: Methods of studying the personality by confronting the subject with a situation to which he will respond according to what the situation means to him. A projective test evokes from the subject what is in various ways expressive of his private world and personality process. The techniques are “response-free” in the sense that there is no right or wrong responses. The techniques present relatively ambiguous stimuli to the examinee.

53. Assessing Unconscious Processes
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
One of the most popular projective tests, it is a picture-story test consisting of 20 pictures with alternative for some of them (for women, men, girls and boys). Most of the pictures are of clearly recognizable people of different ages and both sexes in some form of interaction or relationship. It is believed that in the telling of these stories participants reveal their attitudes, feelings, conflicts, motivation for achievement, power, and personality characteristics. The participant is told that the narrative should have a beginning, a middle, and ending.

54. Assessing Unconscious Processes
Rorschach Test
The test was first introduced in 1921 when Herman Rorschach presented his 10 inkblots. The reliability of this test as an assessment tool has been questioned.

55. Assessing Unconscious Processes
Word Association:
This test was the first adopted projective technique. It was first used clinically by Carl Jung. The subject is presented with a standard series of words and is asked to respond to each word with the first association (word) that comes to mind. Both content and style are interpreted clinically

56. Assessing Unconscious Processes
Sentence Completion:
This test is a relatively structured verbal method where incomplete sentences are presented to the examinee who is instructed to finish them as quickly as possible. This partial sentence limits the degrees of freedom of the respondent much more than the other methods such as the TAT or Rorschach do.
e.g., “I feel upset when ”;
“What burns me up is . . .

57. Assessing Unconscious Processes
Expression
The subject is given the instruction to draw a picture. Often times they are asked to draw a picture of him/herself and a person of the opposite sex.

58. Dear Ms. Davis, I want to be very clear on my child's illustration
Dear Ms. Davis, I want to be very clear on my child's illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This drawing is of me.... selling a shovel. Mrs. Harrington

59. Assessing Unconscious Processes
Criticism of Projective Tests
The subjects’ responses must be interpreted. This interpretation varies with the examiner who must be careful not to “project” his/her own attitudes and expectations onto the responses. Therefore, it has poor interjudge reliability

60. Humanistic Perspective Claim: Humanism and Psychoanalysis are opposing viewpoints.
Humanism vs Psychoanalysis
Optimistic
Non-mechanistic
Here-and-now

61. Humanistic Perspective
Maslow’s Humanistic
Psychology
If you want a healthy psychology, study healthy people. If you want a sick psychology, study sick people

62. Humanistic Perspective
Examples of self-actualized people according to Maslow: Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

63. Humanistic Perspective
Characteristics of a Self-Actualized Person
Accepting of self & reality
Spontaneous
Creative
Has quality relationships
Lives in the moment
Takes calculated risks

64. Humanistic Perspective
Abraham Maslow
Self-Actualization: the full use and exploitation of talent, capacities, potentialities, such that the individual develops to maximum self-realization, ideally integrating physical, social, intellectual, and emotional needs.
Peak Experiences: Individuals who are self-actualized often have what Maslow termed peak experiences, or moments of intense joy, wonder, awe and ecstasy. After these experiences, people feel inspired, strengthened, renewed or transformed.

65. Basic: Food, Shelter, Water, Clothing, Sleep
Safety: Protection, Law & Order, Limits, Stability, Financial Security
Love: Family, Affection, Relationships, Work Groups, Teams
Esteem: Achievement, Status, Responsibility, Reputation, confidence
Self-Actualization: Personal Growth, Fulfillment, Self-sufficiency, Authenticity, “Becoming all you can be”

66. Humanistic Perspective
Deficiency Orientation:
A preoccupation with a perceived need for material things.
People coming to perceive life as disappointing and boring

67. Humanistic Perspective
Growth Orientation:
People with a growth
orientation do not focus
on what is missing,
instead they are satisfied
with what they have, are,
and can do

68. Humanistic Perspective
Roger’s Person Centered Perspective
Fully Functioning Person
(FFP): A person has an
innate tendency toward
realizing his/her
potentialities

69. Humanistic Perspective
Unconditional Love/ Positive Regard: a child will develop a positive self-concept if parents and authority figures provide an attitude of total acceptance of the child regardless of his/her actions (faults and failings)
Conditions of Worth: judgments about the kinds of behaviors that will bring approval from others (this is a universal need and a prerequisite for healthy development)

70. Humanistic Perspective
Self-Concept:
all our thoughts and
feelings about ourselves,
in answer to the question,
“Who am I?”

71. Humanistic Perspective
Assessing the Self
Humanistic psychologists assess personality through questionnaires (Q-sort) on which people report their self-concept. One questionnaire asks people to compare their actual self with their ideal self. Other humanistic psychologists maintain that we can only understand each person’s unique experience through interviews and intimate conversations

72. Humanistic Perspective
Evaluating the Humanistic Perspective
It is vague: For example, the description of self-actualizing people seems more a reflection of Maslow’s personal values than a scientific description.
It can lead to self-indulgence and selfishness
It fails to appreciate the reality of the human capacity for evil: It is naively optimistic and may lead to apathy about major social problems

73. The Trait Perspective Trait Type
an enduring personality characteristic that describes or determines an individual’s behavior across a range of situations
Type
discrete categories (a person is one type or another)

74. The Trait Perspective Types
Hippocrates was the first person who described personality types during the time of the
ancient Greeks. The four types he describes were related to bodily fluids (humors)
Sanguine (optimistic)
Phlegmatic (slow, lethargic)
Melancholic (sad, depressive)
Choleric (angry, irritable)

75. The Trait Perspective Types
William Sheldon and physiognomy he studied the link between personality and physique
Endomorph: heavy, round, lack of anxiety, pursuit of pleasure, eager to please
Ectomorph: light, delicate physique, inhibited, nervous, intellectual
Mesomorph: muscular, extraversion, aggressiveness

76. The Trait Perspective

77. The Trait Perspective Factor Analysis (Eysenck)
This is a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of behaviors that tend to appear together. For instance, Hans and Sybil Eysenck reduced normal variations to three genetically influenced dimensions

78. The Trait Perspective Introversion – Extraversion
Introversion: a person whose thoughts and feelings are directed inward. He/she withdraws interest from the external world and typically spends little time interacting with others.

79. The Trait Perspective
Introversion: Characteristics: feeling hurt easily, daydreaming frequently, blushing often, keeping in the background on social occasions, worrying over possible misfortune, showing great concern over what others think of you, being extremely careful of personal property

80. The Trait Perspective
Extroverts: an outgoing individual who wants to interact with others and stay in touch with events in the outside world. They are outgoing, sociable, and excitement seeking

81. The Trait Perspective Extroverts:
Characteristics: not feeling hurt easily, making friends easily, being the “life of the party”, not worrying a great deal, laughing frequently and easily, preferring oral reports rather than written reports, being a good loser

82. The Trait Perspective
Emotionally unstable (neurotic)-emotionally stable
Emotionally unstable (neurotic): Unstable: moodiness, restlessness, worry, anxiety
Emotionally stable: Calm, even-tempered, relaxed,

83. The Trait Perspective
Criminals: are high on instability and high on extraversion
Anxiety disorders: high on instability and high on introversion

84. The Trait Perspective
Zeon knows all of the answers in class. He confidently raises his hand. However, when the teacher does not call on him immediately, Zeon shouts out the answer before his classmates can.

85. The Trait Perspective
Chuck loves to play “Call of Duty.” He sits in his room hour after hour playing his game. When Chuck’s parents ask him to stop, he saves the game and shuts down.

86. The Trait Perspective
Suzy is a junior on the varsity basketball team. Her teammates chose her as a co-captain. On senior night, Suzy graciously offers to sit on the bench so her senior teammates may play in front of their parents.

87. The Trait Perspective
Zelda spends hours documenting her angst in her diary. She records every slight, real and imagined, that has occurred throughout the day. When her parents call her to dinner, she eats without interacting with any family members.

88. The Trait Perspective
Biology and Personality (the brain activity scans suggest that introverts and extroverts differ in their level of arousal)
Extraverts: seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal level is relatively low
Autonomic Nervous System: if a person has a reactive autonomic nervous system they will respond to stress with greater anxiety and inhibition

89. Assessing Traits Personality Inventories:
questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) designed to gage a wide range of feelings and behaviors; they are often used to assess selected personality traits.

90. Assessing Traits MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)
This inventory was first published in 1940 and is now one of the most widely used self-report tools for assessing personality. The version currently in used (MMPI ), features 567 true-false questions that assess symptoms, attitudes, and beliefs that relate to emotional and behavioral problems. This inventory includes scales for assessing hypochondria, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviate, anxiety, to name a few

91. Assessing Traits Empirically derived test:
a test that is developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups

92. OPENNESS EXTRA-VERSION AGREEABLE-NESS Rich fantasy life Competent
CONSCIENTIOUS-NESS
EXTRA-VERSION
AGREEABLE-NESS
NEUROTICISM
Rich fantasy life
Competent
Outgoing
Trusting
Anxious
Rich emotional life
Orderly
Positive
Emotions
Straightforward
Self-conscious
Action-oriented
Dutiful
Assertive
Compliant
Depressed
Novel Ideas
Self-disciplined
Full of Energy
Modest
Hostile
Eccentric
Deliberate
Excitement
Seeking
Tender-minded
Impulsive
Idiosyncratic
Achievement-
Oriented
Warm
Altruistic
Vulnerable

93. The Trait Perspective The Big Five Factors
The Big Five does a more thorough job of describing personality.
Openness: imaginative, prefers variety, independent
Conscientiousness: organized, careful, disciplined
Extraversion: sociable, fun-loving, affectionate
Agreeableness: soft-hearted, trusting, helpful
Neuroticism: (on the instability end): anxious, insecure, self-pitying

95. The Trait Perspective The Big Five Factors
How stable are these traits?
For the most part they are stable in adulthood, with a bit variance. For instance, conscientiousness increases during the twenties, while emotional instability decreases
How heritable are they?
They are largely heritable (50% of variance can be attributed to genes)

96. The Trait Perspective The Big Five Factors
How well do they apply to various cultures?
They are common to all cultures
Do the Big Five traits predict other personal attributes?
They are good predictors of other personalities a attributes (ex: highly conscientious people are likely to be morning types, extraverted slightly more likely to be night owls)

97. The Trait Perspective Evaluating the Trait Perspective
Critics say that human behavior varies widely from situation to situation (so traits are not always good predictors of behavior).
Defenders say that overall, behavior is consistent. They also suggest that our traits influence our thinking, health, and our job performance.

98. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
(advanced by Alfred Bandura and Walter Mischel)
Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons (and their thinking) and their social context
Reciprocal determinism: Personality is shaped by the interaction of 3 forces
Environment
Behavior
Cognition (thoughts)

99. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Three ways in which individuals and environments interact:
Different people choose different environments
Our personalities shape how we interpret and react to events
Our personalities help create situations to which we react

100. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Personal Control: our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless
Self-Efficacy: is our conviction that we can perform the actions necessary to produce an intended behavior)

101. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Internal vs. External Locus of Control
(Julian Rotter)
External Locus of Control
the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate

102. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Internal vs. External Locus of Control
Internal Locus of Control
the perception that one controls one’s own life
Those with an internal locus achieve more in school, are more independent, enjoy better health, and feel less depressed than those with an external locus of control

103. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Learned Helplessness Versus Personal Control
One would expect people suffering from learned helplessness to have an external locus of control.
When people feel like they have more control (workers believing that they have a say in decision making) they have better health and better morale.

104. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Learned Helplessness Versus Personal Control
Lack of motivation and failure to act after exposure to unpleasant events or stimuli over which the individual has no control. Individuals learn that they cannot control their environment, and this may lead them to fail to make use of any control options that are available. (Learned helplessness is a risk factor for depression)

105. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Optimism Versus Pessimism
Our attributional style (that is our way of explaining positive and negative events) can reveal how effective or helpless we feel. For example, those who optimistically see setbacks as flukes rather than as signs of incompetence are likely to be more persistent and successful.
Optimists have been found to outlive pessimists, as well as to have fewer illnesses.
Excessive optimism, however, can lead to complacency and can blind us to real risks.

106. The Social-Cognitive Perspective
Assessing Behavior in Situations
Social-cognitive researchers observe how people’s behaviors and beliefs both affect and are affected by their situations. They have found that the best way to predict someone’s behavior in a given situation is to observe that person’s behavior pattern in similar situations.

107. Other vocabulary words from this chapter
Spotlight Effect
overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)
Example: giving speeches in class

108. Other vocabulary words from this chapter
Self-esteem
one’s feelings of high or low self-worth

109. Other vocabulary words from this chapter
Self-serving bias:
a readiness to perceive oneself favorably
People accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for successes than for failures. Also, most people see themselves as better than average on nearly all socially desirable dimensions.

110. Signal Cards to Check for Understanding
Charles is 19 years old. He is the first person in his family to go to college. His grades last semester were very poor. He decides that rather than go back to college, he will join his family’s carpentry business.

111. Signal Cards to Check for Understanding
Charles has learned that he is not a good college student. It seems that no matter how hard he studies he doesn’t earn good grades. Consequently he has learned to be helpless. Since he doesn’t succeed no matter how hard he tries he has stopped trying and dropped out.

112. Signal Cards to Check for Understanding
Charles is aware that he is not doing well in college. He has the free will to drop out of college if he wants. He believes that to realize his potentiality he needs to be the best he can be. He has come to realize that he is more suited for carpentry where he will experience success and have the chance to be the best carpenter he can be.

113. Signal Cards to Check for Understanding
Charles does not enjoy being a poor college student. He sees his friends who work full time buying nice cars, expensive electronics and fashionable clothes. Charles is emphasizing the material goods he is lacking as opposed to the knowledge he is gaining. Charles also feels that college is boring because he doesn’t perceive any of his classes as being meaningful to his personal growth.

114. Signal Cards to Check for Understanding
Unconsciously Charles has felt rejected by his parents since childhood. He feels the need for their love and approval but has a conflict between what he really wants to do (go to college) and what his parents want him to do (join the family carpentry business). He unconsciously sabotages his college career by getting bad grades so that he has no choice but to drop out and join the family carpentry business.

115. Signal Cards to Check for Understanding
Charles has always been a bright, conscientious student. So college seemed like the logical step after high school. However, Charles lacks self-confidence, is introverted, and is not very open to new experiences. Additionally, he has always been one to submit to other people’s demands. These personality characteristics make it difficult for him to experience success in college. Dropping out of college will fit with the pattern of behavior shown in his childhood.

116. Signal Cards to Check for Understanding
Charles does not enjoy being a poor college student. He sees his friends who work full time buying nice cars, expensive electronics and fashionable clothes. Charles is emphasizing the material goods he is lacking as opposed to the knowledge he is gaining. Charles also feels that college is boring because he doesn’t perceive any of his classes as being meaningful to his personal growth.

117. A Personal Appraisal External environment Temperament
Conscious Awareness
Childhood Experiences
Rewards and Punishments
Abilities
Organization of Reality
Interpretation of experience

118. A Personal Appraisal The self Unconscious motives Observable behavior
Enduring characteristics
Expectations
Subjective Feelings
Sexual Instincts