CHAPTER 15 Personality The Psychoanalytic Perspective

What is personality? Personality – an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE The Psychoanalytic perspective – childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality. The Various Perspectives will be talked about for last 3 chapters and are almost guaranteed to be on the AP exam.

Sigmund Freud University of Vienna (1873) Opened a private practice specializing in nervous disorders 1900 wrote The Interpretation of Dreams Freud came to believe that our personalities, behaviors and behavior disorders are determined by drives and past psychological events. Freud developed the first comprehensive theory of personality

Freud and Psychoanalysis Arriving at psychoanalysis  Some neurological disorders may have psychological causes  Attempted to use hypnosis and dream analysis to reveal the unconscious  Began free-association (word association) Relax and say whatever comes to mind Chain of thought leads to the unconscious Freud was surprised at how many of his patients recalled sexual abuse Ultimately concluded that these memories reflected unconscious childhood wishes

The Unconscious Reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes and feelings Information of which we are unaware Freud believed thoughts that are disturbing are repressed, blocked from our consciousness. (Ex. Anger with dad) These repressed thoughts affect various aspects of our lives. Show itself as anxiety.  Ex. Freudian slips – saying one thing but meaning another Current example of a probable Freudian slip is when President Bush reportedly said in a speech he was giving to a group of teachers “ I’d like to spank all the the teachers.” We guess that he wanted to say “thank” all the teachers, but he didn't. OR calling a girlfriend by an ex-girlfriend’s name. Most psychologists believe these are caused by errors in cognition Youtube 8:30 QUOTE in blue on side of page. Show video clip of error

Freud and Personality Personality is a result of the conflict between pleasure-seeking impulses and our socially restrained world. Personality is shaped during childhood and by late adolescence has been nearly completely formed. What are the 3 pts. called? and Why does Freud use an iceberg as an analogy for the personality structure

The Id Id– The unconscious portion of personality that seeks pleasure and demands immediate gratification  Babies are driven by the id.  Rapists, murderers have an overly developed id. Some salesman, politicians, lawyers (and other careers that often involve power, money and/or human manipulation) have this.

The Superego Superego – the part of personality that focuses on internalized ideals and how one ought to behave  Partly in the conscious and partly in the unconscious  Strives for perfection, produces feelings of pride and guilt  Developed around age 4 or 5  Overdeveloped superego – virtuous, yet guilt ridden  Underdeveloped superego – self-indulgent and remorseless

Struggle between Id and Superego Q How is struggle between Id and Superego depicted in movies? (Cartoon p.578) Freud’s cultural influences- 60’s generation free love, advent of the pill, Feels right do it, make love not war. Don’t let society’s rules, guidelines/parameters repress you. Self indulgence. The ideas were good but taken too far possibly led to too much selfishness that future generations have been criticized for. Generational conflict greatest between these generations. Q How many of your parents said that they had some/lots of conflicts with their parents about issues?) 50’s generation and 60’s. The social differences these 2 generations had is related to the id/superego conflict

The Ego Ego – the part of personality that mediates between the id, superego and reality.  The personality “executive”  Partly in the conscious and partly in the unconscious  Operates on the reality principle – how can one realistically obtain pleasure?

Id, Superego, Ego and The Cat in the Hat Narrator (Sally) Cat Fish Mother

The Cat in the Hat and Personality Narrator (Sally)- fluctuate id/superego. Cat- id dominant moves toward balance by the end Fish- superego throughout Mother- represents superego through the moral ethical doctrines place on us by caregivers.

Freud and the unconscious Video Sigmund Freud: The Unconscious Mind (Short Version) – YouTube (1 st 4-5 mins.) Sigmund Freud: The Unconscious Mind (Short Version) – YouTube The Id, Ego, and Superego – YouTube

The Psychosexual Stages Personality forms in the first few years of life Psychosexual stages – the id seeks pleasure through erogenous zones  Oral (Birth – 1yr)  Anal (1yr – 3yrs.)  Phallic (3-6 yrs.)  Latency (6 – puberty)  Genital (puberty on)  Freud's Psychosexual Stages Freud's Psychosexual Stages

Oral Stage Children enjoy sucking, biting and chewing because it gives them sexual pleasure.

Anal Stage Children are sexually satisfied through bowel and bladder elimination

Phallic Stage Sexual gratification through the genitalia Oedipus complex – a boy’s sexual desire towards his mother and feelings of jealousy, hatred, and fear for the rival father Electra complex – a girl’s desire for her father and views the mother as the rival. Explained this stage that can be seen in many child-parent relationships. Penis envy – a female’s envy for a penis/ an unconscious desire to posses a penis Castration anxiety – a boy’s fear of castration if he misbehaves (potential castration by the rival father) Identification – Eventually children repress any threatening feelings and begin to identify with the rival parent. They begin to incorporate the parent’s values into their superego

Latency Stage All sexual feelings are pushed out of the conscious mind (repression). Societal values place such a disgrace on such feelings resulting in repression.

Genital Stage Seek sexual pleasure through sexual relationships with others

Fixation in one of the five stages… Fixation – Freud believed that in any of these stages one could become fixated  Due to undergratifcation or overgratification  Ex. a person underfed as a child may become fixated in the oral stage. (oral fixation) As an adult, this person may overeat, obsessively chew gum, or smoke.  Ex. a child punished too much during toilet training may become fixated in the anal stage. As an adult, this person may be anal retentive (neat, compulsive, super- organized) or anal expulsive (messy, disorganized)  Ex. an adult fixated in the phallic stage may be concerned with sexual inadequacies or display excessive sexual aggression.

The ego protects our conscious mind We must control our sexual and aggressive impulses. The ego protects the conscious mind from threatening thoughts. Defense mechanisms – the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Defense Mechanisms Repression – push thoughts out of conscious awareness. This defense mechanism underlies all others  Ex. Feeling indifferent about father (really you hate him).  Ex. Biff is asked how it’s going with Muffy and says: Who? Denial – not accepting the existence of threatening impulses  Ex. Refusing to believe you have a terminal illness or have a drinking problem.  Biff continues to wait at Muffy’s locker and plans dates.  Butler student did this exact things

Defense Mechanisms Displacement – Redirecting one’s feelings toward a less threatening object or person  Ex Parent suddenly yells at you for doing nothing wrong?  Biff throws his pet hamster against the wall.  Q Any Experiences with this? Sublimation – Channeling frustration toward a different goal. Healthier reaction than displacement  Exercising or coaching a team after being cut from college team.  Biff devotes himself to writing 10 volumes of poetry

Defense Mechanisms (cont.) Reaction Formation – Acting opposite of your unacceptable impulses  Ex. Wayne likes a girl at school but she has a boyfriend. So while Wayne is around this girl, he acts as if he dislikes her.  Biff says, “I hate Muffy” Regression – Returning to an earlier, comforting form of behavior  Ex. A 6 year old begins to act childish, clinging to a parent and crying when she has to go to school.  Most 1 st older syblings go through this when a younger sybling enters the house.  Ex. Midlife crisis..buy a fast car  Biff begins sleeping with his favorite stuffed animal fuzzy kitten.

Projection Projection – Attributing ones thoughts or impulses to another person. Picture a film projector in the unconscious mind projecting onto others ones hidden thoughts, issues. Ex. Person complains that other people are such gossipers. Ex. Studies have shown that many politicians, religious people or people who fight against pornography or homosexuality are in reality fighting their own impulses they consider immoral. HBO special on lawmakers Biff says “she still loves me”

Defense Mechanisms (cont.) Rationalization – Coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable occurrence  Ex. I flunked out of school because the teachers don’t like me.  Ex. I text and drive because I can drive equally as well texting or not.  Biff says Muffy wasn’t all that good of a girlfriend Intellectualization – Undertaking an academic, unemotional study  Ex. A woman’s family is murdered. She begins to study the psychology of murderers and research various murder cases.

Defense Mechanisms Defense Mechanisms In Movie Clips Defense Mechanism Activity in pairs

Measuring the Unconscious Remember Freud believed the unconscious could be measured through free association and dreams. Psychoanalysts believed that objective tests (self-reports or true/false questionnaires) did not reveal the unconscious.

Measuring the Unconscious Projective tests – a personality test that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projections of one’s inner dynamics  Give an ambiguous stimulus and then ask the subject to tell a story about it.

Projective Tests Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) – Developed by Henry Murray. A projective test in which people express their inner feelings through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Projective Tests Rorschach Inkblot Test – developed in 1921 by Hermann Rorschach. This is the most widely used projective test. Seeks to identify inner feelings through interpretations if the blots.  Consists of 10 patterns (some in color others in black and white).  Subject asked to tell what the inkblot might be and then explain why  Scoring On what part of the blot does the subject focus? Do colors or details affect the subject’s response? The content of responses The popularity of responses

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Projective Tests Complete a picture Fill in the Missing Parts of incomplete sentences. Doodles

Projective Tests… can the way you draw a pig predict your personality? On a scrap sheet of paper….Draw A Pig

Projective Tests Those who support projective tests believe that the tests can measure sexual and aggressive impulses and other personality features that people may try to hide. There is no obvious right answer to these tests Most agree that projective tests are not a good measure of personality. They have no set scoring procedure and cannot predict behavior or discriminate between groups.