PSYCHOLOGY: Chapter 11

Name the artist? Maybe you’ve heard his music.

Kurt Cobain Member of top grunge band of early 90’s, Nirvana Wife, daughter, fame, popularity At age 27, he took his life In his diary, he wrote, “when you wake up this morning, please read my diary. Look through my things and figure me out.”

Researchers have developed many ways of assessing personality, but even if we do gain an understanding of how we are (personality), the question of why we are that way (theories of personality) remains. Figuring someone out involves exploring PERSONALITY Personality theories help us understand the differences among people

PERSONALITY DEFINED Personality is the consistent, enduring, and unique characteristics of a person Personality traits are characteristic behaviours and feelings that are consistent and long lasting Personality States are temporary patterns of behaviour and feelings that may arise in a specific situation

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES Emphasize the unconscious (part of the mind that contains material we are unaware of, but that strongly influences behaviour) Unconscious feelings as children = impact adulthood

FREUD’S ID, EGO, SUPEREGO Freud used the Id, Ego, and Superego to try to explain how the mind functions and personality is shaped

Id instinctual & biological urges lustful, impulsive, fun – pleasure principle completely unconscious Seeks immediate gratification of impulses (what feels good) Ignores consequences Following the pleasure principle (ID) leads to conflict with others (parents) and results in the development of the EGO in the 2 nd and 3 rd year of life.

Ego Rational & thoughtful Based on the reality principle, the awareness that gratification of impulses has to be delayed in order to accommodate the demands of the real world.

Superego Responsible for society’s rules of behaviour (moral standards). Feels guilty if rules are disobeyed. Based on morality principle, must follow moral standards and rules and breaking them causes guilt.

ID – What you WANT TO DO EGO – What you CAN DO SUPEREGO – What you SHOULD DO ID & SUPEREGO are frequently in conflict. Ego must satisfy both. Rather than feel conflict or frustration when the ID’s desires & SUPEREGO’s rules cannot be satisfied, humans distort reality using DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Did Kurt Cobain write the song, “I Hate Myself and Want To Die” because of some unconscious forces that he was unaware of and had repressed? If so, how could we have explored what was in Kurt’s unconscious?

Freud believed that information in the unconscious emerges in slips of the tongue, jokes, dreams, illness symptoms, etc. These are called Freudian Slips. Freud’s techniques for exploring the Unconscious Dream interpretation Word association Psycho-analysis Ink blot tests

“Monkey see monkey do/ I don’t know why I’d rather be dead than cool” - Stay Away “Everything is my fault/I’ll take all the blame” - All Apologies Freud had trouble proving there was an unconscious, but he might have looked at these lyrics and said that Cobain was hiding some of his Unconscious feelings in his lyrics.

FREUD’S LEGACY 1 ST Person to propose unified theory to understand and explain human behaviour No theory more complete, complex, or controversial Some criticize his theory for being impossible to test Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was the predecessor of all later personality theories Oedipus complex*

Oedipus Complex

Defense Mechanisms As you know, Freud proposed that our Id (what we want) and our Superego (what we should do) are often in conflict. He also suggested that we rely on 6 defense mechanisms to help us deal with these conflicts.

IN FREUD’S FOOTSTEPS…. Carl Jung Freud’s personal successor before relationship ended because Jung disagreed with Freud’s emphasis on sexual urges The Collective unconscious (part of the mind that contains inherited instincts, urges, and memories common to all people) holds Archetypes (an inherited idea based on experiences of one’s ancestors, which shapes one’s personality) Jung believed we fit our personalities to our Archetypes OTHER PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES

ALFRED ADLER Believed people are driven to overcome feelings of inferiority Inferiority Complex – when a person continually tries to compensate for his weakness and avoid feelings of inadequacy.

4 PERSONALITY THEORIES 1. Psycho-analytical theories (Freud) 2. Behavioural theories (B.F. Skinner) 3. Humanist theories (Maslow) 4. Trait theories

B.F. SKINNER Behaviourist Personality arises from Operant conditioning (specifically reinforcement) What is the behaviour and what causes (reinforces) it?

HUMANISTIC THEORIES Believe all humans strive for self-actualization, or the realization of their potential Becoming true to oneself and having an ability to grow

TRAIT THEORIES Try to explain consistency and normal, healthy behaviour in different situations Trait - relatively stable and enduring tendency to behave in a particular way Traits apply to all people. Can quantify traits (scale 1-10 how nice are you)

BIG FIVE TRAIT THEORY Current popular belief; all personality traits derive from five basic personality traits EXTRAVERSION AGREEABLENESS CONSCIENTIOUSNESS OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE NEUROTICISM

OCEAN

PERSONALITY TESTS – WHY? Personality Tests ASSESS an individual’s CHARACTERISTICS and IDENTIFY PROBLEMS. They can help PREDICT future behaviour.

OBJECTIVE PERSONALITY TESTS A limited- or –forced choice test in which a person must select on of several answers MMPI-2 – Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MPI) – Most widely used objective test 567 questions divided into groups. People answer true, false, cannot say. Originally to help diagnose mental disorders MBTI - Myers-Briggs Test – Rate personality on four scales Extraversion vs. Introversion Intuition vs. Sensing Feeling vs. Thinking Judging vs. Perceiving

PROJECTIVE PERSONALITY TESTS Require subjects to respond to pictures and phrases that can be interpreted in many different ways. Rorschach Test – series of ten inkblots that subjects look at and determine what they see. Most widely used. What do you see in this picture? (TAT) Thematic Apperception Test – series of pictures containing a variety of vague but suggestive scenes. 2 nd most widely used