1. Personality: What makes us different?
An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

2. Psychoanalytic perspective of Personality: Freud

3. Sigmund Freud Austrian physician
Worked with patients who had nervous disorders
Complaints could not be explained by physical causes
A patient who lost all feeling in their hand, yet had no nerve damage
Could neurological disorders have psychological causes?
Created the first comprehensive view of personality
Major components of his theory:
Unconscious mind
Psychosexual stages
Defense mechanisms
Free association and psychoanalysis

4. Believed that..
A person’s thoughts and behaviors emerge from tension generated by unconscious instincts/drives and unresolved childhood conflicts
Sexual instinct = ANY form of pleasure
Nothing is accidental
Freudian slips: A financially stressed patient (when given pills to take) – “I don’t want any large bills, because I cannot swallow them.”

5. View of the mind
Conscious Mind - the thoughts and feelings one is currently aware of
Preconscious Mind - region of the mind holding information that is not conscious but is retrievable into conscious awareness
Unconscious Mind - region of the mind that includes unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories
These have been repressed (forcibly blocked) because they would be too unsettling to acknowledge
Most of the mind is hidden
Could be tapped through free association

6. Model of Mind
The mind is like an iceberg. It is mostly hidden, and below the surface lies the unconscious mind. The preconscious stores temporary memories.

7. Exploring the unconscious
Free Association: saying whatever comes to mind; a chain of thoughts that leads to painful, embarrassing, unconscious memories
This is psychoanalysis (Freud’s form of therapy)
Dream Analysis: Interpreting manifest and latent content of dreams
Manifest: actual happenings of dream
Latent: unconscious wishes present in the dream

8. Personality Structure
Our personalities arise from a conflict between impulse and restraint
Need to express impulses in ways that bring satisfaction without also bringing guilt or punishment
Composed of three interacting systems: id, ego, superego

9. The “Id” (“It” in latin)
Part of personality that consists of unconscious energy that strives to satisfy one’s drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress
Operates on the “pleasure principle” - demands immediate gratification
“Seat” of our impulses
Present from birth
Completely unconscious
Not in contact with the real world!

10. the “Ego”
Part of personality that mediates the demands of the id without going against the restraints of the superego
Controls all thinking and reasoning activities
Personality executive
Negotiates with the id, pleases the ego
Follows the reality principle – intelligent reasoning
Operates consciously, preconsciously, and unconsciously
Seen by others

11. the “Superego”
Part of personality that consists of internalized ideals and standards
One’s conscience; focuses on what the person “should” do
Moral watchdog/compass
Strives for perfection
Judges decisions and produces positive feelings of pride or negative feelings of guilt
Not present at birth (children are amoral – do whatever is pleasurable)

13. In a healthy person, these are balanced

14. Personality development
Focuses on how we satisfy sexual instinct during the course of life
How does one deal with the sexual impulses of the id? (sexual…probably closer to “sensual”) `
Energy (the libido) becomes focused on various sensitive parts of the body (erogenous zones) during development (it is sequential)
Personality is the product of conflict during these stages

15. Psychosexual stages

16. Oedipus Complex Develops during the phallic stage
Children develop an attachment to the parent of the opposite sex
Also become jealous of the same-sex parent
Oedipus for boys
Electra for girls (this was named post-Freud)
Most children resolve this conflict by identifying with the parent of the same sex (adopting values and characteristics of them)
Thus forming the superego

17. Fixation
If a child is deprived of pleasure or allowed too much gratification from the part of the body that dominates a certain stage, some energy remains tied to that part of the body
Person then doesn’t move on in a normal sequence (which would give the person a fully integrated personality)
This (fixation) leads to immature forms of sexuality or certain personality characteristics later in life
Could lead to neurosis (anxiety disorder)

18. Stage
Can result in…
Oral (birth – 18 months)
Oral fixation: thumb-sucking, smoking, fingernail biting, over eating
Too much: Overly optimistic, dependent, lacking in confidence, gullible
Too little: Pessimistic, hostile, sarcastic, argumentative
Anal (18 m – 3.5 yrs)
Too much pressure: excessive need for order or cleanliness, stingy
Too little pressure: messy, self-destructive habits, unorganized
Phallic (after 3)
Fixation: vanity and egotism, men treat women with contempt, women become promiscuous and flirtatious, low-self esteem, shyness, and worthlessness
Latency (5/6-12/13)
Boys play with boys, girls play with girls; lose interest in sexual behavior
Genital (at puberty)
Libido comes active again; Interest in opposite sex; If development has been successful up to this point, the individual will continue to develop into a well-balanced person

19. Defense mechanisms
Threats to the balance of the id, ego, and superego can result in anxiety
Protective behaviors (defense mechanisms) are used to cope with anxiety
Repression
Sublimination
Rationalization (not in your book)
Excuses are made for anxiety-producing behavior
Displacement
Reaction Formation
Projection
Denial
Regression
Identification
Undoing (engaging in contrary behavior in order to “undo” an unhealthy thought)
These allow us to channel self-destructive/painful energy into constructive/ managable behavior