1. 2130 Personality Psychology “Know Thyself” Week 1 Professor Ian McGregor

2. Why Greeks, Freud? Western Bias in Personality Psychology  Powers and Perils of Independent Selfhood Normative Personality Processes  Development and self-actualization  Ways of managing conflicts and obstacles  Wisdom and virtue are difficult Individual Differences  Nature/Nurture of traits

3. East: Interdependent Self-Construal and Collectivistic Culture Self x x x x x x x x x x x Mother Father Sibling Friend Co-worker X X X X X

4. West: Independent Self-Construal and Individualistic Culture that Shaped Personality Psychology Self X X X X X X Mother Father Sibling Friend Co-worker x x x x x x x x x x

5. Crete’s: Minoan Civilization (About 3000-1450 BCE)

6. Mycenaean Civilization: Achilles and the Siege of Troy (1600-1100—BCE; Iliad by Homer during Archaic Greece, 800-500 BCE)

7. Homer’s Odyssey: Long Strange Trip (Homer in Archaic Greece 800-500 BCE) John William Waterhouse; Ulysses and the Sirens, 1892

8. Labyrinth and Minotaur

9. Theseus’ Heroism

10. Icarus’ Melted Wings:Nothing in Excess Jacob Peter Gowy; The Fall of Icarus; 1650

11. Aesop 620-560 BCE

12. Help with Self-Knowledge: Circe and the Delphic Oracle

13. Highest Happiness from Contemplating Perfect Ideals and Abstract, Absolute Truth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69F7GhASOdM

14. Greek Idealism Pythagoras  Ideals and perfection of math abstractions  Ideals for living (his commune) Socrates/Plato  Allegory of the Cave Plato’s ideals and phenomena Aristotle essence and matter  Rational animal—highest happiness from contemplating essential truth

15. Virtue as Harmony: “Nothing to excess” Cool Odysseus vs. passionate Achilles Icarus  Fly the middle course Pythagoras  Harmony—proper proportion Socrates’ golden mean  "choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible" Aristotle  Virtue falls between two vices

16. Virtue from Self-Knowledge is Difficult Circe and Delphic Oracle at Apollo’s temple  “Know Thyself” Aesop  self-deception and rationalization Pythagoras  Silence for 2 years Socrates  Recognize ignorance; unexamined life not worth living” Plato  Allegory of cave, Charioteer Aristotle  Like taming a wild horse Balancing ideal, pragmatic, mysterious and unconscious elements

17. Summary: Greek Influence on Western Theories of Personality Process Independent, empowered, idealistic selves Psychological sophistication and pragmatism (trade) Virtue and happiness from self-knowledge and inner harmony among competing impulses  Especially in the face of obstacles and inner conflicts Self-knowledge and harmony (virtue) are difficult and sometimes require consultation with unconscious and intuitive reality Greeks also contributed to theory about Individual Differences  Beyond Plato’s gold, silver, iron, and bronze souls

18. Galen’s Synthesis 495-435 BCE: Empedocles (Greek Philosopher)—4 Elements 450-380 BCE: Hippocrates (Greek Physician)— 4 Humours and Health 130-200 CE: Galen (Greek Physician)  Fire, Yellow Bile = Choleric (disagreeable)  Air, Blood = Sanguine (extraverted)  Water, Phlegm = Phlegmatic (conscientious)  Earth, Black Bile = Melancholic (neurotic)