Chapter 11 Personality
Personality a pattern of distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are relatively stable in people over time and across circumstances and that characterize the way that people adapt to the world
Self-Awareness ability to observe own abilities, traits, and actions from an outside frame of reference and to reflect on your inner state reflect on who you are as a person Who Am I?
Self-esteem evaluative part of your self-concept or sense of self ; self can be defined as a cluster of characteristics used to describe oneself judgment a person makes about his or her self-worth as a result of comparing the self to other people
Cultural Factors Influence Self- Concept in Collectivist Cultures collectivist cultures: emphasize collective self more than personal self collectivist cultures emphasize connections to family, social groups, and ethnic groups as well as following social norms and group cohesiveness sense of self is determined largely by people s social roles and personal relationships
Cultural Factors Influence Self- Concept in Individualistic Cultures individualistic cultures: emphasize rights and freedoms, self-expression, and diversity encourage children to be self-reliant and to pursue personal success self-concept based on feelings of being distinct from others
Psychodynamic Theory of Personality central idea: unconscious (beyond awareness) forces such as wishes, desires, and hidden memories determine behavior
Conscious, Preconscious, and Unconscious Levels conscious level: thoughts that we are aware of preconscious level: thoughts that are not currently in our awareness, but could be brought to awareness unconscious level: thoughts that cannot be easily retrieved (hidden memories, wishes, desires, motives)
Personality is like an Iceberg Analogy mostly below level of awareness conscious mind- part of iceberg above water unconscious mind-part of iceberg below water unconscious mind holds thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories unacceptable passions: people repress or forcibly block from consciousness because they would be too upsetting to acknowledge-can powerfully influence us, sometimes gaining expression in disguised forms (dreams, slips of tongue) to understand personality, it is necessary to expose what is in unconscious unconscious disguises meaning of material-have to interpret clues to unconscious-clues such as fantasies and dreams clues: help us understand unconscious processes that direct behavior
Freud s View of the Mind
Id only part of personality present at birth unconscious reservoir for instincts and psychic energy manifested by instincts attempts to reduce tension created by instinctual drives related to hunger drive, sex drive, aggression drive, and irrational impulses through instant gratification of these needs operates according to pleasure principle: seek pleasure, avoid pain, and get immediate gratification of its wishes has no awareness of reality
Ego directs and controls instincts according to reality principle reality principle: satisfy id's desires and superegos demands in realistic and socially appropriate ways; weigh cost and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon an impulse tests reality-how far we can go without getting into trouble and hurting ourselves partly conscious (look at iceberg) contains higher mental functions reasoning, problem solving, and decision making in a sense, ego is executive of personality: makes decisions, controls actions, and allows thinking and problem solving of a higher order than id s capabilities permit
Superego when a child is 4 or 5 years of age, superego begins to form moral component of personality: our conscience: our ideas of right and wrong does not consider reality; only whether id s impulses can be satisfied in acceptable moral terms largely unconscious
Defense Mechanisms unconscious strategies used to reduce anxiety by concealing the source of it from yourself and others repression is most powerful defense mechanism repression: ego moves uncomfortable thoughts, memories, or feelings from conscious level to unconscious; foundation for all psychological defense mechanisms whose goals are to repress threatening impulses-keep them out of awareness
Universal Stages of Personality Development each developmental stage-experience sexual pleasure in one part of body more than in others each stage is named for location of sexual pleasure at that stage
Psychosexual Stages
Psychosexual Stages Oral stage-chewing, sucking, and gumming are primary sources that reduce tension in infant Anal stage-greatest pleasure involves anus and urethra and their functions; pleasure in going and holding as well as in experience of control over one s parents in deciding when to do either Phallic stage-pleasure focuses on genitals as child discovers sexual feelings and awareness of self
Oedipus Complex name comes from Greek tragedy in which Oedipus unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother boy s intense desire to replace his father and enjoy affection of his mother eventually boy recognizes that father may punish him for these wishes, specifically by cutting off boy s penis to reduce this conflict, boy identifies with his father, adopting male gender role intense castration anxiety is repressed into unconscious and serves as the foundation for development of male superego
Girls Penis Envy girls compare selves to boys and realize they are missing a penis penis envy intense desire to obtain a penis; feelings of loss because they do not have a penis penis envy is partially overcome by eventually marrying and having a male child since a girl does not have a penis, she cannot experience castration anxiety without experiencing powerful force of castration anxiety, a girl cannot develop a superego in same sense that boys do women were morally inferior to men and this inferiority explained their place as second-class citizens in Victorian society-only hope for women s moral development was through education
Latency Period and Genital Stage Latency period-not a developmental stage, but a period in which sex instinct is dormant, sublimated in school activities, sports, and hobbies, and in developing friendships with members of opposite sex children repress their sexual impulses and continue to identify with same-sex parent Genital stage-time of sexual reawakening source of sexual pleasure shifts to someone outside family two hallmarks of maturity are finding satisfaction in love and work
Unresolved Conflict Freud believed unresolved conflict at any stage of development could cause trouble in adulthood Fixation: locking a portion of the person s pleasure-seeking energies at the unresolved stage, because of excessive frustration or gratification at that stage Stalled at the oral stage, someone may develop an oral fixation, such as smoking or over-eating
Freud s Legacy among first people to explore personality some of his ideas have been updated, revised, and discarded indebted to him for introducing idea that unconscious forces motivate behavior as well as the influence of early childhood experiences on development
Neo-Freudians placed more emphasis on conscious mind placed less emphasis on sex and aggression as all-consuming motives personality theories of Carl Jung, Karen Horney, and Alfred Adler
Some Important Neo-Freudians Alfred Adler Coined the term inferiority complex Believed childhood feelings of insecurity can drive later behavior Karen Horney Believed children s feelings of dependency give rise to helplessness and anxiety. Felt Freud s views showed a masculine bias Carl Jung Proposed a human collective unconscious, derived from our species experiences in the distant past
Humanistic Perspective developed in 1960 s emphasized people s innate goodness and desire to achieve higher levels of functioning: humanists believe that it is this conscious, self-motivated ability to change and improve, along with people s creative impulses that make up core of personality Abraham Maslow s hierarchy of needs
Carl Rogers (1971) people born with basic ingredients for a fulfilling life; need right conditions to thrive each person is born with natural capacities for growth and fulfillment we are endowed with an innate sense-a gut feeling-that allows us to evaluate whether an experience is good or bad for us we are all born with a need for positive regard from others as children, interacting with our parents, we learn early on to value the feeling that they value us; we gain a sense of self-worth
Terms from Carl Rogers s Perspective unconditional positive regard-person s need to be accepted, valued, and treated positively regardless of his behavior others often only value us when we behave in particular ways that meet what Rogers called conditions of worthstandards that you must live up to in order to receive positive regard from others as we grow up people who are central to our lives may condition us to move away from our genuine feelings, to earn their love by pursuing those goals they value, even if those goals do not reflect our deepest wishes self-concept, our conscious representation of who we are and who we wish to become, during childhood- can also be influenced by conditions of worth
Terms Continued conditions of worth are feelings an individual experiences when others provide positive regard only if certain behaviors or attitudes are displayed conditions of worth can become a part of who we think we ought to be as a result, we can become alienated from our genuine feelings and strive to actualize a self that is not who we were meant to be a person who dedicates herself to such goals might be very successful by outward appearances, but may feel unfulfilled and never truly happy
Criticisms of Humanistic Perspective psychologists are too optimistic about positive side of human nature; ignores human capacity for evil concepts are vague and subjective questions on whether or not unconditional positive regard does in fact lead to greater personality adjustment humanists may promote excessive self-love and narcissism by encouraging people to think so positively about themselves
Trait Theory attempts to explain personality and differences amongst people in terms of their personal characteristics across situations traits are personal characteristics that are stable across situations and are used to describe or explain personality trait theorists propose that all people possess certain traits, but the degree to which a particular trait applies to a specific person varies and can be quantified challenge is to identify specific primary traits necessary to describe personality different theorists have come up with different sets of traits.
Searching for Basic Personality Traits describe people by placing them on trait dimensions identify factors or clusters of behavioral tendencies that occur together
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire The Eysencks believed that personality varied on just two dimensions
Big Five broad traits are believed to describe the main dimensions of personality factors most likely to emerge across cultures and languages are conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion factors more likely to be seen only in English speaking samples of peopleneuroticism and openness