Chapter 11 - Personality Flashcards
Personality:
: the characteristic ways in which people differ from one another
- Individuals unique, consistent pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviors
Psychoanalytical Perspective:
proposes that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality
- Believes the mind contains a large unconscious region of suppressed feelings and ideas which can only be addressed when it is in our conscious region
- Human personality arises from a conflict between ones impulse and restraint
Components of PsychoAnalytical Perspective:
- Ego: the unconscious and conscious part of your brain which seeks to satisfy ID impulses in realistic ways
- Reality principle; gratifies the sexual and aggressive id impulses
- Superego: judgmentally and morally correct part of your brain
- A moral guide which makes us feel guilty for doing something wrong
- ID(it): impulsive part of your personality driven by pleasure and repulsed by pain
- Pleasure principle; Satisfies basic drives and seeks instant gratification
Free Association
the expression of the content of consciousness without censorship in the attempt to gain access to unconscious processes
- Used by Freud to release hidden thoughts
Defense Mechanisms(Psychoanalytical Perspective)
a term coined by Freud for strategies the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
- protects the ego
- Distorts reality to protect the ego from anxiety caused by id
- Bad way of justifying our experiences as not our fault
Types of Ego Defenses:
- Repression: suppressing painful memories and thoughts
- Denial: refusing to accept events
- Sublimation: redirecting unacceptable desires through socially acceptable channels
- Reaction formation: reducing anxiety by adopting beliefs contrary to your own
- Rationalization: justifying a behavior with more acceptable reasons for less acceptable real reasons.
Psychosexual Stage Model
contends that early in life we progress through a sequence of developmental stages with its own unique mode of sexual gratification
Psychosexual Stages
- Oral: birth to yr 1(satisfaction from putting things in mouth satisfy libido)
○ Someone who is insufficiently fed or overly fed might become an orally fixated person leading to oral personalities(E.g. nailbiter, smoker)
○ Successful navigation stage leads to healthy developed Ego- Anal: yr1-yr3(bowel and bladder control and elimination become a source of gratification)
○ Having control over their elimination allows them to have their own rights and wishes whereas potty training feels imposed
○ First conflict with authority
§ Harsh potty training = anal retentive where they are tight fisted and hate mess
§ Liberal potty training = anal expulsive where they are messy, rebellious - Phallic: yr 3- yr 6(source of gratification around genitals)
○ Become aware of sex differences which starts erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry and jealousy
○ Oedipus complex: boys develop sexual desires for mother and want to get rid of father
○ Electra complex: girl desires father but realises she doesn’t have a penis(mad at mom) and gets penis envy before suppressing this thought and changing it for a wish for a baby
§ If both are unresolved it leads to selfish, impulsive and lack of genuine feelings for each other
§ For this to be resolved children have to undergo identification and want to be like their same sex parents, not take their place
○ Successful completion develops super ego - Latent: yr 6- puberty(sexual activity inactive or repressed)
○ Sexual interest is converted into socially acceptable activities like hobbies and friendships
○ Same sex relationships become important - Genital Stages: puberty - death(reaches physical sexual maturity)
○ Begins expressing sexual desires in appropriate ways like one on one heterosexual relationships
○ If unresolved, freud suggests people become homosexuals
- Anal: yr1-yr3(bowel and bladder control and elimination become a source of gratification)
Humanistic Perspective
emphasizes looking at the whole individual and stresses concepts such as free will, self-efficacy and self-actualization
- Client centered
- Strives to help people fulfil their potential and maximize their wellbeing
- Focuses on the conscious rather than the unconscious
Differences Between Maslow and Rodgers on Achieving Self-Actualization
- maslow suggests it is very hard and not everyone can achieve it
- Rodgers suggests everyone can do it however they must be genuine, have acceptance and be empathetic
Carl Rodgers Person Centered Perspective
uses ideas of Maslow’s but says that these qualities are nurtured early in life and that self-actualization is a constant growth process
- Humans are primed to reach their potential in a growth promoting environment
Environments created impacting childrens ability to reach self actualization
Unconditional Positive Regard: you love the child regardless of their mistakes
- Fosters a good sense of self actualization
Conditional Positive Regard: children are loved when their behavior is correct
Trait
a relatively stable, predisposition/ enduring pattern of behavior to feel and act in a certain way
Types of Traits:
Cardinal traits: traits that dominate and characterize most of a persons behavior
Central traits: prominent traits everyone has
Secondary traits: traits exhibited in some situations
Big 5 Traits
a theory of 5 traits which are on a continuum which every falls on
- openness
- conscientiousness
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- Neuroticism:
- healthy people have the ability to lean to an extreme but can pull themselves back to the center
- Unhealthy people learn towards an extreme and can’t pull themselves back to the normal limits
