theories of personality Flashcards
identify famous psychologists?
mary ainsworth , Hans Eysenck , Albert bandura
Freud was not a psychologist, he was a medical doctor
the basic criteria that a theory of personality should satisfy?
Description Explanation Empirical validity Testable concepts Comprehensiveness Parsimony Heuristic value Applied value
sigmend freud and psychoanalysis
Four key ideas
1) Psychic determinism – there is a rational explanation
2) internal psychic structure – ID, EGO, SUPEREGO
3) psychic conflict, compromise – ego arbitrates between superego and ID
4) mental energy – only so much of it
ID =
our instincts, basic drives that were there when we were born (eating/security/sleep ect) < unconscious drives, not often aware of.
Superego =
moral consciousness that the world puts onto us, initally our families, what we have learnt is right and wrong to do, can be quiet concrete, what we are taught what is right/wrong to do might differ from our basic drives. Partly conscious/partly unconscious
Ego =
mediates between our basic drives in the ID (say it like LID without the L) and our superego. < most conscious part of personality
one major critiscim of freud?
he was obsessed with sex
freud’s theory of psychosexual development =
he believed different stages in the development of our personaliy across our life spans/childhood were related to different stages of our awareness of our bodies/selfs.
if people don’t mature properly through these different stages or gets stuck at (oral stage ect), freud believed would be quite disorganized < have not grown up/have not learnt.
identify psychosexual stages (freud)
Oral stage – birth to 1 year
Anal stage – from 18 months to 3 years (like things to be very controlled/ ordered)
Phallic stage – from around 3 to 5 years (children become aware of genitals, girls realise they don’t have a penis but they want one ( supposedly) (penis envy) , boys get worried about losing their penis.
Latency stage – around 5 to 12 years ( children are not aware of sexual development, maturing in other ways)
Genital stage- 12-18 years (puberty, sexually mature)
freud developed the concept of
defence mechanisms > im doing a lot better now im back in denial (cartoon)
frankly, I have repressed my sexuality so long I have actually forgotten what my orientation is (cartoon)
defence mechanisms such as repression, denial, displacement, projection, isolation, sublimation, conversion reaction and so on.
in an evaluation of freud, identify the weaknesses >
theories based on observations and conjecture and not tested empirically
focused on too narrow a basis for understanding the diversity of human behaviour.
Had a heavy emphasis on sex
in an evaluation of freud, identify the strengths ?
we do have conflicting motives
sex and aggression are powerful driving forces
childhood experiences do affect adult behaviour
talking helps!
long term psychoanalysis can help (leichsenring and rabung 2008)
individual psychology of ALFRED ADLER
Was an early follower of psychoanalysis but fell out with freud.
Inferiority feelings
> we all have them
> inferiority complex comes from adlers work
Social context (families/schools/social groups ect)
Birth order < placed heavy emphasis on order in which siblings are born.
adler =
conceptualization of the effects of birth order
evaluation of adler, strengths =
Took account of the social context in which people develop and live and that individuals need to be understood in their social context.
Link to humanistic approaches to personality
adler was not a psychologist, true or false….
true
evaluation of adler, weaknesses =
The research evidence to support the importance of aspects of the theory is weak, eg: impact of birth order.
Carl Jung =
Another disciple of Freud who broke away from the psychoanalytic school.
> psyche
The total personality
> the collective unconscious
Jung thought it was evolutionary, innate
> the persona
The mask we were in public
