Personality Psychology: Differences between people (ESSBP1020)
Hochschule
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)
The 1.1C Personality Psychology Notes contain detailed notes on the mandatory course literature for each theme. The notes are detailed and contain images/graphs/models from the books which the course uses in order to help students better understand various concepts. The purpose of the highlighted ...
Personality Psychology: Differences between people (ESSBP1020)
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1.1C Differences Between People (2023-2024) NOTES
Overview of Themes:
1. Inner Drives
2. External Forces
3. Self-actualizing or learning
4. Brain power
5. Personality traits
6. Nature or Nurture
7. (In)stability of behavior
THEME 1: FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS
I. Fundamental Assumptions of Psychoanalytic Theory
• psychic energy = a source of motivation for humans
o operates according to the 'law of conservation' = the amount of psychic energy a person
has is constant during the entire span of their life
o personality change is the equivalent of redirection of psychic energy
Basic instincts:
Psychic energy comes from strong innate forces named instincts
There are two types of instincts: self-preservation instincts and sexual instincts (initially) which later
became the life instinct (libido/eros) and the death instinct (Thanatos).
Unconscious motivation
Freud's Topographical Model stated the mind had three components:
• conscious mind (all that we are aware of in the present)
• preconscious (memories that we can access if we wish)
• unconscious (what we can never access)
Psychic determinism: Nothing Happens by Chance
Motivated unconscious = representations of the motivated activity of the unconscious
o blindsight is taken as evidence of the unconscious (showing a ball to a blind person and
asking them to point to it, there are high chances of the person pointing in the right
direction)
o deliberation-without-awareness is taken as evidence of the unconscious as well (letting
our unconscious take charge in deciding something by getting it out of our mind - 'let me
sleep on it');
,II. Structure of Personality
ID: Reservoir of Psychic Energy
• most primitive part of our mind
• source of all our drives and urges (selfish, impulsive, pleasure-loving)
Id operated based on the pleasure principle = the desire for immediate gratification
Id engages in primary process thinking = thinking without conscious thought, logical rules or an anchor
in reality (ex.: dreams and fantasies)
o temporary satisfaction = temporary wish fulfillment through daydreaming and fantasies
EGO: Executive of Personality
• part of the mind that constraints the id to reality
• the rational part of the mind that develops after the 'terrible twos'
• mediator between the id and superego
Ego operates based on the reality principle = understands that id urges are often in conflict with social
and physical reality, therefore it represses, avoids and postpones direct id expressions.
Ego engages in secondary process thinking = the development of strategies for solving problems and
obtaining satisfaction.
SUPEREGO: Upholder of Societal Values and Ideals
• develops around the age of 5 years
• part of the mind that internalizes values, morals and ideals of society (instilled by parents, in
schools, friends, personal experiernce etc.)
• makes us feel guilty, ashamed when we do something 'wrong' and happy and proud when we do
something 'right'
• considered the majority of conscience
,It sets moral goals and ideals of perfection, and is not bound by reality which can lead to standards of
perfection that are unattainable and lead to chronic shame.
**Ego depletion = self-control in the face of temptation causes a decrease of psychic energy available to
work on another task
*BUT Baumeister said we can train our self-control like a muscle (the 'muscle metaphor') - if we practice
self-restraint in a sport-like way without overdoing it we can maintain our level of self-control and
manage ego depletion.
+meditation, self-awareness, predicting and taking pre-emptive measures can help
Interactions of Id, Ego and Superego
!!! Ego balances our Id and Superego (mediates between 'I want it now!' and 'You will never have it!')
A strong ego is the equivalent of a balanced mind.
• anxiety = unpleasant state which signals that something is not right and we must do something to
remedy the situation (strong ego = no anxiety)
III. Dynamics of Personality
Anxiety is unpleasant so we resort to defense mechanisms = used to defend against anxiety
Types of Anxiety
Freud identified 3 types:
1. Objective/realistic anxiety = occurs when there is a real external threat to us (ex.: man with a
knife threatening us - fear = anxiety here)
o control of the ego is threatened by external factor
2. Neurotic anxiety = occurs when there is a direct conflict between the Id and Ego (Ego risks
control over an unacceptable desire of the Id, ex.: blurting out in public something
violent/embarrassing/controversial)
o control is threatened by an internal factor
3. Moral anxiety = occurs when there is a direct conflict between the Ego and Superego (ex.:
suffering from chronic shame due to our inability to live up to the standards we set for ourselves)
o control is threatened by an internal factor
Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms have 2 purposes:
o to protect the ego
o to minimize anxiety and stress
• Repression = the process of preventing unacceptable thoughts to cross our mind/ 'entering our
awareness', therefore avoiding anxiety
o it prevents us from having an accurate perception of reality and makes adequate coping
difficult
o we distort reality to a degree in order to reduce anxiety and maintain our ego in control
(proven to actually have benefits by making an unpleasant situation bearable)
• Denial = the process of insisting that things are not the way they seem, refusing to see the facts
o includes dismissing unflattering feedback, daydreaming or fantasizing about how things
might have been, denying personal vulnerability
o **denial is NOT the same as unrealistic optimism = underestimating the likelihood of
experiencing a negative life outcome
, • Displacement = the process of redirecting a threatening or unacceptable desire from the original
source to a non-threatening target
o seems to involve conscious awareness, but it takes place outside of awareness during the
process (we understand what happened after if we know about the defense mechanism)
o we avoid recognition that we have inappropriate or unacceptable feelings towards a
specific object/person
• Rationalization = the process of reducing anxiety by generating an acceptable explanation for
outcomes that might appear socially unacceptable (ex.: a student that got a bad grade would say
the teacher did not give clear explanations)
• Projection = the process of seeing negative/upsetting traits that we have in another person leads
to projecting (attribution) our qualities/traits on them
o we can hate others, but not ourselves
o similar and linked to false consensus effect
• Somatization = when internal conflicts are so strong they manifest themselves in a physical way
(ex.: someone is so worried they become sick/their nose bleeds)
• Sublimation = the most adaptive process (positive), the process of channeling unacceptable
sexual or aggressive instincts into socially desired activities (ex.: venting out anger at the gym by
working out)
• Intellectualization = rationalizing the situation in order to avoid dealing with the feelings the
situation arouses
• Reaction formation = people express the opposite of their real feelings in an exaggerated way
• Regression = 'regressing mentally', acting like a child in response to the situation
• Isolation of affect = the individual blocks out painful feelings by recalling a traumatic event
without experiencing the emotion associated with it
• Undoing = individuals avoid conscious awareness of disturbing impulses by thinking or acting in
a way intended to revert (“make un-happen”) those impulses, even if only at a symbolic level
Using these mechanisms has consequences and requires psychic energy. It becomes 'too much' when they
inhibit our ability to be productive and maintain relationships.
Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development
Psychosexual Stage Theory = children seek sexual gratification at each stage by investing libidinal
energy in a specific body part
If a child fails to resolve a conflict during one of the stages it results in a fixation.
• Stage 1: Oral stage
o happens in the first 18 months of life when the baby is breastfed
weaning, withdrawal from the breast/bottle
o shows later in life as overeating, nail biting, smoking, pencil chewing
o possible development of a hostile and quarrelsome personality
• Stage 2: Anal stage
o happens from 18 months to 3 years old when pleasure comes from expelling feces
toilet training by parents to not shit at any time in any place
o possibility of becoming stingy and holding back
o either end up as a clean freak or living in your own filth
• Stage 3: Phallic stage
o happens from 3 to 5 years old when kids discover which genitals they have
awakening of sexual desire
ends up in a competition between the child and the same sex parent for the
opposite sex parent (origin of momma's boy and daddy's girl?)
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