Extensive summary literature 1.2C Differences Between People
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Course
1.2 Differences Between People
Institution
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)
In this document, the literature from block 1.2C Differences between people (personality psychology) is extensively summarized. With the use of tables and graphs, this summary helped me obtain an 8.6 for my exam.
5 major perspectives on personality:
1. Psychoanalytical perspective (Freud)
2. Behaviorism (Pavlov, Watson, Skinner)
a. Behavior is learned through conditioning
b. Conditioning: classical and operant
c. Change environment > personality change
3. Humanistic perspective (Rogers)
a. Self-esteem is central to personality
b. Initially good, and have a positive self-concept
c. Childhood experiences and evaluations affect us
4. Social Cognitive (learning) Theory (Bandura)
a. Social environment and cognition > influence behavior
b. Observational learning: observing others
c. Self-efficacy
5. Trait Perspective (Allport, Eysenck, McCrae & Costa)
a. Personality can be understood by positioning that all people have certain traits
or characteristic ways of behaving
b. Traits = aspects of personality that are relatively stable over time, differ across
individuals, are relatively stable between situations, and influence behavior
6.
, 1. Inner Drives
Learning goals:
Problem A:
1. What is the difference between Super ego (trying to fulfill an ideal image), ego and id
(innate)?
2. What is the unconscious influence on conscious behavior?
3. How do the id and the superego influence the ego?
4. What is a Freudian slip?
Problem B:
1. When does the subconscious take over?
2. How do situational factors influence our subconscious and behavior?
3. What is catharsis and how does it work?
Problem C:
1. How do fixations develop over time?
2. What are the 4 phases?
3. What is fixation and how does it work?
Problem D:
1. What causes people to repress their private thoughts/feelings?
2. Why do people publicly contradict their own feelings/desires?
3. How/Why do we deal with repressed desires?
Psychoanalytic view
= behavior is determined by past experiences that are left in the unconscious mind (i.e. people are
unaware). Based on three fundamental assumptions:
1. Psychic determinism: nothing in mind happens by chance, all our acts are determined by
internal forces related to two basic instincts:
a. Libido (or Eros) > life instinct (sexual instinct)
b. Thanatos > death instinct (aggressive instinct)
2. Unconscious: conscious rationality is the exception rather than the rule in physic processes.
3. Conflict: our lives are a constant negotiation of opposing impulses (desire/fear, love/hate) >
conflicts produce anxiety (realistic neurotic, moral).
Four temperament of Hippocrates
- Sanguine (blood) > prone to optimism
- Choleric (yellow bile): prone to anger
- Phlegmatic (mucus): prone to apathy
- Melancholic (black bile): prone to sadness
The Topographical Model of Mind (Freud)
= Freud’s view of how the mind is organized.
Three categories in our mind:
Mind is like iceberg:
Conscious:
o Part we are aware of (feelings, thoughts)
o Tip of iceberg
Preconscious:
o Outside of consciousness, but easily recall to
consciousness (memories)
, o Part below waterline seen through water: outside awareness.
Unconscious:
o Not directly accessible to awareness.
o Source of desires and repository for urges, feelings, and ideas that are tied to
anxiety, conflict, or pain.
o Where the core operations of personality takes place.
o Exert a continuing influence on later actions and conscious experience.
o Part below waterline can’t see: majority.
Freud:
Conscious and preconscious influence behavior, but are less important than unconscious.
Freudian slip = mixing up thoughts from unconscious with reality, causing a verbal mistake.
Unconscious mistake people, reveals hidden unconscious feeling or desire.
The Structural Model (Freud)
= Freud’s view on personality having three aspects which interact to create the complexity of
behavior, with labels for three aspects of functioning: Id, Ego, Superego.
Id
Present at birth; inherited, instinctive, primitive aspects of personality.
Unconscious.
“Engine” of personality.
Pleasure principle: all needs should be satisfied immediately, immediate tension reduction.
Primary process thinking: unconscious mental image of object/event that would satisfy the
need (wish fulfillment).
Eros: life or sexual instincts; drives and passions that push for pleasure, reproduction,
survival. Also motivating hunger reduction and pain avoidance.
o Generate libido: becomes attached to, or fixed on, aspects of the internal and
external environment.
Thanatos: death instincts. Reflect the unconscious human desire to return to the inanimate
state.
o Expressed in destructive aggressive behavior, including the self-aggressive and
suicidal.
Ego
Tries to make sure the id’s impulses are expressed effectively: taking the external world into
account.
Most functioning in conscious and preconscious, but also in the unconscious.
Reality principle: taking into account external reality along with internal needs and urges.
Leads you to weigh risks of action, before acting.
o Goal: delay the discharge of the id’s tension until an appropriate object or context is
found.
Secondary process thinking: matching the unconscious image of a tension-reducing object to
a real object.
Source of intellectual processes and problem solving.
Reality testing: forms plans of action to satisfy needs, and test the plans mentally.
Superego
Develops while the person resolves a particular conflict during development.
Embodiment of parental and societal values.
, o Introjection: incorporating the values of the parents and wider society.
Two subsystems:
o Ego ideal: reflects things you strive for.
o Conscience: reflects things to avoid.
At all three levels of consciousness.
Tries to:
o Prevent any id impulse that would be frowned on by one’s parents.
o Force the ego to act morally, rather than rationally.
o Guide the person toward perfection in thought, word, and deed.
Civilizing influence on the person.
The healthiest personality is one in which the influences o all three aspects are integrated and
balanced.
Id and Superego are unrealistic > not in touch with reality.
Id Unconscious Basic impulses (sex, aggression)
Seeks immediate gratification regardless of consequences
Impervious to reason and logic
Immediate, irrational, impulsive
Ego Predominantly Executive mediating between id impulses and superego inhibitions
conscious Tests reality
Seeks safety and survival
Rational, logical
Taking account of space and time
Superego Both Ideals and morals
conscious and Strives for perfection
unconscious Incorporated (internalized) from parents
Observes, dictates, criticizes, and prohibits
Imposes limitations on satisfactions
Becomes the conscience of the individual
Psychodynamics
= the processes through which personality works.
Three tasks of the ego:
1) The control of unacceptable impulses from the id
2) The avoidance of pain produced by the internal conflict in the efforts to control and master
those unacceptable impulses
3) The attainment of a harmonious integration among the diverse components of personality in
conflict.
Transformation of motives = the basic impulses persist and press for discharge, but the objects at
which they are directed and the manner in which they are expressed are transformed.
Types of anxiety (Freud)
Three types of anxiety:
1) Reality anxiety
= arises from a danger in the world (e.g. when you’re about to be bitten by a dog). Is rooted
in reality, dealing with it by: fixing, avoiding, or escaping from the situation that creates the
feeling.
2) Neurotic anxiety
= unconscious fear that your id impulses will get out of control and make you do something
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