Summary

Summary of Personality Psychology (7 problems - 2022/2023)

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Course
Personality Psychology: Differences between people (ESSBP1020)

Institution
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)

Hello! This is the summary of the needed information for the 7 problems of Block 2 - Differences between People. I used the best sources for each problem and explained the subjects in an understandable way. I hope this helps you with your exam :) If you have any questions about the notes feel free ...

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Uploaded on September 7, 2023
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Written in 2022/2023
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personality psychology
block 2
differences between people

Institution
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)
Education
Psychologie
Course
Personality Psychology: Differences between people (ESSBP1020)

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Problem 1 - Inner Drives  Larsen

According to Freud, the hallmark of mature adulthood was the
ability to work productively and to develop and maintain satisfying relationships.

According to Freud, Human mind has 3 parts:

 Conscious – contains all thoughts, feelings, and perception that you are presently aware of. Represents a
small fraction of the info available to you.
 Preconscious – memories, dreams and thoughts that can be easily recalled. information that you are not
presently thinking about, but that could easily be retrieved and made conscious, is found in the preconscious
mind.
 Unconscious – largest part of the human mind. All kinds of unacceptable sexual and aggressive urges,
thoughts, and feelings. Society doesn’t allow their expression, so they are repressed by the conscious. (Now
called - Motivated unconscious or cognitive unconscious).

Psychic/mental determinism – nothing happens by chance, there is a reason behind everything. Everything we do,
think, say, and feel is an expression of the mind—the conscious, preconscious, or unconscious mind. Your
unconscious thoughts influence your conscious behaviours.
Little ‘accidents’ are an expression of the unconscious. (Ex: someone called Freud Sigmund Fraud haha). The reasons
can be discovered by examining the unconscious. Most symptoms of mental illness are caused by unconscious
motivations.
Proof of the unconscious:
 Mental illnesses caused by unconscious motivations but could be cured when examining the unconscious.
o Anna O., studied by Breur had an ‘hysterical’ reaction to her father’s death. Breuer concluded that
the way to cure hysterical symptoms was to help the person recall the memory of the incident that
had originally led to the symptoms. By the patient’s recalling the traumatic incident. This removed
the cause of the symptoms and they disappeared. - «the talking cure» - the Freud theory that
physiological symptoms can be cured if the unconscious cause of the symptom is discovered.
 Blind-sight: blind people being able to judge things they can’t see.
 Deliberation-without-awareness: sleeping on it and deciding.

Psychoanalytic Theory – Freud’s model of human nature
 Psychic energy- source of energy that is within each person - motivates all human activity. It operates
according to the law of conservation energy- the amount of psychic energy an individual possesses remains
constant throughout life. A personality change takes up a person’s psychic energy.
 Basic sources of psychic energy – strong innate forces that provide all the energy to the psychic system –
instincts. Based on Darwin’s theory that said 1) self-preservation instincts and 2) sexual instincts.
o Life instinct (sex) – EROS/LIBIDO- any need-satisfying, life-sustaining, or pleasure-oriented
urge. Libido is energy of all life instincts (hunger, sex, pain avoidance…).
o Death instinct (aggression) – THANATOS - any urge to destroy, harm, or aggress against
others or oneself.
 Can combine in various ways (ex: rape)
 Because psychic energy if limited, the energy used to direct one type of behaviour is not available to drive
other types of behaviours. Those who direct their death instinct into a socially acceptable channel, ex:
sports, have less energy to expend toward more destructive manifestations of this instinct.

Structure of personality theory - describes how people cope with their sexual and aggressive instincts within the
constraints of a civilized society.
 Id: something we are born with and is the source to all selfish, impulsive, and pleasure-loving drives and
urges. Dominates during infancy. It doesn’t listen to reason, follow logic, has no values/morals and very little
patience. Deeply unconscious, we are barely aware of it. Operates according to:
o the pleasure principal – the desire for immediate gratification.

, o Primary process thinking – thinking without logical rules of conscious thoughts and doesn’t
think about reality. Dreams and fantasies – if the id desires require an object/person, and it’s
not available, the id may create mental image or fantasies about the object/person to satisfy
the needs – wish fulfilment – only works temporally to gratify id, a person must find other
ways to gratify it or hold it in check.
 Ego: the part of the mind that constrains the id to reality. Starts operating after 2 years of life. Tries to find
balance between the id and the superego. Most conscious. Operates according to:
o Reality principle – understanding that the urges of the id are often in conflict with social and
physical reality. That the urges can lead to problems and direct expressions of the id
impulses must be avoided, redirect or postponed.
o Secondary process thinking – development of strategies for solving problems and obtain
satisfaction. Considers the obstacles of reality to expressing the urge.
o Ego depletion - When exertion of self-control results in a decrease of psychic energy. - the
idea that self-control is limited result.
o Catharises - the release of pent-up energy.

Experiment: 3 conditions, participants were hungry – 1) a plate of radishes and a plate of cookies and being allowed
to eat the cookies. 2) “, participants were only allowed to eat radishes. 3) control condition, stayed hungry. Then all
participants had to do an impossible puzzle. Results: showed that participants in the radish conditions gave up the
puzzle sooner than cookie condition and noneating condition. Also, cookie and noneating showed the same
persistence in the puzzle. Participants in the radish condition also reported being more tired after the puzzle than
those in the cookie or noneating conditions. In the radish condition, the participants’ exertion of self-control in the
face of temptation to eat cookies resulted in a decrease of psychic energy available to work on the difficult puzzle,
leading them to give up sooner and report being more tired after the experiment.
 Superego: the part of the mind that internalizes the values, morals, and ideals of society. Sets morals, ideals,
and goals of perfection; it is the source of our judgments. Judge of behaviour good and bad. Inhibits your
impulse, limits your satisfaction. It is not bound by reality. It is free of set standers even if they are
perfectionistic, unrealistic, and harsh. It can bring about chronic levels of shame and failures. It is both
conscious and unconscious.
o Morality principle
o Introjection – replication of behaviours or attributes learned form others.
o Developed around 5 years old. They are internalized into the child by various socializing
agents: parents, schools, and organized religions. The development of the superego in
closely linked to the kid’s identification with their parents
Interactions between Id, Ego, and Superego – are constant and provoke internal conflicts. The ego balances the
competing forces of the id and superego- ego strength – ego’s ability to be effective despite conflicts. Most times
these conversations are occurring outside of the person’s awareness. They can also be expressed in disguised ways
in various thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. They can come up by hypnosis, free association, and projective
assessment instruments. (Ex: devil (id) and angel (superego) on your shoulder(ego)).
If either of these two competing forces overwhelms the ego, then anxiety – is an unpleasant state, which acts as a
signal that the control of the ego is being threaten by reality, by impulse of the id or by the harsh superego. Might be
expressed as physical symptoms, rapid heart rate, sweaty palms, and irregular breathing. Types of Anxiety:
 Objective/reality anxiety: fear. Occurs in response to real, external threats. The control of the ego is being
threatened by an external factor rather than by an internal conflict.
 Neurotic anxiety: direct conflict between the id and the ego. The danger that the ego might lose control
over an unacceptable desire of the id.
 Moral anxiety: conflict between ego and superego. Most likely to suffer if there is an overly powerful
superego, which constantly challenges the person to live up to higher expectations.
Respond of ego to anxiety: increase problem-oriented copping efforts (deal consciously with the threat) or defence
mechanisms.

Defence Mechanisms, Anna Freud- ways to distort reality and exclude feeling from awareness to avoid anxiety.
Enable the ego to control anxiety, even objective. People can successfully defend themselves from conflict and never
consciously feel the anxiety. They protect the ego and minimize anxiety and distress. However, they take a lot of

,psychic energy that is not available for other pursuits. It can become a problem if it is inhibiting your productivity or
limits your ability to maintain relationships.
 Repression –– the process of preventing unacceptable thoughts, feelings and urges from reaching the
conscious awareness. Through it, a person avoids the anxiety that would arise if the unacceptable material
were made conscious. Freud first developed the concept of repression as a global strategy that the ego uses to
maintain forbidden impulses of the unconscious. He found that pleasant circumstances were more easily
recorded than unpleasant ones. He concluded that unpleasant memories were often repressed. Suppression –
consciously forgetting something
o Some experimental results are consistent with Freud’s view that repressions keep unpleasant
experience out of the concisions of awareness. And even repressed, they still affect the individual –
in this case they affected the persons physiological arousal.
 Denial – insists that things are not the way they seem, involves refusing facts. Like when someone convince
themselves that an anxiety-provoking situation is not that bad. Or the tendency to blame events outside
one’s control when you fail and taking responsibility when succeeding. Denial often shows up in dreams and
fantasies
o Ex: smokers deny evidence of health consequences.
o Fundamental attribution error: blame events outside one’s control for failure but accept
responsibility for success.
o Experiments show that people often minimize risks of unhealthy behaviours.
 Displacement – when a threatening/unacceptable impulse is redirected from its original source to a non/less
threatening target. (Taking out your anger on someone else). It is an unconscious means of avoiding the
recognition that you have inappropriate feelings. It can be a defence mechanism for redirecting aggressive
instincts or sexual urges that are redirected from a less acceptable to a more acceptable target. Deliberately
redirecting your anger is not displacement.
o Ex: girl is attracted to striper but then goes home and transfer the arousal to her boyfriend.
o Experiment: making S angry by the experimenter. Later they had the opportunity to act aggressively
towards the experimenter, the experimenter’s assistant, or another participant – the target didn’t
matter.
 Rationalization -generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might otherwise appear socially
unacceptable. The goal is to reduce anxiety by coming up with an explanation that it is easier to accept,
emotionally, than the real reason.
o Ex: Failing exam and saying that its okay because everyone failed.
 Reaction formation – to hide an unacceptable urge, a person displays behaviour that is opposite to the
impulse. This is often a defence to try to cover up the wishes and intentions and you still end up expressing
them, against your will. Through this mechanism, psychoanalysts can predict that sometimes people will do
the exact opposite of the expected
o Ex: if your very angry but start being super kind- «killing with kindness» - you can also be aggressive
in the persistence of the kindness. – gay politics that were homophobic
 Projection – when we see in other traits and desires, we find most upsetting about ourselves. We can hate
them instead of hating ourselves for having those unacceptable qualities. What a person intensely dislikes
are often reviling their innermost insecurities and conflicts. – false consensus effect – people assume that
others are similar to them. It can ego defensive, if we believe everyone is a bad as us, we don’t feel as bad.
o Ex: chitting husband thinks everyone chits.
 Sublimation- according to Freud, the most adaptive defence mechanism – the channelling of unacceptable
sexual/aggressive desires into socially desired activities. Freud maintained that the greatest achievements of
civilization were due to the effective sublimation of sexual and aggressive urges.
o Ex: chopping wood when angry, rather than acting angry or using other defence mechanisms, like
displacement
 Isolation – denying the emotion that came with the experience.
o Ex: not feeling sad when pet dies but remembering it.
 Intellectualization – thinking about events in an analytical way. Less distress when focusing on information
o Ex: immigrant learns all about their new country to feel more informed/safe/at home.
 Undoing – compensating for your mistake
o Ex: apologizing with chocolate.
 CATHARSIS – Releases of energy and emotional tension when it cannot be restrained any longer, happens
very specific circumstances (when defence mechanism fails) – can be a Freudian slip.

, Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development
Freud believed that everyone had a series of stages in personality development. Each stages involve conflict, and
how a person resolves this conflict gives rise to various aspects of personality. The conflicts revolve around ways of
obtaining a type of sexual gratification, in a specific body part. Fixation – if a child fails to resolve a conflict at a
particular stage of development, they may get stuck in that stage. The poorer the resolution of a stage, the less
psychic energy is available for subsequent tasks of maturity, which for Freud is ability to be productive and maintain
loving relationships. Regression – falling back to a previous stage.
1. Oral stage (from birth to 18 months old)- when the pleasure and tension reduction are the mouth, lips and
togue (babbies putting everything in their moth). The main conflict is the withdraw from the bottle/breast.
Biologically, the Id wants immediate gratification associated with nourishment and obtaining pleasure from
the moth. Psychologically, the conflict is the dependency on the pleasure, with fear of being left to fend for
oneself.
o Fixating at this stage: adults who obtain pleasure from “taking in”, especially through the mouth (ex:
smoking, overeat, nail bating, thumb sucking, pencil chewing). They may be overdependent, want to
be taken care of. Some belief that it can result in drug addiction.
o Oral incorporate stage: development of optimism/pessimists traits.
o Oral sadistic stage – sarcasm and verbally aggressive traits.
2. Anal stage (18m to 3y) – the child obtains pleasure pooping and, during toilet training, retaining the feces.
At first, the id desires immediate tension reduction whenever there is any pressure in the rectum. However,
parents install a since of control through the process of toilet training. Afterall, toilet training is the child first
opportunity to exercise choice/willpower. – development of ego.
o Fixating at this stage: Some children developed too little control and grow up to be sloppy and dirty.
Some develop to much and begin taking pleasure in little acts of self-control. Results in adults who
are overly neat, rigid.
o If the child takes pleasure in refusing the order this might signal the beginning of being stubborn,
holding back.
3. Phallic Stage (3 to 5y): when the child discover they have or not a penis and that some pleasure can be
derived from touching them. It is also the awakening of sexual desire direct outward, and first directed at the
parent from the opposite sex.
o Freud said that boys’ lust after their mother and want to have sex with her. The father is seen as a
competitor. Oedipal Conflict – the unconscious wish to have his mother all to himself by eliminating
the father. Therefore, boys grow up to fear their father. They fear that the father will make a pre-
emptive strike by taking away the root of the conflict: the penis- castration anxiety, which drives the
boy to supress his sexual desire for his mother. Identification - the boy decides to become like his
father and gains symbolic access to his mother – development of superego. This marks the
beginning of the resolution of the Oedipal conflict and the successful resolution of the phallic stage
of boys. Also, the beginning of the superego, morality, and the male gender role.
o For girls, the conflict centres on the lack of a penis – penis envy (the counterpart of castration
anxiety)– the girl blames the mother for the lack of penis and desires and envies the father for his
penis. Girls don’t necessary fear their mother, thus, there is not necessary motivation to give the
desire for the father. Also resolved through identification. Jung, a colleague of Freud’s, termed this
stage the Electra Complex. (Freud rejected this and was vague about how phallic stage is resolved
for girls. He wrote that it drags on later in life for girls and may never fully be resolved. Because the
resolution would develop the superego, Freud conclude that women are morally inferior to men.)
o Fixating at this stage: sleeping with many women/ older men.
4. Latency stage (6y-puberty): little psychological development is presumed to occur during this time. Because
of the lack of specific sexual conflicts during this time, Freud believed that it was a period of psychological
rest, or latency. Only social and intellectual development. Other psychoanalysts disagree a state that much
development occurs at this stage. Superego continues to develop. Ends with sexual awakening of puberty.
o Fixating – sexual disfunction: being too prudish or to slutty.
5. Genital stage (puberty- adult life): sexual awakening if the Oedipus or Electra complex are resolved. The
libido is focused on the genitals. People only reach the genital stage if all other conflicts are resolved. Desire
mutual gratification. Therefore, personality development is largely complete around 5: the adult personality
is dependent on how the conflicts that arise during infancy are resolved.

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