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Summary Personality
Personality influences and disorders discussed
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Chapter 14 – PersonalityCharles Whiteman killed his wife, mother and 16 people from his university after a severe change in
personality and anger episodes. He was not like this before. Personality depends on how someone
behaves consistently or over time and how they adapt to different situations with a different outlook
and emotion or one like their usual behaviour. This shows the variance in human emotion and
behaviour, showing the complexity of personality. Different psychological perspective morphed to
help describe how he may have felt preceding his death.
Personality: distinctive ways of thinking, feeling and acting that characterises a person’s responses
to real life situations.
Psychodynamic perspective
Sigmund Freud – personality is rooted in the unconscious mind and motivational determinants of
behaviour are deep rooted.
Freud initially thought that conversion hysteria, where physical symptoms like blindness and
paralysis came from nowhere, was the result of repressed negative affect from threatening or
traumatic incidents from childhood. This medical issue that was solved by unrooting thoughts hidden
in the unconscious helped him to uncover more theories regarding repression and associated sexual
aggression (infantile sexuality and Oedipus complex regarded as an unconscious id reaction). He
uncovered information through hypnosis, free association, subjective input (diaries) and dream
analysis.
He believed instinctual drives generate psychic energies which need to be released, either directly or
indirectly, like having a libido. A direct way to express sexual desires is through intercourse, whilst an
indirect way is through fantasising and using the imagination.
The unconscious holds our most innermost feelings and desires which we express through our
behaviour unwillingly and sometimes lack cognitive control over, like saying I love you Amy even
though your fiancé’s name is not Amy.
Id: innermost structure of personality, acting as the core. It is the source of immediate psychic energy and desire for
sexual behaviour. It has no regards to environmental consequences or morality, acting as an impulse that must be
controlled in the conscious mind through the ego and super ego. Aggressive and sexual tendencies need to be
controlled in order to be socially accepted. This applies to humans alone, as in the animal kingdom, survival trumps
social boundaries, therefore there is no need to control these impulses if there is no threat to survival through the
release of the energy.
Ego: Has direct contact with reality and functions in the conscious mind. What circumstances can the desires from the
Id be expressed? So, asking for consent before engaging in sexual behaviour as opposed to just having intercourse
with anyone. Central executive of personality.
Superego: morality and inner connections with the conscious behaviour. Is this the right thing to do? So even though
the ego dictates that the sex to take place will be consensual and therefore helps to express sexual desire, the
superego would showcase underlying moral thoughts about the indecency about the act. ‘Sex is bad’ especially is
premarital.
, Conflict, anxiety and defence: When there is an instant where the id cannot be contained by the
constraints put on a person through the ego mechanism, then there could be an episode of anxiety,
as a result of the pressure to hide the needs. Coping behaviours help to mitigate the overwhelming
anxiety.
Defence mechanism Description Example
Repression Anxiety arousing impulses and Abusive childhood, later, the
memories are imbedded into person develops ‘amnesia’
the unconscious to be away regarding the trauma
from conscious recollection
Denial Person ignores the realities Man with cancer does not
regarding the anxiety arousing believe he has cancer
event, pretending it is not as
big of an issue at all
Displacement The anger at the event is Woman harassed at work, but
directed towards another then goes home to abuse her
person in another kids out of anger
environment
Intellectualisation Someone who has related to Being rejected by a woman
an upsetting event represses makes a man believe ponder
the emotions and instead acts the logic behind the rejection
as a ‘preacher’ regarding the and other features of the
topic relationship instead of
confronting the real reasons
Projection Impulse is repressed and Someone who is cheating
aimed at someone else accuses their partner of
infidelity
Rationalisation False explanations for the Cheating on a test is justified
arousing event by the test being unfair,
therefore it instigated the
cheating
Reaction formation The event evokes feelings, that Resenting your child is
are repressed and expressed in essentially covered up by
the opposite way caring for them too much and
becoming a helicopter parent
Sublimation Repressed impulse is released Holding in aggression, just to
in socially acceptable way go home and clean the entire
house
Psychosexual development
Id’s pleasure-seeking tendencies, resulting in fixation onto erogenous zones of their maternal figures
body. This can cause regression in adulthood, where during stressful times, one remembers the
stages of psychosexual development and retreats to them. For example, wanting to be cuddled or
held near the chest when stressed, or crying in these positions, going into the foetal position. This
occurs as a mechanism resulting from stress.
Oral involves being suckled to feed and generate a bond.
Anal involves pleasure from excretion and knowing when to
go to the toilet. Harsh potty training can cause compulsions
and obsessive behaviour to stay clean. Phallic stage is
controversial as it introduces the Oedipus and Electra
complex, where the daughter hates the mother and wants
the father’s sexual organs, developing penis envy, with the
boys fearing their fathers will castrate them for being
attracted to their mothers and hating their dads.
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