This document covers all essential information in Chapter 14 of the “Psychology: Frontiers and Applications” textbook in a succinct and informative way, and is a suitable substitute for reading the textbook chapter itself for those running short on time or looking for a quick summary. Topics in...
Chapter 14 of the &opencurlydoublequote;psychology: frontiers and applications” textbook
Subjects
personality
ego
superego
defence mechanism
repression
denial
displacement
intellectualization
projection
rationalization
reaction formation
sublimation
psychosexual
freud
neoanalyst
john bowlby
att
id
Written for
University of Western Ontario (UWO
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Psychology
PSYCH 1003 (PSYCH1003)
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Personality
Chapter 14
Personality
● Distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a
person’s responses to life situations
● One of the areas within psychology that is most interested in individual differences
● People behave someone consistently over time and across different situations
● Personality traits characterize individuals’ customary ways of responding to their world
● Thoughts, feelings, and actions that are typically seen as reflecting an individual’s personality
have three characteristics: components of identity to distinguish people, caused by internal
(instead of environmental) factors, and fits together in a meaningful fashion to suggest there is an
inner personality that guides and directs behaviour
● Studied by psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives
Psychodynamic perspective of personality
● Look for causes of behaviour in a dynamic interplay of inner forces that conflict with one another
● Led by Sigmund Freud, who considered personality to be an energy system
○ Instinctual drives generate psychic energy, which powers the mind and constantly
presses for either direct or indirect release
● Mental events can be conscious (events we’re aware of), preconscious (unaware of at the
moment, but can be called into conscious awareness), or unconscious
Structure of personality
● Freud divided it into id, ego, and superego
● Id: exists within the unconscious mind; innermost core of personality
○ Only structure present at birth; source of all psychic energy
○ No direct contact with reality and functions in a totally irrational manner
○ Operates according to the pleasure principle; seeks immediate gratification and release,
regardless of rational considerations and environmental realities
● Ego: functions at a conscious level and operates according to the reality principle
○ Tests reality to decided when and under what conditions the id can safely discharge its
impulses and satisfy its needs
○ “Executive of the personality”; must balance demands of id and constraints of superego
● Superego: repository for values and ideas of society, which are internalized through identification
with one's parents and by training on what is “right”, “wrong” and how you “should” behave
○ Last personality structure to develop (around the age of four or five)
○ Self-control takes over from the external controls of rewards and punishments
○ Quests for perfection; tries to block gratification permanently (moralistic goals take
precedence over realistic ones, regardless of the potential cost to the individual)
Defense mechanisms
, ● The ego can resort to defence mechanisms that deny or distort reality when realistic strategies are
ineffective in reducing anxiety (some permit the disguised release of id impulses)
● Operate unconsciously; people are unaware that they’re using self-deception to control anxiety
● Freud believed excessive reliance on these causes maladaptive/dysfunctional behaviour
Repression
● Type of defense mechanism
● Ego uses some of its energy to prevent anxiety-arousing memories, feelings, and impulses from
entering consciousness; can be expressed through slips of the tongue or in dreams
● Sublimation: defense mechanism that allows repressions to be channeled into socially desirable
behaviours (e.g. hostile impulses can find expression in being a successful criminal lawyer)
Psychosexual development
● Children pass through a series of stages where the id’s pleasure-seeking tendencies are focused on
specific pleasure sensitive areas of the body called erogenous zones
○ 0-2 years old: oral (mouth), expressed by weaning
○ 2-3 years old: anal (anus), expressed by toilet training
○ 4-6 years old: phallic (genitals), expressed by resolving Oedipus complex
○ 7-puberty: latency (none), period of time when social relationships develop
○ Puberty-onwards: genital (genitals), expressed through developing mature social and
sexual relationships
● Inadequate or excessive gratification at any stage results in fixation (staying focused on that
stage’s erogenous zone), which can affect adult personality
Neoanalysts
● Psychoanalysts who disagreed with certain aspects of Freud’s thinking and developed their own
theories (e.g. Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Erik Erickson, Carl Jung)
● Believed Freud did not give social and cultural factors enough of an important role in the
development and dynamics of personality, and stressed infantile sexuality too much
● Frued laid too much emphasis on the events of childhood as determinants of adult personality
● Erik Erickson: personality development continues throughout the lifespan as individuals confront
challenges that are specific to particular phases in their lives
● Alfred Adler: humans are inherently social beings who are motivated by social interest (desire to
advance the welfare of others); Frued believed people are savage animals caged by civilization
○ Adler postulated a general motive of striving for superiority, which drives people to
compensate for real or imaginary defects in themselves (inferiority complex) to strive to
be more competent in life
● Carl Jung: developed the theory of analytic psychology to further study the unconscious mind
○ Believed humans possess a personal unconscious based on life experiences, as well as a
collective unconscious that consists of memories accumulated throughout the entire
history of the human race (represented by archetypes)
Object relations
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