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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY NOTESSource: Feist & Feist, 7th EdWhat Is Personality? It originated from the word persona, referring to a theatrical mask worn by Roman actors in Greek dramas. Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consisten...

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY NOTES Source: Feist & Feist, 7th Ed What Is Personality? - It originated from the word persona, referring to a theatrical mask worn by Roman actors in Greek dramas. - Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior. - A theory of personality is an organized attempt to describe and explain how personalities develop and why personalities differ. (Plotnik, 2009) - Traits contribute to individual differences in behavior, consistency of behavior over time, and stability of behavior across situations. - Characteristics are unique qualities of an individual that include such attributes as temperature, physique, and intelligence. A useful theory: (1) generates research (2) is falsifiable (3) organizes data (4) guides action (5) is internally consistent (6) is parsimonious Dimensions for Concept of Humanity (1) determinism vs. free choice - Are people’s behaviors determined by forces over which they have no control, or can people choose to be what they wish to be? (2) pessimism vs. optimism - Are people doomed to live miserable, conflicted, and troubled lives, or can they change and grow into psychologically healthy, happy, fully functioning human beings? (3) causality vs. teleology - Briefly, causality holds that behavior is a function of past experiences, whereas teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms of future goals or purposes. (4) conscious vs. unconscious - Are people

ordinarily aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it, or do unconscious forces impinge on them and drive them to act without awareness of these underlying forces? (5) biological vs. social – nature-nurture issue (6) uniqueness vs. similarities – Is the salient feature of people their individuality, or their common characteristics?

SIGMUND FREUD: Psychoanalysis Hysteria - a disorder typically characterized by paralysis or improper functioning of certain parts of the body. (Jean Martin-Charcot) Catharsis – the process of removing hysterical symptoms through “talking them out” (Josef Breuer) Free Association Technique & Hypnosis – principal therapeutic techniques used by Freud Interpretation of Dreams – Freud’s greatest work Phylogenetic Endowment – a portion of our unconscious originates from the experiences of our early ancestors that have been passed on to us through hundreds generations of repetition Provinces of the Mind (1) Id – serves the “pleasure principle”. It has no contact with the reality, it strives constantly to reduce tension by satisfying basic desires. (2) Ego – governed by the “reality principle”. The only region in the mind in contact with reality. It reconciles the blind, irrational claims of the id. (3) Superego – guided by the “moralistic principle”. Basically unrealistic in its demands for perfection because it has no contact with reality. - It has two subsystems: (a) conscience – results from experiences with punishments for improper behavior and tells us what we ‘should not do’ (b) ego-ideal – develops from experiences with rewards for proper behavior and tells us what we ‘should do’ Guilt results when the ego acts contrary to the moral standards of the superego. A function of

conscience. Feelings of inferiority arise when the ego is unable to meet the superego’s standards of perfection. A function of ego-ideal. Dynamics of Personality (1) Drive - an internal stimulus that operates as a constant motivational force Sex Drive or Eros - erogenous zones: genitals, mouth, and anus Forms/Manifestations: (a1) primary narcissism – libido exclusively invested on their own ego, a universal condition (a2) secondary narcissism – Not universal, but a moderate degree of self-love is common to nearly every one. Here narcissistic libido is transformed into object libido (b) love – develops when people invest their libido on an object or person other than themselves (c) sadism – is the need for sexual pleasure by inflicting pain or humiliation on another person. Considered sexual perversion extreme. (d) masochism – is the need for sexual pleasure by suffering pain and humiliation inflicted by themselves or by others. (2) Aggression - the aim of the destructive drive is to return the organism to an inorganic state, which is death (3) Anxiety - the center of the Freudian dynamic theory - a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation - it is ego-preserving and self-regulating (a) neurotic anxiety – defined as an apprehension about an unknown danger. It results from the dependence of the ego to the id. (b) moral anxiety – stems from the conflict between the ego and superego o. (c) realistic anxiety – It is closely related to fear. It is defined as an unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger.

Defense Mechanisms - It helps the ego to avoid dealing directly with sexual and aggressive impulses and to defend itself against the anxiety that accompanies them (1) Repression – It is the most basic of the defense mechanisms. When the ego is threatened by undesirable id impulses, it forces threatening feelings into the unconscious. (2) Reaction Formation – repressed impulse becomes conscious by adopting a disguise that is directly opposite to its original form (3) Displacement – unacceptable urges are redirected onto a variety of people or objects so that the original impulse is disguised or concealed (4) Fixation – when the prospect of taking the next psychological stage becomes too anxiety provoking, the ego may resort to the strategy of remaining at the present, more comfortable psychological stage. This is held universally and demands a more or less permanent expenditure of psychic energy. (5) Regression – a reversion in which during times of stress and anxiety of a developmental stage, the libido reverts back to an earlier stage. Infantile and rigid in nature just like fixation, but is usually temporary. (6) Projection – seeing in others unacceptable feelings or tendencies that actually resides in one’s own unconscious. The ego may reduce the anxiety by attributing the unwanted impulse to an external object, usually another person. A severe variety of it is called paranoia. (7) Introjection - a defense mechanism whereby people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego. People introject characteristics that they see as valuable and that will permit them to feel better about themselves. (8) Sublimation – is the repression of the genital aim of Eros by substituting a cultural or social aim. (9) Rationalization – involves covering up the true reasons for actions, thoughts, or feelings by making up excuses and incorrect explanations (10) Denial – is refusing to recognize some anxiety-provoking event or piece of information

that is clear to others Stages of Development For Freud, the first 4 or 5 years of life, or the infantile stage, are the most crucial for personality information. It is divided into three stages: 1 Oral Phase (early infancy, first 18 months of life) - Pleasure-seeking activities include sucking, chewing, and biting. - If fixated at this stage, because oral wishes were gratified too much or too little, oral gratification continues in adulthood. 2 Anal Phase (late adulthood, 1½ to 3 years) - Infant’s pleasure seeking is centered on the anus and its function of elimination. - Fixation at this stage results to retention or elimination. - Anal retentive – may take the form of being very neat, stingy, or behaviourally rigid - Anal expulsive – may take the form of being generous, messy, or very loose or carefree - Anal triad: orderliness, stinginess, and obstinacy 3 Phallic Stage (early childhood, 3-6 years) - Infant’s pleasure-seeking is centered on the genitals. - Oedipus complex occurs at this stage: a process in which a child competes with the parent of the same sex for the affections and pleasures of the parent of the opposite sex. (Electra complex for female) - Castration anxiety may arise, the fear of losing the penis, or penis envy for females 4 Latency Stage (6 to puberty) - A time when the child represses sexual thoughts and engages in nonsexual activities, such as developing social and intellectual skills. - dormant psychosexual development 5 Genital Stage - puberty signals the reawakening of sexual impulses Dream Analysis - to transform the manifest content of dreams to the more important latent content

- the “royal road” to the knowledge of the unconscious - Manifest content of a dream refers to the surface meaning or the conscious description given by the dreamer - Latent content refers to the unconscious material - For Freud, all dreams are wish fulfilments - Dreams can work their way to consciousness in two ways: (1) Condensation refers to the fact that the manifest dream content is not as extensive as the latent level, indicating that the unconscious material has been abbreviated or condensed before appearing on the manifest level (2) Displacement means that the dream is replaced by some other idea remotely related to it Freudian slips (parapraxes) Critique of Freud’s Psychoanalysis - His theory of personality was strongly oriented towards men, he lacked a complete understanding of the feminine psyche. - an area of criticism on Freud centers around his status as a scientist

ALFRED ADLER: Individual Psychology - Individual psychology rests heavily on the notion of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all humankind. - People are motivated mostly by social influences and by their striving for superiority or success. - People are largely responsible for who they are - Present behavior is shaped by the people’s view of the future. - an opposing theory to psychoanalysis Striving for success or superiority - 1st tenet: The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving for success or superiority - He reduced all motivation to this single drive. - Everyone begins with a life of physical

deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority. - The striving force serves as a compensation for feelings of inferiority. - People, by their nature, possess an innate tendency toward completion or wholeness. Masculine protest – implied will to power or a domination of others. This term was used after Adler rejected aggression as the single motivational force. Striving for superiority – limited to those people who strive personal superiority over others Striving for success – describes actions of people who are motivated by highly developed social interest. - Each individual is guided by a final goal regardless of the motivation for striving. It is fictional and has no objective existence, a product of creative power. Creative Power – it refers to the people’s ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own personality. Inferiority Complex – exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority Subjective Perceptions - 2nd tenet: People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality. Fictionalism. Striving superiority is shaped by people’s perceptions of reality that is by their fictions, or expectations of the future. - Fictionalism is consistent with the teleology. Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality - 3rd tenet: Personality is unified and selfconsistent. - Each person is unique and indivisible. Organ Dialect - The whole person strives in a self-consistent fashion toward a single goal, and all separate actions and functions can be understood only as parts of this goal. The disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in isolation; it affects the entire person. - For Adler, conscious and unconscious are not considered as a dichotomy, but two cooperating

parts of the same unified system. The conscious thoughts are helpful for striving superiority while unconscious is not helpful. Social Interest - 4th tenet: The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest. - Social interest means a feeling of oneness with all humanity; it implies membership in the social community of all people. It can also be defined as an attitude of relatedness with humanity in general as well as the empathy for each member of the community. - Social interest was Adler’s yardstick for measuring psychological health and is thus “the sole criterion of human value”. Style of Life - 5th tenet: The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s style of life. Style of life is the term Adler used to refer to the flavor of a person’s life. It includes a person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world. It is the product of the interaction of heredity, environment, and a person’s creative power. - Although the final goal is singular, style of life need not be narrow or rigid. - Three major problems of life: neighborly love, sexual love, and occupation. Creative Power 6th Tenet: Style of life is molded by people’s creative power. - Each person is empowered with the freedom to create his or her own style of life. Ultimately, people are responsible for who they are and how they behave. It makes each person a free individual. - Each person uses heredity and environment as the bricks and mortar to build personality, but the architectural design reflects that person’s own style. The building materials of personality are secondary. We are our own architect and can build

either a useful or useless style of life. Abnormal Development - For Adler, the one factor underlying all types of maladjustments is underdeveloped social interest. - Also neurotics tend to: (1) set their goals too high (2) live in their own private world (3) have a rigid and dogmatic style of life External Factors in Maladjustment (1) Exaggerated physical deficiencies (2) Pampered style of life - the heart of most neuroses (3) Neglected style of life Safeguarding Tendencies - People create patterns of behavior to protect their exaggerated sense of self-esteem against public disgrace. - This protective devices enable people to hide their inflated self-image and to maintain their current style of life. - These can be compared to Freud’s defense mechanisms, but are largely conscious to shield a person’s fragile self-esteem. Three forms: (1) Excuses – commonly expressed in “Yes, but or If only” format (2) Aggression – most common safeguarding tendency Depreciation. The tendency to undervalue other people’s achievements and to overvalue one’s own (e.g. criticism and gossip). Accusation. The tendency to blame others for one’s failures and to seek revenge. Self-accusation. Marked by self-torture and guilt (e.g. masochism, depression, suicide). (3) Withdrawal – Running away from difficulties or referred to as “safeguarding through distance” Four Modes: Moving Backwards. The tendency to safeguard one’s fictional goal of superiority by

psychologically reverting to a more secure period of life. It is designed to elicit sympathy. Standing Still. They do not move in any direction, thus, they avoid all responsibility by ensuring themselves against any threats of failure. Hesitating. In face of difficult problems, some people hesitate or vacillate. (e.g. procrastination) Constructing Obstacles. The least severe of the withdrawal safeguarding tendencies. Masculine Protest - Psychic life of women is essentially the same as that of men and that a male-dominated society is not natural but rather an artificial product of historical development. - According to Adler, cultural and social practices—not anatomy—influence many men and women to overemphasize the importance of being manly. Applications of Individual Psychology (1) Family Constellation

- Analytical psychology is essentially a psychology of opposites. (2) Early Recollections (3) Dreams Golden rule of dream work in individual psychology: “Everything can be different.” (4) Psychotherapy Adlerian theory postulates that psychopathology results from lack of courage, exaggerated feelings of inferiority, and underdeveloped social interest. Thus, the chief purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy is to enhance courage, lessen feelings of inferiority, and encourage social interest. Critique of Adler - Like that of Freud, produced many concepts that do not easily lend themselves to either verification or falsification. - It suffers from a lack of precise operational definitions. - Individual psychology is somewhat philosophical even moralistic. - The concept of creative power cannot be scientifically studied. - high on free choice and optimism, very low on causality, moderate on unconscious influences, and high on social factors and the uniqueness of individual ________________________________________

CARL JUNG: Analytical Psychology - It rests on the assumption that occult phenomena can and do influence the lives of everyone. - Jung believed that each of us is motivated not only by repressed experiences but also by certainly emotionally toned experiences inherited from our ancestors. These make up the collective unconscious. - Some elements of the collective unconscious become highly developed and are called archetypes.

Levels of the Psyche - Jung strongly asserted that the most important part of the unconscious springs not from personal experiences of the individual but from distant past of human existence, the collective unconscious. Of lesser importance are conscious and personal unconscious. Conscious. Images that are sensed by the ego; the center of consciousness. Ego is not the whole personality, but must be completed by the self, the center of the personality that is largely unconscious. - The consciousness plays a minor role in analytical psychology, and an overemphasis on expanding one’s conscious psyche can lead to psychological imbalance. Personal Unconscious. It embraces all repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived experiences of one particular individual. It contains repressed infantile memories and impulses, forgotten events, and experiences originally perceived below the threshold of our consciousness. Our personal unconscious is formed by our individual experiences and is therefore unique to each of us. Complexes – are contents of the personal unconscious. It is an emotionally toned conglomeration of associated ideas. It is partly conscious and may stem from both the personal and collective unconscious. - an individualized component of the personal unconscious. Collective Unconscious – This has roots in the ancestral past of the entire species. The physical contents of the collective unconscious are inherited and pass from one generation to the next as a psychic potential. - This refers to human’s innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever their experiences stimulate a biologically inherited response tendency.

- This does not lie dormant but are active and influence a person’s thoughts, emotions, and actions. - Countless repetition of these biologically based predispositions have them part of the human biological constitution which then begin to develop some content and to emerge as a relatively autonomous archetypes. Archetypes - are ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious. - These emotionally tones collection of associated images are generalized components of the collective unconscious. - Archetypes cannot be directly represented, but when activated it expresses itself through several modes (e.g. dreams, fantasies, and delusions). Persona - the side of personality that people show to the world - If we over identify with our persona, we lose touch with our inner self and remain dependent on society’s expectations of us. Shadow - the archetype of darkness and repression represents those qualities we do not wish to acknowledge but attempt to hide from ourselves and others Anima - the feminine side of men’s personality - represents irrational moods and feelings Animus - the masculine side of women’s personality - symbolic of thinking and reasoning Great Mother - derivative of anima archetype - represents both positive and negative feelings: fertility and nourishment and on the one hand, power and destruction - Fertility and power combine to form the concept of rebirth, which maybe a separate archetype. Wise Old Man

- archetype of wisdom and meaning, symboli...