ch 13: personality

the pattern of enduring characteristics that produce consistency and individuality in a given person

approaches that assume that personality is motivated by inner forces and conflicts about which people have little awareness and over which they have no control

Freud's theory that unconscious forces act as determinants of personality

a part of the personality that contains the memories, knowledge, beliefs, feelings, urges, drives, and instincts of which the individual is not aware

contains material that is not threatening and is easily brought to mind

the id, the ego, and the superego

• raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality,
• from time of birth, id attempts to reduce tension created by primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses

• goal is immediate reduction of tension and maximization of satisfaction;
• reality prevents the fulfillment of the demands of the pleasure principle

• part of the personality that provides a buffer between id and outside world 
• -begins after birth, balances desires of id and realities of outside world
• 'executive' - makes decisions, controls actions, allows thinking and problem solving of a higher order than id's capabilities permit

instinctual energy is restrained to maintain the individual's safety and to help integrate the person into society

• final personality structure to develop; represents the rights and wrongs of society as handed down by a person's parents, teachers ,and other important figures
• includes conscience

developmental periods that children pass thru during which they encounter conflicts between the demands of society and their own sexual urges

conflicts/concerns that persist beyond the development period in which they first occur

• 1. oral
• 2. anal
• 3. phallic
• 4. latency
• 5. genital

• birth to 12-18 months; 
• interest in oral gratification from sucking, eating, mouthing, biting

• 12-18 months to 3 years; 
• gratification from expelling and withholding feces; coming to terms with society's control relating toilet training

• 3 to 5-6 years; 
• interest in the genitals, coming to terms with the Oedipal conflict leading to identification with same sex parent

• 5-6 yr to adolescence; 
• sexual concerns largely unimportant

• adolescence to adulthood;
• reemergence of sexual interests and establishment of mature sexual relationships

prevents us from behaving in a morally improper way by making us feel guilty if we do wrong

in freudian theory, unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by concealing the source of it from themselves and others

unacceptable or unpleasant impulses are pushed back into the unconscious

people behave as if they were at an earlier stage of the development

the expression of an unwanted feeling or thought is redirected from a more threatening powerful person to a weaker one

people provide self-justifying explanations in place of the actual, but threatening, reason for their behavior

people refuse to accept or acknowledge an anxiety-producing piece of information

people attribute unwanted impulses and feelings to someone else

people divert unwanted impulses into socially approved thoughts, feelings, or behaviors

unconscious impulses are expressed as their opposite in consciousness

psychoanalysts who were trained in traditional freudian theory but who later rejected some of its major points

according to Jung, its a common set of ideas, feelings, images, and symbols that we inherit from our ancestors, the whole human race ,and even animal ancestors from the distant past

neo-freudians, Carl jung

universal symbolic representations of a particular person, object, or experience (such as good and evil)

• personality develops in context of social relationships and depends particularly on relationship between parents and child and how well child's needs are met. no penis envy, but sucess, independence, and freedom
• -stressed importance of cultural factors

• says that primary human motivation is a striving for superiority in terms of self-improvement and perfection
• -inferiority complex

according to Adler, a problem affecting adults who have not been able to overcome the feelings of inferiority that they developed as children, when they were small and limited in their knowledge about the world