Download ICSP254 Theories of Personality

Psychoanalytic
Approach
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Agenda
Psychoanalytic
NeoFreudian
Object
Relations
Individual
Trait
Social
Humanistic
Biological
The Psychoanalytic Theory
• If anyone mentions the word
Psychoanalytic, you think Sigmund Freud
• Freud started his work in the 19th Century
• Freud’s ideas and approach to psychotherapy
remain relevant until today
• All personality theories thereafter were build upon or
try to disprove Freud’s theories
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Freud’s Theories on Personality
3
1
Psychosexual
Stages
Instincts
2
4
Id-EgoSuperego
Defense
Mechanisms
1. Instincts
What does instinct means?
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
1. Instincts
What does instinct means?
• A natural inheritable tendency of an organism to make a complex
and specific response to environment without involving reason
• Behavior that is mediated by reactions below conscious level
Examples
• Fight or Flight instinct
• Tiger possess a natural hunting instinct
• She seemed to know by instinct that something was wrong
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Instincts
In Freud’s Definition
• Innate, goal-directed sequences of behavior that are more
complex than simple reflexes that are impervious to influence of
learning and experience
• Mental representations of internal stimuli, such as hunger, that drive
a person to take certain action
Examples
• When your body knows it needs energy to live, it signals your
stomach to growl, and then you go and find something to eat
Can you resist your instinct?
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
2 Types of Instinct
Eros
Thanatos
• Life Instincts, Sexual Instincts
• Survival, pleasure, reproduction
• Thirst, hunger, pain avoidance
• Behavior: love, cooperation, sex
• Libido drive toward pleasure
• Death Instincts, Aggressive drive
• “The goal of all life is death” (Beyond
the Pleasure Principle, 1920)
• Unconscious desire to die
• Self-destructive behaviors, aggression
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
How does instincts shape personality?
• Death drive turn outward
A person who’s a bully, is aggressive, likes to ridicule and make
people feel so small
• Death drive turn inward
Someone who constantly do things that hurt themselves (like
using drugs, missing work)
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Freud’s Theories on Personality
3
1
Psychosexual
Stages
Instincts
2
4
Id-EgoSuperego
Defense
Mechanisms
2. Id-Ego-Superego
The “Id”
• “Id” think “it”
• Basic life instincts that is directly related to satisfaction of bodily needs
• Pleasure principle - seek pleasure, maximize pleasure, avoid pain
• Immediate gratification vs. delay gratification
• Selfish, primitive, amoral, insistent, rash
• Primary process – childlike thinking by which id attempts to satisfy
instinctual drive
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
The “Ego”
• Rational, controlling the basic instincts (id)
• Delay gratification – Ego does not deny id satisfaction. Rather, it
tries to postpone, delay, or redirect in consideration of reality
(rationally)
• Reality principle – provide appropriate constraints on expression
of id drive, socially acceptable way of doing
• Secondary process – childlike thinking by which id attempts to
satisfy instinctual drive
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
The “Superego”
• Moral aspect of personality
• Conscience – tell you right/wrong, feel guilty if doing something
morally questionable, feel relief after telling truth
• Moral principle – using moral compass to censor behavior: what’s
right and wrong, follow the law, follow what parents taught
• Learned and deeply embedded
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Let’s Sum Up
Id
Ego
Superego
Instant
Gratification
Delayed
Gratification
Deny
Gratification
Pleasure
Principle
Reality
Principle
Moral
Principle
Primary
Process
Secondary
Process
Conscience
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Id-Ego-Superego on Personality
• Inherent conflict between id and superego
• Goal of Therapy
• Strengthen the superego
• Make the unconscious (id) conscious
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Freud’s Theories on Personality
3
1
Psychosexual
Stages
Instincts
2
4
Id-EgoSuperego
Defense
Mechanisms
Psychosexual Stages of Personality
Development
• Freud sensed strong sexual conflicts in the infant and young child,
conflicts that seemed to revolve around specific regions of the body
• To Freud, the oral, anal, phallic, and genital stages through which all
children pass.
• In these stages, gratification of the id instincts depends on the
stimulation of corresponding areas of the body: Erogenous Zone
• Fixation: A condition in which a portion of libido remains invested in
one of the psychosexual stages because of excessive frustration or
gratification.
Psychosexual Stages
Age
Stage
0-2
Oral
Oral = mouth, interactions occur through mouth
Oral pleasure such as sucking, infant sucking mother’s breast
Id drive is dominant, think baby behaviors
How does the mother respond when the baby cry?
Primary conflict: dependency vs. insecurity
issues with dependency or aggression (argumentative, hostility)
Oral fixation – Excessive concerns with oral activities such as
problems with drinking, smoking, nail biting
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Psychosexual Stages
Age
Stage
1-3
Anal
Toilet training, Learn to manage polarity of relaxation and rigidity
Delay gratification of impulses to get anal pleasure
Primary conflict: control
Anal retentive – overly strong need to control urges and maintain
control, compulsively neat, stingy, hoarding
Anal expulsive – unable to maintain control over instinctual urges,
messy, disorganized, hostile-sadistic
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Psychosexual Stages
Age
Stage
3-6
Phallic
Preoccupation with genital, sexual impulses,
masturbations
Oedipus/Electra Complex – sexual impulses toward
opposite-sex parent and aggressive impulse toward samesex parent
Castration anxiety – afraid of retaliation by other parent if
act on those sexual impulses
This is the age where superego develops, to deal with
these sexual impulses
Social relationship and attitude toward opposite sex
Narcissism
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Psychosexual Stages
Age
Stage
3-6
Phallic
(continue)
Male phallic personality – assert masculinity through
behaviors such as repeated sexual conquests
Female phallic personality – exaggerate femininity and
use charms to conquer men
Homosexuality resulting from conflict at this stage
6-12
Latency
Latent = exist but does not manifest, hidden
Libidinal energy channeled into normal childhood
activities
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Psychosexual Stages
Age
Stage
12+
Genital
Sexual energy focused on members of opposite sex
Proper socialization and sexual energy
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Freud’s Theories on Personality
3
1
Psychosexual
Stages
Instincts
2
4
Id-EgoSuperego
Defense
Mechanisms
Defense Mechanisms
• Unconscious psychological mechanism that reduce anxiety
arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful stimuli
• Brought into play by the unconscious mind
• Purpose is to manipulate, deny, or distort reality in order to
defend against feeling anxiety or unacceptable impulses and to
protect one’s ego
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Defense Mechanisms
• Repression – push it out of the conscious mind
• Denial – denying existence of the traumatic event
• Reaction formation – expression that is opposite from what one
truly is
• Projection – attributing disturbing impulse to someone else
• Regression – retreat to earlier developmental stage (e.g. childish)
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Defense Mechanisms
• Displacement – shifting id impulse to a substitute object that is
available
• Rationalization – reinterpreting behavior to make it more
acceptable
• Sublimation – diverting id impulse into socially acceptable
behaviors
ICSP254 Theories of Personality
Development of Personality
• All of us are driven by the same id impulses, but we have different
strengths of each component.
• A person’s unique character type develops in childhood largely
from parent–child interactions.
• The child tries to maximize pleasure by satisfying the id demands,
while parents, as representatives of society, try to impose the
demands of reality and morality.
• The adult personality was firmly shaped and crystallized by the 5th
year of life.
Questions about Human Nature
Past
Present
• Past or Present?
Past
• Free Will or Determinism?
Free Will
Determinism
Determined by our childhood experience
• Nature or Nurture?
Nature
Nurture
Your personality determined by childhood
experience
Questions about Human Nature
Uniqueness
Universality
• Unique or Universal?
Unique experiences
• Equilibrium or Growth?
Equilibrium
Growth
Maintain equilibrium once set
• Optimism or Pessimism?
Optimism
Pessimism
Pretty pessimistic view of human nature