Transcript Chapter 3
Personality Freud Jung Maslow Freud • Exploring the unconscious – writing exercise • Personality – an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting • Unconscious – a deep well that holds our unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories hidden away beyond our awareness • We repress our unconscious feelings and ideas because admitting them would be too unsettling • These repressed feelings still powerfully influence us • Nothing is ever accidental – Freudian slips are signs of what we really want to say • Dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious” and are censored versions of our unconscious wishes Freud • Concepts by Freud - psychoanalysis • Psychoanalysis – Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders • Hypnosis – When Freud tried to hypnotize patients, he discovered that many patients could not be hypnotized, so he gradually developed the method of free association • Free Association - Freud asked his patients to express every thought that occurred to them, no matter how irrelevant, unimportant, or unpleasant • He realized that patients were unwilling to discuss memories that were painful to them • Freud defined this unwillingness as resistance • Freud had disagreements with many other theorists because he insisted that the basis of the psychological “disorders” were always sexual Freud – Personality Structure • • • • • Freud believed our mental life is divided into three parts: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious p295 Conscious – ideas and sensations of which we are aware. It operates on the surface of personality and has a small role in personality development and functioning Preconscious – contains experiences that are unconscious but that could become conscious with little effort. The preconscious exists just beneath the surface of awareness Unconscious – deepest level of personality. It consists of experiences and memories of which we are not aware. They remain out of awareness because making them conscious would cause tremendous pain and anxiety. The unconscious would include events of sexual abuse, incestuous feelings, deep rage or humiliation The key point regarding repressed memories is that they do not disappear just because they are out of our awareness – they seek expression in other ways (defensiveness, aggression, irrationality, impulsivity, etc) Freud – Personality Structure • Psychoanalysis • Personality comes from a conflict between impulse and restraint • We are born with aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological impulses • As we are socialized we internalize social restraints • Personality is the result of our efforts to express impulses in a way that brings satisfaction without guilt or punishment • Three components • Id – “it” most primitive and deepest part of personality, pleasure principle • Ego – operates on the reality principle • Superego – the voice of our moral conscience Id • • • • • • • • • • • • • Id – if it feels good, do it Stores unconscious energy Tries to satisfy our basic drives to survive, reproduce, and be aggressive Operates on the pleasure principle Seeks immediate gratification Example – newborn infants cry out the moment they feel a need. They want satisfaction now Libido - When active the person feels increase in physical and psychological tension When libidinal energy is high it’s unpleasant for the person, goal is to reduce the libido by fulfilling the drive Eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, and satisfy sex drive Sex drive = pleasure drive (refers to babies too) We are pleasure seeking beings Infants are demanding, irrational, illogical, and impulsive They want needs attended too immediately, regardless of anyone else’s needs or wants Ego • • • • • • • • • The executive director We normally want to satisfy an infant’s needs quickly Feed them, change pampers, soothe crying As they get older we start denying them their every desire There are things they can’t hold or touch, they must learn to wait Freud says reality is developing More rational and logical compared to the id The reality principle – satisfy the demands of the id and reduce libido in ways that will not lead to negative consequences Sometimes ego decides to deny id’s desires because the consequences would be painful or too unpleasant Superego • The moral watchdog – moral center of personality • Develops as a preschool child learns the rules, customs, and expectations of society • Ego ideal – measuring device, the sum of all the ideals, correct or acceptable, behavior the child has learned from parents and others in society • All behavior is held up to this standard and judged by the conscience • Conscience – the part of the personality that makes people feel pride when doing the right thing and guilt (moral anxiety) when they do wrong • It isn’t until the conscience is developed that children have a sense of right and wrong • *Note: conscious and conscience are different, sound similar Freud • Personality forms in the first few years of life • We pass through psychosexual stages p296 • Freud called these feelings the Oedipus complex after the Greek legend of Oedipus who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother • We are attracted to the opposite sex parent • We learn to cope with these feelings by repressing them • We identify with the “rival” parent and try to become like him or her • Defense mechanisms • Anxiety is the price we pay to be part of society • As members of social groups we must control our sexual and aggressive impulses, not act them out • The ego fears losing control of the balance between the id and superego • Result is generalized anxiety – we feel unsettled but are unsure why Defense Mechanisms p297 • The ego distorts reality in an effort to protect itself from anxiety • Defense mechanisms disguise threatening impulses and prevent them from reaching consciousness • Just as the body unconsciously defends itself against disease, the ego also defends itself unconsciously against anxiety • Repression – banishes anxiety-arousing wishes and feelings from consciousness • Repression underlies all the other defense mechanisms • Regression • Reaction formation • Projection • Rationalization • Displacement • Denial Freud • During analysis patients often talked about their dreams • Freud believed that dreams provided the best means of unlocking the secrets of the unconscious • Dreams can give invaluable information about a person’s internal conflicts • He believed dreams aren’t “random” or as chaotic as they seem • Dreams are “wish-fulfillment devices” • Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality made him universally unpopular – the book was labeled “shockingly wicked” and he was viewed as having an obscene and evil mind • Freud believed that children are born with sexual urges and their parents are selected as their first sexual objects p296 (chart) Freud - Insticnts • Freud believed we have basic instincts – natural instincts • Life instincts – urges to seek and to preserve life. We are motivated to satisfy hunger, thirst, and sexual needs. The energy associated with these instincts is called libido. Libido is the psychic and pleasurable feelings associated with gratification of the life instincts. • Death instincts – Freud believed that “the goal of all life is death,” that humans strive to return to a place where we no longer have to struggle to satisfy biological needs. • However, life instincts operate to ensure that death is delayed as long as possible so we can achieve satisfaction as much as possible • A major derivative of death instinct is aggression – Freud believed humans try to destroy others or themselves. He had an extremely negative view of human nature Jung – The Psyche • Close colleague of Freud • One of the most complex theories of personality (Jung-le) • Libido is a general life process energy, and sexual energy is only one part • Psychic energy manifests itself through feelings, thoughts, and behaviors • It is the outcome of the conflict between forces within the personality • Without conflict there is no energy and no life • Example – love and hatred of a person can exist within a psyche, creating tension and new energy that seeks expression • The various structures of the psyche are continually opposed to one another • Once energy is created it moves in a variety of directions, either dissipated outward in behavior or it can continue to move within the psyche Jung - Psyche & Archetypes • Total personality described as the psyche • Themes/archetypes have existed in all cultures throughout history • He believed that men and women in every culture have inherited a tendency to respond to ambiguous and threatening situations with some form of an all-powerful being that we call God • A person who renounces the idea of God will experience personal difficulties • He describes atheists as people who are bound to experience difficulties eventually because they have failed to acknowledge what is inherent in our nature • We can never offer objective proof of God’s existence (tangible, material proof), but the idea of God still has validity because of its roots in universal human experience Jung - Persona • A compromise between the demands of the environment and the necessities of the individual’s inner constitution • It is the mask we wear in order to function adequately in our relationships with other people • The mask takes many forms as the roles we play in our daily routines • It is a universal manifestation of our attempt to deal appropriately with other people • Negative side – we can learn to hide our real selves behind these masks • We become so committed to a particular role that we lose sight of our individuality • Example – the mother who loses her individuality because of playing the expected role • Excessive identification causes harmful effects Jung - The Shadow • It is the Mr. Hyde side of our natures • Shadow represents the evil, unadapted, unconscious, and inferior part of our psyches • It has two main aspects: one associated with the personal unconscious, the other with collective unconscious • Personal unconscious – shadow consists of all those experiences that a person rejects on moral or aesthetic grounds • For example, our egos may reject our sadistic impulses, or we may repress socially unacceptable sexual or aggressive impulses Jung - The Shadow • The shadow consists of universal personifications of evil within our psyches • The devil is an example in that we may never understand this side of our personality fully because we can never bring ourselves to confront absolute evil • The shadow exists in all of us as manifested in unaccountable moods, urges toward selfdestruction, desires to harm others • Jung believed that these repressed feelings operate independently in the unconscious, where they join forces with other impulses Jung - The Self • The destiny within us • Process by which a person becomes the definite, unique being that he/she is • The self is the final goal of our striving • The movement toward self-realization is a very difficult process, and one that can never fully be attained • It is difficult for youth to make much progress toward self-realization because they are young • It takes time and a lot of experience and effort to resolve the many conflicts between opposites Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs p239 • • • • • • • • • • Some psychologists thought the field needed fresh ideas and a new direction Freud’s views were too negative – emphasis on disorders born out of dark conflicts Watson and skinner – behaviorists view too strict and mechanical Humanistic psychologists focused on the ways “healthy” people strive for self-determinism and self-realization Maslow’s self-actualizing person – human motivations form a pyramidshaped hierarchy of needs At the base – bodily needs. If those are met, we become concerned with the next-higher level of needs, personal safety If we feel secure, we then seek to love, be loved, and to love ourselves. With our love needs satisfied, we seek self-esteem/feelings of self-worth Having achieved self-esteem, we seek the top-level needs for selfactualization and self-transcendence To goal is to reach our full potential Maslow • Maslow formed his ideas by studying healthy, creative people rather than troubled clinical cases • Description of self-actualized individuals: live rich and productive lives, self-aware, self-accepting, open and spontaneous, loving and caring, don’t worry about others’ opinions, not self-centered, curious about the world, energy focused on specific tasks which they often see as their life mission, enjoy few deep relationships rather than many shallow ones. • Maslow believed these are mature adult qualities, and the best candidates are “likeable, caring young people who are privately affectionate to those of their elders who deserve it, and secretly uneasy about the cruelty, meanness, and mob spirit so often found in young people.” Rogers • • • • • • • • We all have self-actualizing tendencies Believed people are basically good We are primed to reach our growth potential if we are given a growthpromoting environment Occurs in three ways: If we are genuine – open with our own feelings, dropping our false fronts, and are transparent and self-disclosing If we are accepting – offer unconditional positive-regard, an attitude of total acceptance, valuing others even though we know their faults/failings If we are empathic – share in others’ feelings and reflect that person’s meanings back to them Rogers – “rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet, listening of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.”