Theories of Personality

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Chapter 14

• Theories of Personality

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Difficulties in Understanding Personality

• The Usefulness of Theories
• May turn out to be correct
• Explain how we got the way we are
• Framework to study people
• Accept or reject the claims of the theory
• Defining Personality
• Personality consists of broad and long-lasting
  patterns of behavior

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Psychoanalytic Theory

• Sigmund Freud
• Core of ones personality appears within the
  first five or six years of life
• Individual development has its source in the
  family and the conflicts that every family has
• Convinced that problems patients were having came
  from psychological forces rather than physical
  ones

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• The Unconscious
• Unconscious the part of us we are not aware
  of-the conscious mind is the tip of the iceberg
• True feelings sometimes appear in dreams or in
  mistakes we make (Freudian slip)
• Free Associationprocess in which the patient
  says everything that appears in his or her mind.
  If they live long enough, more of the unconscious
  appears
• Drives to satisfy bodily needs-food, comfort,
  sex, self-preservation
• Repression Desires we suppress that could cause
  guilt

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• The Libido
• Libido energy that controlled behavior
• Constantly seeking some kind of release
• If tension not released, it appears in dreams or
  fantasies or even psychological disturbance

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• Freuds Map of the Mind
• ID All of our basic needs and drives
• Contains libido
• Located in the unconscious
• Unconcerned with reality except its own desires
• Emphasis on sexual and aggressive impulses
• Eat, drink, defense
• Superego Our conscious
• Keeps the ID in check
• Causes us to feel guilt
• Determines right and wrong

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• Ego The self
• Allows the ID to express itself in some safety
• Pays attention to reality and monitors what is
  going on in the environment as well as listening
  to what the superego has to say

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