Chapter 13
Classic Perspectives on Personality
What is Personality?
A. Personality: an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
a. Freud's psychoanalytic theory proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious
motivations influence personality
B. Trait theories examine characteristic patterns of behavior.
C. Social-cognitive theories explore the interaction between people’s traits and their social context
Psychodynamic Theories
A. Psychodynamic theories are theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and
the importance of childhood experiences.
B. Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to
unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by
seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
C. Freud believed that psychological troubles resulted from men’s and women’s unresolved
conflicts with their expected roles
D. Unconscious: according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings,
and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we
are unaware
E. Free association: in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person
relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.
Personality Structure
A. Id: a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic
sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate
gratification.
B. Ego: the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates
among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality
principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.
C. Superego: the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and
provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations.
Personality Development
A. Freud concluded that children pass through a series of psychosexual stages: the childhood
stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the
id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.
Stage Focus
Oral (0-18 months) Pleasure centers on the mouth- sucking,
biting, chewing.
The mouth is the primary focus of
pleasurable and gratifying sensations, which
, the infant achieves via feeding and exploring
objects with its mouth
Anal (18-36 months) Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder
elimination; coping with demands for control.
The anus is the primary focus of pleasurable
sensations which the young child derives
through developing control over elimination
via toilet training
Phallic (3-6 years) Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with
incestuous sexual feelings. The genitals are
the primary focus of pleasurable sensations
which the child derives through sexual
curiosity, masturbation, and sexual attraction
to the opposite-sex parent.
Latency (6 years to puberty) A phase of dominant sexual feelings. Sexual
impulses become repressed and dormant as
the child develops same-sex relationships
with peers and focuses on school, sports and
other activities
Genital (puberty on) Maturation of sexual interests. As the
adolescent reaches physical maturity the
genitals become the primary focus of
pleasurable sensations which the person
seeks to satisfy in heterosexual relationships
B. Oedipus complex: according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of
jealousy and hatred for the rival father
C. Identification: the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parent’s
values into their developing superegos
D. Fixation: in personality theory, according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies
at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
Defense Mechanisms
A. Defense mechanisms: in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing
anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
B. Repression: in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes consciousness
from anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.
C. Regression: retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy
remains fixated
D. Reaction formation: switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites
E. Projection: disguising one’s own self threatening impulses by attributing them to others
F. Rationalization: offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening
unconscious reasons for one’s actions
G. Displacement: shifting sexual or aggressive impulsive impulses toward a more acceptable or less
threatening object or person
, H. Denial: refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities
The Neo-Freudian and Later Psychodynamic Theorists
A. Neo-Freudians adopted Freud’s ideas but broke away from him in two ways.
a. Placed more emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience and in
coping with the environment.
b. Doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivation
B. Adler and Horney believed that childhood social, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality
formation
C. Carl Jung believed we have a collective unconscious: the concept of a shared, inherited reservoir
of memory traces from our species’ history.
D. Freud died in 1939
Assessing Unconscious Processes
A. Thematic Apperception Test: a projective test in which people express their feelings and
interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.
B. Projective test: a personality test that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection
of one’s inner dynamics
C. TAT provides a valid and reliable map of people’s implicit motives, and responses also show
consistency over time
D. Rorschach inkblot test: the most widely used projective test; a set of ten inkblots, designed by
Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations
of the blots
E. Critics of the Rorschach test argue that only a few of the many Rorschach-derived scores, such
as those for cognitive impairment and thought disorder, have demonstrated reliability and
validity.
a. Inkblot assessments have inaccurately diagnosed many healthy adults as pathological
Evaluating Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective and Modern Views of the Unconscious
Modern Research Contradicts Many of Freud’s Ideas
A. Today, developmental psychologists see our development as lifelong, not fixed in childhood.
B. Some think Freud overestimated parental influence and underestimated peer influence.
C. Researchers find little support for Freud’s idea that defense mechanisms disguise sexual and
aggressive impulses, and that suppressed sexuality causes psychological disorders.
Modern Research Challenges the Idea of Repression
A. High stress and associated stress hormones enhance memory
The Modern Unconscious Mind
A. We have limited access to all that goes on in our mind
B. The unconscious involves
a. The schemas that automatically control our perceptions and interpretations
b. The priming by stimuli to which we have not consciously attended
, c. The right-hemisphere activity that enables the split-brain patient’s left hand to carry out
an instruction the patient cannot verbalize
d. The implicit memories that operate without conscious recall, even among those with
amnesia
e. The emotions that activate instantly, before conscious analysis
f. The stereotypes and implicit prejudice that automatically and unconsciously influence
how we process information about others
C. Projection and reaction formation have been confirmed by research
D. False consensus effect: the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our
beliefs and behaviors
Humanistic Theories
A. Humanistic theories: theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy
personal growth
Abraham Maslow’s Self-Actualizing Person
A. Hierarchy of needs: Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with
psychological needs that must first be satisfied before people can fulfill their higher-level safety
needs and then psychological needs.
B. Self-actualization: according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after
basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved.
C. Self-transcendence: according to Maslow, the striving for identity, meaning, and purpose
beyond the self
D. Maslow studied healthy, creative people, rather than troubled clinical cases
Carl Rogers’ Person Centered Perspective
A. Rogers believed that a growth promoting social climate provides
a. Acceptance
i. Unconditional positive regard: a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude,
which Carl Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-
acceptance
b. Genuineness
c. Empathy
B. Self-concept: all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am
I?”
Assessing the Self
A. Humanistic psychologists sometimes assessed personality by asking people to fill out
questionnaires that would evaluate their self-concept
B. Some humanistic psychologists believed that any standardized assessment of personality, even a
questionnaire, is depersonalizing.
a. Interviews and intimate conversation would provide a better understanding of each
person’s unique experiences
Classic Perspectives on Personality
What is Personality?
A. Personality: an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
a. Freud's psychoanalytic theory proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious
motivations influence personality
B. Trait theories examine characteristic patterns of behavior.
C. Social-cognitive theories explore the interaction between people’s traits and their social context
Psychodynamic Theories
A. Psychodynamic theories are theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and
the importance of childhood experiences.
B. Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to
unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by
seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
C. Freud believed that psychological troubles resulted from men’s and women’s unresolved
conflicts with their expected roles
D. Unconscious: according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings,
and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we
are unaware
E. Free association: in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person
relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.
Personality Structure
A. Id: a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic
sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate
gratification.
B. Ego: the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates
among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality
principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.
C. Superego: the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and
provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations.
Personality Development
A. Freud concluded that children pass through a series of psychosexual stages: the childhood
stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the
id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.
Stage Focus
Oral (0-18 months) Pleasure centers on the mouth- sucking,
biting, chewing.
The mouth is the primary focus of
pleasurable and gratifying sensations, which
, the infant achieves via feeding and exploring
objects with its mouth
Anal (18-36 months) Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder
elimination; coping with demands for control.
The anus is the primary focus of pleasurable
sensations which the young child derives
through developing control over elimination
via toilet training
Phallic (3-6 years) Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with
incestuous sexual feelings. The genitals are
the primary focus of pleasurable sensations
which the child derives through sexual
curiosity, masturbation, and sexual attraction
to the opposite-sex parent.
Latency (6 years to puberty) A phase of dominant sexual feelings. Sexual
impulses become repressed and dormant as
the child develops same-sex relationships
with peers and focuses on school, sports and
other activities
Genital (puberty on) Maturation of sexual interests. As the
adolescent reaches physical maturity the
genitals become the primary focus of
pleasurable sensations which the person
seeks to satisfy in heterosexual relationships
B. Oedipus complex: according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of
jealousy and hatred for the rival father
C. Identification: the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parent’s
values into their developing superegos
D. Fixation: in personality theory, according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies
at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
Defense Mechanisms
A. Defense mechanisms: in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing
anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
B. Repression: in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes consciousness
from anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.
C. Regression: retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy
remains fixated
D. Reaction formation: switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites
E. Projection: disguising one’s own self threatening impulses by attributing them to others
F. Rationalization: offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening
unconscious reasons for one’s actions
G. Displacement: shifting sexual or aggressive impulsive impulses toward a more acceptable or less
threatening object or person
, H. Denial: refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities
The Neo-Freudian and Later Psychodynamic Theorists
A. Neo-Freudians adopted Freud’s ideas but broke away from him in two ways.
a. Placed more emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience and in
coping with the environment.
b. Doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivation
B. Adler and Horney believed that childhood social, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality
formation
C. Carl Jung believed we have a collective unconscious: the concept of a shared, inherited reservoir
of memory traces from our species’ history.
D. Freud died in 1939
Assessing Unconscious Processes
A. Thematic Apperception Test: a projective test in which people express their feelings and
interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.
B. Projective test: a personality test that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection
of one’s inner dynamics
C. TAT provides a valid and reliable map of people’s implicit motives, and responses also show
consistency over time
D. Rorschach inkblot test: the most widely used projective test; a set of ten inkblots, designed by
Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations
of the blots
E. Critics of the Rorschach test argue that only a few of the many Rorschach-derived scores, such
as those for cognitive impairment and thought disorder, have demonstrated reliability and
validity.
a. Inkblot assessments have inaccurately diagnosed many healthy adults as pathological
Evaluating Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective and Modern Views of the Unconscious
Modern Research Contradicts Many of Freud’s Ideas
A. Today, developmental psychologists see our development as lifelong, not fixed in childhood.
B. Some think Freud overestimated parental influence and underestimated peer influence.
C. Researchers find little support for Freud’s idea that defense mechanisms disguise sexual and
aggressive impulses, and that suppressed sexuality causes psychological disorders.
Modern Research Challenges the Idea of Repression
A. High stress and associated stress hormones enhance memory
The Modern Unconscious Mind
A. We have limited access to all that goes on in our mind
B. The unconscious involves
a. The schemas that automatically control our perceptions and interpretations
b. The priming by stimuli to which we have not consciously attended
, c. The right-hemisphere activity that enables the split-brain patient’s left hand to carry out
an instruction the patient cannot verbalize
d. The implicit memories that operate without conscious recall, even among those with
amnesia
e. The emotions that activate instantly, before conscious analysis
f. The stereotypes and implicit prejudice that automatically and unconsciously influence
how we process information about others
C. Projection and reaction formation have been confirmed by research
D. False consensus effect: the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our
beliefs and behaviors
Humanistic Theories
A. Humanistic theories: theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy
personal growth
Abraham Maslow’s Self-Actualizing Person
A. Hierarchy of needs: Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with
psychological needs that must first be satisfied before people can fulfill their higher-level safety
needs and then psychological needs.
B. Self-actualization: according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after
basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved.
C. Self-transcendence: according to Maslow, the striving for identity, meaning, and purpose
beyond the self
D. Maslow studied healthy, creative people, rather than troubled clinical cases
Carl Rogers’ Person Centered Perspective
A. Rogers believed that a growth promoting social climate provides
a. Acceptance
i. Unconditional positive regard: a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude,
which Carl Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-
acceptance
b. Genuineness
c. Empathy
B. Self-concept: all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am
I?”
Assessing the Self
A. Humanistic psychologists sometimes assessed personality by asking people to fill out
questionnaires that would evaluate their self-concept
B. Some humanistic psychologists believed that any standardized assessment of personality, even a
questionnaire, is depersonalizing.
a. Interviews and intimate conversation would provide a better understanding of each
person’s unique experiences
