PYC2601_Personality Theories
The psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud (1856 –
1939)
Regarded as most comprehensive of all theories
Oedipus complex
o Developmental stage where the boy identies with his father and his own
gender role
Death wishes or Thanatos
o A destructve drive that serves to destroy life and underlies all destructve
behavior such as aggression and violence
Freud was strongly infuenced by his teacher, Ernst Wilhelm Brucke
His theory was developed over 47 years
1. What is the basic assumptions underlying Freud’s theory?
Psychosocial confict
o Confict between drives within the psyche and the demands and norms of
society
o Sexual and aggressive drives that demand contnual satsfacton and moral
prescriptons of society whose purpose is to protect society by controlling
these drives
o Seeds as much drive satsfacton and as few guilt feelings as possible.
Biological and psychic determinism
o Drives are localized in that part of the psyche
o Behavior is determined by forces within the psyche
Mechanistc assumpton
o Steam engine analogy
2. The structure of the personality
Levels of consciousness
o Conscious level
Thoughts, feelings and experiences of which the individual is currently
aware
o Preconscious level
, Consciousness without much efort
Memories or earlier occurrences that are not painful or anxiety-
provoking
o Unconscious level
‘forbidden drives”
individual pain, anxiety and guilt
The id functons mainly at unconscious level. Ego and superego functons on all 3
levels but not to the same extent.
Id
o Direct contact with body
o Life drives (eros) and death drives (Thanatos)
o Primary processes and pleasure principle
o Selish and unrealistc
o Only form of accomplishment is wish fulilment
Ego
o Formed through individual’s contact with the outside world
o Ego’s job is to serve the id’s needs by inding suitable objects for real drive
satsfacton
o Secondary process
Ego is able to refect upon and plan the satsfacton of drives, and to
postpone satsfacton to an appropriate tme and situaton
o Reality principle
Ego takes physical and social reality into account by using conscious
and preconscious cognitve processes such as sensory percepton,
ratonal thinking and memory and learning
o Cathexis
Ego tries to establish on ratonal grounds whether or not an object is
serviceable
o When appropriate objects are found, they are invested with psychic energy
o Ego is executve oocial who operates in terms of 3 beliefs, namely those of
the id, physical reality and the superego
Superego
o Develops from the ego.
o Moral principle: punishes the individual by making him or her feel guilty
about immoral wishes and behavior and holds up a relentless, perfectonistc
ideal of moral behavior
o Punishment element is called the conscience and the positve dimension
which encourages moral behavior the ego-ideal
o Antcathexis
Moral taboo placed on an object by the superego
Antcathexis takes place when the ego blocks or represses the
unacceptable cathexist desires of the id
3. The dynamics of the personality
, Mechanistc energy
Energy transformaton
The drives that reside in the id, and the internalized moral code in the superego,
both possess transformed energy
Internalizaton is the process by which people make things such as attudes, values
and beliefs of others or of the community a part of their own personality so that
they can cope with things beter in future
General characteristcs of drives
Source
o Every drive has its source in the body
o Physical sexual drives are referred to erogenous zone
Impetus or energy
o Quantty of energy or intensity
Goal
o Every drive has the goal of satsfacton
o The individual is not necessarily aware of the drive or the desire
Object
o Every drive requires an object, that is, something or a person suitable for its
satsfacton.
o An object for satsfacton is thus chosen by the ego and invested with psychic
energy
o An important aspect of object choice is that object can be substtuted.
o Displacement
Types of drives
2 basic inclinatons of living organisms: develop constructvely or disintegrate and die
life drives (eros) and death drives (Thanatos)
life drives
o preserve life, constructve
o combine smaller units in the process of building larger ones
o ego drives – service of individual survival
o sexual drives – ensure survival of species
How do the sexual drives and the death drive functon psychologically?
Ego drives
o Responsible for the development of the ego and provide energy required fot
its functoning
o They do not provide feelings of guilt like the sexual drives
Sexual drives
o Freud says that even babies have sexual drives called polymorphous
perverse.
Death drives
, o Also called destrudo
o The individual projects the energy outwards in the form of aggression
o The superego uses aggressive drive energy by making the person feel guilty
about his undesirable wishes
o Nirvana: the goal of all life is death
Anxiety
Freud describes anxiety as the ego’s reacton to danger, and it stems from the
confict between the id’s forbidden drives and the superego’s moral codes
Freud distnguishes 3 types of anxiety: reality anxiety, neorotc anxiety and moral
anxiety.
Reality anxiety
o Current psychological terminology is called fear, is anxiety about actual
dangers in the external environment
Neurotc anxiety and moral anxiety
o Threat comes from within and origin of the anxiety is partally or wholly
unconscious
Defense mechanisms
Strategies that the ego uses to defend itself against the confict between the
forbidden/repressed drives and moral codes
Repression and resistance
o Repression is the basic defense mechanism that represses drives, wishes or
memories that are unacceptable to the superego, to the unconscious
Projecton
o Projecton is essentally an atempt to keep unconscious and threatening
psychic material unconscious by subjectvely changing or projectng the focus
to the drives or wishes of other people and thereby ignoring those impulses
within themselves
Reacton formaton
o Reacton formaton is a mechanism whereby the individual tries to keep a
forbidden desire unconscious by adoptng a fanatc stance that gives the
impression that he experiences exactly the opposite desire
Ratonalizaton
o Ratonalizaton is a person’s atempt to explain his or her behavior, towards
himself or others by providing reasons which sound ratonal, but that are not,
in actual fact, the real reasons for his behavior.
o It is usually less threatening to blame someone or something else for one’s
failure than to blame oneself
Displacement and sublimaton
o Functons by inding a substtute for the object that society’s moral codes
forbid and using the substtute object for drive satsfacton
The psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud (1856 –
1939)
Regarded as most comprehensive of all theories
Oedipus complex
o Developmental stage where the boy identies with his father and his own
gender role
Death wishes or Thanatos
o A destructve drive that serves to destroy life and underlies all destructve
behavior such as aggression and violence
Freud was strongly infuenced by his teacher, Ernst Wilhelm Brucke
His theory was developed over 47 years
1. What is the basic assumptions underlying Freud’s theory?
Psychosocial confict
o Confict between drives within the psyche and the demands and norms of
society
o Sexual and aggressive drives that demand contnual satsfacton and moral
prescriptons of society whose purpose is to protect society by controlling
these drives
o Seeds as much drive satsfacton and as few guilt feelings as possible.
Biological and psychic determinism
o Drives are localized in that part of the psyche
o Behavior is determined by forces within the psyche
Mechanistc assumpton
o Steam engine analogy
2. The structure of the personality
Levels of consciousness
o Conscious level
Thoughts, feelings and experiences of which the individual is currently
aware
o Preconscious level
, Consciousness without much efort
Memories or earlier occurrences that are not painful or anxiety-
provoking
o Unconscious level
‘forbidden drives”
individual pain, anxiety and guilt
The id functons mainly at unconscious level. Ego and superego functons on all 3
levels but not to the same extent.
Id
o Direct contact with body
o Life drives (eros) and death drives (Thanatos)
o Primary processes and pleasure principle
o Selish and unrealistc
o Only form of accomplishment is wish fulilment
Ego
o Formed through individual’s contact with the outside world
o Ego’s job is to serve the id’s needs by inding suitable objects for real drive
satsfacton
o Secondary process
Ego is able to refect upon and plan the satsfacton of drives, and to
postpone satsfacton to an appropriate tme and situaton
o Reality principle
Ego takes physical and social reality into account by using conscious
and preconscious cognitve processes such as sensory percepton,
ratonal thinking and memory and learning
o Cathexis
Ego tries to establish on ratonal grounds whether or not an object is
serviceable
o When appropriate objects are found, they are invested with psychic energy
o Ego is executve oocial who operates in terms of 3 beliefs, namely those of
the id, physical reality and the superego
Superego
o Develops from the ego.
o Moral principle: punishes the individual by making him or her feel guilty
about immoral wishes and behavior and holds up a relentless, perfectonistc
ideal of moral behavior
o Punishment element is called the conscience and the positve dimension
which encourages moral behavior the ego-ideal
o Antcathexis
Moral taboo placed on an object by the superego
Antcathexis takes place when the ego blocks or represses the
unacceptable cathexist desires of the id
3. The dynamics of the personality
, Mechanistc energy
Energy transformaton
The drives that reside in the id, and the internalized moral code in the superego,
both possess transformed energy
Internalizaton is the process by which people make things such as attudes, values
and beliefs of others or of the community a part of their own personality so that
they can cope with things beter in future
General characteristcs of drives
Source
o Every drive has its source in the body
o Physical sexual drives are referred to erogenous zone
Impetus or energy
o Quantty of energy or intensity
Goal
o Every drive has the goal of satsfacton
o The individual is not necessarily aware of the drive or the desire
Object
o Every drive requires an object, that is, something or a person suitable for its
satsfacton.
o An object for satsfacton is thus chosen by the ego and invested with psychic
energy
o An important aspect of object choice is that object can be substtuted.
o Displacement
Types of drives
2 basic inclinatons of living organisms: develop constructvely or disintegrate and die
life drives (eros) and death drives (Thanatos)
life drives
o preserve life, constructve
o combine smaller units in the process of building larger ones
o ego drives – service of individual survival
o sexual drives – ensure survival of species
How do the sexual drives and the death drive functon psychologically?
Ego drives
o Responsible for the development of the ego and provide energy required fot
its functoning
o They do not provide feelings of guilt like the sexual drives
Sexual drives
o Freud says that even babies have sexual drives called polymorphous
perverse.
Death drives
, o Also called destrudo
o The individual projects the energy outwards in the form of aggression
o The superego uses aggressive drive energy by making the person feel guilty
about his undesirable wishes
o Nirvana: the goal of all life is death
Anxiety
Freud describes anxiety as the ego’s reacton to danger, and it stems from the
confict between the id’s forbidden drives and the superego’s moral codes
Freud distnguishes 3 types of anxiety: reality anxiety, neorotc anxiety and moral
anxiety.
Reality anxiety
o Current psychological terminology is called fear, is anxiety about actual
dangers in the external environment
Neurotc anxiety and moral anxiety
o Threat comes from within and origin of the anxiety is partally or wholly
unconscious
Defense mechanisms
Strategies that the ego uses to defend itself against the confict between the
forbidden/repressed drives and moral codes
Repression and resistance
o Repression is the basic defense mechanism that represses drives, wishes or
memories that are unacceptable to the superego, to the unconscious
Projecton
o Projecton is essentally an atempt to keep unconscious and threatening
psychic material unconscious by subjectvely changing or projectng the focus
to the drives or wishes of other people and thereby ignoring those impulses
within themselves
Reacton formaton
o Reacton formaton is a mechanism whereby the individual tries to keep a
forbidden desire unconscious by adoptng a fanatc stance that gives the
impression that he experiences exactly the opposite desire
Ratonalizaton
o Ratonalizaton is a person’s atempt to explain his or her behavior, towards
himself or others by providing reasons which sound ratonal, but that are not,
in actual fact, the real reasons for his behavior.
o It is usually less threatening to blame someone or something else for one’s
failure than to blame oneself
Displacement and sublimaton
o Functons by inding a substtute for the object that society’s moral codes
forbid and using the substtute object for drive satsfacton
