THE PSYCHOLOGY OF

PERSONALITY
EYS21203/EYS20403

CHAPTER 3
SIGMUND FREUD:
THE PSYCHODYNAMIC
PERSPECTIVE

By
Chew Siew Hoe
A theory is a “A model that counselors use as a
guide to hypothesize about the formation of
possible solutions to a problem.”

◾ Effective counselors chose a theory or theories to

use based on their educational background,
philosophy, and the needs of clients.
◾ Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
▪ Father of Psychoanalytic Theory
◾ Psychodynamic Theory focuses
on the inner person

Defined:
Much of behavior is motivated by inner forces,
memories, and conflicts of which a person
has little awareness or control.
▪ They stem from one’s childhood
and influence behavior throughout
the lifespan.
◾ Unconscious forces act to determine both:

◾ Part of everyone’s personality.

◾ We are unaware of it.

▪ Though it strongly influences our behavior.
Conscious

Preconscious

Unconscious
LIFE INSTINCTS
• serve the purpose of survival of the human race.
Oriented towards growth, development and
creativity.

• The goal of life is to gain pleasure and avoid

pain.

Libido
Thanatos
A source of motivation
Death instincts – the
driven by sexual
aggressive drive
instinct/energy

Freud views both sexual and aggressive drives as

powerful determinants of people’s behaviour.
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

◾ Raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality

◾ Primitive desires of hunger, sex, and aggression
◾ Pleasure Principle

Satisfaction is the
ultimate goal
◾ Reality Principle
◾ Tries to satisfy id impulses while minimizing punishment & guilt.
This instinctual energy (ID) is restrained in order to maintain the
safety of the individual and keep him/her within society’s norms.

◾ The rational level of personality. Does realistic and

logical thinking.

◾ The balance between Id and Superego.

◾ The Moral Principle
◾ Tell us right and wrong, good
and bad
◾ Develops at age 5 or 6
◾ Learned from others

◾ Moral Ideals and Conscience

◾ Guides us toward socially acceptable behaviour
through the use of guilt and anxiety
◾ If people follow their superego, they will feel proud, if
they don’t, they will feel guilty and anxious.
◾ Child in grocery store check-out lane:
▪ “To take the candy or not to take the candy,
that is the question!”

SCENARIO

Example of the Interplay between the Personality Structures

◾ Key Features
▪ Consists of stages
▪ Focused on particular biological functions
▪ If children are unable to gratify themselves
sufficiently during a particular stage or receive too
much of it:
▪ Fixation will occur
 FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT (cont’d)

•Children progress through psychosexual stages

during psychosexual development.

•A person becomes ‘FIXATED’ or stuck in a

stage when a basic need is not met, therefore
that person will face difficulty in transiting to
another stage
 SIX STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL
DEVELOPMENT

Oral Anal Phallic

: : :
(Birth to 12-18 months) (12-18 m to 3 years) (3 to 5-6
years)

Latency Genital
: :

(5-6 years to adolescence) (Adolescence to adulthood)

 1. Oral Stage
•Birth to 18 months.

•Pleasure centres on the mouth – sucking, biting.

•Fixation :
1. If the child is overstimulated in this stage, as an adult
she/he may become dependent on cigarettes or
alcohol, become a chatterbox, or derive pleasure from
acquiring possessions(collect things).
2. If the child is under-stimulated in this stage, as an
adult she/he will make bitingly sarcastic remarks or be
argumentative
 2. Anal Stage
•18 months until 3 years.

•Pleasure focuses on bowel movement

(withholding/eliminating faeces).

•Fixation :
I. If parents were over-emphasizing potty training, the
child will develop a retentive character. He will
become obstinate and stingy.
II. If parents were negligent about potty training, the
child will develop expulsive traits such as bad
temper, cruelty and messy disorderliness.
 3. Phallic Stage

•3 to 6 years.

•Pleasure zone is the sex organ/genitals. Coping

with incestuous sexual feelings.

•Fixations :
• Oedipus complex in males / Electra complex in
female:

The boy will have the desire to possess his mother

and displace his father and the girl will want to
possess the father and remove her mother.
Phallic Stage (cont’d)

• Child who had been fixated in this stage will

develop a phallic character, such as reckless,
proud and vain.

• This conflict can also cause the child to be afraid

of close relationships and weak sexual identity.

• Freud stated that fixation may be a root of

homosexuality
4. Latency Stage

•6 to 11 years, until puberty.

•Dormant sexual feelings.

•No fixations occur as the child’s energy is

focused on peer activities and personal mastery
of learning and physical skills.
 5. Genital Stage
•12 years onwards.

•Maturation of sexual interest.

•Sexual interest in the opposite sex increase.

•The child improves their personal identities, develop
caring feeling toward others, establish a loving and
sexual relationship and progress in successful
careers.

•Fixation :
I. Frigidity, impotence and unsatisfactory
relationship.
Tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety in
various ways, but always by distorting
reality.
◾ Repression
◾ Displacement
Rationalization
Denial
◾ Regression
Reaction Formation
◾ Projection
◾ Sublimation
◾ Intellectualization
1. Repression

DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE
•Unpleasant experiences •An accident victim nearly
are stored deep in the dies but remembers
subconscious mind and none of the details of the
cant be access by the accident
conscious mind
•Basic defense
mechanism
2. Displacement

DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE
•Redirecting the feelings •Angered by a
of hostility and violent neighbor’s hateful
action from self to comment, a mother
another that is less punish her child for
threatening from accidentally spilling her
original source drinks
3. Rationalization

DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE

•Providing a reasonable •A student who fails a

explanation to make test because she did
undesirable behavior not study hard enough
appear logical blames her failure on
the teacher for using
‘tricky’ question
4. Denial

DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE

•Reality is distorted to •An alcoholic fails to

make it suit to the acknowledge that he
individual’s wishes is addicted to alcohol
5. Regression

DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE
•Returning to a •After Lucy’s parents
behavior pattern bitter divorce, she
characteristic of an refuse to sleep alone
earlier stage of in her room and
development crawling into bed with
her mother.
6. Reaction Formation

DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE

•Thinking or behaving •A woman who loves

in a way that is the an unobtainable man
extreme opposite to and behaves as
those that are of real though she hates
intention. him.
7. Projection

DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE
The attribution of A person in an
one’s unacceptable extremely bad mood
urges or qualities to accuses family
others. members of being
hard to get along
with.
8. Sublimation
DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE

The acting out of A person experiencing

unacceptable impulses by extreme anger might take
converting this behaviour up kick-boxing as a
into a more acceptable means to vent frustration.
form. Sublimation is a sign of
maturity that allows
people to function
normally in socially
acceptable ways.
9. Intellectualization
DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE
A way to avoid thinking A person who has just
about the stressful, been diagnosed with a
emotional aspect of a terminal illness might
situation and instead focus on learning
focus only on the everything about the
intellectual component. disease in order to avoid
distress and remain
distant from the reality of
the situation.
THANK YOU