Freud’s Psychoanalytic Approach

 Sigmund Freud
(1856 – 1939)
 Lived during
Victorian era
 Repressed
sexuality
 Rationality &
PERSONALITY self-control
distinguish us
from the animals
Unique, relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving

Freud’s Structure of Personality:

The Iceberg Metaphor

Conscious – Acute awareness

Ego
Superego

Preconscious - Just under

awareness; easily known

Id Unconscious – Well below

awareness; difficult to
know but very influential

How the iceberg works How the iceberg works (cont.)

 Id
 Functions on ‘pleasure principle’  Ego
 Serves to balance the demands the Id and the
 Immediate gratification of needs to reduce
Superego
tension & discomfort regardless of  Assesses what is realistically possible in satisfying the
consequences Id and/or Superego (i.e., what society will deem
 Superego acceptable)
 Ego sometimes uses defense mechanisms to protect
 Our moral guide/conscience; standards of against anxiety and guilt
“good” and “bad,” “right” and “wrong”
 Influenced by internalizing our parents’ values  Personality is result of the battle for control
& the voice of society between id, ego & superego
 Works against the Id by inflicting guilt

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Defense Mechanisms Defense Mechanisms (cont.)
 Denial
 Projection
 Denying the anxiety outright
 Seeing in others unacceptable feelings that reside
 Repression in one’s own unconscious
 Anxiety-provoking thoughts and memories are
‘forgotten’ and pushed out of awareness.
 Displacement
 Acting out your anxiety on an innocent party

Defense Mechanisms (cont.) Name that Defense Mechanism

 Regression 1. Soldiers exposed to traumatic experiences in

 Person reverts to a previous phase of concentration camps during wartime
psychological development sometimes had amnesia and were unable to
 Reaction formation recall any part of their ordeal.
 Reversing the nature of the anxiety so that it feels
like its opposite nature (e.g. Exaggerated love for
someone you unconsciously hate) A. Repression D. Displacement
B. Regression E. Projection
C. Reaction Formation F. Denial

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 Name that Defense Mechanism Name that Defense Mechanism

2. The mother of an unwanted child may feel 3. Mrs. Brown often accuses other women of
guilty about not welcoming her child. As a talking too much and spreading rumors. It is
result, she may try to prove her love by rather obvious to those who know her that
becoming overindulgent and overprotective she is revealing her own inclinations in that
of the child. area.
A. Repression D. Displacement A. Repression D. Displacement
B. Regression E. Projection B. Regression E. Projection
C. Reaction Formation F. Denial C. Reaction Formation F. Denial

Name that Defense Mechanism

4. Mike is always trying to impress his pals with

how strong and independent he has become.
However, when Mike has social or emotional
problems, he still wants his dad to figure out
the solution.
A. Repression D. Displacement
B. Regression E. Projection
C. Reaction Formation F. Denial

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

 Periods of development
 Sexual focus
 Implications for adult personality
 Fixations develop if stages aren’t resolved

 Oral (Birth to 1½ yrs)

 Gratification is centered around the mouth (e.g.,
breast-feeding, sucking, biting)
 Anal (1½ to 3 yrs)
 Gratification is centered around the pleasure of
defecation; toilet-training is issue for resolution and
development

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 Freud’s Psychoanalytic Stages
 Phallic (3 to 6)
 Resolution for development lies in identification w/ same-
sex parent
 Oedipus Complex
 Boys have unconscious jealous love for mother and desire to kill the
father; fear of castration by father leads to resolution with
acceptance of/identification with father and internalization of
father’s values
 Strong superego results in this resolution

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Stages Criticisms of Freud

 Sexist
 Latency (6 to puberty)  Freud’s theory was thought to be sexist against women
(e.g., “penis envy”, underdeveloped superego)
 Sexual urges are repressed and transformed into
socially acceptable activities, such as schoolwork  Description rather than prediction
and peer activities  Subjective description, solely by Freud, and “after the
fact” on a relatively small sample of patients, including
 Genital (puberty – adulthood) himself!
 Successful resolution and development into a  His patients were mostly females from upper classes
mature sexual relationship  Unverifiable concepts
 How can you directly confirm, disconfirm, or even
observe the Oedipus Complex?!
 Feels more mythical than scientific

But…
 Freud’s theory….

 Was the first to suggest the unconscious and

unconscious conflicts

 1st comprehensive theory of personality

 Sparked psychoanalysis

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 Beyond Freud: Trait Theory Allport’s Trait Theory
Trait theory – An approach for analyzing and 3 types of traits:
understanding the structure of personality by
identifying, measuring, and classifying similarities and  Cardinal traits
differences in personality characteristics (i.e. traits).  single characteristic that directs most of a person’s
activities (rare)
 1. Allport’s Trait Theory
 Central traits
 2. The Eysenck Two-factor model
 Building blocks of personality.
 3. The Big Five Model of personality
 Someone you think of as “smart” or “sociable”
 usually number from 5 to 10 per person

 Secondary traits
 Affect narrower aspects of our lives
 Preference for cowboy hats or always wearing
perfume

The “Big Five” Personality Factors

https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test

Scoring
(1 + 6R)/2 = Your Extroversion score

(2R + 7)/2 = Your Agreeableness score

(3 + 8R)/2 = Your Conscientiousness score

(4R + 9)/2 = Your Emotional Stability score

(5 + 10R)/2 = Your Openness to Experience score

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 Men and women show differences in Big Five scores
across cultures, with women scoring higher in both…

agreeableness and neuroticism

Consistency and Change in Personality

58
56
58
56
Americans
Germans PERSONALITY
Conscientiousness score

Spanish
54
Neuroticism score

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52 52
50 50
48 48
46 46
44
42
44 NATURE NURTURE
42
16-21 22-29 30-49 50+ 16-21 22-29 30-49 50+ (genes) (environment)
AGE (years) AGE (years)

The Genetic Approach:

Heredity and Traits
"Give me a dozen healthy infants ... and my
own specified world to bring them up in  Heritability: A statistical estimate of the
and I'll guarantee to take any one at proportion of the total variance in some trait
random and train him to become any type that is attributable to genetic differences
of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer,
artist, merchant-chief and yes, even
among individuals within a group.
beggar-man and thief, regardless of his
talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestors."
 Behavioral genetics: An interdisciplinary field of
study concerned with the genetic basis of
John B. Watson
behavior and personality.

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 Evaluating Genetic Theories: Reasons
for caution
 Genetic predisposition does not imply
Correlation

inevitability. Even traits that are highly

heritable are not rigidly fixed.

Independent versus Interdependent

Influence of parents versus peers
Conceptions of Self
 Generally, influence of parents appears less
than previously assumed. Personalities of
adopted children often very different from
those of their adoptive parents.
 Influence of peers appears substantial. Some
findings:
 Preschoolers will refuse food by parents will eat it
among peers who like it.
 Smoking

Historical Personality Assessment

 Phrenology – “As the skull takes its shape
from the brain, the surface of the skull can
be read as an accurate index of
psychological aptitudes and tendencies.” –
- Gall (1758 -1828)
Assessing Personality

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 Projective Tests
 Ask about meaningless, ambiguous stimuli Provide a story here:
 Theory behind it that we will give an answer consistent What does this look
with the inner workings of our minds like? What features
make you think this?
 Rorschach Inkblots What does this
 Best used to measure how people process information remind you of?
 Creativity, coping resources, emotional processing,
relationships with others, thought disorders, psychoses

TAT-like Card
Provide a story here:
What is happening in
this picture? What led
up to it? What are the
people here thinking
and feeling? What will
happen to these
people here?

Astrology?

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Class Horoscope
Average rating of descriptiveness for real
horoscopes vs. fake horoscopes was not
significantly different!
Why do horoscopes work?
1. The “Barnum” effect- descriptions that sound
personal but apply to almost everyone
Class Horoscope
Average “describes me” rating of fake horoscopes:
4.0 out of 5
Average rating of real horoscopes:
3.9 out of 5
So why do horoscopes seem to describe us?
The Barnum Effect
“You have a strong need for others to like and admire
you.”
“You worry about things more than you show to
others, even your best friends.”
“You have a great deal of unused energy which you
have not turned to your advantage.”
“You pride yourself on being an independent thinker
and do not accept other opinions without
satisfactory proof.”
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 The Barnum Effect (cont.)
“You have a strong need for others to like and admire
you.”
“At times you have serious doubts as to whether you
have made the right decision or done the right
thing.
Why do horoscopes work?
1. The “Barnum” effect- descriptions that sound
personal but apply to almost everyone
2. Flattery -- the self-serving bias (more on this
bias later…)

“You prefer a certain amount of change and variety

and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by
restrictions and limitations.

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