Review

• Define the psychoanalytic personality

perspective.
• List and define the three psychoanalytic
divisions of the mind according to Freud
– Which ones are conscious and which are
unconscious?
• What is the pleasure principle? Libido?
Eros? Thenatos?
• What are the stages of Freud’s
psychosexual theory?
Personality
Part II
 Neo-Freudian
Psychodynamic Theories

• Carl Jung’s collective unconscious

• Karen Horney’s focus on security
• Alfred Adler’s individual psychology
 Carl Jung
• More general psychic energy
• Universality of themes—archetypes
• Collective unconscious—human collective
evolutionary history
• First to describe introverts and extraverts
 Archetypes
• Persona: how we present ourselves to the world.
May be present in dreams but in different states.
• Anima/animus: mirror image of our biological
sex. The unconscious feminine side in males and
the masculine tendencies in women.
• Shadow: animal side of our personality (similar to
id). Source of creativity and destructive energies
• Self: provides a sense of unity in experience.
Ultimate goal of achieving state of selfhood (self-
actualization)
 Collective Unconscious
• Collective unconscious: deepest unconscious mind
not shaped by personal experience.
– Genetically inherited and common to all human beings
(life/eros and death/thanatos instincts)
• Phobia of snakes (genetic memory) – manifests in
children even when no apparent traumatic origin for
fear exists.
• Gut bacteria – because genes belonging to microbes
in the bacteria present in the gut outnumber the genes
in the human body, and the fact that these bacteria may
produce neuroactive compounds, it’s thought that these
may be a part of our unconscious that regulate human
behavior (Dinan, et al. 2015)
Freud vs. Jung
 Karen Horney
• Looked at anxiety related to security and social
relationships
• Basic anxiety—the feeling of being isolated and
helpless in a hostile world
• Three basic categories of neurosis:
– Towards others: needy, clingy, seek out approval
– Away from others: cold, indifferent, aloof, antisocial
– Against others: difficult, domineering, unkind, a
need to control other people
• Well-adjusted people use all three but shifts
focuses due to internal and external factors
 Horney
• Ten neurotic needs:
– Affection and approval
• sensitive to rejection and anger
– Partner who will take over one’s life
• exaggerate love; partner will resolve all life’s troubles
– Restrict One’s life within narrow borders
• undervaluing own talents and abilities
– Power
• Fear personal limitations and uncontrollable
situations
– Exploit others
• Focus on manipulating others to obtain desired objects
such as ideas, power, money, sex
 Horney
• Ten neurotic needs (cont.)
– Prestige
• Fear public embarrassment and loss of social status
– Personal Admiration
• Want to be admired based on imagined self-view, not reality
– Personal Achievement
• Fear failure; be the top person
– Self-sufficiency and independence
• Loner mentality, avoid being tied down
– Perfection and unassailability
• Search for personal flaws in order to cover up these
imperfections
 Alfred Adler
• Most fundamental human motive is striving
for superiority
• This motivation arises from universal
feelings of inferiority that are experienced
during childhood
• Overcompensation may cause superiority
complex where person exaggerates
achievements and importance
 Adler
• Birth Order leads to personality differences?
– Firstborn – deals with lost after another child is
born
• Reliable; conscientious; cautious; controlling
• Tend to go in the parents’ path
– Middle Child – feels unwanted or lost; peacemaker
• People-pleasers; somewhat rebellious; large social
circle
– Last born – wants to be different and individual
• Fun-loving; outgoing; manipulative; attention-seeker
• Rebellious; spontaneous
 Evaluation of Psychoanalysis

• Evidence is inadequate. Data are not available or able to be

reviewed.
• Theory is not testable—lack of operational definitions.
Good at explaining past but not at prediction.
• Sexism—believed that women were weak and inferior.
Used male psychology as basis for all people.
 review
• Explain the collective unconscious
• What were the three types of neurosis
according to Horney?
– Describe them
• What was the birth order effect according to
Adler?
 Humanistic Perspective

• Free will
• Self-awareness
• Psychological growth
• Focus on healthy personality
• Individual’s conscious, subjective opinion of self is most
important
 Carl Rogers

• Actualizing tendency—innate drive to maintain and

enhance the human organism
• Self-concept—set of perceptions you hold about yourself
• Positive regard—sense of being loved and valued by other
people--can be conditional or unconditional
 Evaluating Humanism

• Difficult to test or validate

scientifically
• Tends to be too optimistic,
minimizing some of the more
destructive aspects of human
nature
 Social Cognitive Perspective
• Social cognitive theory—the importance of observational
learning, conscious cognitive processes, social experience,
self-efficacy, and reciprocal determinism in personality
• Reciprocal determinism--model that explains personality as
the result of behavioral, cognitive, and environmental
interactions
• Self-efficacy—belief that people have about their ability to
meet demands of a specific situation
Reciprocal Determinism—
Albert Bandura
 Psychological Tests
• Hundreds of types available
• Test is useful if it achieves two basic goals
– Accurately and consistently reflects a person’s
characteristics on some dimension
– Predicts a person’s future psychological
functioning or behavior
 Personality Assessment
Projective Techniques

• Interpretation of an ambiguous image

• Used to determine unconscious motives,
conflicts, and psychological traits
 Rorschach Inkblot Test

• Presentation and interpretation of a series

of black and white and colored inkblots
• Numerous scoring systems exist
• What do you see on the next slide?
 Thematic Apperception Test
• Series of pictures depicting ambiguous
scenes
• Subject is asked to create a story about
the scene
• Answers are scored based on themes,
motives, and anxieties of main character
• What do you see on the next slide?
 Drawbacks to Projective Tests
• Examiner or test situation may influence
individual’s response
• Scoring is highly subjective
• Tests fail to produce consistent results
(reliability problem)
• Tests are poor predictors of future behavior
(validity problem)
 Self-Report Inventory

• Psychological test in which an

individual answers standardized
questions about his or her
behavior and feelings
• The answers are then compared
to established norms
 MMPI
• Most widely used self-report inventory
• Originally designed to assess mental health
and detect psychological symptoms
• Has over 500 questions to which person
must reply “True” or “False”
• Includes “lying scales”
 Other Tests
• California Personality Inventory (CPI)--
assesses personality characteristics in
normal populations
• 16PF--based on Cattell’s theory, generates a
profile based on 16 personality
characteristics
 Strengths of Self-Reports
• Standardized—each person receives same
instructions and responds to same questions
• Use of established norms: results are
compared to previously established norms
and are not subjectively evaluated
 Weaknesses of Self-
Reports
• Evidence that people can “fake”
responses to look better (or
worse)
• Tests contain hundreds of items
and become tedious
• People may not be good judges
of their own behavior
Activity