PSY 505 – Personality Theory
Who are we? How do we differentiate ourselves?
Cold & hot reading
Cold reading: Broad statements that apply to everyone
Horoscopes: making sense if non-sense?
Hot reading: try to make predictions and calculations based on what you wear, your hand
palm, how you dressed, what time of the day you visit (based behaviours), etc. And try to
build intuitive meaning based on those behaviors of the ambiguity
Personality is very dynamic across the situations
The Self - Who are you?
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We all have a sense if ourselves (adjectives)
o Sporty, pretty, smart, gamer type, honest, etc.
o Use descriptive words to come up with conceptualization of ourselves of who
we are
How do sense of ourselves come about?
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우리를 설명하는 단어들이 항상 그렇다는 것은 아니다 (좀더 조금 덜 그럴때도 있고,
아마도 그럴것이다 하는 설명들도있을수 있고)
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Are we just making relative judgements of each other?
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주변인들에 비교해 나는 조금 더 혹을 덜 그런사람이다 라고만 우리 자신들을
설면/평가하는가? Is that how differentiate ourselves?
o
Isolation from others drives people crazy. If you are completely isolated from
others, it will have mental health affects on you because you have ability to
make relative judgments about things (비교대상이 없어지기 때문에)
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You have no bouncing board, sounding board of your ideas
You can easily get stuck in a world where you are really internal, inside of
yourself because you have no relative reflections out there
o You possibly can lose you sense of who you are
So, is relative judgement is the personality of ourselves?
o Are we simply trying to find “our unique place and/or utility” in the individual
tapestry of a modern community/society?
o Is this how we develop our personality?
o Start to think about how differentiate ourselves, and who we are
Different perspective and views about the same thing  this is how we developed
our “personality” over time
o How do we/they develop that personality? How do they become who they
are?
But, is our sense of self accurate?
o You come up with some adjectives of your closest friends, family, and
someone you know well about, but it is very probable that they might have
some different sense of themselves
o There are some things that we cannot see of ourselves! What am I missing?
Why am I like this? 이런것들을 같이 이야기해 볼수 있다
Personality – Why Study It?
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The essence of human understanding
o Literally, trying to understand ourselves and others
o Is it purely situational? – is there any enduring quality to our “personality”?
Personality is dynamic across situations, bit it is also generally consistence (quiet
remarkably)
o Situations constantly change but in similar situations we see consistency in
behavior/personality
o Think of how your personality changes when at home, at school, with
university friends, with childhood friends, etc.
o How you act on different situations?
 We can see consistent behaviors, but slightly different in some ways
 Why that case might be?
 It might be social norms or cultural pressure, how people make
you feel. Generally external pressures that makes to come up
with reflective judgements
 Internal qualities might be moods, emotions (worried,
exhausted, anxiety, anger, etc)
 Yet, we still have consistent nature, which is very remarkable
Normal vs. Abnormal personality/psychology
o This course studies “normal” personality in the sense of studying theoretical
approaches to universal understanding of how our personalities develop
o Abnormal personality – Psychological Disorders
 NOT the area of personality science we will focus on
Personality Theory
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Personality theory is also different from our lay definition of “personality”
o E.g., they have a “nice” personality or are charismatic
Study of personality theory is a science (need some evidence, MUST be falsifiable!)
(어떤 주장과 반대되는 증거가 지지하는 증거보다 그 진위를 가리는데 더 많은 정보를
담고 있다는 주장)
Universality – how all of us function, rules that apply to all of us
 If someone presented a theory, is that theory applicable to all
humans? Is it applicable to al different societies?
o Theories are typically nomothetic (group-focused) rather than idiographic
(individual-focused)
 We look at large number of people and try to pull out theoretical
perspectives within that (theoretical perspectives tested on large
number of people)
Why bother with Theory?
o We may learn about the development of personality in humans, what
motivates us, what causes us to be aggressive, what excites us, what makes
us different to each other?
 We may also learn about ourselves through studying others
 Self-knowledge and self-awareness are the keys toa fulfilling
existence (authenticity)
 Try to understand ourselves and others better
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5 Goals of the Personality Theories
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Observation that is Scientific
o Large and diverse populations – diversity or “variance” in groups
o Objective (not subjective), scientific methods & measures (e.g., statistics,
neuropsychic, biology) – is there any data it’s gonna based on, or is it just
theoretical perspective given out? (뒷받침할 증거)
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Theory that is Systematic
o Logical and coherent, “if there are only 2 personality types, A or B, then you
must be A or B”
o Follows rules, hierarchy
Theory that is Testible (must be falsifiable – Fisherman theory)
o Our personality is always the same from one life to the next
 Difficult to find evidence on this statement
o Personality is the interface between the limbic (lizard brain) and the prefrontal cortex (mammalian)
 Too broad – ambiguous
o Need tools to be testable
Theory is Comprehensive
o Should address all psychologically significant aspects of persons (e.g., bio,
social, enviro, cultural, etc)
Application: from theory to practice
o Pragmatism – what is the theory’s utility in the “real world”? (useful in real
world?)
o
현실에서 사용할 수 있는가?
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E.g., behaviorism  in general “personality” is a sum of all environmental
punishment and reinforcement we have experienced, thus far (relatively more
deterministic)
Defining Personality in a Psychological Context:
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Textbook def.: personality – psychological qualities that contribute to an individual’s
enduring and distinctive patterns of feelings, thinking and behaving:
Contribute to – suggests a link from psychological qualities to patterns of behavior
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심리적 자질에서 행동패턴으로의 연관성 (심리적인 것들이 행동에 미치는)
Enduring – somewhat consistent over time and situation; long-lasting
Distinctive – differentiable between individuals
Feelings (emotions), thinking (cognitive), and behaving – reference to the main
components of psychological interplay, according to Cognitive Behavior Therapy
(CBT)
o CBT is generally considered as the ‘gold standard’ in (general) psychological
therapy
Defining Personality
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Key factors to capture the study of, and definition of, personality – not easily
reconciled
Human Universals:
o What is generally true of people?
Individual differences:
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o How do people differ from one another?
o In what way?
Individual Uniqueness:
o How can we define uniqueness scientifically? We can differ on a personality
factor/trait, but what if the factor is not relevant or is unique to the individual in
some way? (e.g., extremes, novelty)
o Nomothetic vs. idiographic
o Is there a median (most common) personality?!
Questions About Persons: What, How, and Why?
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A complete theory of personality should yield a coherent set of answer to these
questions:
What = Characteristics (traits, types, adjective words) of the person are important
and how are these characteristics organized in relation to one another
o Overall: what is the theory?
o Individual: How is the individual conceptualized in the theory? How individuals
look like under this theory?
How = the determinants of a person’s personality (development, deterministic or free
will?) How are we motivated?
o We are thrown into the world and born into a certain family with certain
parents and certain characteristics. So we are not all starting at the same
spot. is there some determinism there?
o Overall: How does it work?
o Individual: How does the theory apply to the individual?
Why = Causes of, and reasons behind, an individual’s behavior (nature vs nurture)
o Overall: Why (or why not) does it work?
o Individual: Why does the individual act in accordance with the theory?
Chapter 1: Personality Theory
Chapter Questions:
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How do scientific theories of personality differ from “personality”
Why is there more than one theory – and how do they differ?
What are personality theorists trying to understand?
How can we critique a personality theory?
4 Important Personality Theory Topics:
Structure: the stable building blocks of the theory (what is the theory made up of?
Components)
Unit of Analysis:
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Trait (think adjectives) (e.g., qualities of a person  honest, dependable,
manipulative, funny, brave, busy, careful, cautious, charming, cheerful…)
o Continuum: typically, you have more or less of a trait, a gradient
o Things we might call somebody if you are introducing someone
o Qualities that we use in everyday language
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Type
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Clustering of many traits to form a group/type/category
Types are qualitatively distinct categories (e.g., gender)
One or the other thing, A or B
Ex. Introverted, extroverted, MBTI
Personality type involves how you prefer to gain energy, gather information,
make decisions, live your life
 Ex) when making decisions, are you thinking type (logical, step back
and come up with solution) or feeling type (support by listening, step
into the decision and think how it will fit into my value system and
harmony)?
System
o A collection of highly integrated parts (e.g., friends as a collection of traits;
some may be implicit or explicit)
o Systems are inherently complex (e.g., friend or not? Ex-friend?)
Hierarchy
o Units of analysis may regulate or be higher in functioning than others (i.e.,
some order)
 Best friend > friend > friend of friend > “gaming” friend > IG “friend”
Process: The psychological reactions that change dynamically
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Thoughts, emotions, and motivations change frequently and throughout our lives
o How is a theory account for this?
Generally. “process” is a fancy way to describe the motivational aspects of a theory
Who are we (the self, the ego, etc.) motivated to become?
Process  motivational aspects behind the thing  why you do that thing according
to that theory?
Personality theory might describe different type of people, and what motivated you in
a sense to choose from those 16 types?
In the theory, HOW is motivation to be interpreted? Hoe does the theory explain
WHY we do what we do? What motivates us to do anything? Is it what we value? Are
you AIMING towards what you value?
Biological drives – my body motivates to do (ex, sport, survival)
Growth and Development: Personality development over time (past, present, future)
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What patterns of development do we all share (human universals)?
o Childhood, discovery, puberty, seeking reproductive success, raising
children…
What factors cause individual differences?
o Childhood, discovery, puberty, seeking reproductive success, raising
children…
o At the same time, they are also individual differences, so we might have
human universals aspects and processes, but we also might have individual
differences, and how do they play in our own lives?
o Every environment is different (even the most similar may be perceived
differently)
o Ex) sibling  the environments are roughly same between siblings, but the
perception of that environment can be vastly different
How are we distinct, unique from others?
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Nature or Nurture?
o Probably both, but to what extent and how or why?
Some experiences (nurture) seem to be more influencing than others – why is that?
How we interpret our own perception is fundamentally important to our
development
o I learned later that my father (also) had an intense fear if snakes – was it this
that had resonated in me from an early age?
Highly “emotionally stimulating 감정적으로 자극되는” experiences are encoded
into memory very efficiently
o Birth of child (positive)
o PTSD (negative)
 Treatment: eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
o Memory  how does it plays a role in our growth and development
 Think about things that you really remember very well  times when
you are very present (you are actually there, not thinking about the
past or future, like mindfulness present)  emotions help us to
process our deeper memory
Being ‘present’ (sympathetic nervous system arousal) e.g., mindfulness –
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
o Ever been in a car accident?
o Traumatic  time slows down because you are actually in the present
o Highly focused in the present  time slows! Feels like you are in that time
forever
o Contrast this with a state of “flow”, time flies when you are having fun – sense
of lost time
All kinds of factors that can influence personality development
o Genetic
 Temperament – fear response & inhibited behavior (shyness, anxiety,
worry/GAD)
 Evolutionary – “fight or flight” (phobias – snakes, spiders, genetic
predisposition?)
o Environmental
 Cultural – morals, ethics, self-maximizing (individual) or communityfocused (collective)
 Family/Parent – selective rewards; create alt environments for
siblings, role-models
 Social class – influences cognitive and social development
 Peer-group(s) – quality of relationships; mirroring; role-models
Psychology and Behavioral Change
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How do we change over time? Does our relationship to our environment change?
What is (arguably) the most decisive ability humans have over animals?
How does decision-making differ between personalities?
Decision making illusion (video)
We perceive something, not everybody will get the same stimulus, and it makes
impression in us. That impression can come as a kind of thoughts, feelings,
emotions, behavior attached to it
When we perceive something, we react to it, and the reaction is based on the
experiences that we have  broader experiences will result various reactions
Is There a Real You? – We are our experiences
Julian Baggini: journalist and philosopher who studied the complexities of personal identity.
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Each one of us have core, an essence. There is something about what it means to
be you which defines you, and it is unchanging/permanent
Common sense idea: you are the individuals you are, and you have this kind of core.
In your life, you accumulate different experiences and so forth (memories). Your
memories help to create what you are, desire, beliefs, intentions, so on
o These things are related to each other, and it is just you
o It is a shift between thinking of yourself as a thing which has all the
experiences of life and thinking of yourself as simply that collection.
o You are the sum of your parts (memories, beliefs, etc.)
o In some way, we are very complex collection, ordered collection of things
does not mean we are not real
If you think of yourself in a way not a thing as such, but a kind of a process,
something that is quiet changing  that is liberate (자유로운)
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Unlike the waterfall, we actually have a capacity to channel the direction of our
development for ourselves to a certain degree
We have limit to what we can achieve, and limit to what we can make of ourselves,
BUT nevertheless, we do have capacity to shape ourselves
Therefore, true you are not something there that you can discover, but it is creating
your true self
To be fulfilled actualized individuals we must experience life, in all its twists and turns
It makes us who we are, rather than who we want to be (ideal)
o The development of the “self”
If you wish to be a benevolent person (value), then you must experience being a
benevolent person
It takes practice and resilience (experience and determination)
Who is the “Real” You?
David Goggins
Major Personality Theory Topics
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Philosophical view of the person
o What is human nature? What is person? Is there a self? Can we really be
whatever and whoever we desire to be?
Internal and external determinants of behavior
o Freud (controlled by inner forces) vs. Skinner (controlled by external forces) –
who’s right?
Consistency across situations and over time
o Is there a enduring and composite personality?
o Are we just a stimulus response system?
The unity if experience and action
o We have a relatively stable view of ourselves – why?
Awareness and the unconscious
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Influence of experience on behavior
Is there a science of personality?
Chapter 2 – The Science Study of People
Chapter Q:
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What information and data do we need to study Personality?
Reliability and Validity
How should we study people?
What are the differences between the various methods of study and data collection?
L.O.T.S of Information/Data
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L – Life Record
o Life history, charts, records
o Often used in correlational research; “correlational data”
o E.g., police files, birth records, hospital records
o Chart of individual over time that is NOT a research or information gathering.
It is a fact of you
O – Observational
o Observe people in controlled or uncontrolled environments
o Make rating, judgements, records, etc.
o E.g., new mothers, “subway patrons”, soccer players
o No testing required, just observational
o Simply set up an environment and observe (see) them
T – Test
o Experimental, Lab, some psychometrics
o E.g., IQ, left-hand bias, reaction time
o Tests for determining
S – Self Report Data
o Questionnaires, survey, self-report style psychometric
o Big 5, MBTI
What’s Your Favorite Movie?
Let’s consider we have a research hypothesis that the movies people watch, reflect their
personality. Thus, your favorite movie may tell us something about you.
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How could we assess this?
Types of measures used to collect data:
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Nomothetic (bandwidth/broad)
o “fixed” method of testing
o Everyone gets the same test or situation
 IQ test; observed doing similar behavior; standardized testing
o Pros: objective and simple
o Cons:
 The differences you find between subjects may not relate to the test
(IQ and age difference)
 Lack of individuality (rank order these 5 movies in terms of preference;
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bounded results)
Idiographic (fidelity/narrow)
o “flexible” method of testing
o Items can reflect idiosyncratic nature of the responder
o Tries to ‘tap into’ unique aspects
 Open-ended interview
o Pros: not a ‘one size fits all’
o Cons:
 Difficult to synthesize one person’s results with all results
 Lacks collectivism
Data Collection Concerns: Reliability & Validity
Reliability
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The observation can be replicated given the same circumstances
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동일한 상황에서 관찰할 수 있다
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Some things that may affect reliability (intra-individual or within the individual):
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Mood 같은 상황이 주어졌으나 그때 그때 달라지는 기분에 따라 신뢰도가 달라
질수있다
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o Motivation
o Time lapse
o Age (variability: variance or error bard changing, over time/age, as an ex)
Measured in (at least) 2 ways:
o Internal Consistency – the extent to which items on a test measure the
same thing (시험의 항목들이 동일한 것을 측정하는 정도, 한 측정 대상을 얼마
나 일관성 있게 측정하는지를 보는 신뢰도)
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Ex) items are “tapping into” and measuring the same construct(s)/theses
(e.g., split-half reliability)
 Extraversion test items – going out, socializing, “partying”, dangerous
sports…
Test-Retest – a person should score roughly the same on a test later, all
things being (roughly) equal
 Extraversion when younger versus older?
Validity 유효성/타당성
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The observation being measured is in fact what you are trying to measure
The test is measuring what you think you measuring
o E.g., trying to measure intelligence: IQ
Measured in (at least) 2 ways:
o Construct Validity (of a test) – test score on your test systematically relates
to a known criterion (or another known valid test)
o 검사도구가 측정하려고 하는 구성개념을 실제로 적정하게 측정했는지의 정도를 나타
내는 타당도.
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E.g., your test of anxiety relates to another known test of anxiety
Discriminant validity – test is also different than another test
 E.g., your test of anxiety does not correlate (very) highly with
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intelligence (for ex)
If the test of anxiety is highly correlated to depression or intelligence,
then you come up with a question of “is this test actually for anxiety or
depression?”
3 Main Approaches to Personality Research
Case Studies and Clinical Research
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Study one person in great detail – most often idiographic “open-ended”
Clinical utility yes – but not often used as experimental research per se
Pros:
o Learn a lot of idiographic information
o Information that might otherwise be missed
o Can inform broader theory better than correlational research sometimes
 Because we are not forcing answer or using closed questions or
experiments
Cons:
o Time consuming
o Often expensive
o Causality is difficult to establish due to temporal and contextual variables
(experimenter effect and bias) (i.e., not a randomized control trial)
o Unsystematic variation (idiosyncrasies) – applicable?
Personality Questionnaires and Correlational Research
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Can investigate trends, pattern and differences between ‘people’ as a whole
Correlational: examine the relationship between variables in large populations
o Also, research that uses records, archives, database, etc.,
o We cannot necessarily link the causation to another (such as one thing cause
this effect), but we have to say that these two things happened together, so
they might be related in some way
o We can NOT say A causes B!!
o High reliability
o Validity – not sure…
Pros:
o Lots of info on lots of people with less time, expense
o Not ‘time-dependent’ like case studied and experiments
o Tests can be extremely reliable – and can adjust if they are not
Cons:
o Difficult to determine causality (only get associations)
 What caused the variables to be related or for it to be high or low?
o Often self-report – may result in bias in some parts
o Many miss the idiosyncrasies in the phenomenon studied
Laboratory and Experimental Research
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Can “control” (i.e., independent variable isolation) the effect under study
o E.g., can administer various doses of a drug to different experimental groups
Can use randomized control designs (RCT) (if ethical)
Pros:
o Can test casual relationships (drug A has this effect, placebo should have
none)
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Cons:
o Demand characteristics
 Participants performs the way they think they should, sometimes
unconsciously
o Experimenter expectancy effect
 Experimenter signals to the participant information unwittingly
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자신도 모르게 실험자가 피실험자에게 신호를 보냄
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예상한 결과로 유도하는
However, researchers can “double-blind” in some cases
 Can’t always ‘manipulate’ variables or situations
 Unethical: withholding known effective treatments from patients
(control)
Week 3: Psychodynamic Theory (Freud)
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How did Freud develop his theory and how did personal and historical events shape
this development?
What are the key features of Freud’s model?
How do people protect themselves against experiences of anxiety?
How important is childhood development in later personality development?
Freud’s view of the Person:
Mind as an Energy System
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The context of science and biology was generally from a vitalist frame of reference
o Vitalist: psychological processes cannot be explained by the laws of physics
or chemistry 활력론자
o Body and the mind are “energy systems” that provide our “lifeforce” or
“soul” or vitality
o Energy = lifeforce
o Reason we do things are kind of life forcing within us
Emergence of mechanism (studied under Bruke)
o Mechanism: psychological processes are akin to mechanical or physiological
processes; biology, chemistry and physics can likely explain everything –
physical property
o Mind is constantly ‘doing’ things
 Energy is moving around
 It is not like a computer hard drive spinning up only when purposely
accessed
 The mind is always ‘on’
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두가지를 잘 합쳐논 그런 사람
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Influenced heavily by Conservation of Energy Theory (Helmholtz)
o Energy is in a ‘closed’ system – energy cannot be created or destroyed
Freud’s mental energy fundamentals:
o Limited amount of energy
 Ex) if used for depressive thoughts, it may be hard to concentrate – If
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we are using that energy to one thing, then we cannot use it for
something else
 Anytime your energy is used to another task, you have less energy
available for other things
 3 related thoughts
 Self-discipline (and/or addictions) + stress
 Multi-tasking?
Paths can be blocked (but energy cannot be destroyed)
o If fear and avoidance (of intimacy) block the path of sexual desire (an
example of path) then the energy is though to be expressed down in a
different path
o Ex) aggressive desire and behavior
o E.g., intimacy  vulnerability (unblocked) vs. Intimacy  aggressive
(blocked)
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애너지의 한 방향이 막히면 그 애너지는 다른 방식으로 방출된다
Goal of the mind is quiescence – a state of calm, inactive, inertness, steady state
Freud get where he got:
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Freud sees a patient with Glove Amnesia
o Thoroughly tested: cannot be neurological
o Total block to hand would also block parts of arm
DSM5 (conservation disorder)
Freud believed the seemingly neurological problems were due to the mind’s energy
(vitality) being redirected somewhere else
o Energy was being used to repress painful and anxiety producing thoughts and
memories from reaching consciousness
 So much unconscious energy is being used to NOT think about
something (trauma)
 So, less to no energy for normal physical sensations in ger hand
o “un-repressing” these thoughts through “catharsis” released the energy that
was blocked, bringing sensation cack to her hand
o Catharsis – a release and freeing of emotions by talking about one’s
problems
The Pleasure Principle
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What else was happening around the time in science? (1859)
Darwin: Origin of the species
o We seek to maximize our of fitness (pass in our genes) through reproduction
Is this why we have sex? To maximize our fitness?
o Probably not consciously, we so it because it is pleasurable
o Therefore, pleasure leads to nature’s success
Freud would believe that the true nature of humans then is to satisfy pleasure (and
avoid pain) – Pleasure Principle
But if we only seek pleasure then how can we explain all our behaviors?
o Brain in a vat of serotonin thought experiment – a good life/existence?
o A lot of what we do is not apparently ‘pleasurable,’ so what is happening?
We learn (as we develop) the opposing force to the pleasure principle – the reality
principle
o
o
This is essentially societies’ rules that govern our behavior (do’s and
don’ts)
These are learnt, they are not natural instincts
The Reality Principle: Philosophy
We can never be an authentic person in Freud’s theory
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We have a constant life of tension between pleasure and the pain of reality
We can’t follow our ‘true’ instincts  it causes pain, anxiety, and social problems
o This tension can be reduced, but never fully dissipated (conservation of
energy)
We are never truly “free beings” or “authentic” human beings; hence er are constantly
“suffering”
We don’t act as we truly are
Free Association
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It is the expression of the content of consciousness without censorship as an aid in
gaining access to unconscious process
Psychodynamic: Structure
Dreams
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For Freud the unconscious is similar to dreams, it is
o Illogical
o No space or time
o Symbolic
Freud: Dreams can expose the content of the unconscious
Dreams – what are they?
o Delboeuf: the full psychic activity of the waking state continues in our dreams
 But we are not in reality when we dream? Why would min continue as
if it was?
o Mechanistic: mind makes itself, for the time being, “unserviceable”
o Robert: we don’t remember dreams
 We often dream about the most insignificant impressions of the day
 Rarely dream of absorbing interests of the day
o Freud: dreams have a meaning, albeit a hidden one
 They are intended as a substitute for some thought-process
 Interpret this substitute correctly to discover the hidden meaning of the
dream
The motivated unconscious
o The unconscious is working away behind the scenes seeking our desire
 It is highly motivated
o Our conscious thoughts have little awareness of that
o Our unconscious thoughts are influencing our conscious thoughts, feelings
and actions
 Do you believe there is a part of your thoughts or mind that is
unconscious?
 Have you ever done something that you later wondered why you had
done it? What motivated you to do it?
 Is there free will?
Tony Soprano’s Dream
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He is a mob boss, ultra-macho, alpha male, stressful “job”
o He has a panic attack one day
Starts to attend therapy to reduce stress
o He thinks seeing a shrink is pointless
He is having vivid dreams full of anxiety
Dreams:
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Freud: dream of our unconscious desire
Robert: to forget (consolidate) the unimportant details if the day
Heal – stress reduction and physical (but psychological?)
Solve problems (limitless scenarios “sleep on it”)
o Rehearse/practice
Latest: higher levels of acetylcholine and cortisol during REM – emotional valence
processing
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Psychodynamic: Process
Process: motivational aspects od psychodynamic theory
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In Freud’s theory, motivation is biological and in the form of drives
A drive is a source of energy that can motivate any of a variety of specific actions
o Freud suggested that there were only 2 “motivational drives” responsible for
our actions:
Motivational drives:
o Life instinct: Eros – sexual and ego drives; higher unity with oneself
 Called the sexual ego drive libido
 Ego drive – focus on oneself
 Unity – try to expand ourselves (children, reproduction)
 They are related that happen at the same time
 Libido motivates us to preservation and reproduction – as a motivator
for higher unity
 Originally, sexual and ego drives were related (one up other down) –
why?
o Death instinct: Thanatos – death drive; opposite of higher unity –
decomposition
 More of a drive for calmness – the ultimate calm being death
(decrease unity)
 Removing the population
o Motivational processes are linked to the psychodynamic structures
 Id is sexual and aggressive
Dynamics of functioning:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
The two drives can manifest in all kind of ways to account for human diversity
in action
Ex) being conscious may be an aggressive (sexual-ego) “life” instinct
 Achievement motivation – I will dominant – high in hierarchy
Ex) uploading pictures to social media may be fulfilling a sexual and ego drive
Self-harming behavior – reduction of anxiety (a death instinct toward
decomposition?)
However, the idea always pushing for pleasure, without pain
 The superego is pushing back, “if you do that (pleasure), I will give
you pain (guilt)!”
 This creates tension and anxiety that the ego must resolve (process;
psychological flexibility)
 Could this (in Freud’s view) be related to our self-damaging, how?
The anxiety is thought to be so distressing that we mentally defend against it
entering consciousness
 We try to push and repress down so it cannot come to our mind/light
We develop ways to distort reality and exclude feelings from awareness so
that we reduce anxiety
These are called Defence Mechanism
Psychodynamic: Defence
Denial
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Refusing to admit something unpleasant has happened
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Refusing to admit a taboo 금기 emotion/thought is being experienced
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o I am absolutely not attracted to your mother
Can denial be protective – a self-deception that can be beneficial?
o Sexual offender denial linked to reduced reoffending
o Relapse?
 Imposter (2012): family believed an obvious lie to ease their suffering
(in the short-term)
o Blindness
Denial is unconscious that we are refusing to admit that something happened, and
we are repressing a lot of energy to repress those thoughts
o Again, we are using all of the energy that could be useful to something else,
so there might be a problem in Freudian sense
Majority of Psychologists would likely disagree its beneficial:
o Denial turns people away from reality (avoidance); like denying a drinking
problem
Projection:
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Unacceptable, internal, negative qualities (about ourselves) are projected onto others
You decided to take the day off b/c you are feeling little overwhelmed and stressed.
Walking through a park you see a person sitting on park bench in the middle of the
day and think, ‘hmmmm… must be nice to lazy around all day, I’ve got way too much
to do though!’
o We are not conscious of these things/thoughts
o
그 사람이 게으르다고 생각하지만 나도 같은 행동을 하고 있다는 것을 인지 하
하 못하는 것 (공원을 거니는)
o
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나또한 게으른 행동을 하고 있지만, 인지 못하는
To be true projection you can’t be conscious of the fact that you may be the “laze”
one
o It must be projected onto others and denied by yourself
Ex) what you don’t like about others in probably what you don’t like about yourself
Repression:
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The major psychoanalytic defence
Force thoughts, memories, cognitions deep into the unconsciousness (so we don’t
have to feel them)
o Too sever to be conscious of them
Requires constant energy to suppress
o Major point: takes energy that could be used elsewhere (for positive)
o E.g., glove-amnesia patient – taking that energy to suppress negative
thoughts that might have been used to positive things such as using the hand
Problem with repression and our understanding of it:
o Recovered, repressed memories? False memory syndrome
o Hypnosis to uncover? (highly suggestible state, amygdala emotional
activation; leading questions)
o Recall bias in memory? (we rewrite our memories continuously, b/c we forget
details over time)
Psychodynamic: Growth and Development
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Freud believed: we all develop through a series of psycho-sexual stages
Events occurring at each stage shape our future personalities
o Each stage related to a distinct region of the body called an erogenous zone
 Each erogenous zone related to a form od sensual gratification
 Each stage revolves around the stimulation of the sensual region,
typically dichotomized into internalizing/withholding and
externalizing/expelling
Our later (adult) personalities are determined entirely in the first 5 years of life
o Problems in personality (psychopathologies, disorders) result from
unsuccessful completion of fixation on a particular stage
Freud’s Psycho-Sexual Stages
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Oral Passive (receptive) (Birth – 1 year)
o Early “oral stage” development
o Sucking, feeding
o Putting everything in mouth (taking in, internalizing)
o Smoking/eating/kissing
Oral Aggressive (External)
o Late “oral stage” development
o Teeth, biting
o Sexual and aggressive fusion
o Chewing gum (mastercation) – like the sensation of chewing
Psychosexual Phallic Stage by Gender
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Males: Oedipus complex
o Boys (3-6 years) sexual drive is focused on their mother
o Want mother to themselves – so need to remove father
o
남성이 부친을 증오하고 모친에 대해서 품는 무의식적인 성적 애착
Dad doesn’t like this idea so much so “threatens”) in the boy’s perception) to
cut off the boy’s penis, which gives the boy Castration Anxiety
o Oedipus complex is commonly resolved at the end of the Phallic stage (6-7
years) when the boy identifies with their father
 If you cannot beat them, join them
Female: Electra Complex (term coined by Carl Jung)
o Females (at 3-6 years) realize they lack a penis and blame their mother
o Girls sexual drive is then focused in their father (the perceive their father can
restore their lost penis)
o
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o
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딸이 아버지에게 애정을 품고 어머니를 경쟁자로 인식해 반감을 갖는 경향
o All resolved by age 607 when the girl identifies with their mother
What is identification?
o The resolution of the oedipal and Electra complexes occurs through the child
identifying with the parent of the same sex
o Child takes in the qualities (morals, values) of that parent and integrates then
into their functioning (including gender roles)
Mission Accomplished:
o According to Freud all major aspects of our personality character have fully
develop during the first 3 phases (oral, anal, phallic)
o Psychosexual stages fully developed by age of 6-7
2 further stages to address challenge of explaining how problems in personality
character occur after first 3 stages:
Latency Stage (6 years to puberty 사춘기):
o
o
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Child experience a decrease in sexual urges and interest
Freud: if a person fixates here – they will turn out to be extremely sexually
unsatisfied
Genital Stage (puberty onwards):
o Puberty reawakens those old oedipal feelings and the child once again has
sexual urges and interest
o Dependency feelings and unresolved oedipal feelings return
Freud: successful progression through all stages leads to a healthy person that can
love and work
The Development of Thinking Processes
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Freud also addressed the development of the thinking process – with 2 different
thinking modes)
Primary process:
o Thinking is unconscious
o Illogical, irrational, (reality and fantasy are indistinguishable)
o Parallel the id
o Our ability to form logical arguments, develops over time
 Babies are not logical but can still think
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Secondary process:
o Thinking is conscious
o Develops after the primary process
o It parallels the development of the ego (the self)
Contemporary theorists:
o Epstein
 Experiential thinking
 Similar to primary
 Developed earlier in evolution
 Emotional (limbic): empathic, intuitive, holistic; parasympathetic
 id
o Rational thinking
 Similar to secondary
 Later in evolutionary process
 Abstract, analytic, logical
 Ego + superego
The ‘Science’ of Psychoanalysis
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Criticism:
o Freud did not experiments in the lab
o Used no standard psychological tests
o Only used the case study method of evidence
o However, very little psychological testing at that time – psych, not a natural
science
o Empirical evidence, woefully incomplete
Favorable:
o Gathered tremendous wealth of information
o Prolifically wrote on evidence collected
o Really thought about the subject
 Self-analysis
 Introspection
 Tried to limit his own biases and preconceptions
o Deep analytical thinker = philosophy + psychology + biology
Week 4: Neo-Freudians & Scientific Basis of Psychoanalytic Theory
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How can one assess personality from a psychodynamic perspective?
What, according to psychodynamic analysis are the causes of psychopathology?
o How do we treat them?
Why did some of Freud’s followers break with his approach and what novel ideas sis
they achieve?
What recent developments in personality psychology are inspired by Freud’s work?
What does contemporary scientific evidence say about Freud’s work/idea?
Chapter 4: Psychoanalytic theory applications, related concepts & contemporary
research
How does Freud’s theories measure up in relation to psychological assessment?
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Psychological Assessment:
o Should shed light on the nature of the individual’s personality, including
causes of psychological distress (e.g., psychopathology)
 Must have:
 Validity (accuracy, relevance)
 Parsimony (simple, efficient)
o How could we psychologically/clinically assess someone in terms of
psychodynamic theory?
 We could ask (men) directly
 “So, how often do you think about killing your father and having sex
with your mother?”
Free Association
How does Freud suggest we investigate people’s personality them?
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Through Free Association
o Patient/client would lie on a couch and simply vocalize thoughts – I don’t
know what you are thinking, so just tell me everything that is coming to your
brain all the time. Then I can maybe start to get the idea of the way you think
o No censorship
 Atmosphere of non-judgmental curiosity and acceptance
 Works by intuitive leaps and therapist-interpreted linkage
 Leads to new personal insights and meanings
 No ‘direction’
o Goal is a journey of co-discovery which can enhance the patient’s integration
of thoughts, feelings, and selfhood
 Unrepress the repressed by bringing it into conscious
Validity:
o Does it really reveal something specific about the person?
o Reveals the unconscious?
o Can this be used to come to some decisions about a person’s personality?
o Would 2 different therapists cone to the same conclusion?
Parsimony:
o May be simple but…
o Free Association techniques would be used over the course of years to
develop the level of non-censorship needed
 Too long time!
So, others decided there had to be another way, one that was quicker
Projective Tests: Rorschach Inkblot Test
Hermann Rorschach
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Used ink blots in folded paper to make symmetrical patterns of ambiguous shapes
Showed these to hospital patients to determine which ones discriminated beyween
psychiatric patients the best
Ended up with 10 cards
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The test:
o Free to focus on the whole or any part of it
o After the interpretation is done, patients are asked to explain their reasoning
Let’s try it
o What does the image make you think of? – what is it?
o How does it make you feel?
o Comfortable? Uncomfortable?
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같은 사진을 보여주지만 다들 다른 방식으로 받아들인다?
What are Projective Tests?
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A patient/client is asked to respond (in some way) to an ambiguous object
o Since the object is ambiguous – interpretation of “nothing into something” will
reveal aspects of a person’s personality
In other words, the patient will “project” aspects of their personality onto the
ambiguous item
o Hence the name projective test
o There is no right or wrong answer
The notion is that the ay a person interprets ambiguous information in the card will
reveal how they typically interpret ambiguous information in everyday life
It reveals a person’s typical thinking style – will reveal underlying, unconscious
psychodynamics