Unit 11
Who are we really?
The Psychodynamic Perspective
-Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic Theory
-Basics of psychoanalytic theory
-Human has sexual (and aggressive) instincts – for survival
-These inborn forces must be balanced with needs of society
-Psychoanalytic theory created to explain how this balance is achieved
-Levels of consciousness
-Mind is like an iceberg; most of mass lies out of range of visible
detection
- Contains three parts
-Conscious – present awareness (tip of iceberg we can see)
-Preconscious – stores past experiences and learning (easy to access)
-Unconscious – primitive impulses, unacceptable desires, disturbing
past experiences (the iceberg mass under the water that we cannot
see); not easy to access
The Psychodynamic Perspective
-The structure of personality – consists of three mental entities
-Id
-At the unconscious level
-Only psychic structure present at birth
-Contains animal drives and impulses
-Functions based on pleasure principle without regard to others
-Ego
-Forms during the first year of life
-Realize not all desires can and will be satisfied right away
-Learns to deal with frustration
-Operates according to reality principle
-Superego
-Internal moral guardian
-3-5 years of age
-Most of superego is unconscious as well – some in pre and conscious
-Ego is the balancer of the Superego and Id
-Defense mechanisms
-Prevent anxiety that would occur if unconscious content were in
awareness
-Repression – purposeful forgetting
-Other defense tools: regression, displacement, denial, reaction
formation, rationalization, projection, and sublimation
Defense
Mechanism
Repression
Rationalization
Textbook Definition
The ego pushes
unacceptable impulses
out of awareness, back
into the unconscious
mind.
The ego replaces a less
acceptable motive with a
more acceptable one.
Displacement
The ego shifts feelings
towards an acceptable
object to another, more
acceptable object.
Sublimation
The ego replaces an
unacceptable impulse
with a socially
acceptable one.
What is it in our own
words?
Personal
Example
to show
you can
apply it. 2
points
Defense
Mechanism
Projection
Reaction
Formation
Textbook
Definition
The ego attributes
personal shortcomings,
problems, and faults to
others.
The ego transforms an
unacceptable motive
into its opposite.
Denial
The ego refuses to
acknowledge anxietyproducing realities
Regression
The ego seeks the
security of an earlier
development period in
the face of stress.
What is it in our own
words?
Personal
Example
to show
you can
apply it. 2
points
-Stages of personality of development
-Psychosexual stages – each relation to changes in libido
-Focuses on different body parts
-Oral stage – 0-18 months; mouth, sucking (smokers)
-Anal Stage – 18 months – 3 years; fixation may make one either
excessively fastidious or messy (anal-retentive: perfectionism,
cleanliness or anal-expulsive: messiness or carelessness)
-Phallic stage – 3-6 years; focus shifts to the phallic region. Males
struggle with issues of masturbation as do females and when this
is acceptable. Oedipal, Electra complexes; a lot of influence on
personality
-Latency stage – 6-12 years; sexual impulses dormant, focus is now
on friendships, activities and new skills.
-Genital Stage – puberty; desires are towards members of the
opposite sex and typically boys will desire someone like Mom in
ways and girls will desire someone like Dad in ways.
-New Ideas in the Psychodynamic Theory on Personality
-Carl Jung

-Moved focus to current experiences instead of childhood
experiences.
-Focused more on conscious experiences.
-Alfred Adler
-Focus becomes the uniqueness of each person and their
potential
-Proposed the idea of the inferiority complex: that people are
born feeling inferior and strive to be superior as the grow.
-Karen Horney
-Agreed with Freud that there was a strong influence on personality
by unconscious thoughts, but moved away from sex and
aggression and focused more on social and cultural factors.
The Trait View
-Believe that different traits create different personalities
-Gordon Allport – Hierarchy of Traits:
-Two types of traits:
-Cardinal traits – Present in all aspects of personality
-Phrase or idea that sums up a person
-Central traits – influence behavior in most situations
-Responsible, trustworthy, patient, competitive
-Secondary traits – more superficial, only influence certain
situations
-Raymond Cattell: Mapping the Personality
-Two basic levels of traits
-Surface traits: can observe these traits (friendly, helpful,
emotional)
-Source traits: more deeply rooted in personality
-16 personality factors (ENFJ, INTJ…)
-The “Big Five”
-Openness: imaginative, curious, nontraditional
-Conscientiousness: reliable, responsible, hard-working
-Extraversion: outgoing or reserved
-Agreeableness: sensitive, warm, tolerant
-Neuroticism: emotionally instable, very intense and worrisome
Social Cognitive Perspective
Social – Cognitive Theory
- Learning-based model
-Cognitive and environmental factors influence behavior
-Locus of Control
-Internal or external motivation