personality

all psychological events have a cause

nothing is meaningless

thoughts feelings urges and wishes difficult to bring to conscious awareness

information easily made conscious

info easily in your immediate awareness

Most primitive part of personality

Entirely unconscious & present at birth

Strives to satisfy sexual & aggressive drives

Id is ruled by Seeking immediate gratification

sexual  energy or motivation

Capacity to postpone gratification until appropriate time exist

Represents internalized societal and familial ideals

Begins operating around age 4 or 5

How one should behave

Societal standards for judgement & future aspirations

Responsible for feelings of pride & guilt

unconscious mental processes

Employed by ego

Reduce anxiety and protect against guilt   

unconscious forgetting

Trauma, past failures, unacceptable urges

Justifying one’s actions with socially acceptable explanations

“Everyone does it”

Emotional impulses are redirected to a less threatening target

Angry at one’s boss = kick the dog

5 stages

Age-related personality development

Each stage = focus on an erogenous zone

unresolved conflict = fixation

Try to achieve pleasure as an adult in ways equivalent to that stage

(birth – 1 year)

mouth is associated with sexual pleasure

improper weaning  fixation

Fixation  oral activities in adulthood - Smoking, nail biting

(1 – 3 years)

anus associated with pleasure

Improper toilet training  fixation

Fixation  anal retentive or expulsive behaviors in adulthood

(3 – 5 years)

Focus of pleasure shifts to genitals

Fixation

difficulty with authority

inability to maintain stable love relationships

Child develops sexual attraction to parent of opposite sex, and hostility toward same-sex parent

Boys experience castration anxiety

Realization that father is physically powerful; fears punishment by castration

Girls experience penis envy

Realizes penis is a symbol of power and transfers her love to her father

person models behavior of another to reduce anxiety

Boys identify with father

Girls wait until they give birth

  to a boy with a penis!!

(7-11)

sexual urges repressed

Strong desire to associate with same-sex peers

(adolescence)

sexual pleasure in heterosexual relationships

sex-partners like opposite-sex parent

resolve oedipus complex

lack of testability: vague and broad concepts that defy measurement

failed predictions

lack of evidence

unrepresentative samples

Research corroborates unconscious aspects of mental functioning

Early childhood experiences are crucial to later development

People do seem to differ in extent they can regulate impulses, emotions, and thoughts

all of our behaviors are products of pre-existing causal influences.

differences in our learning history

Ex. Extraversion

Genetic factors and contingencies in the environment.

Views of determinism

Observational learning and personality

Sense of perceived control

Openness to experience

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Intellectually curious and unconventional

appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience.

a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement

planned rather than spontaneous behavior

energy, positive emotions, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others.

a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others

a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability

sometimes called emotional instability

In these cultures the focus is on the individual. Members of these cultures are socialized to focus on the self and personal goals

in these societies the focus is on relationships and responsibility to others.  Social norms and standards meant to protect social relationships, govern behavior.

the underlying trait

how that trait is expressed

personality traits may be helpful in predicting a person’s behavior in specific situations, but only if aggreagted

(lean and muscular)- assertive and bold

(lean skinny)- introverted and intellectual

(fat and round)- relaxed and socialable

widely used structured test designed to assess symptoms of mental disorders

Built using empirical method of test construction:  researchers begin with two or more criterion groups, and examine which items best distinguish them

low face validity – the extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring

consist of ambiguous stimuli that examinees must interpret

tendency of people to accept high base rate descriptions as specific and accurate

perception of nonexistent statistical associations between variables in personality test results