The Structure of Personality

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The Psychodynamic Approach
optimistic, whereas others are usually pessimistic, and whether people respond consistently or inconsistently from one situation to the next.
The specific questions psychologists ask and the methods they use to investigate personality often depend on which of the four main approaches to personality they take.
These four are known as the psychodynamic, trait, social-cognitive, and humanistic
approaches.
The Psychodynamic Approach
䉴 How did paralyzed patients lead Freud to psychoanalysis?
FOUNDER OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC
APPROACH Here is Sigmund Freud
with his daughter, Anna, who became a
psychoanalyst herself and eventually
developed a revised version of her
father’s theories.
Some people think that personality reveals itself in behavior alone. A person with an
“obnoxious personality,” for example, shows it by acting obnoxiously. But is that all there
is to personality? Not according to Sigmund Freud. As a physician in Vienna, Austria,
during the 1890s, Freud specialized in treating “neurotic” disorders, such as blindness
or paralysis, for which there was no physical cause and that hypnosis could often
remove. One patient sleepwalked on legs that were paralyzed during the day. These cases
led Freud to believe in psychic determinism, the idea that personality and behavior are
determined more by psychological factors than by biological conditions or current
events (Allen, 2006). He proposed that people may not know why they feel, think, or
act the way they do because they are partly controlled by the unconscious portion of
the personality—the part of which people are normally unaware (Funder, 2004). From
these ideas Freud created psychoanalysis, a theory of personality and a way of treating
mental disorders. Freud’s theory became the basis of the psychodynamic approach
to personality, which assumes that various unconscious psychological processes interact to determine our thoughts, feelings, and behavior (Schultz & Schultz, 2005).
The Structure of Personality
Conscious
Unconscious
EGO
SUPEREGO
Preconscious
ID
Source: Adapted from Liebert & Spiegler (1994).
FIGURE
11.1
A Freudian View of Personality
Structure
According to Freud, some parts of the personality are conscious, whereas others are
unconscious. Between these levels is the
preconscious, which Freud saw as the
home of memories and other material that
we are not usually aware of but that we
can easily bring into consciousness.
Freud believed that people are born with basic needs or instincts—not only for food
and water but also for sex and aggression. He believed that needs for love, knowledge,
security, and the like arise from these more fundamental desires. He said that each of
us has to find ways of meeting our needs in a world that often frustrates our efforts.
Our personalities develop, said Freud, as we struggle with this task and are reflected in
the way we satisfy a wide range of urges.
Id, Ego, and Superego Freud described the personality as having three major
components: the id, the ego, and the superego (Allen, 2006; see Figure 11.1). The id
represents the inborn, unconscious portion of the personality where life and death
instincts reside. The life instincts promote positive, constructive behavior; the death
instincts are responsible for human aggression and destructiveness (Carver & Scheier,
2004). The id operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate satisfaction of
both kinds of instincts, regardless of society’s rules or the rights and feelings of others.
The hungry person who pushes to the front of the line at Burger King would be satisfying an id-driven impulse.
As parents, teachers, and others place ever greater restrictions on the expression of
id impulses, a second part of the personality, called the ego (or “self ”), emerges from
the id. The ego is responsible for organizing ways to get what a person wants in the
real world, as opposed to the fantasy world of the id. Operating on the reality principle, the ego makes compromises as the id’s demands for immediate satisfaction run
into the practical realities of the social world. The ego would influence that hungry person at Burger King to wait in line and think about what to order rather than risk punishment by pushing ahead.
As children gain experience with the rules and values of society, they tend to adopt
them. This process of internalizing parental and cultural values creates the third
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TA B L E
Chapter 11 Personality
11.1
Defense Mechanism
Description
Repression
Unconsciously pushing threatening memories, urges, or
ideas from conscious awareness: A person may
experience loss of memory for unpleasant events.
Rationalization
Attempting to make actions or mistakes seem
reasonable: The reasons or excuses given (e.g., “I spank
my children because it is good for them”) sound rational,
but they are not the real reasons for the behavior.
Projection
Unconsciously attributing one’s own unacceptable
thoughts or impulses to another person: Instead of
recognizing that “I hate him,” a person may feel that “He
hates me.”
Reaction formation
Defending against unacceptable impulses by acting
opposite to them: Sexual interest in a married co-worker
might appear as strong dislike instead.
Sublimation
Converting unacceptable impulses into socially
acceptable actions, and perhaps symbolically expressing
them: Sexual or aggressive desires may appear as artistic
creativity or devotion to athletic excellence.
Displacement
Deflecting an impulse from its original target to a less
threatening one: Anger at one’s boss may be expressed
through hostility toward a clerk, a family member, or
even the dog.
Denial
Simply discounting the existence of threatening
impulses: A person may vehemently deny ever having
had even the slightest degree of physical attraction to a
person of the same sex.
Compensation
Striving to make up for unconscious impulses or fears: A
business executive’s extreme competitiveness might be
aimed at compensating for unconscious feelings of
inferiority.
Ego Defense Mechanisms
According to Freud, defense
learn mechanisms prevent anxiety or
by
guilt in the short run, but they
sap energy. Further, using them to avoid
dealing with the source of problems can
make those problems worse in the long run.
Try listing some incidents in which you or
someone you know might have used each of
the defenses described here. What questions
would a critical thinker ask to determine
whether these behaviors were unconscious
defense mechanisms or actions motivated
by conscious intentions?
doing
2
superego According to Freud, the
component of personality that tells
people what they should and should
not do.
defense mechanisms Unconscious tactics that either prevent threatening material from surfacing or disguise it when
it does.
psychosexual stages In Freud’s psychodynamic theory, periods of personality
development in which internal and external conflicts focus on particular issues.
oral stage The first of Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring during the first
year of life, in which the mouth is the
center of pleasure.
anal stage The second of Freud’s psychosexual stages, occurring during the
second year of life, in which the focus
of pleasure shifts from the mouth to
the anus.
component of personality. It is called the superego, and it tells us what we should and
should not do. The superego becomes our moral guide, and it is just as relentless and
unreasonable as the id in its demands to be obeyed. The superego would make the person at Burger King feel guilty for even thinking about violating culturally approved rules
about waiting in line.
phallic stage The third of Freud’s psychosexual stages, lasting from approximately ages three to five, in which the
focus of pleasure shifts to the genital
area.
Oedipus complex The notion that
young boys’ impulses involve sexual
feelings for the mother and the desire
to eliminate the father.
Electra complex The notion that
young girls develop an attachment to
the father and compete with the
mother for the father’s attention.
Conflicts and Defenses Freud described the inner clashes among id, ego, and
superego as intrapsychic, or psychodynamic, conflicts. He believed that each individual’s
personality is shaped by the number, nature, and outcome of these conflicts. Freud said
that the ego’s main job is to prevent the anxiety or guilt that would arise if we became
conscious of socially unacceptable id impulses, especially those that would violate the
superego’s rules (Engler, 2003). Sometimes, the ego guides sensible actions, as when a
parent asks for help because of impulses to abuse a child. However, the ego also uses
defense mechanisms, which are unconscious tactics that protect against anxiety and
guilt by either preventing threatening material from surfacing or disguising it when it
does (Porcerelli et al., 2004; see Table 11.1).