Chapter 12- Personality
Personality= an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
I) The Psychoanalytic Perspective
A) Sigmund Freud
B) Exploring the Unconscious
1) Free Association= in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the
person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
2) Psychoanalysis= Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to
unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders
by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
3) Unconscious= according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes,
feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing
of which we are unaware.
4) Personality Structure
(a) id= contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives
to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle,
demanding immediate gratification.
(b) ego= the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to the id,
superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s
desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.
(c) Superego= the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized
ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for fortune aspirations.
5) Personality Development
(a) Psychosexual stages= the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency,
genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies to focus on
distinct erogenous zones.
(b) Oedipus complex= according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and
feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.
(c) Identification= the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their
parents’ values into their developing superegos.
(d) Fixation= according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier
psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
6) Defense Mechanisms
(a) Defense mechanisms= in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of
reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
(b) Repression= in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes
anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
(c) Regression= psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with
anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy
remains fixated
(d) Reaction formation= psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously
switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express their
feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings.
(e) Projection= psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own
threatening impulses by attributing them to others
