Personality – Introduction to Psychology (2023)

Historical Perspectives

The concept of personality has been studied for at least 2,000 years, beginning with Hippocrates in 370 BC. (Fazeli, 2012). Hippocrates theorized that human personality traits and behaviors are based on four separate temperaments associated with four fluids ("humors") of the body: choleric temperament (yellow bile from the liver), melancholic temperament (black bile from the kidneys), sanguine temperament (red blood from the heart) and phlegmatic temperament (white phlegm from the lungs) (Clark & ​​Watson, 2008; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985; Lecci & Magnavita, 2013; Noga, 2007). Centuries later, the influential Greek physician and philosopherGalenwas based on Hippocratic theory, suggesting that both disease and personality differences could be explained by imbalances in the humors and that each person exhibits one of four temperaments. For example, the choleric person is passionate, ambitious and daring; the melancholic is reserved, anxious and unhappy; the sanguine person is cheerful, anxious and optimistic; and the phlegmatic person is calm, trustworthy, and thoughtful (Clark & ​​Watson, 2008; Stelmack & Stalikas, 1991). Galen's theory held sway for over 1,000 years and continued to be popular into the Middle Ages.

In 1780, Franz Gall, a German physician, proposed that the distances between the bumps on the skull reveal a person's personality traits, character, and mental abilities.Figure 11.3🇧🇷 According to Gall, measuring these distances revealed the sizes of the brain areas underneath, providing information that could be used to determine whether a person was friendly, proud, murderous, kind, good with languages, etc. Initially, phrenology was very popular; however, it was soon discredited for lack of empirical support and was relegated to the status of pseudoscience for a long time (Fancher, 1979).

Figure11.3The pseudoscience of measuring the areas of a person's skull is known as phrenology. (a) Gall developed a chart that represented which areas of the skull corresponded to particular personality traits or characteristics (Hothersall, 1995). (b) An 1825 lithograph shows Gall examining the skull of a young woman. (b credit: modified work from Wellcome Library, London)

In the centuries after Galen, other researchers contributed to the development of his four main temperament types, most notably Immanuel Kant (in the 18th century) and the psychologist WilhelmWundt(in the 19th century) (Eysenck, 2009; Stelmack & Stalikas, 1991; Wundt, 1874/1886) (Figure 11.4🇧🇷 Kant agreed with Galen that everyone could be classified into one of the four temperaments and that there was no overlap between the four categories (Eysenck, 2009). He developed a list of characteristics that could be used to describe a person's personality from each of the four temperaments. However, Wundt suggested that a better description of personality could be achieved using two main axes: emotional/non-emotional and changeable/unchanging. The first axis separated strong emotions from weak ones (melancholic and choleric from phlegmatic and sanguine temperaments). The second axis divided the mutable temperaments (choleric and sanguine) from the immutable ones (melancholic and phlegmatic) (Eysenck, 2009).

Figure11.4Based on Galen's theory of the four temperaments, Kant proposed trait words to describe each temperament. Wundt later suggested organizing the strokes along two main axes.

Sigmund Freud's psychodynamic perspective of personality was the first comprehensive theory of personality, explaining a wide variety of normal and abnormal behaviors. According to Freud, unconscious drives influenced by sex and aggression, along with childhood sexuality, are the forces that influence our personality.freudhe attracted many followers who modified his ideas to create new theories of personality. These theorists, called neo-Freudians, generally agreed with Freud that childhood experiences are important, but reduced the emphasis on sex and focused more on the social environment and the effects of culture on personality. The perspective of personality proposed by Freud and his followers was the dominant theory of personality in the first half of the 20th century.

Other major theories then emerged, including learning, humanistic, biological, evolutionary, characteristic, and cultural perspectives. In this chapter, we will explore these various perspectives on personality in depth.

Consciousness Levels

To explain the concept of conscious versus unconscious experience, Freud compared the mind to an iceberg (Figure 11.5🇧🇷 He said that only about a tenth of our mind isconscious, and the rest of our mind isunconscious🇧🇷 Our unconscious refers to that mental activity that we are not aware of and cannot access (Freud, 1923). According to Freud, unacceptable impulses and desires are retained in our unconscious through a process called repression. For example, sometimes we say things we don't mean, inadvertently substituting another word for what we mean. You've probably heard of a Freudian slip, the term used to describe it. Freud suggested that linguistic lapses are actually sexual or aggressive impulses that accidentally slip out of our unconscious. Voice errors like this are quite common. Viewing them as a reflection of unconscious desires, today's linguists have discovered that slips tend to occur when we are tired, nervous, or not at our optimal level of cognitive functioning (Motley, 2002).

Figure11.5Freud believed that we are only aware of a small number of the activities of our mind and that most remain hidden from us in our unconscious. The information in our unconscious affects our behavior even if we are not aware of it.

According to Freud, our personality develops from a conflict between two forces: our biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives versus our internal (socialized) control over these drives. Our personality is the result of our efforts to balance these two competing forces. Freud suggested that we can understand this by imagining three interacting systems within our minds. He called them id, ego, and superego (Figure 11.6).

Figure11.6The job of the ego, or self, is to balance the aggressive/pleasure-seeking impulses of the id with the moral control of the superego.

the unconsciousI would goit contains our most primitive drives or urges and is present from birth. It directs the impulses towards hunger, thirst and sex. Freud believed that the id operates on what he called the "pleasure principle," in which the id seeks immediate gratification. Through social interactions with parents and others in the child's environment, the ego and superego develop to help control the id. EITHERsuperegoit develops as the child interacts with others, learning the social rules of right and wrong. The superego acts as our conscience; it is our moral compass that tells us how we should behave. It strives for perfection and judges our behavior, leading to feelings of pride or, when we don't achieve it, feelings of guilt. In contrast to the instinctual id and the rule-based superego, theegoit is the rational part of our personality. It is what Freud considered the self to be, and it is the part of our personality that others see. Its function is to balance the demands of the id and the superego in the context of reality; thus, it operates on what Freud called the “reality principle”. The ego helps the id to fulfill its wishes realistically.

The id and the superego are in constant conflict because the id wants instant gratification regardless of the consequences, but the superego tells us that we must behave in a socially acceptable way. So the ego's job is to find the middle ground. It helps to satisfy the desires of the id in a rational way that will not lead to feelings of guilt. According to Freud, a person who has a strong ego, who manages to balance the demands of the id and the superego, has a healthy personality. Freud held that imbalances in the system can lead toneurosis(a tendency to experience negative emotions), anxiety disorders, or unhealthy behaviors. For example, a person dominated by their id may be narcissistic and impulsive. A person with a dominant superego may be dominated by feelings of guilt and deny himself even socially acceptable pleasures; conversely, if the superego is weak or absent, a person can become a psychopath. An overly dominant superego can be seen in an overly controlled individual whose rational grasp of reality is so strong that he is unaware of his emotional needs, or in a neurotic who is overly defensive (overusing the self's defense mechanisms). ego).

Defense mechanisms

Freud believed that feelings of anxiety result from the ego's inability to mediate the conflict between the id and the superego. When this happens, Freud believed that the ego seeks to restore balance through various protective measures known as defense mechanisms (Figure 11.7🇧🇷 When certain events, feelings, or impulses cause individual anxiety, the individual wants to reduce that anxiety. To do this, the unconscious mind of the individual uses the ego.Defense mechanisms, unconscious protective behaviors aimed at reducing anxiety. The usually conscious ego resorts to unconscious efforts to protect itself from being overcome by anxiety. When we use defense mechanisms, we are not aware that we are using them. In addition, they operate in various ways that distort reality. According to Freud, we all use ego defense mechanisms.

Figure11.7Defense mechanisms are unconscious protective behaviors that work to reduce anxiety.

Although everyone uses defense mechanisms, Freud believed that their excessive use can be problematic. There are several different types of defense mechanisms. For example, in repression, memories of consciousness that cause anxiety are blocked. As an analogy, let's say your car is making a strange noise, but since you don't have the money to fix it, you just turn on the radio and you won't hear the strange noise anymore. In the end you forget about it. Likewise, in the human psyche, if a memory is too difficult to handle, it can berepressedand therefore removed from consciousness (Freud, 1920). This repressed memory can cause symptoms in other areas.

Another defense mechanism isreaction formation, in which someone expresses feelings, thoughts and behaviors contrary to their inclinations. In itregression, an individual acts much younger than his age. For example, a four-year-old who resents the arrival of a newborn sibling may act like a baby and go back to drinking from a bottle. In itprojection, a person refuses to acknowledge their own unconscious feelings and instead sees these feelings in another person. Other defense mechanisms includerationalization,displacement, misublimation.

Stages of psychosexual development

Freud believed that personality develops during early childhood: childhood experiences shape our personality, as well as our behavior as adults. He claimed that we develop through a series of stages during childhood. Each of us must go through these stages in childhood, and if we don't have proper care and nurturing during a stage, we will be stuck or obsessed with that stage even as adults.

In eachstage of psychosexual development, the child's pleasure-seeking impulses, coming from the id, are concentrated in a different area of ​​the body, called the erogenous zone. The stages are oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.Tabla 11.1).

Freud's theory of psychosexual development is quite controversial. To understand the origins of the theory, it helps to be familiar with the political, social, and cultural influences of Freud's time in Vienna in the early 20th century. During this time, a climate of sexual repression, combined with limited understanding and education about human sexuality, strongly influenced Freud's perspective. Since sex was a taboo subject, Freud assumed that negative emotional states (neurosis) derived from the suppression of unconscious sexual and aggressive impulses. For Freud, his own memories and interpretations of patients' experiences and dreams were proof enough that the psychosexual stages were universal events in early childhood.

Alfredo Adler

AlfredoAdler, Freud's colleague and first president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (an inner circle of Freud's colleagues), was the first major theorist to break with Freud (Figure 11.8🇧🇷 Later he founded a school of psychology calledindividual psychology, which focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority. Adler (1937, 1956) proposed the concept ofInferiority complex🇧🇷 An inferiority complex refers to a person's feelings that they are worthless and do not measure up to the standards of others or society. Adler's ideas about inferiority represent a big difference between his thinking and Freud's. Freud believed that we are motivated by sexual and aggressive impulses, but Adler (1930, 1961) believed that feelings of inferiority in childhood are what drive people to seek superiority and that this striving is the force behind all our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors

Figure11.8Alfred Adler proposed the concept of inferiority complex.

Adler also believed in the importance of social connections, considering that child development emerges through social development rather than the sexual stages described by Freud. Adler pointed out the interrelatedness of humanity and the need to work together for the betterment of all. He said: "The happiness of humanity lies in working together, in living as if each individual had set himself the task of contributing to the common welfare" (Adler, 1964, p. 255), being the main objective of psychology "to recognize the equal rights and equality of others” (Adler, 1961, p. 691).

With these insights, Adler identified three fundamental social tasks that we should all experience: occupational tasks (careers), social tasks (friendship), and love tasks (finding an intimate partner for a long-term relationship). Instead of focusing on sexual or aggressive motives for behavior, as Freud did, Adler focused on social motives. He also emphasized conscious rather than unconscious motivation, since he believed that the three fundamental social tasks are explicitly known and pursued. This is not to say that Adler didn't believe in unconscious processes as well—he did—but he thought conscious processes were more important.

One of Adler's greatest contributions to personality psychology was the idea that our birth order shapes our personality. He proposed that older siblings, who start out as the focus of parental attention but must share that attention when a new child joins the family, compensate by becoming gifted. Younger children, according to Adler, can be spoiled, which leaves the middle child the opportunity to minimize the negative dynamics of younger and older children. Despite popular attention, research has not conclusively confirmed Adler's hypotheses about birth order.

Erik Erikson

As an art school dropout with an uncertain future, young ErikEriksonhe met Freud's daughter, Anna Freud, while he was teaching psychoanalysis to the children of an American couple in Vienna. It was Anna Freud who encouraged Erikson to study psychoanalysis. Erikson received his degree from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute in 1933, and when Nazism spread across Europe, he fled the country and immigrated to the United States that same year. As he learned from studying life development, Erikson later proposed a psychosocial theory of development, suggesting that an individual's personality develops throughout life, a departure from Freud's view that personality is fixed early. in the life. In his theory, Erikson emphasized the social relationships that are important at each stage of personality development, in contrast to Freud's emphasis on sex. Erikson identified eight stages, each of which represents a conflict or development task (Tabla 11.2🇧🇷 The development of a healthy personality and a sense of competence depend on the successful completion of each task.

Carl Jung

Carlosjung(Figure 11.9) was a Swiss psychiatrist and Freud's protégé, who later parted ways with Freud and developed his own theory, which he calledanalytical psychology🇧🇷 The focus of analytical psychology is to work to balance the opposing forces of conscious and unconscious thought and experience within the personality. According to Jung, this work is a continuous learning process, occurring mainly in the second half of life, of becoming aware of unconscious elements and integrating them into consciousness.

Figure11.9Carl Jung was interested in exploring the collective unconscious.

The separation of Jung and Freud was based on two major disagreements. First, Jung, like Adler and Erikson, did not accept that sexual desire was the primary motivator of a person's mental life. Second, although Jung agreed with Freud's concept of a personal unconscious, he considered it incomplete. In addition to the personal unconscious, Jung focused on the collective unconscious.

ocollective unconsciousit is a universal version of the personal unconscious, containing mental patterns, or memory traces, that are common to all of us (Jung, 1928). These ancestral memories, which Jung calledarchetypes, are represented by universal themes in various cultures, expressed through literature, art and dreams (Jung). Jung said these themes reflect common experiences of people around the world, such as facing death, becoming independent, and striving for dominance. Jung (1964) believed that throughout biology each person is given the same themes and that the same types of symbols, such as the hero, the maiden, the sage, and the trickster, are present in folklore and everyone's fairy tales . culture. In Jung's view, the task of integrating these unconscious archetypal aspects of the self is part of the process of self-actualization in the second half of life. With this orientation toward self-actualization, Jung broke with Freud's belief that personality is determined solely by past events, and anticipated the humanist movement with its emphasis on self-actualization and future orientation.

Jung also proposed two attitudes or approaches to life: extroversion and introversion (Jung, 1923) (Tabla 11.3🇧🇷 These ideas are considered Jung's most important contributions to the field of personality psychology, as almost all personality models now include these concepts. If you are an extrovert, then being outgoing and socially oriented fills you with energy: you get your energy from being around other people. If you are an introvert, then you are a person who can be quiet and reserved, or you can be sociable, but your energy is derived from your inner psychic activity. Jung believed that a balance between extroversion and introversion best served the goal of self-actualization.

Another concept proposed by Jung was that of person, which he called a mask that we adopted. According to Jung, we consciously create this person; however, it derives from both our conscious experiences and our collective unconscious. What is the purpose of the person? Jung believed that it is a compromise between who we really are (our real selves) and what society expects us to be. We hide those parts of ourselves that don't align with society's expectations.

karenHorneyshe was one of the first women to be trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst. During the Great Depression, Horney moved from Germany to the United States and subsequently moved away from Freud's teachings. Like Jung, Horney believed that each individual has the potential for self-actualization, and that the goal of psychoanalysis should be to move toward a healthy self rather than to explore dysfunctional patterns of early childhood. Horney also took issue with the Freudian idea that girls are penis envy and jealous of male biological characteristics. According to Horney, any jealousy likely has a cultural basis, due to the greater privileges men tend to enjoy, which means the differences between men's and women's personalities are cultural, not biological. Furthermore, she suggested that men are envy of the womb because they cannot give birth.

Horney's theories focused on the role of unconscious anxiety. He suggested that normal growth may be blocked by basic anxiety arising from unmet needs, such as childhood experiences of loneliness and/or isolation. How do children learn to deal with this anxiety? Horney suggested three coping styles (Tabla 11.4🇧🇷 The first coping style,moving towards people, depends on affiliation and dependency. These children become dependent on parents and other caregivers in an effort to receive attention and affection, which alleviates anxiety (Burger, 2008). As these children grow older, they tend to use this same coping strategy to deal with relationships, expressing an intense need for love and acceptance (Burger, 2008). The second coping style,moving against people, is based on aggressiveness and assertiveness. Children with this coping style find fighting is the best way to deal with an unhappy family situation and deal with their feelings of insecurity by bullying other children (Burger, 2008). As adults, people with this coping style tend to make hurtful comments and exploit others (Burger, 2008). The third coping style,get away from people, focuses on detachment and isolation. These children deal with their anxiety by withdrawing from the world. They need privacy and tend to be self-sufficient. When these children are adults, they continue to avoid things like love and friendship, and they also tend to gravitate toward careers that require little interaction with others (Burger, 2008).

Horney believed that these three styles are ways people typically deal with everyday problems; however, all three coping styles can become neurotic strategies if used rigidly and compulsively, leading the person to withdraw from others.