PSYC 470- EXAM #1 NOTES

Theories of Personality
Why do we need Personality Theories?

What are the Origins, Trajectories, Factors associated and leading to Human Individuality?
 Kluckhohn & Murray (1953):
o Every person is like All other persons, like Some other persons, and like No other persons:
 Special-typical [evolutionary] characteristic of human nature
 How the individual is like ALL other person?
 Individual differences in common characteristics
 How the individual is like SOME other person?
 The unique pattern of the individual life
 How the individual is like NO other person?
Theories of Personality
Why study personality?
 Personality psychology addresses the:
o Whole, integrated, [in]coherent, unqiue individual
o Structure & process of multiple elements:
 Orchestrated [normal? Adaptive?] or un orchestrated
 Maladaptive or pathological
 Addressing TWO core issues which are hard to reconcile
o Human universal  nomothetic approach: often utilized within academic settings, empirically based,
quantitative research
o Individual differences and uniqueness  idiographic approach: often utilized within applied settings,
empirically based and qualitative research
 Integrative, multi-layered, surface to depth, nuanced  the whole person
o Description: “what’s this person like” …. describe them
o Explanation & understanding
o Prediction
Personality theory & research
Fundamental Debates & Disputes

Debates in the field of Personology tended to devolve into rigid dichotomies, often forcing researchers and clinicians into
one camp or another:
 ̈ Is personality a Nomothetic quality, described by general principles applying universally to all individuals? Or
should personality be studied Idiographically, focusing on the uniqueness of each individual?

 ̈ Is personality primarily determined by individual differences in DNA and brain functioning, or by environmental
factors such as social learning and culture?

 ̈ Does behavior primarily depend on personality(internal), or more determined by situation& context(external)?

Consistency vs. Variability

 ̈ Is personality infused into consciousexperience, so that people can explicitly and accurately describe their own traits
and explain their behaviors?
o Or, is much of personality unconscious, so that people lack insight into their own natures?

 ̈ Is personality fixed and stable throughout adulthood, or does the person generally changeover time, possibly grow
into maturity and wisdom?

Core Q’s About Individuals

What? How? Why?
 PSYC 470- EXAM #1 NOTES

A meaningful -Conceptually, Empirically, Applied -Theory of personality should yield a coherent set of answers to three
types of questions:
 “What” is the individual like?
o Description: characteristics of the individual & how these are organized in relation to one another [structure,
dynamics, traits]
 “How” did the individual develop to be that way?
o Development: determinants of an individual’s personality [genes, temperament, attachment relationship,
normative & traumatic experiences]
 “Why” does the individual function & behave the way they do?
o Motivations: causes of and reason behind an individual’s behavior [core-preoccupations, intra-physics]
o When and where
27SEP
Answering the ‘What? How? Why?’
Domains
 Personality Structure
o What are the basic units of a personality?
 What are the stable, enduring aspects of personality across situation & time?
 Core component- atoms or molecules
 Configuration among molecules
o Units of Analysis
 Different theories utilize different unites to describe and explain personality structure
 Traits [honest, impulsive, conscientious]
 Type [introverted, paranoid, narcissistic]
 System [organization, dynamics, structure]
o Hierarchy
 Many theories view the structure of personality as being organized hierarchically suggestive of
relative importance among core components
o Complexity of structural organization
 DNA, proteins
o Level of abstraction:
 Experience- near “close to way people talk”
 Experience- distant “attachment style”
 Personality Processes & Dynamics
o Intrapsychic [underneath skin] psychological processes that change dynamically, over relatively brief periods
of time
o Dynamic flow and adaptation of:
 Action: do different things
 Motivation: motivated to be loved, hold integrity
 Emotion: feel/think different things, feel contradicting
 Cognition: thoughts; idea
 Perception: 5 senses
o Various theories emphasize different motivational processes:
 Biological vs affective/ emotional vs cognitive
 Conscious vs unconscious
 Internal conflict vs developmental/environmental deficit
 Resolution of conflict vs self actualization

 Personality Growth & Development

o Nature vs nurture or both?
o Two major challenges in the study of personality development:
 Universality  Nomothetic Perspective
 Characterize patterns of development that are experienced by most, if not all, individuals
 Uniqueness  Idiographic Perspective
 PSYC 470- EXAM #1 NOTES

 Understand developmental factors that contribute to unique individual differences

o Core Concept and its utility in describing the developmental process
 Stages/phases- one foes into one stage, something happens so they go to another stage
 Characterize patterns of development that are experienced by most, if not all, individuals
 Linear - projection is straight
 Spiral – “trust” by person but then betrayed, throws your belief into spiral… “how can I trust”
 Chaotic probabilistic trajectories – “beautiful vs ugly babies” have certain trajectories
 Beautiful babies might be more well liked and get more attention in life so when you’re an
adult you crave the same attention
o Importance of early experiences for later personality development [trajectory, quality?]
o Gradual increase in levels of both complexity and organization
 Along various domain of development – trust, negotiate
o Gradual shift from external function  internalized capacity
 What you learn will influence how you can/can’t internalize things “developmental character”
 Babies turn external function & internalize it

General Developmental Domains Increasing Complexity & Organization- in notes!

Personality Development: Adaptive to

Psychopathology
“Developmental Pathways - “Branching”
 A cumulative process that takes an individual
toward/away from pathway, leading to adaptive
function intra-physic test
 Development is probabilistic, not predetermined
o Complex dynamic system [chaos theory]
o Not linear
 Individual & context  in separable
o Nature vs nurture  oversimplified dualistic
o Inter-dependence [genes, environment, Hx] epigenetic process
o Embodied creatures  brain therefore consequently mind
 Experience dependent
 Experience expectant, seek stimulus…. babies command atten from
adults
 Individual has an increasingly active role in adaption
o Conscious & unconscious
o Choosing, interpreting, creating experiences
o Responding to external & internal changes
 Prior level of adaption as critical
o Interaction not just between genes & environment but rather;
o Genes, environment & Hx of adaption to that point

Developmental Pathways Model -Implications

 Development (adaptive/disorder) as developmental deviation over time:
o What is normal development [secure attachment] determine what is probably psychopathology trajectory
& how much deviation risk/exit
o Psychopath is one, nevertheless only one, possible outcome of development
 Equifinality: multiple pathways to similar manifest outcome
o Final Common Pathway
 Multifinality: different outcomes to the same pathway i.e. twins
 Positive Plasticity: change is possible at multiple points in time though the varying degrees of
 Negative Plasticity: change is restrained by prior adaption
o Plasticity (-) correlates w/age
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DNA [genome]  RNA  Protein [proteome]  Brain [neuroma]  Mind  phenome  behavior Genotype 
Phenotype

Evolutionary & Genetic Determinants

 Clearly, NOT ‘Tabula Rasa’ (blank slate)
o Innate predisposition [genetics, personality, temperament, reflexes]
 Psychological tendencies which reflect our specie’s evolutionary past:
o Contributing to successful survival & reproducing
o Attachment style, Ekman’s cue
 Polygenetic effects:
o The rule: single gene effects are the exception
o both mendelian [dominant recessive genes] & epigenetic process
 Genetic factors contribute strongly to personality and individual differences:
o Directly [temperament]
o Indirectly [selection of environment]
o Vice versa [ epigenetic modulation of genes via methylation process of activation, deactivation, modify]
Environmental Determinants
 Family: core values, parent styles, SES< attachment style
 Peer, social class, SES, culture [religion, individualism vs collectivism, gender]
Differential impact to Environment Complex GxE relationship:
 Genetic structure, epigenetic gene-activation/suppression
 Alteration
 Sensitive/critical periods
 Brain & experience – expectant & experience dependent
o Post-natal synaptic “pruning vs synaptic over production
 May override genetic/biological diathesis
 Share environment [communalities] siblings vs non shared [differences] sibling personality

 Psychopathology: A conceptual framework allows:

o Definition: the normal, consequently the pathological
o Description: phenomenological nature of psychological difficulties
 Categorically: order vs disorder, over simplify
 Dimensionally [better approx. of reality than categorially  cry vs suicide – acting out
o Explanation& Understanding of etiology
o Assessment: quality degree and nature of psychological suffering and psychopathology
o Clinical Application-What might promote:
 Intra-phsyic change
 Functional change or improved adaption
 Alleviation of suffering
 Capacity to experience an intentional, emotionally meaningful life
 Personality Change
o Sx & behavior- manifest, SFC-level
o A crucial aspect for evaluating a general perspective or specific theory àDoes it provide a practical benefit to
individuals and/or to society at large:
 Clinical
 Industrial/organizational
 Policy
 Political
o Practical’ does not necessarily mean productive in a measurable way within a particular culturally-consensual
developmental model or indicators (e.g. family of origin, work, economical...)
 PSYC 470- EXAM #1 NOTES

o Individual & Societal ‘well-being’ or ‘benefit’ can be inconsistent with one another ̈Processes & mechanisms
of development
o Processes & mechanisms of Tx. change:
 Therapeutic process
 Methodology and mechanics of psychotherapy [pharma]

Multiple definitions exist, however, below are two, differing in level of comprehensiveness:
 An individual’s unique variation on the general evolutionary design for human nature, expressed as a developing
pattern of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and integrative life-stories complexly and differentially
situated in culture (McAdams & Pals, 2006)
 Psychological qualities that contribute to an individual’s enduring and distinctive, conscious and unconscious,
patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving. A dynamic organization, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that
create the person’s characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts & feelings.

6 Major Perspectives
 ̈ Each perspective, and its underlying theories, reflects a system of concepts, assumptions, & principles proposed to describe,
explain, and predict personality:
o Biological/Genetic/Evolutionary: influence of evolution, hereditary [genetics] temperament & brain anatomy/chemistry
& function on personality
o Behaviorist: external environment & effects of conditioning & learning
o Social-Cognitive: attribute difference in personality to socialization expectations & info-based mental processes
o Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic: emphasis on unconscious process & motivations that underlie personality dynamics
 Intra-physics conflicts, developmental deficits defensive adaption, sense of self, identity, attachment style
 All in context of early development & an internalization-based structure
o Humanistic/Existential/Phenomenological: subjective experience, personal growth and meaning finding
o Trait-Dispositional: which global traits make up and adequately describe personality & how they relate to actual
behavior

Tuesday - 8SEP
Across the Theoretical Divide three Broad Stages
 Lifespan continuous probabilistic process, however  Early formative years are particularly critical to the core
structure & dynamics of the personality [brain & mind; context of intense attachment relationship] therefore
 Level of organization, capacities, potential deficits, psychopathology & Sx  functioning
 Age 0-1: profound dependence on caregivers, differentiation across domain
o Self other, internal-external, concrete-symbolic, fantast-reality
 Age 1-3: growing differentiation, separateness, individual
o How am I different than other, independency, I am different than my siblings?
 Age 3-5: increasing differentiation, mastery, rivalry/competition, identification

Dependence  independence  inter-dependence

Across theoretical perspectives - Core Developmental Double-Helix
 Well-Developed Capacity For Lieben und Arbeiten  Love and Work
o Sense of self/identity [introjection dimension]
o Capacity for relationship/attachment [anaclitic dimension]

Figure 1. Blatts 2 Polarities model: self-definition vs relatedness shows pt. where equilibrium depends on various non
individuals’ factors such as family, culture, moment in Hx, institutions, biological factors

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Psychoanalytic Perspective
Core Questions to Hold in Mind
1. What Defines Psychoanalysis? What constitutes a Psychoanalytic perspective? Sigmund Freud Only?
 PSYC 470- EXAM #1 NOTES

2. How did Sigmund Freud develop his theory? Why the various Psychoanalytic ‘waves’ occurred? How did historical and personal
events shape these developments?
3. What are the key features of a Psychoanalytic Model of the Human Mind? (Classical to Contemporary Psychoanalysis)
4. What are some of the differences among the different Psychanalytic ‘Waves’ or ‘Forces’? European vs. American Psychoanalytic
views of the Mind?
4. How the development of the Mind unfolds? How important are early childhood experiences for later personality development and
functioning?
5. How do people protect themselves against the ‘unthinkable’ (anxiety-provoking)? In what ways are these intrapsychic mechanisms
a centerpiece of personality dynamics?
6. How does the Psychoanalytic Model of the Mind explains psychopathology?
7. What are the goals of Psychoanalysis & Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy? How does Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy work:
Mobilizing intrapsychic change? Alleviating symptomatology?

Psychoanalytic Perspective
Freud -Historical Significance
 Mankind had three major insults to their self-esteem and anthropocentric view:
o Copernicus: “Copernican revolution”  Earth isn’t centered as the universe, nor the center of the solar system, and
humans aren’t the center of creation
o Darwin: humans aren’t special creations but animals, a part of a hierarchical ecosystem; behavior is driven vby
evolutionary based instinct
 Survival reproduction
o Freud: all action is motivated, all motivation is emotional one isn’t master of their actions
 Humans aren’t rational animals but motivated buy emotional, developmentally anchored & very often
unconscious motivation
 “Introduction of unconscious”
 Profound influence:
o Psychology [applied, less academic], psychiatry, arts, poli sci
o 2006 poll: ~18% of Americans have been in psychotherapy
o Everyday discourse:
 “Freudian ship” defensive”, passive-aggressive, anal, daddy issues, egomaniac, you’re in totally denial,
don’t project your feelings on me”

Psychoanalysis
Misleading Notions & Myths?
 Psychoanalysis is largely the work of one man
 Contemporary Psychoanalysis, in both theory and clinical practice, is virtually the same as it was in Sigmund Freud’s day
 Psychoanalytic (‘Psychodynamic’) psychotherapy lasts for years and is conducted between a patient who lies on a couch and a
silent-passive therapist who sits behind the patient
 Psychoanalysis has gone out of fashion
 Psychoanalytic concepts (e.g. Unconscious, Defense Mechanisms) and clinical application (e.g. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy)
are not empirically valid
 Psychoanalysis is an esoteric cult requiring both conversion and years of study

Psychoanalysis
What Is a Psychoanalytic Perspective?
 Development
 Structure
 Intra-physic processes & dynamics
 Psychotherapy
 ^^the theory of mind or character (personality)^^
 A method of exploring unconscious process
 A method of treatment
o Psychoanalysis proper
o Psychoanalysis psychotherapy [psycho-dynamic/therapy]
o Psychotherapy [different than counseling]
 Clinical existence philosophy
o What does it mean to be, struggle, change and lead a meaningful life as a human?
 PSYC 470- EXAM #1 NOTES

What is a Psychoanalytic Perspective?

Each Psychoanalytic Theory Provides a different answer

 Psychoanalysis
o Character/personality development & functioning, adaptive & psychopathological, revolves around the
“unbearable”, “unthinkable”, “unrememberable” and “unspeakable”
 What is? From whom? How do we learn the Forbidden?
 What are essential, yet non-negotiable, human terrors [motivation] which define what being human means?
o Aggression? Desire? Love? Sexuality dependency?
o Castration? incest? inadequate? Incompetence?
o Separation? Abandonment?
o Impingement? Being emotional dropped?
 What ones prefers NOT to know, feel or remember about the self and others?
 What the maturing individual, “cradle to grave” cant remember, know, experience, feel, think, fantasize?
 How do we defend against: tolerate: negotiate the forbidden?
 Illness of under (over-socialization [deficit vs conflict]

Tuesday - 15SEP
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Five “waves” of Psychoanalytic Theories
 Drive [classical/Freudian]
o Emphasis on the impulses and Intrapsychic Conflict [ID]
 Ego
o Emphasis on Adaption to external reality [ego]
o Example: WWII
 Object-Relations
o Emphasis on Attachment Relationships and their internalized affective/cognitive representation
o Example: John Bolden
 Self
o Emphasis on Healthy and Pathological Narcissistic strivings [investment in the self], integrity of the self
[defects/deficits/Arrest], self-esteem regulation [healthy narcissism]
 Relational [North American Relational Psychoanalysis, New York School, Big R]

Psychoanalytic Perspective & Theories

Personality & Psychopathology- Basic Assumptions

 Developmental perspective: central role of early development & its internalization to later capacities & deficits,
adaptive and psychopathological functioning, formation of character structure & style
 Unconscious Motivation & Intentionality: factors outside the individuals awareness play an important role in
explaining individuals functioning & behavior as well as the development & maintenance of psychopathology,
individuals often develops symptoms which are inexplicable to them,
o Unconscious motivations are often multilayered, complex, & conflictual
 Transference: internalized [affected-cognitive- representations & way of feelings, thinking, and relating influence
current perceptions of reality, internal & external, physical & human
o Often underlie emotional/relational struggles & symptomatology
 Person-Orientated perspective: focus on understanding the WHOLE individual, SFC-to-depth, manifest behavior &
internal-world, biology-psych-culture, Psych & soma, Mind & Body
o Capacities, deficits, conflicts, vulnerabilities, subjectivity, layered meaning
 Developmental Complexity: spiral-like progression-regression dialectic on various interrelated developmental
lines/themes (capacity to trust, sense of self), probabilistic rather than deterministic, role of deferred-action (events
achieving new meaning based on later experience)
 PSYC 470- EXAM #1 NOTES

 Focus on Inner World & Psychological Causality [Psychic Determinism]: all psychological phenomena is
motivated, often unconsciously and emotionally, focus on how psychology factors mediate the influence between
social/cultural & biological factors
 Continuity between Normal & disrupted Personality Development & Functioning: the mind as a structure &
process, character as a background to Sx, developmental deficits vs internalized conflict as underlying
symptomatology, no categorical distinction between normality & psychopathology, psychopathology is dimensionally
distributed

Thursday- 17SEP
Psychoanalytic Perspective & Theories
Character/Personality Development - Common Tenets

 Personality & Character development:

0123
Undifferentiated  Self  Dyad  Triad (oedipal)
 Gradual increase [differentiation]:
o Boundary Formation: self-other, internal-external, fantasy-reality, concrete-abstract
o Representational complexity: across domains, lifelong process
 Internalization: from external-functions provided by “objects” to Internalized-structure [introjects]
 Developmental Spiral: Probabilistic lifespan re-negotiation of developmental themes
 Dependence  independence  inter-dependence
 Dyadic trust  separation  individuation  triadic conflicts
 Pre-oedipal vs oedipal: developmental level & psychopathology (deficit vs conflict)
 Double Helix Perspective (Sidney Blatt)
o Relatedness (attachment)  anaclitic pole & psychopathology
o Self-definition (identity/sense of self)  intro-jective pole & psychopathology

Personality Development –Healthy/Pathological

Sidney Blatt’s Structural-Developmental Life-Span Perspective

Figure 1. Blatts 2 Polarities model: self-definition vs relatedness shows pt. where equilibrium depends on various non
individuals’ factors such as family, culture, moment in Hx, institutions, biological factors

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PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE: SIGMUND FREUD & CLASSICAL

PSYCHOANALYSIS

Classical (Freudian) Psychoanalysis

Individual vs. Society
 Classical (Freudian, Id) Psychoanalysis:
o Tragic perspective upon human nature
o People are essentially good but society corrupts them
o Sexual & aggressive drives are innate to human nature
o Intrapsychic conflict  core to the human condition
 Clinically-driven theory:
 Psycho-metric- don’t listen to people
o Freuds core interest was psychopathology
o Primary data source was pt.’s; mostly women, specifically things that pts told about themselves (and acted)
during psychotherapy
o Utilized hypnosis, free associations, dream analysis, transference phenomena
 ̈Core Intrapsychic Conflict:
o Individuals functions according to a “Pleasure Principle”
 PSYC 470- EXAM #1 NOTES

 Seek the pleasurable gratification of those drives

o Society teaches the child about “Reality Principle”
 Expression of biologically driven drives is socially unacceptable, thus internalizing norms & taboo
that prescribe such prohibitions and inhibitions
 i.e. sexually aggressive  not enough socialization because not taught societal norms

Classical (Freudian) Psychoanalysis

Various Theories, Gradual Evolution

 ̈ Freud’s Meta-psychological Framework –Five Hypotheses (Models):

o Economic Hypothesis  Energy
 Law of Entropy, Constancy Principle, Please Principle vs Reality Principle, Instinct, Drive
o Topographical Hypothesis  Area
 Archeological metaphor; conscious, preconscious, unconscious
o Dynamic Hypothesis  process, interplay, psychodynamics
 Conflicting intra-physics forces
o Structural hypothesis  structure
 Id, Ego, Superego, Defense Mechanisms
o Genetic Hypothesis  Development of the Mind/Personality
 Psychosexual Development, regression, fixation

 Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory:

o Developmental phases/stages
 Oral, anal, phallic/oedipal, latency, genital
o Pre-oedipal vs oedipal
 Development & psychopathology

Freud’s View of the Personality/Mind

The Economic Hypothesis

 ̈ The case of “Anna O”  Bertha Pappenheim:

o Bizarre symptoms whose biological causes could not be determined:
 Partial paralysis, often impossible anatomically or functionally (glove paralysis)
 Blurred vision, persist cough
 Difficulty conversing in German, her native language
o “Hysterical “symptoms:
 Emotional struggles that manifest themselves in physical Sx
 No clear organic etiology, equifinality
 Currently known (DSM) as Somatization or Conversion Dx
 Later became the originator of the field of Social Work
 Based on work with ‘Anna O’ and other ‘Hysterical’ patients:
 ̈Studies in Hysteria (Breuer & Freud, 1893-1895):
o Functional Sx w/out organic etiology (glove paralysis)
o Subjective suffering, Sx ego-dystonic, inexplicable to Pt
o Conscious effort to stop Sx, yet unsuccessful
 Freud concluded:
o Discontinuity in consciousness:
 A gap between what an individual says or does yet cannot report or explain thus…
 Not just a dissociates state of mind (process) but a motivated one in light of content
o A parallel, unconscious, process that “fills-in the gap”
o If not the brain [soma] there must be the mind [psyche]
 Specifically, a domain for which one has no awareness of or access to
 Defensive function of unconscious in light of anxiety-provoking memory, affect, drive
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o Psychodynamics  interplay of intrapsychic opposing forces [motivations]

The Mind as an Energy System

 Freud’s view of mental energy:
o The mind is a system that contains and directs instinctual drives
o Limited and finite amount of energy
o Energy can be blocked but does not vanish; instead gets expressed in some other manner, concrete or
symbolic
o Conservation Principle:
 The mind functions to achieve a state of Equilibrium or Homeostasis
 Patients experienced symptomatic relief if they could trace it to an event in their past:
o Formulating words to unformulated experiences
o Shifting from concrete & tangible  symbolic & representational  reflected upon
 “Catharsis” or “Chimney Sweeping”: emotional ventilation
o Release? Freeing? Of emotions by taking about one’s problem,initially via hypnosis and later by free-
associating
 ̈Catharsis  Two implications:
o Mind is an energy system
o The mind has more than one part:
 A region of psychological activity of which people are consciously aware (phone #)
 A hidden region of psychological activity lying outside of awareness  unconscious

Freud’s View of the Personality/Mind

Structure: Topography vs. Motivational

 Two conceptual models of the Mind:

o Levels/Areas of consciousness (Topographical Model):
 Conscious:
 Preconscious:
 Unconscious:
o Functional/Motivational systems in the Mind (Structural Model)
 Id
 Ego
 superego
Freud’s View of the Personality/Mind
The Topographical Model  Levels/Areas

 Conscious:
o Mental content of which one is aware of (acknowledged thoughts, memories, emotions)
o Linguistic based, rational, abstract, “known”, formulated
 Preconscious:
o Mental content of which one easily become aware if intentionally attended to
o Put attention and motivation to retrieve it, takes efforts
 Unconscious:
o Mental content of which is unaware and cannot become aware except under certain phenomena or special
circumstances (repressed thoughts, memories, emotions)
o Nonverbal, somatic based, concrete, tangible, unformulated
 Specifically, when defense mechanisms (predominantly repression) are not as massively operating

The Concept of the Unconscious

 The ‘Forbidden’, ‘Unthinkable’, ‘Unrememberable’ (e.g. motivations, needs, affects, memories, intrapsychic
conflicts)
o How is it defended against via transforming them into less anxiety-provoking experience?
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 Freud attempted to understand the properties, functions & contents, of the Unconscious by analyzing a variety of
psychological phenomena:
o Clips of the tongue
o Jokes
o works of art
o Rituals
o Psychopathology:
 Neuroses and psychoses
o Dreams  the interpretation of dreams is the Royal Road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities
of the mind
 Operation of repression, the core-defense-mechanism, is the most attenuated
 The intolerable {conflict, need, wish, affect, memory) is banished from awareness, nevertheless when
defensive vigilance (repression) dissipates after the onset of sleep, the conflict re-emerges often
disguised in the dream material
 Freud differentiated between two types of dream content:
o Manifest  the conscious storyline of a dream
 Often reflecting Primary Process (bizarre, a-logical, symbolic, disregards laws of physics/time.
Nature) vs secondary process (talking)
o Latent  underlying meaning
 Unconscious motivations, emotions, needs, drives, memories  disguised in the storyline
 Dream’s functions
o Wish fulfillment: work through something that is difficult but to get closer to content via disguised way
o Safeguard of sleep: we keep sleeping; if the function of the dream is a wish fulfillment-working through the
terrifying material, we will continue to sleep HOWEVER if it is too close and terrifying, we wake up
 Core processes:
o Symbolization (things stand for multiple things), condensation (same object can be condensed, means
different processes), displacement (one thing stands for something else i.e dreaming of mom but really about
dad)  primary process (id)
o Secondary revision  Secondary process (ego)

Freud’s View of the Personality/Mind

The Unconscious: Normative vs. Dynamic (Motivated)

 Normative Unconscious vs. Motivated (Dynamic) Unconscious:

o Normative  parallel distributed processing (PDP)
 Higher processing rate in light of evolutionary important (parallel vs serial)
 E.g. multiplication table, driving a car, intuition (knowing without knowing how I know)
o Motivated  content related (affects, traumatic memories, needs)
 Intentional need to Not Know or Remember  Retaining psychological equilibrium
 Mental contents often become unconscious for motivated reasons
o Emotional overwhelming/disorganizing content, which has the potential to cause psychological pain or re-
trauma, mostly via evoking anxiety
o We are motivated to banish such content from awareness via unconscious intrapsychic processes that vary in
degree of distortion
 Sigmund Freud’s fundamental message:
o Unconscious mental content to permeate and influence ongoing conscious experience, often via behavior,
feelings, thoughts and unchoice
o Re-enactments  why?
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Freud’s View of the Personality/Mind

The Structural (Tripartite) Model

 ̈ In 1900, Freud’s presented an initial Topographical Model Distinctions among Conscious, Preconscious,
Unconscious  Proved to be inadequate:
o Descriptive, not explanatory
o Did not account for psychological agency, intentionality, motivation
 Why one is motivated to Not Know/remember?
 Do not differentiate between Normative vs Dynamic [motivated] unconscious processes
 Thus, the construct of the ego
 Each component represents a unique set of internal processes, different in the:
o Degree of conscious experience
o Quality [direction] of intentionality
o Sense of “ownership” by the individual
 In 1923, Freud presented a 2nd model of Mind  Structural Model (Tripartite Model)
o Id, Ego, Superego [motivational forces]: dynamic model of personality  conflict is core
o Psychic determinism  all psychological activity is intentional
 Every psychological even has an underlying cause; nothing occurs by chance or accident

The Structural (Tripartite) Model

ID (“Das es” or “It”)
 Innate biological “Instincts” (motivations)
 Source of Libido, drive, mental energy  ‘Desire’  Great Reservoir” (Freud, 1923) ̈
 Function  Pleasure Principle
o Pursue pleasure, avoids pain
o Seek release of excitation or internal tension
o No acknowledgment of reality, physical or social
o Demands instant expression and immediate gratification
o No frustration-tolerance or delay of gratification, regardless of consequences
o “Primary process”
 Does not:
o Devise plans and strategies for obtaining pleasure
o Wait patiently for a particularly pleasing object to appear
o Concern itself with social norms and rules

The Structural (Tripartite) Model

SUPEREGO (“Uber Ich” or “Above I/Me”)
 Two internalized components:
o Ego ideal: aspiration, goals, values, ideals for which we strive  Pride
o Conscience: ethical standards, morals, norms, when violated or transgressed  shame & guilt
 An introject  internalized via interactions with parents, caregivers, social world  paternal function
 Partially conscious, partially unconscious
 Function  “Moral Principle”
o Judge or censor for thoughts and actions of the ego
o Moral regulation of social behavior  controls behavior in accord with rules
o Offers rewards [pride, self-love] for good behavior
o Offers punishments [badness; feelings of inferiority] for bah behavior
 Relatively incapable of Reality-Testing, nevertheless can be flexible:
o Strives for perfection rather than pleasure as opposes to the Id
o Motivation rooted in the Ideal rather than the Real [ego]

The Structural (Tripartite) Model

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EGO (“Das Ich or I”)

 Partially conscious and partially unconscious
o E.g. defense mechanisms and UCS processes
 Function  “reality principle”
o Adaption  negotiates motivational conflict  Id (instinctual) vs superego (moral)
o Directs Id energies via Ego-functions (executive functions)
 Various Ego functions: perceptual, intellectual, cognitive, defensive, reality-testing, integrative
o Requires appropriates transaction with reality
o Retains boundaries, for example distinguishes fantasy from reality
o Tolerates tension and creates compromises through rational thought
o Delays action until its practical and socially appropriate
o Gratification of instincts is delayed until a time at which reality enables one to obtain maximum pleasure with
the least pain or negative consequences
o Prevents the discharge of tension until appropriate object has been found
o “secondary process”
 Development:
o Growing recognition of external reality’s demands, boundaries (S-O), failures
o More complex Ego-functions develop across the childhood (sophisticated DM)

Freud’s View of Personality/Mind

Intrapsychic Process Psychodynamics

 Source of all psychic energy (drive/motivation) lies in states of excitation within the body which seek expression,
satisfaction, and tension-reduction (Id):
 The interplay between expression vs inhibition of instincts [drives, motivations, affects] is foundation of
psychodynamics aspect of the psychanalytic perspective
 Motivational Psychodynamics  reflect the internal conflict among the 3 mental structures [predom Id vs superego]
o Underlie all psychological processes, including psychopathology
 Anxiety
o Painful emotional experience representing a threat or danger by a forbidding wish or drive
o Evoked by the intra-psychic Conflict  the push/demands of Id and punitive threat [inhibitions/prohibitions]
by the superego
o Signal Anxiety  alerts the Ego to intrapsychic conflict  mobilization of Defense Mechanisms

Intrapsychic Process –Psychodynamics

Anxiety & Defense Mechanisms
 Individuals develop Defense Mechanisms to avoid ‘knowing’ and ‘Remembering’ the ‘unthinkable’, which can lead
to overwhelming anxiety
 Defense Mechanisms: Habitual or stylistic ways to distort reality, excluding feelings, thoughts, desires and painfully
evocative memories from awareness
 Classical Psychoanalysis: carried out by the Ego to cope with impulses of the Id
 Contemporary Psychoanalysis:
o Not just impulses
o Any mental content that evokes anxiety, overwhelms and a sense of intrapsychic disintegration thus needs to
be defended against in order to maintain intra-physic equilibrium (affects, needs, memories, desires, wishes,
vulnerabilities…_
Freud’s Developmental Theory
Psychosexual Stages of Character Development

 Many of Freud’s “Hysterical” patients reported experiences of sexual trauma:

o Given that  Freud developed a theory of sexual conflict underlying many of the psychoneuroses.
o Sadly, VERY COMMON, to this day  U.S. prevalence
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 0-18 y/o: 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 5 boys  sexually abused

 Lifetime: 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men  some form of sexual violence
 Lifetime: 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men  raped
 Initially  Seduction Theory
o Freud suggested all Sx derive from actual sexual seduction of a child by an adult
o 1st scientific conceptualization of key etiological role of early Trauma to the formation of Psychopathology 
consensual in clinical science today, conceptual & empirical
 Later  differentiated between internal [fantasy] and externa; reality, modifying initial theory”
o Modified theory: neuroses are rooted in one’s anxiety-provoking fantasies and ideas about sexuality
 Eventually: theory of infantile sexuality 
o Sexual desires are experienced in their rudimentary and primitive forms early in infancy, often via various
bodily parts;
o Erogenous zones
 Core question:
o What is the infant’s experience the world, and how does he/she experience, relate, and operate on the
environment differently at different ages?
 Core developmental themes negotiated at each stage:
o Intrapsychic (Soma & Psyche), Relational,
and with the External-World
o Various developmental domains,
simultaneously and interdependently:
 Bodily
 Perceptual
 Emotional
 Cognitive
 Intellectual
 Moral
 Relational
 Social

Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory of Personality

Oral stage (0-18 months)

 Predominant Themes & Issues: “what can I expect from the other”
o Core psychological theme: dependency, capacity of trust, attachment quality
o Oral eroticism: libido & sensual gratification – engagement with world mostly mediated via the mouth
o Predominant absorption in internal world
o Immediate gratification of physiological, emotional, relational needs, expressing frustration when needs are
not met
o Early oral gratification 9psychosexual pleasure) occurs in breast feeding, thumb sucking and other oral
contact and mouth movement characteristics of infants (biting, tasting, sucking)
o Development of linguistic and motoric capacities
o Once teeth develop  can and how does one integrate sexual and aggressive drives [motivations?]
 Important Characterological Outcomes, Adaptive & Psychopathological:
o Gradual discovery of one’s psychological skin  boundary – formation
o Differentiation in context of Good Enough caregiving; self-other, internal-external, fantasy-reality, concrete-
symbolic
o Basic trust in both self & other (caregiver)  intention vs outcome (perfection)
o Initial use of language to express internal states  gradual shift from concrete to symbolic, tangible to
reflected upon, potentially overwhelming to formulated thus regulated
o Acting on internal needs, motivations, impulses in context of parental care, protection, regulation
o Development of emotional regulation capacities
o Initial development: object-permanence and capacity for ambivalence towards Self and Others
o In adult life, oral fixation character style can manifest in issues of dependence/independence
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Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory of Personality

Anal stage (18-36 months)
 Predominant Themes & Issues: “what do I do with my shit”
o Core psychological theme: autonomy, mastery, adequacy, intentionality, self-regulation
o Growing recognition of ones body, dependency on it, only partial control over it
o Emerging sense of inherent conflict between wish for pleasure in evacuation and the rules and demands of the
external world for delay and regulation
o 1st crucial conflict between the individuals and society
 Socialization vs impulses, self vs others, control vs collaboration, disobedience vs compliance,
internal-external boundaries and control
o Recognition: one can gain approval or express antagonism/aggression by letting go or holding on
 Important Characterological Outcomes, Adaptive & Psychopathological:
o Further emotional differentiation and cognitive distinction self-object, inner outer world
o Ego-development and socialization
 Capacity for self-control, autonomy, mastery, volition, intentional, orderliness, obedience
 Balancing autonomy and control with obedience and compliance, rule-governed behavior,
 Regulation of affects and cognitions
o Growing capacity for:
 Volitational behavior without guilt, collaboration without felt incompetence and inadequacy
 Reflective functioning the capacity to recognize internal states and intentions
 Sense of ambivalence towards self and other

Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory of Personality

Phallic stage (3-6 years)

 Predominant Themes & Issues: “who am I? How do I make sense of this complexity”?
o Core issue: adequacy, potency, morality, sexuality, gender identity, jealousy, envy, identification, integration
of Love and Hate/Identification & competition, exclusivity vs loss, guilt, care, concern
o Genital eroticism: libido, excitation & tension focused on the genital, psychosexual pleasure derived from
autoerotic activity, sexual and aggressive feelings associated with genital organs
o Increased cognitive/emotional complexity:
 Gradual developmental shift from Dyadic  triangular relationship/issues [intro of oedipal]
o Biological-differentiation between sexes leads to gradual psychological-differentiation
o “penis envy”  females realize they lack a penis [clitoris as under developed penis]:
 Recognition of masculine feminine inherent power differential in society just because of different sex-
organs
o Possessiveness towards & desire for exclusivity with opposite sex parent, and discovery of loss as inherent to
relationship
o “Castration Anxiety” [harm & loss of competency by authority] due to desire for mastery/competence
o Guilt over ones sexual desire, wishes, impulses
 Important Characterological Outcomes, Adaptive & Psychopathological:
o Increased send os & complexity to one’s sexual identity & roles, gender, identity and values
 What does it mean to be a woman? and man? can one be feminine and assertive?
 Stereotypical vs individualized nuanced
 Growing capacity & complexity to reflective function [mentalization] both self and object
o Appearance and working through of the oedipal complex

Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory of Personality

Phallic stage (3-6 years) -Oedipal Complex
 Greek mythology -Oedipus Complex:
o Increased cognitive and emotional complexity 
o Healthy resolution 
 Acknowledgment of being, forever, excluded from some relationships:
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Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory of Personality

Latency stage (6 y/o  Puberty)
 Predominant Themes & Issues:
o Core issue: Socialization
o De-emphasis on sexual interest:
 Relative calm as the sexual & aggressive drives are less active & is a limited psychosexual conflict
o Broadened social interest, people, and activities
o Tendency of same sex play and friendship
o Development of competencies & skills
 Emotional cognitive and social, academic [planning]
 Important Characterological Outcomes, Adaptive & Psychopathological:
o Further development and increased complexity to:
 Ego functions and executive functions
 Reflective functioning [mentalization]
 Capacity for empathy
 Cognitive complexity, analytic reasoning, abstract cognition
 Self and other internalized representations
 Emotional regulation, frustration-tolerance, postponing gratification
 Sex- gender differentiation, identification roles values
 Quality and depth of relationships

Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory of Personality

Genital stage (Post-puberty  Adolescence)
 Predominant Themes & Issues:
o Core issue: capacity for integrating “work and Love”  genital Ideal
o Onset of menses in girls, and expression of 2ndary sex-signs [breast, facial hair]
o Physical focus on genital in the context of relationship  interest in sexual relationships
o Development of sense of self & identity via exploration & commitment
o Increased psychological separation & individuation from parents
 Important Characterological Outcomes, Adaptive & Psychopathological:
o Genital ideal  optima; personality development
 If prior stages completed successfully, primary psychosexual satisfaction derived via sexual
intercourse  well-adjusted individual
o Genital period directs actions towards others:
 Intimate relationships  strong interest in other people
 Contributing to society  productiveness
o Balancing masculinity and femininity