UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

T H E P S YC H O LO G I C A L
PERSPECTIVE:PERSONALITY
LECTURE NOTES
C.SAGARBARRIA/A.VARIAS S.Y. 2020-2021

DISCLAIMER: Images taken from various sources online

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INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................3

PERSONALITY .................................................................................................4

Perspectives In The Study Of Personality .....................................................................4

THE PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE ...............................................................5

Sigmund Freud ..........................................................................................................5

Carl Jung ................................................................................................................10
Alfred Adler ............................................................................................................15
Karen Horney .........................................................................................................20
THE BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE .....................................................................21

Albert Bandura .......................................................................................................21

THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE .....................................................................22

Carl Rogers ............................................................................................................22

Abraham Maslow ...................................................................................................23

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 INTRODUCTION

Y
our personality - your unique one of a kind identity - it molds you who you are and
impacts everything from your connections to the way you live. Personality is
something that you might be able to describe, but do you know what the scientific
study of personality entails? Let’s look at how the personality has an influence on our sense
of self and identity.

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 PERSONALITY

P
ersonality is defined as “Characteristic patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion
that determine a person’s adjustment to environment”. It refers to individual
differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. The study of
personality focuses on two broad areas: One is understanding individual differences in
particular personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. The other is
understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole.

PERSPECTIVES IN THE
S T U DY O F P E R S O N A L I T Y

T
here are several perspectives in the
the study of personality. The
psychodynamic perspective had its
beginnings in the work of Sigmund Freud
and still exists today. It focuses on the role
of the unconscious mind in the development
of personality. This perspective is also heavily focused on biological causes of personality
differences. The behaviorist perspective is based on the theories of learning. This approach
focuses on the effect of the environment on behavior. The humanistic perspective first arose
as a reaction against the psychoanalytic and behaviorist perspectives and focuses on the role
of each person’s conscious life experiences and choices in personality development.

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 T H E P S YC H O DY N A M I C P E R S P E C T I V E

J
ung, Adler, and Horney are called Neo-Freudians. They were psychologists whose
work followed from Freud's. They generally agreed with Freud that childhood
experiences matter, but they decreased the emphasis on sex and focused more on the
social environment and effects of culture on personality.

SIGMUND FREUD

S
igmund Freud was the founder of the
psychoanalytic movement and is probably the most
well-known name in the field of Psychology. His
creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the
human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an
optic for the interpretation of culture and society.

He saw the mind as divided into 3

levels called the conscious,
preconscious, and unconscious. According to Freud, human
personality is complex and has more than a single
component. In his famous psychoanalytic theory, Freud states
that personality is composed of three elements known as the
id (consists of instincts and urges , operates on pleasure
principle), the ego (rational and logical, works on the reality

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principle), and the superego (houses the conscience - the moral compass of our personality -
and is the source of moral anxiety). These elements work together to create complex human
behaviors.

So here’s how it all works. The

id makes demands, the superego
puts restrictions on how those
demands can be met, and the
ego has to come up with a plan
that will silence the id but
satisfy the superego. Sometimes
the id or the superego does not
get its way, resulting in a great
deal of anxiety for the ego itself.

This constant state of conflict is Freud’s view of how personality works; it is only when the
anxiety created by this conflict gets out of hand that disordered behavior arises.

Defense
Mechanisms
The conflicts between
the demands of the id
and the rules and
restrictions of the
superego lead to
anxiety for the ego,
which uses defense
mechanisms to deal
with that anxiety.
Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a
person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings. Below are some defense
mechanisms and their examples.

Denial. Denial involves blocking external events from awareness. If some situation is just
too much to handle, the person just refuses to
experience it. Many people use denial in their
day-to-day lives to avoid dealing with painful
feelings or areas certain areas in their life they
don’t want to face. Examples: Smokers may

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refuse to admit to themselves that smoking is bad for their health, or a wife refuses to
recognize obvious signs of her husband’s cheating ways.

Repression. Repression is an unconscious mechanism employed by the

ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming
conscious. It is a psychological defense mechanism in which
the person refuses to consciously remember a threatening or
unacceptable event, instead pushing those events into the
unconscious mind. For example: Elise, who was sexually
abused as a child, cannot remember the abuse at all.

Rationalization. Rationalization is a defense mechanism which leads an individual to deal

with emotional conflicts, or internal or external stressors, by devising reassuring or self-
serving but incorrect explanations for his or her own or others’ thoughts, actions, or
feelings, which cover up other motives. (Knoll M., Starrs C.J., Perry J.C. (2016) ). Basically it
is when a person invents acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior. For example: “If I
don’t have breakfast, I can have that piece of cake later on without hurting my diet.”

Projection. Psychological defense mechanism in which unacceptable or threatening

impulses or feelings are seen as originating with someone else, usually the target of the
impulses or feelings.This involves individuals attributing their own unacceptable thoughts,
feelings, and motives to another person. For example: 1. You might hate someone, but your
superego tells you that such hatred is unacceptable. You
“solve” the problem by believing that they hate you. 2.
Keisha is attracted to her sister’s husband but denies
this and believes the husband is attracted to her.

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 Reaction Formation. The converting of unwanted or
perceived dangerous thoughts, feelings, or impulses
into their opposites.It is the fixation in consciousness
of an idea or desire that is opposite to a feared
unconscious impulse. For example: 1) A person who is
angry with a colleague actually ends up being
particularly courteous and friendly towards them. 2)
An alcoholic extols the virtues of abstinence. 3) Acting
like you hate someone you really have a crush on.

Displacement. It is the satisfying an impulse with a substitute object. This defense

mechanism involves the redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) onto a powerless
substitute target. For example: 1) Sandra gets reprimanded by her boss and goes home to
angrily pick a fight with her husband. 2) Someone who is frustrated by his or her boss art
work may go home and kick the dog. (Please don’t kick dogs!).

Humor. The individual deals with emotional conflict or external stressors by

emphasizing the amusing or ironic aspects of the conflict or stressors. It involves
looking for a funny aspect in an environment in which we lack
control can help us to endure it.Filipinos are well-known to smile in
the face of adversity, even finding humor in less than funny
circumstances.

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 Identification. Identification involves the person dealing with
anxiety by adapting the behavior of a person who is more
powerful towards them. For example: Marie really admires
Suzy, the most popular girl in school, and tries to copy her
behavior and dress. An extreme example of this is the
Stockholm Syndrome, where hostages establish an emotional
bond with their captor(s) and take on their behaviors. Patty
Hearst was abused and raped by her captors, yet she joined the Symbionese Liberation Army
and even took part in one of their bank robberies. At her trial, she was acquitted because
she was a victim suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

Regression. This is movement back in psychological time when

one is faced with stress. A defense mechanism in which a person
falls back on child-like patterns of responding in reaction to
stressful situations. When regression is used as a defense
mechanism, individuals cope with stressors by acting in a
childish, immature, or age-inappropriate manner, that is, they
regress to earlier developmental stages, such as when it is
normal to have excessive dependence or temper tantrums. A
child may begin to suck their thumb again or wet the bed when
they need to spend some time in the hospital. A young wife, for
example, might retreat to the security of her parents’ home after
her first quarrel with her husband.

Compensation. Compensation is a process of psychologically counterbalancing perceived

weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other arenas. By
emphasizing and focusing on one’s strengths, a person is
recognizing they cannot be strong at all things and in all areas in
their lives. When done appropriately and not in an attempt to
over-compensate, compensation is defense mechanism that
helps reinforce a person’s self-esteem and self-image. When a
person says, “I may not know how to cook, but I can sure do the
dishes!,” they’re trying to compensate for their lack of cooking
skills by emphasizing their cleaning skills instead. Another
example: Reggie is not good at athletics, so he puts all of his
energies into becoming an academic scholar.

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CARL JUNG

C
arl Jung ( 'Y-oong' ) developed a theory of a collective
unconscious, which was his name for the memories
shared by all members of the human species. Jung
believed that the unconscious held much more than personal
fears, urges, and memories.

Personal and Collective Unconscious

Jung’s personal unconscious is essentially the same
as Freud’s version of the unconscious. The personal
unconscious contains temporality forgotten
information and well as repressed memories.

Jung's theory on the collective

unconscious was that it is made up of
a collection of knowledge and
imagery that every person is born
with and is shared by all human
beings due to ancestral experience.
Although individuals do not know
what thoughts and images are in
their collective unconscious, it is
thought that in moments of crisis the
psyche can tap into the collective
unconscious. The collective unconscious contains a kind of “species” or “racial” memory,
memories of ancient fears and themes that seem to occur in many folktales and cultures.
These collective, universal human memories were called archetypes by Jung.

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Archetypes
Archetypes are emotionally
laden ideas and images in
the Collective Unconscious
that have rich and symbolic
meaning. They are primitive
mental images inherited
from the earliest human
ancestors, and supposed to
be present in the collective
unconscious. Archetypes were models of people, behaviors, or personalities. Archetypes,
Jung suggested, were inborn tendencies that play a role in influencing human behavior. They
emerge in Art, Religion, Literature, and dreams -e.g. MYTHOLOGY of CREATION)

4 MAJOR Jungian Archetetypes.

Anima/Animus. The anima is the female who resides in the collective unconscious mind of
men, and the animus is the male who resides in the collective unconscious mind of women.
The anima/animus represents the "true self" rather than the image we present to others and
serves as the primary source of communication with the collective unconscious.

Persona. The persona (or mask) is the outward face we present to the world. It conceals our
real self and Jung describes it as the “conformity” archetype. This is the public face or role a
person presents to others as someone different to who we really are (like an actor). The
persona is how we present ourselves to the world. The word "persona" is derived from a
Latin word that literally means "mask." It is not a literal mask, however. The persona
represents all of the different social masks that we wear among various groups and

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situations. It acts to shield the ego from negative images. The persona archetype allows
people to adapt to the world around them and fit in with the society in which they live.
However, becoming too closely identified with this archetype can lead people to lose sight of
their true selves.

Shadow. The shadow is an archetype that consists of the sex and life instincts. The shadow
exists as part of the unconscious mind and is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses,
desires, instincts, and shortcomings. This archetype is often described as the darker side of
the psyche, representing wildness, chaos, and the unknown. These latent dispositions are
present in all of us, Jung believed, although people sometimes deny this element of their
own psyche and instead project it on to others.

Self. The self is an archetype that represents the unified unconsciousness and consciousness
of an individual. Creating the self occurs through a process known as individuation, in
which the various aspects of personality are integrated. Jung often represented the self as a
circle, square, or mandala. It provides a sense of unity in experience. The Self is the final
product, the result of the unity of the conscious and the unconscious mind of a person. It is
the culmination of the process of individuation. Individuation, according to Jung, is a
process, in which a person successfully makes conscious, the personal unconscious and
collective unconscious. He becomes aware.

Jungian Archetypes

Shadow and Alter-Ego. Archetypes

and archetypal-thinking can be seen
everywhere. Although the number of
archetypes is limitless, there are a
few particularly notable, recurring
archetypal images.

In this example we have the Shadow

and the Alter Ego. As previously
mentioned, the Shadow is often seen
as the darker side of the psyche - representing wild and chaotic personalty. The Alter Ego
(LATIN, “other I) is defined as “the other aspect of oneself, a second ego; also, one’s
doppelgänger”. It is the alternative self which is believed to be distinct from a person's
normal or true original personality.

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 • Clark Kent and Superman: A mild-mannered reporter and superhero. Which is the true
self and which is the alter ego?

• Bruce Wayne and Batman: Billionaire playboy and The Dark Knight. Which is the true
self and which is the alter ego? Or are they both different identities trying to mask the
true self? A self not seen by others?

• Bruce Banner and The Hulk: Awkward genius and rage-filled monster. The Hulk is quite
literally the darker side to Banner’s psyche.

Temptress.

The Temptress archetype

is defined as an unethical
woman of immense
provocative charm and
wit, who utilizes men and
leads them into
treacherous situations.
Temptresses include:
sirens, femme fatales, and
seductresses. Due to their
beauty and manipulating ways, the temptress acts as a beguiling complication in the hero/
protagonists journey. She is ultimately the cause of his downfall.

Melisandre and Vanessa (Ursula’s alter-ego, SEE! Another archetype!) are classic examples
of temptresses - the sensuous beauty who beguiles and seduces the hero and causes their
down fall (or almost downfall). In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures,
who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to shipwreck on
the rocky coast of their island.

The Heroine. The Female Hero. The

archetypal female hero has many facets
- from the Amazonian Warrior
(literally!), the nurturer, the protector,
and to the librarian type. These are
your female heroes - an archetypal
motif based on overcoming obstacles
and achieving certain goals.

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 • Wonder Woman (Alter Ego - Diana Prince) is the Amazon personified - a powerful
woman who is competitive and still identifies with feminism and nature; Independent
and confident.

• Hermione Granger - Studious and intelligent woman; Likes to be in control; Data

oriented introvert; Used to looking after herself.

Damsel in distress. A damsel in distress has been seen throughout history as a common
archetype in myth. A damsel refers to
a young woman, and a damsel in
distress is almost always a woman
who is physically attractive; this is of
course what sparks the interest of
her savior. A Damsel is always
helpless and in need of rescuing. She
is often the vulnerable woman who
must be rescued by the hero - she is
often used as a bait to trap the hero.

The Hero. ”The hero’s main feat

is to overcome the monster of
darkness: it is the long-hoped-for
and expected triumph of
consciousness over the
unconscious.” —Carl Jung, The
Psychology of the Child
Archetype. A hero is defined
more easily by the trajectory their
life takes, and the circumstances
they encounter. Additionally,
success on the hero’s journey is what defines and ultimately crowns the hero as such.

It is worth noting, that the hero’s journey does not occur solely in the outer, material world;
rather, many aspects occur within the hero’s own psyche, and in his inner and spiritual
worlds. The victory is not merely the act of slaying the dragon, but the journey undertaken
which makes the act thereby possible. The hero stands at the threshold between the known
and the unknown, and chooses, bravely, the unknown. What he brings back to the world (or
his world) is Triumph, Justice, and Hope.

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King Arthur, Luke Skywalker, Robin Hood. Three quintessential heroes -their main feat is to
overcome the monster of darkness (in their cases the monsters would be Mordred, Darth
Vader, and King John): it is the long-hoped-for and expected triumph of consciousness over
the unconscious.

The Sage. The Wise man or the mentor, the Sage archetype is one of wisdom, knowledge
and power. It represents the innate spiritual aspect of our personality in the unconscious
and according to Carl Jung, appears in our lives through different symbols. It may take the
form of people, dreams, insights, or our life’s learning we pass on to others.

The sage is usually depicted as a wise old man or an old crone with great foresight, who
offers measured advice and guidance to help the hero in his quest, and at the same time
letting the hero choose his path
towards destiny.

The sage archetype makes its

presence felt in modern popular
fiction as well, for instance, as Yoda
from Star Wars, as the Wizard
Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings
and as Professor Dumbledore in
Harry Potter series to name a few.

ALFRED ADLER

A
lfred Adler proposed feelings of inferiority as the driving
force behind personality and developed birth order theory.
Adler postulated that as young, helpless children, people all
develop feelings of inferiority when comparing themselves to the more
powerful, superior adults in their world. The driving force behind all
human endeavors, emotions, and thoughts for Adler was the seeking
of superiority.

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Inferiority &
Superiority
Complexes

Inferiority Complex.
A primary inferiority
feeling is said to be
rooted in the young
child's original
experience of
weakness,
helplessness and dependency. It can then be intensified by comparisons to siblings, romantic
partners, and adults.

A secondary inferiority feeling relates to an adult's experience of being unable to reach a

subconscious, fictional final goal of subjective security and success to compensate for the
inferiority feelings. The perceived distance from that goal would lead to a negative/
depressed feeling that could then prompt the recall of the original inferiority feeling; this
composite of inferiority feelings could be experienced as overwhelming. The goal invented
to relieve the original, primary feeling of inferiority which actually causes the secondary
feeling of inferiority is the "catch-22" of this dilemma. This vicious cycle is common in
neurotic lifestyles.

Superiority Complex. “We should not be astonished if in the cases where we see an
inferiority [feeling] complex we find a superiority complex more or less hidden. On the
other hand, if we inquire into a superiority complex and study its continuity, we can always
find a more or less hidden inferiority [feeling] complex.” A superiority complex is a behavior
that suggests a person believes they're somehow superior to others. People with this
complex often have exaggerated opinions of themselves. They may believe their abilities and
achievements surpass those of others.

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Birth Order Theory

Birth order is believed to influence many aspects of one’s personality. Adler believed in the
influence of birth order on personality development. While he identified common
characteristics and patterns for particular birth order positions, Adler emphasized how every
person has a self-perceived place in his or her family. This perceived position may or may
not be the person's chronological place in the family.

MEANING, just because you may be the eldest doesn’t mean you behave like the eldest
child (as presented in the Birth Order Theory). It all depends on how you are treated in the
family as well as your perceived place in the family. Alfred Adler believed that birth order
had a direct association with personality characteristics. Personality theorists such as Adler
have asserted that family position can affect individuals' experiences and development. It is
believed that each birth order position has its own unique set of personality traits.

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KAREN HORNEY

K
aren Horney (pronouned hor-neye) was a neo-Freudian
psychologist known for her theory of neurotic needs, her
research on feminine psychology, and her critiques of
Freud's emphasis on the concept of penis envy. Horney developed a
theory based on basic anxiety and rejected the concept of penis envy.

In rejecting Freud’s concept of penis envy she proposed the concept

of WOMB ENVY wherein men felt the need to compensate for
their lack of childbearing ability by striving for success in other
areas.

Her theory on basic anxiety stated that as children, we develop a sense of basic anxiety.
People whose parents give them love, affection, and security overcome this anxiety. Those
with less secure upbringing develop neurotic tendencies. Horney defined basic anxiety as
anxiety created when a child is born into the bigger and more powerful world of older
children and adults and neurotic personalities are personalities typified by maladaptive ways
of dealing with relationships in Horney’s theory.

Horney's theory also proposes that strategies used to cope with anxiety can be overused,
causing them to take on the appearance of neurotic needs. These neurotic needs can be
categorized into three broad problems.

1. Need to move towards people: seek love, support, safety – being dependent on others;
neurotic needs that cause individuals to seek affirmation and acceptance from others;
often described as needy or clingy as they seek out approval and love.

2. Need to move away from people: becoming more independent; creates hostility and
antisocial behavior; often described as cold, indifferent, and aloof.

3. Need to move against people: becoming competitive and domineering - aggressive; is

hostile and needs to control other people; often described as difficult, domineering, and
unkind.

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 T H E B E H AV I O R A L P E R S P E C T I V E

F
or the behaviorist, personality is nothing more than a set of learned responses or
habits - sets of well- learned responses that have become automatic. In this
perspective, the consequences of our actions affect our behavior - and our reactions to
different consequences are determined by our personalities as well.

ALBERT BANDURA

A
lbert Bandura is an influential social cognitive
psychologist who is perhaps best known for his social
learning theory, the concept of self-efficacy, and his famous
Bobo doll experiments. He believed three factors influence one
another in determining the patterns of behavior that make up
personality: the environment, the behavior itself, and personal or
cognitive factors that the person brings into the situation from earlier
experiences.

The three factors

influence one
another in
determining the
patterns of behavior
that make up
personality: The
environment, the
behavior itself, and
personal or cognitive
factors that the
person brings into
the situation from
earlier experiences. These three factors each affect the other two in a reciprocal, or give-and-
take, relationship. Bandura calls this relationship reciprocal determinism.

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 THE HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

H
umanistic, humanism and humanist are terms in psychology relating to an
approach which studies the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual.
The humanistic approach is thus often called the “third force” in psychology after
psychoanalysis and behaviorism (Maslow, 1968).

CARL ROGERS

C
arl Rogers is widely
regarded as one of the
most eminent thinkers
in psychology. He is best known
for developing the
psychotherapy method called
client-centered therapy and for
being one of the founders of
humanistic psychology.

Rogers stated that the self-

concept is based on what people are told by others and how the sense of self is reflected in
the words and actions of important people in one’s life, such as parents, siblings, coworkers,
friends, and teachers.

Unconditional & Conditional Positive Regard. Rogers believed that people have a need
for both self-worth and positive regard for other people. How people think about themselves
and how they value themselves plays a major role in well-being. In the development of the
self-concept, Rogers elevated the importance of unconditional positive regard, or
unconditional love. People raised in an environment of unconditional positive regard, in
which no preconceived conditions of worth are present, have the opportunity to fully
actualize. When people are raised in an environment of conditional positive regard, in which
worth and love are only given under certain conditions, they must match or achieve those
conditions in order to receive the love or positive regard they yearn for. Their ideal self is
thereby determined by others based on these conditions, and they are forced to develop
outside of their own true actualizing tendency; this contributes to incongruence and a
greater gap between the real self and the ideal self.

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 Real & Ideal Self. Rogers further divided the self into two
categories: the ideal self and the real self. The ideal self is the
person that you would like to be; the real self is the person
you actually are. Rogers focused on the idea that we need to
achieve consistency between these two selves. We experience
congruence when our thoughts about our real self and ideal
self are very similar—in other words, when our self-concept
is accurate. High congruence leads to a greater sense of self-
worth and a healthy, productive life. Conversely, when there
is a great discrepancy between our ideal and actual selves, we
experience a state Rogers called incongruence, which can lead to maladjustment.

ABRAHAM MASLOW

A
braham Maslow is perhaps most well-known for his hierarchy of needs theory, in
which he proposes that human beings have certain needs in
common and that these needs must be met in a certain order.
These needs range from the most basic physiological needs for survival
to higher-level self-actualization and transcendence needs. Maslow’s
hierarchy is most often presented visually as a pyramid, with the
largest, most fundamental physiological needs at the bottom and
the smallest, most advanced self-actualization needs at the top.
Each layer of the pyramid must be fulfilled before moving up the
pyramid to higher needs, and this process is continued throughout
the lifespan.

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Hierarchy of Needs.

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