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College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education 2015/2016 – 2016/
PYSC 333: Psychology of
Personality
Session 2– Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality- Part 1 Lecturer: Dr. Margaret Amankwah-Poku , Dept. of Psychology Contact Information: [email protected]
Session Overview
- A most commonly known theory of Personality in Psychology is Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory of personality
- Concepts in Freud’s psychoanalysis theory, such as unconscious forces, instinctual drives, structure of personality, and unconscious conflicts in early childhood all contribute to the formation of a person’s personality
- Discuss how elements of these concepts interact to determine a person’s personality
- Discuss how anxiety is produced as a result of interactions among the structure of personality
- introduces the concept of defense mechanisms, which individuals use to overcome anxieties
Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
- Assumptions of Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory
- Instincts
- Levels of consciousness
- Structure of personality
- The nature and role of anxiety
Reading List
- Carducci, B. J. (2009). The Psychology of personality (2nd ed.). Chichester: John Riley & Sons Ltd (Ch. 3 )
- Larsen, R. J., & Buss, D. M. (2008). Personality psychology: Domain of knowledge about human nature (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. (Ch. 9)
- Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2005). Theories of personality. Belmont: Wadsworth. (Ch. 2)
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
- Formal study of personality began with Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theory in the late 1900s
- To date, it remains significant in the study of psychology and psychotherapy
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
- Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes
- a) unconscious forces
- b) instinctual drives of sex and aggression and
- c) unconscious conflicts in early childhood (Schultz & Schultz, 2005)
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
- Behaviour to a large extent is determined by unconscious forces
- E.g. telling dirty jokes may be a way for a person to express his/ her sexual desires or sexual drive (Carducci, 2009)
INSTINCTS
Topic Two
Instincts
- Individuals are born with basic instincts such as desire for food, water, air and also sex and aggression
- Personality develops as a person tries to satisfy such needs (Berstein, Clark-Stewart, Penner, Roy & Wickens, 2000)
Instincts
- Different individuals may have the same needs (hunger, sex etc.), but the drive to satisfy such needs may vary
- This explains the diversity in human behaviour
- Freud categorised these instincts as the life instincts and the death instincts
Types of instincts
- Death instincts or Thanatos
- This represents an individual’s desire to complete a life cycle (Freud, 1920, 1955)
- Every living thing decays and die (dies) and so individuals have an unconscious wish to die
- This instinct also produces aggression and destructive urges
Types of instincts
- It represents the drive to harm, destroy or aggress against others or oneself (Larsen & Buss,
- Aggressive instincts compels a person to destroy, conquer and kill
- Freud, compares this compulsion to sex drive
- Initially, Freud proposed the two instincts opposed one another but later thought they combine in many ways
Freud’s Levels of Consciousness
- Freud compared the human mind to an iceberg in the sea and identified three levels of conscious awareness
- The conscious mind , the preconscious mind and the unconscious mind
- The unconscious forces determine a person’s personality (Feldman, 1999)
Levels of Consciousness
