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MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 11
Lesson 5: Theories of personality- Theories of Personality Questions
- Situational approach
- Psychoanalytic theory
- Maslow's hierarchy of needs
- Humanistic theory
- Biological theory
- Behavioral theory
- Trait theory
- Observational learning: Bobo doll experiment and social cognitive theory
- Defense mechanisms
- Freud - Death drive, reality principle, and pleasure principle
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Psychoanalytic theory
Psychoanalytic theory posits that our childhood experiences and unconscious desires shape our behavior. According to Sigmund Freud, the mind consists of three components: the id, ego, and superego. These three structures often conflict with one another, leading to "fixations" in psychosexual development that can have lifelong consequences. Created by Shreena Desai.
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- fun fact: did you know freud was fixated on cocaine and cigarettes then ultimately died of lung cancer because he couldn't give up his cigarette habits? so i guess we can say freud was stuck in the oral stage =)(36 votes)
- In his own words, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."(6 votes)
- Okay so I think I get what the superego is. (The moral compass, what makes us what or think about doing the right thing?) but I don't quite get the ego is it like our plans for the future or... I don't get it. Thanks. :)(9 votes)
- The way I understand it, the ego acts a mediator between the id and superego. Psychoanalytic theory goes further to suggest that having a dominant id or superego can have a knock-on effect on behaviour, so the ego is needed to keep a balance between them. For example, my id might be saying, "I really want to watch a movie", but the superego is saying "no, you have to study for your exams". The ego might act as a compromise, by saying "do 2 hours of study, then watch the movie". Hope that helps!(40 votes)
- I don't understand the example for the Freudian slip, is the person just having stress so their speech is effected or is it something deeper than that?(6 votes)
- For psychoanalysts (like Freud), the "slip of the tongue" (parapraxis), is an instance where an unconscious desire "slips out" while someone is talking. Usually (but not always) it's from a build up of libido (likely from the Id) that escapes in speech without the person being aware until they've said it. An oft-used example is a man talking to an attractive woman and accidentally saying "breast" instead of "best." According to Freudian psychoanalytic theory, such a thing would likely indicate an unconscious sexual desire. Cognitive psychologist and linguists would disagree and classify it more as a verbal processing and recall error rather than indicative of an unconscious desire.(16 votes)
- What's the difference between "unconscious" and "subconscious"?(7 votes)
- "Unconscious" describes ideas and such that we possess in our minds but are not aware of. "Subconscious" describes ideas and such that are not at the moment in our conscious but can be easily "recalled".(11 votes)
- AtShreena mentions that the superego represents the values of society, but if that's true, why do we have moral conflicts about things society finds largely acceptable, like the slave trade in America in the 1780's? Isn't morality more complicated than social acceptance? 6:37(5 votes)
- Overall, why did they utilize the example of the iceberg?(2 votes)
- The phrase "tip of the iceberg" is appropriate because we only see a small portion of something, in this case the mind of a person. The visible area, the ego and superego, helps us make decisions and we are also aware of it influencing us, hence it is called "the conscious mind." The unseen part, the id, also has a say in how we think but we generally aren't aware of it, that's why it's called "the unconscious mind."(5 votes)
- why are these videos always so hard to understand ? the vocabulary is too extreme please try to use more basic words :((2 votes)
- Psychologists are trying to describe complex, ill-defined concepts dealing with the human mind. There is little overlap between terms from different theories, unfortunately, as each psychologists seems to want to make up their own special definitions. If you get overwhelmed with the lingo, maybe pause the video and look up the definition. This seems to be a pretty good resource: http://allpsych.com/dictionary/#.VaCdTxOrToB. It helps me to write down the definitions, so that I have them in my own words and can reference the list later. I hope this helps!(4 votes)
- why is ego a part of conscious & unconscious(2 votes)
- Consciousness needs a singularity in order to fulfill its function (there's only one "I"). Don't worry about the ego in relation to the subconscious, most people are not aware of the bottom part of the iceberg and frankly, most do not want to know (or don't have the cojones for doing so).(2 votes)
- my little brother has a problem taking things that aren't his he just turned 5 and i know that brain/mind devlopement goes at differnt stages, but does him taking things mean that his super ego hasn't devoleped or does he have a larger id? sorry if that doesn't make sense but i can't think of a differnt way to put it.(2 votes)
- According to the model "Psychoanalytic theory", his behavior would be classified as having a poorly defended "Oral Personality" because he is fixated on indulging himself on things that are not his due to "deprivation", or starvation or unsatisfactory stimulus provided during ages 0-1. Individuals who are fixated at these young ages tend to rely on more primitive defenses when threatened or frustrated. Remember, the model is a "conflict model" which purports id/ego/superego develop in response to internal drives being compromised by the environment. As such, the personality has to adapt by controlling it's impulses to survive. (It is a reductionist view of human life, ironically (as Freud hated religion).(2 votes)
- Definitely not the best video out there. Missing out on a lot of info(2 votes)
Video transcript
All right. So let's dive into the
first theory of personality, called the
psychoanalytic theory. Now, you've probably
heard of someone super famous in the psychology
world named Sigmund Freud. So let's write his
name down here, because it's very
important for this theory. OK. So Sigmund Freud. Well, it so happens--
fun fact here-- that Freud was not
even a psychologist. He was a physician, more
specifically a neurologist. And in 1885, he went to
Paris to study hypnosis with a fellow neurologist. But this experience is
actually what turned him towards medical psychopathology. And psychiatry as we
know it was actually unknown at the time
Freud began his work. So there you have it. There's your history
lesson for the day. OK. So let's go back and talk about
the psychoanalytic theory. The psychoanalytic theory says
that our childhood experiences and unconscious desires
influence behavior. So this is a key word for
this theory, "unconscious." So our personalities have
memories, beliefs, urges, drives, and instincts that
we are not always aware of and that make up
this unconscious. And the major driving
force behind Freud's instinctual theory is
the concept of libido. And you may have heard of
this in a different context, but we'll go over it in
terms of this theory. So libido is natural
energy source that fuels the
mechanisms of the mind. And when this libidinal
energy is stuck or fixated at various stages of
psychosexual development-- there's another keyword. So when this fixation occurs at
this psychosexual development and stages, conflicts can occur
that have lifelong effects. So fixation at a
particular stage is what predicts
adult personality according to this theory. For example, someone
fixated at the oral stage, which is actually
the first stage in psychosexual development,
might have oral personality characteristics like
being overly talkative or having a smoking
habit when they grow up. OK. So Freud breaks down
those mental structures that I was talking
about into three parts. And we can look at this
by looking at an iceberg. So let's break this down
into two parts first. The top of the iceberg,
which is shown up here, above the surface of the
water, is the conscious part of our mind. So this is everything
we are aware of. And if that's the
conscious, what do you think this bottom is? If you said unconscious,
you are right. So it's the unconscious mind. And what do you notice? The unconscious is a lot
larger than the conscious. You know that saying, it's
only the tip of the iceberg that we see? Well, it's true. Most of our mind is
hidden below the surface. OK. Let's go into the first
structure of our mind. And that is the id. So the id is located down
here in this compartment. And it's the unconscious
part of our mind that makes up most of the mind. It's hidden below the surface. And it develops
right after birth, and demands immediate
gratification. Now, the second part of
this structure is the ego. So the ego is right here
in this compartment. And it's part of our conscious
and our unconscious mind. OK. We'll see why that's the
case in a little bit. But the ego is involved in
our perceptions, thoughts, and judgments. And it seeks long-term
gratification as opposed to the id's immediate
gratification. In the third compartment,
right over here, I'm going to try to fit
it in, is the superego. Now, the superego develops
around the age of four. And it's our moral
compass or our conscience. Don't get that confused
with conscious. Conscience, it's a
little tongue-twister. OK. So let's go back to
these psychosexual stages I was talking about. So our libidinal
impulses, right here, are what want to be gratified. And when they are either
over-gratified or not gratified at all or partially
gratified, fixation occurs at a psychosexual
stage, and we face either conflict or anxiety. Now, what I mean by
"conflict" is not this whole battle or
drama that plays out. But it's a conflict between
these three mental structures of our mind, the ego,
the superego, and the id. Because all of them are
competing for demands, so they're in a conflict. Think of it like this. I'm going to draw out ourselves
right here, like that. And there's the rest of us. You get the picture Well, this person has really
big arms, but you get the idea. OK. So think of it like this. We have the id sitting on
one shoulder over here. And this is us, looking-- we're
in little bit of a conflict. OK. So the id is sitting
on one shoulder here. And it's really, really
upset, because it's demanding gratification and it
isn't immediately getting it. Remember, I said it wants
immediate gratification. But then, over here,
you have the superego. And the superego is
sitting on its high horse. And it's preaching to the
id about what's moral. And then what about the ego? What happens to the ego? What role does that have? Well, it's going to
be in the middle. Because the id
wants gratification, and only gratification. And it's going back and
forth with the superego. So the ego, right over here,
is trying to gratify the id, but it also has to
take into account what the superego is saying. The superego is moral
oversight, which represents the
values of society. Now, remember I said
earlier that the ego is part of the conscious and
the unconscious minds. So it basically
acts as a mediator between the unconscious
desires of the id and the moral demands
of the superego. So have you ever heard
of a Freudian slip? That's actually an example
of a mental conflict. So for example, a
financially stressed patient tells his doctor, oh, doctor,
please don't give me any bills. Well, what he really
meant to say was, please don't give me any pills. So this whole
process that I went through of the ego, the
superego, and the id becoming fixated in psychosexual
development due to conflicts is all part of the
psychoanalytic theory. And this process is part
of personality development for all individuals. But it's especially
problematic when there's a problem
with gratification in a particular
psychosexual stage.