Personality and individual differences Lecture 1: Introduction Freud and the psychoanalytic approach: . Freud founded the psychoanalytic approach to personality: Main belief, most of our behavior driven by things we are unaware of (unconscious forces) Levels of consciousness: Freud argued that there are levels of consciousness and unconsciousness, not necessary being the unconscious ones weaker than the conscious. - Conscious thought: Material we are actually aware of at the given time - Preconscious mind: This consists of thoughts that are unconscious at this instant, which can be easily recalled into our conscious mind. example might be the color of your car or what you last evening. Preconscious material can easily be brought to mind when required. - The unconscious mind. It consists of thoughts, memories, feelings, urges or fantasies that we are unaware of because they are being actively kept in our unconscious. Freud argued that they were kept in our unconscious because of their unacceptable nature. They may be sexual urges that we would unacceptable, or aggressive instincts that frighten us, so they are kept repressed in our unconscious. The term he used for this process of keeping material unconscious was repression. - Unconscious material can be brought back to consciousness in the emergence of dreams for example. Iceberg metaphor: Conscious and preconscious as the small sections above surface Dreams: Function to represent wishes as fulfilled, unconscious unacceptable desires may be expressed, or problems may be solved- helps preserve sleep: Dreams as a direct route to the patient's unconscious. - Manifest content: The description of the dream as recalled by the dreamer. - Latent content: True representation of the unconscious mind, as the dreamer unconsciously censors some of the true meaning of the dream or uses symbols to represent key elements to avoid becoming too disturbed by their recall of the dream. This is interpreted by the therapist to reach the real meaning of the dream. Freud suggested that much of the unconscious content of dreams was sexual in nature. Different styles of thinking were associated with different levels of consciousness. - Primary process thinking: This is essentially irrational mental activity, represented by dreams. The logically impossible becomes possible in our dreams. Freud claimed that it was a result of our being governed partly by what he called the pleasure principle - an urge to have our drives met. This is not a desire to actively seek pleasure, but rather an instinct to avoid displeasure, pain and upset. The pleasure principle is an innate, primitive instinct driving our behavior. - Secondary process thinking. This is rational thought, which is logical and organised. Secondary process thinking is governed by the reality principle. This means that we operate according the actual situation in the external world and the facts as we see them. Secondary process thinking is characteristic conscious and preconscious thought. The reality principle is learnt as we grow up.
- Daydreaming, imaginative thought, creative activities and emotional thinking are claimed to involve a mixture of both thinking processes. The