LESSON 3

Psychodynamic Theories of Personality

While Sigmund Freud’s theories—along with the theories of Carl

Jung and the Neo-Freudians (e.g., Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Erik
Erikson)—are important for historical reasons, there is little empir-
ical evidence for many aspects of these theories, and few current
personality researchers directly study these theories. Teachers
should note the importance of presenting students with the most
current and empirically validated facts and knowledge on personali-
ty psychology.

I. Psychodynamic theories of personality

A. The psychodynamic approach to personality stems from Sigmund
Freud’s theories about how and why people become who they
are.

Psyche: According to Freud, an internal structure of the mind is

made up of three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego.

1. Id is the irrational, emotional, impulsive part of the mind that

pushes people to act on their impulses and seeks immediate
gratification.

2. Ego is the rational part of the mind that considers all perspec-
tives and weighs the pros and cons of a course of action. The
ego has a more long-term perspective than the id.

3. Superego is the moral part of the mind that seeks to follow

rules, social norms, and personal value. It pushes people to
act in accordance with their values and ideals.

B. Conflict

1. These three parts of the mind can sometimes function inde-

pendently, but they often come into conflict, “pushing” for
opposite behaviors.

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 2. In these cases, the ego is supposed to be the moderator be-
tween the id and superego and make an executive decision.

3. According to Freud, unresolved conflict between the different

parts of the mind leads to anxiety.

C. Scientific evidence

1. Researchers now know the mind is not actually divided into

three parts, but there is considerable evidence (e.g., Yarkoni
& Braver, 2010) that people differ in terms of their capacity for
“executive control”—the ability to monitor their various urges
and motivations and choose a course of action that strikes the
right balance.

2. There is also considerable debate about whether the mind has

multiple parts that can operate independently from each other,
with many researchers arguing that the idea of multiple, sepa-
rate units in the mind is a more or less accurate representation
of how the mind works (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992).

D. The importance of the unconscious: The psychodynamic the-

ories of personality emphasize that an individual’s behavior (and
thus his or her personality) is not always the result of conscious
mental processes; many of the processes underlying behavior are
unconscious. This has several corollaries:

1. Self-knowledge: If some of the motives for our behavior

reside in our unconscious, we may not be aware of all aspects
of our personality. Thus, people may have personality charac-
teristics they honestly don’t believe they have.

2. Psychic determinism is the view that every act is determined

by what is going on in a person’s conscious and unconscious
mind. Freud claimed that all behaviors are a reflection of what
is going on in the person’s mind.

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 3. D
 efense mechanisms: Freud believed that part of the reason
so much of personality resides in the unconscious is because
many motives, thoughts, and feelings are threatening for us
to admit to ourselves. Thus, we develop means to keep those
aspects outside of our consciousness by developing self-pro-
tective strategies. These strategies are called defense mecha-
nisms and include the following.

a. Denial is refusing to acknowledge something.

b. Repression is pushing something out of your mind

so you do not think about it. You don’t actively deny it;
rather, you just decide not to think about it and eventually
forget it.

c. Reaction formation is convincing yourself of the opposite

of what is actually true.

d. Projection is attributing an unwanted trait or thought to

someone else.

e. Rationalization is coming up with a logical, rational (but

false) explanation for a shameful thought or action.

f. Intellectualization is converting a threatening trait or

thought into a cold, intellectual fact.

g. Displacement is redirecting an unwanted impulse toward

something more acceptable.

h. Regression is reverting to an earlier stage of life develop-

ment when you are faced with conflict.

i. Sublimation is converting shameful impulses into some-

thing noble; redirecting the energy to something more
acceptable.

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 II. Psychic energy

A. F
 reud also posited that we keep things from our conscious aware-
ness in part because it is too threatening to admit certain things
about ourselves (e.g., certain motives that are driven by our id).
However, according to Freud, keeping things from reaching con-
scious awareness requires psychic energy, and people only have
a limited amount of psychic energy. Thus, the more we keep in our
unconscious, the greater stress and strain we will experience. To
release that strain, and to free up some psychic energy, we must
explore our unconscious and face some of the facts that we have
kept hidden from ourselves.

B. Free association

1. Free association is the practice of saying every thought that

comes to mind without censoring anything.

2. The idea is that if you let your mind talk without imposing any
limits, things that are normally censored by your conscious
mind will come out, and you will learn something about what is
in your unconscious.

3. This will then free up some psychic energy you had previously
been using to keep that information unconscious.

C. Dream analysis and Freudian slips

1. Freud also believed dreams reveal something about the un-

conscious mind. He advocated dream analysis as a way to
bring the contents of the unconscious mind into conscious
awareness.

2. Other places to look for the unconscious leaking out include

jokes and mistakes (slips).

Example: Calling a current love interest by a former love inter-

est’s name would be a slip.

D. Scientific evidence

1. The idea that people are unaware of all of their motives has
held up well to scientific scrutiny. Researchers have shown
people can be unaware of some of their motives, and some-
times they can even be unaware of some of their feelings and
behaviors (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).

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 2. H
 owever, other details about the unconscious proposed by
Freud have held up less well to scientific scrutiny (e.g., the
psychosexual stages of development, the idea of the sex and
death drives being behind almost everything we do, the mean-
ing of dreams).

3. See Chapter 1 of Tim Wilson’s book Strangers to Ourselves

(Wilson, 2004) for a description of the similarities and differ-
ences between Freud’s unconscious and the latest scientific
evidence about the unconscious.

III. P
 ersonality (psychosexual) development according to the
psychodynamic perspective
A. F
 reud argued that early childhood experiences are extremely im-
portant for personality development. Adults are the way they are in
large part because of what happened to them in childhood.

B. Freud believed most people went through five stages of psycho-

sexual development, and failure to progress through each of these
stages was associated with particular personality problems.

C. Fixation is a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an

earlier psychosexual stage during which conflicts were unresolved.
For example, a fixation on oral pleasure would indicate being stuck
in the oral stage as described below.

D. Each stage is associated with a particular psychological struggle

and also with a physical focus.

1. Stage one: The oral stage

a. According to Freud, from birth to about 18 months of age,

the biggest psychological struggle babies face is their
dependence on others.

b. The physical focus of this stage is the mouth, tongue,

and lips.

c. Failure to successfully pass through this stage can lead to

the adult personality characteristic of being overly depen-
dent or its opposite, overly independent.

d. Oral fixations include using the mouth to self-soothe un-

der stress, such as smoking, biting fingernails, employing
sarcasm, etc.

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 2. Stage two: The anal stage

a. According to Freud, from age 18 months to 3-1/2 years,

the primary struggle children face is obedience and
self-control. Children typically go through potty training
during this stage.

b. The physical focus of this stage is the anus.

c. Failure to successfully pass through this stage can lead

to the adult personality characteristic of being extremely
rule-abiding and obsessed with order (anal retentive) or
its opposite, being rebellious, chaotic, and anti-authority
(anal expulsive).

3. Stage three: The phallic stage

a. According to Freud, from age 3-1/2 to 6 years, the prima-

ry struggle children face is figuring out their gender identi-
ty and sexuality.

b. The physical focus of this stage is the sexual organs.

c. Failure to successfully pass through this stage leads to

the adult personality characteristic of being over-sexu-
alized (e.g., flirty) or its opposite, being undersexualized
(e.g., overly modest).

4. Stage four: Latency

According to Freud, from age 7 years to puberty, children

do not face any special psychological struggles and are not
fixated on any body part. All earlier issues remain hidden in
the unconscious.

5. Stage five: The genital stage

a. According to Freud, from puberty onward, the primary

struggle is the creation and enhancement of life.

b. Freud believed that people rarely completely resolve this

struggle, but if they were to, the result would be a healthy,
mature adult personality.

c. There is no particular body part associated with this

stage, though the physical focus more generally is one’s
sexuality, especially in relation to others (i.e., intimate
relationships).

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 E. Scientific evidence

1. There has not been much scientific support for Freud’s ideas
about psychosexual development. Furthermore, research to
date has not turned up much evidence that early childhood
experiences influence personality.

2. However, attachment theory posits that the stability and

security of a person’s attachment to their parents or caregiv-
ers in childhood can affect how the person handles their close
relationships (especially romantic/sexual relationships) in
adulthood.

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