CHAPTER III
PERSONALITY
In the end of the chapter, student should learn the:
Distinguish the three components of personality;
Comparison of needs, drives and motivation;
Explain the frustration ,conflict and anxiety.
Personality- It refers to the sum total of typing ways of acting thinking, and feeling that
makes each person unique.
Sigmund Freud (Father of Psychoanalysis),
revolutionized the thinking of the profession on mental
illness, personality development or personality disorders
with his psychoanalytic theories. He postulated that the mind
consists roughly of three overlapping divisions.
1. The conscious is that part of the mind which is
immediately focused in awareness.
2. The pre-conscious is that part of the mind which can be
recalled and brought to awareness at will.
3. The unconscious is the reservoir of memories, experience and emotions that can be
recalled. They are out of the individual’s awareness.
Three Components of Personality
1. ID - the unconscious part of the personality which serves as the reservoir of the
primitive and biological drives and
urges. It is that part of the personality
with which we are born.
ID is the animalistic self.
Libido - pleasure principle; instinctual
craving especially sexually.
2. Ego - the mediator between the ID and the superego. It refers to the developing
awareness of self or the “I”. It is also known as the integrator of the personality;
the part that interacts with the outside world, partly conscious and partly
unconscious. As the ego develops the reality principle supersedes or operates in
concert with the pleasure principle in guiding the behavior. The adaptive
functions of the ego are the defenses against anxiety.
3. Superego - the socialized component of the personality. It is the authoritative or
parental direction which becomes incorporated into the personality as the
censoring force or “conscience”.
-It begins primarily by accepting early in life of the standards of the persons who
are most important to the child, and it is first evident when the child feels within
himself that his behavior is right or wrong. If the ego contemplates violation of the
superego’s code, anxiety results; if the person acts on the contemplated violation
despite the anxiety, guilt feelings result. a very strict superego usually leads to
the development of a rigid, compulsive, unhappy person. A weak defective
superego permits a person to express hostile and anti-social striving without
anxiety or guilt.
OEDIPUS COMPLEX
Stage when young boys experience rivalry with their father for their mother’s
attention and affection. The father is viewed as a sex rival. This conflict is resolved by
the boy’s repression of his feelings for his mother.
ELECTRA COMPLEX
The stage when a girl sees her mother as a rival for her father’s attention but for
fear for her mother is less.
Note: Both attachment to the mother and father, the Electra complex is gradually
replaced by a strengthened identification with the mother.
KRESTSCHEMER (German Psychiatrist) – identified two individual personality types: the
Pyknic and Asthenic.
[Link] - they have broad head, long trunk, short legs, narrow shoulders, broad
hips and much flesh; with violent emotions .... when carried to extreme manifest
depressive psychosis.
MANIC DEPRESSIVE REACTION This disorder, also called an affective reaction, is
characterized by two phases: mania and depression.
The manic phase may be mild and bring elation and a general stepping up of all
kinds of activity. The patient tends to talk endlessly and in an associative rather than
logical way. If the disorder is more severe, he may act bizarrely; he may be a whirlwind
of activity and become so excited and agitated that he foregoes food and sleep and ends
in a state of total collapse.
In a mild depressive phase, the individual feels dull and melancholy, his
confidence begins to drain away, and he becomes easily fatigued by daily routines. When
the depressive phase is more severe, the patient starts to retreat from reality, gradually
entering into a state of withdrawal that is very much like a stupor. At this point, he hardly
moves or speaks. He may be unable to sleep. Eventually, he begins to question his value
as a human being and is crushed by feelings of guilt. He may refuse to eat. Symptoms
may progress to point where an attempt at suicide is a real possibility.
Stupor - the condition of the body in which the senses and faculties are suspended or
greatly dulled, as by drugs or intoxicants.
He is easily irritated and angered and becomes abusive whenever his desires are blocked
in which moods of wild, energetic and grandiose (showy) elation are succeeded by
periods of profound depression and inactivity the most extreme manifestations are in the
manic phase, violence against others and in the depressive, suicide..the current term is
derived from folic maniaco-melancholique (melancholic) - morbidly gloomy; sad;
dejected; suggesting or promoting sadness; low spirit.
2. ASTHENIC - they have long head, short trunk, long legs, narrow hips and
shoulders and very little fat; they have the tendency to develop seclusive personality
patterns that may result to dementia praecox or
schizophrenia.
SHELDON - identified the somatotypes in relation to
personality:
1. Ectomorph - identified as fragile and thin.
2. Endomorph - identified as soft-rounded
and fat.
3. Mesomorph - identified as medium-built.
PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN ADJUSTMENT
Most of man’s behavior can be traced to his attempts to satisfy his needs. All of us
have certain fundamental needs that we seek to satisfy. These needs create tensions in
the human body. When we are able to satisfy these needs, the tensions disappear.
Adjustment has been made.
Adjustment - the satisfaction of a need.
Three Elements in the Adjustment Process:
1. A need which arouses.
2. Purposive behavior, leading toward.
3. A goal which satisfies the needs.
NEEDS, DRIVES AND MOTIVATIONS
Drives are aroused state that results from some biological needs. The aroused
condition motivates the person to remedy the need.
Needs are the triggering factor that drives or moves a person to act. It is a
psychological state of tissue deprivation.
Motivation on the other hand refers to the causes and “why’s” of behavior as
required by a need.
Drive and motivation covers all of psychology, they energizes behavior and give
its direction to man’s action. For example, a motivated individual is engaged in a more
active, more vigorous, and more effective that unmotivated one, thus a hungry person
directs him to look for food.
Types of Human Needs:
Human needs arise out of a person’s biological or psychological make up. They
can be biological (biogenic) needs which are the needs of the body which exist for the
maintenance of health and protection of the body against physical injuries. These include
the need for:
1. food – hunger: the body needs adequate supply of nutrients to function efficiently.
“An empty stomach sometimes drives a person to steal.”
2. air – need of oxygen
3. water - thirst
4. rest – weary bodies needs this.
5. sex – a powerful motivator but unlike food and water, sex is not vital for survival
but essential to the survival of the species.
6. avoidance of pain – the need to avoid tissue damage is essential to the survival
of the organism. Pain will activate behavior to reduce discomfort.
7. stimulus seeking curiosity – most people and animal is motivated to explore the
environment even when the activity satisfies no bodily needs.
They can also be psychological (psychogenic or sociogenic) needs. These are
influenced primarily by the kind of society in which the individual is raised. Psychological
motives are those related to the individual happiness and well being, but not for the
survival, unlike the biological motives that focuses on basic needs – the primary
[Link] of these are:
1. love and affection
2. for security
3. for growth and development and
4. recognition from other human beings.
A.H. Maslow
Accordingly, there is a hierarchy of needs (Fig. 1) ascending from the basic
biological needs present at birth to the more complex psychological needs that become
important only after the more basic needs have been satisfied.
Figure 1
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Human needs however, can not always be satisfied. Obstacles and difficulties
sometimes stand in the way between the individual and his goal. These obstacles may
lie in the individual’s environment or they may be in the individual himself.
Some of the reasons why some people fail to reach their goal are:
1. Unrealistic goals - when the person’s level of aspiration is much higher than his
level of achievement, he is bound to fail.
2. Harmful or Anti-social goal.
3. Conflicting goals.
4. Environmental difficulties, including force majeure.
FRUSTRATION, CONFLICT and ANXIETY
A. Frustration refers to the unpleasant feelings that results from the blocking of
motive satisfaction. It is a form of stress, which results in tension. It is the feeling
that is experienced when something interferes with our hopes, wishes, plans and
expectations.
Frustration occurs when a person is blocked in the satisfaction of his needs. A
person faced with frustration becomes anxious and restless, and he tries to seek means
of relieving these anxieties. He tries to engage in various forms of activities that are
intended to satisfy his needs and reduce his tensions.
The common sources of frustration are:
1. Physical Obstacles – are physical barriers or circumstances that prevent a
person from doing his plan or fulfilling his wishes.
2. Social Circumstances – are restrictions or circumstances imposed by other
people and the customs and laws of social living.
3. Personal shortcoming – such as being handicapped by diseases, deafness,
paralysis, etc. which serves as a barrier to the things one ought to do.
4. Conflicts between motives
Reactions to Frustrations - People differ in the way the react to frustrations. An
individual’s way of reacting to frustrations is sometimes known as his coping
mechanism. Generally, people faced with frustration react it in one of two ways:
1. by fighting the problem in a constructive and direct way by breaking the
obstacles barring him from his goal, or by getting angry and become aggressive;
and/or
2. by running away (flight) from the problem, by sulking, retreating, becoming
indifferent, and by giving up without a fight.
These reactions to frustrations are sometimes called fight-flight reactions.
Frustration-tolerance
Individuals also differ in their capacity to tolerate unadjusted states, or frustration
tolerance. Some people are able to withstand prolonged periods of tension without
showing signs of abnormality. Others become neurotic or psychotic, or convert their
frustrations into physical illness, while some act out their frustrations by committing anti-
social acts or becoming alcoholics or drug addicts.
Most normal persons react to frustration in the following ways:
1. direct approach
2. detour
3. substitution
4. withdrawal or retreat
5. developing feelings of inferiority
6. aggression
7. use of defense mechanis
Reference
Human Behavior and Crisis Management Jester Eduardo and Mr.
Pangaronon Jr.
Video Links Topic
[Link] Freud's Personality
Components (ID, Ego, Super
Ego)
[Link] Instincts, Arousal, Needs,
Drives: Drive-Reduction and
Cognitive Theories
[Link] Frustration, Conflict, Stress,
and Coping