PSY 100 Chapter 38: Module 38 Notes
Document Summary
Personality: an individual"s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Two main historical theories of personality: psychoanalytic theory - proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality, humanistic theory - focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment. Other later theories built off of these two such as the trait theories, for example, examine characteristic patterns of behavior (traits) and the social-cognitive theory explore the interaction between people"s traits (including their thinking) and their social context. Psychodynamic theories: view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences. Descended from freud"s psychoanalysis: (1) freud"s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. (2) freud"s therapeutic technique used in treating psychological disorders. Freud believed the patient"s free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences and the therapist"s interpretations of them released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.
