The Theories of

Personality
Nina Anne Bernadette M.
Pajas, RN, MSN

Sigmund Freud : Psychoanalytic Model

Emphasized
process
factors

or
as

unconscious
psychodynamic
the

basis

motivation and behavior.

for

The Personality
ID (the child in us)
Immediate gratification
Striving for pleasure through
the use of fantasies and
images
Compulsive and without
morals

Ego
Ego is initiated from 4-6 months
Controls Id impulses and mediates
between ID and Superego
Strives to meet the demands of the id
while maintaining the wellbeing of an
individual
Rational, logical thinking, intelligence
Uses defense mechanism for
protection

Superego (the parent in us)

Developed when toilet training
begins
Concerned with what is right and just
Provides the ego with an inner
control to help cope with id
Guilt and inferiority are experienced
when the individual cannot live up to
parental standards.

Level of Consciousness
Central to understanding problems of the
person and behavior
1. Consciousness
. Material within an individuals awareness
. Only one small part of the mind
2. Unconscious
. Larger area consists of memories, conflicts,
experiences and materials that have been
repressed and cannot be recalled at will.

3. Preconscious
Tip of the tongue phenomena
Material that refers to memories that
can be recalled to consciousness with
some effort
Freud believed that uncovering the
unconscious material generates an
understanding of behavior that
enables individual to make choices
about their behavior.

Defense Mechanisms
When the ego experiences to much
anxiety it uses defense mechanisms to
protect itself from painful experience
Excessive use of defense mechanism
can lead to difficulty in facing reality
and solving problems

Examples
1. Denial unconscious refusal to
admit an unacceptable idea or
behavior
Ex. Mr. Bangkie was diagnosed with
end stage cancer. When asked about
his illness, he said that there is nothing
wrong with his body.

2. Repression
Unconscious and involuntary
forgetting of painful ideas, events
and conflicts.
Example: Yaya Dub a rape victim when
she was a child can no longer
remember why she always hated his
father who raped her.

3. Suppression
Conscious exclusion from awareness
anxiety-producing feelings, ideas and
situations.
Example: A soldier who survived a
bloody encounter refused to share
experience to the nurses in the
hospital.

4. Rationalization
Conscious or unconscious attempt to
make or prove that ones feelings or
behaviors are justifiable.
Example: I cannot go to school
because my classmates do not like
me

Intellectualization
Consciously or unconsciously using
only logical explanation without
feelings or an effective component.
Example: Ms. Martyr talks about the
death of her husband without showing
any emotions of grieving and pain.

Dissociation
The unconscious separation of
painful feelings and emotions from
an unacceptable idea, situation or
object.
Example: Ms. Nena recalls that when
she was raped as a child, she felt as if
she were outside of her body watching
what was happening without feeling
anything.

Identification
Conscious or unconscious attempt to
model oneself after a respected
person
Example: The little girl said, I want to
be like Kathryn Bernardo when I grow
up

Introjection
Unconsciously incorporating values
and attitudes of others as if they
were your own
Example: Without realizing it, Mr.
Lance wishes, talks and acts similarly
like his therapist, analyzing other
patients.

Compensation
Consciously covering up for a
weakness by overemphasizing or
making up a desirable trait
Example: Mr. Rizal who is depressed
and unable to share his feelings with
other patients, writes and becomes
known for his expressive poetry.

Sublimation
Consciously or unconsciously
channeling instinctual drives into
acceptable activities
Example: Mr. Smith a former
perpetrator of incest who fears relapse
forms a local chapter of sex addict
anonymous.

Reaction Formation
A conscious behavior that is the
exact opposite of an unconscious
feelings
Example: Ms. Weng who unconsciously
wishes her mother were dead,
continuously tells staff that her mother
is wonderful.

Undoing
Consciously
doing
something
counteract
or
makeup
for
transgression or wrong doing.

to
a

Example: After accidentaly eating

another patients cockies, Ms. Takaw
apologizes, clean the refrigerator and
labels everyones snack with their
names.

Displacement
Unconsciously discharging pent-up
feelings to a less threatening object
Example: Students fall in their final
exam and blame their professor for not
teaching properly

Projection
Unconsciously or consciously blaming
someone else for ones difficulties or
placing ones unethical desire on
someone else.
Example: An adolescent comes home
late from a a dance and states that her
car busted.

Conversion
The
unconscious
expression
of
intraphysic
conflict
symbolically
through physical symptoms.
Example: A student awakens with a
migraine headache the morning of a
final examination and feeling to ill to
take the test.

Regression
Unconscious return to an earlier and
more comfortable developmental
level.
Example: A 6 year old child has been
wetting the bed at night since the birth
of her baby sister.

The Psychosexual Theory

Stages:
1. Oral (Birth-18 mos)
. Establishment of trust
. Very strict parents----- Over talkative,
alcoholism, Nail biting, thumb
sucking (Fixation)
. Very Lax parents------- Anti-social

2. Anal (18 mos-3 years)

Toilet training
Standards of society are being
introduced
Superego being developed
Development of self control and
autonomy
Too strict---- Thrifty, OC
Too lax------- unclean, disorderly

3. Phalic (3-5 years old)

Superego being internalized
Start of socialization
Family Love triangle (Oedipus and
Electra complex)
Fear of castration

4. Latency (6-12 years old)

Peer group experience

Intellectual growth
Period of normal homosexuality
Id, Ego, Superego are balance

Development of Inferiority Complex

5. Genital (12-15 years and

above)
Reawakening of Id, Ego,
Superego
Heterosexual becomes
evident

Relevance
According
to
Freuds
Psychoanalytic
Theory,
uncovering
of
the
unconscious mind will lead to
understanding
of
the
patients present behavior

Methods:
1. Free Association
Allowing patient to say everything
that comes in mind
2. Dream Analysis
Giving meaning to patients dreams

Erik Eriksons Psychosocial

Development
A persons social view of self is more
important than libidinal urges.
Purposes:
1. Provides an understanding of ho an individual
is coping up with present development crisis.
2. Can be used by nurses to assess the clients
level
of
functioning
and
subsequent
treatment planning.
3. Provides a basis for client centered nursing
intervention.

4. Assist nurses in providing

interventions to patient in resolving
demands unique to each
developmental stage.

Stages

Nuclear
conflict

Strengths

Institution

1. Oral
Sensory ( Birth1 year)

Trust vs.
Mistrust

Drive and Hope

Religion

2. MuscularAnal
(1-3 years old)

Autonomy vs
Shame and
doubt

Self control and

will power

Law and order

3. LocomotorGenital (3-5
years old)

Initiative vs
guilt

Direction and
Purpose

Education and
economy

4. Latency (6-11
years old)

Industry vs
Inferiority

Methods and
competence

Technology

5. Adolescence
(12-18 years
old)

Identity vs Role
confusion

Devotion and
fidelity

Ideology

6. Young
Adulthood (1935 years old)

Intimacy vs
Isolation

Affiliation and
love

Ethics

Generativity vs
Stagnation

Production and
Care

Generative
succession

7. Adulthood
(35-50 years
old)

Interpersonal Social
Theories
Emphasizes the importance of social
forces rather than internal and
biological factors
Social Forces- What one does in
relation to others.
Mental disorder stem from impaired
interpersonal
relationship
of
childhood

Alfred Adler
Emphasizes that the conscious ness is
the core of the personality
People actively guide their own growth
through their social interaction.
Each person
superior

strives

to

become

Inferiority Feelings
Stimulus for growth
Arises from being biologically
inferior spoiled and then
rejected or by being
neglected

Inferiority Complex
Prevents people from solving
lifes problems
Exaggerating feelings of
inadequacy and insecurity

3 Categories of a Problem
1.Problem involving
behavior towrads others
2.Problems of occupation
3.Problems of love

4 Basic Styles in Solving the

Problems

1.Avoiding
2.Expecting to get everything
from others
3.Dominating others
4.Cooperating with others

Harry Stack Sullivan

Focused on interpersonal
relationships instead of on the
unconscious
Cultural environment greatly shapes
personality
Personality development does not
end at 5 years of age but continues
until young adulthood.

Personification
The development of self concept or
PERSONA
Persona- includes all attitude, feelings
and concepts about oneself or another
acquired from extensive experience
Begins to develop during infancy.

Sullivans Stages of Healthy

Interpersonal Development
Phase

Level of
Significant
Interaction,
Communication and
Comprehension

Infancy

Experiences maternal Mother

tenderness and
intuits material
anxieties, struggles to
achieve feelings of
security and avoid
anxiety

Childhood

Modifies actions to
Parents and Siblings
suit social demands in
sex-role training, peer
play, family events.
Uses movement and
language to avoid
anxiety.

Juvenile

Learns to accept
subordinates to
authority figures
outside the family.
More concept of
self status role

Neighbors and
playmates

Preadolescence

Capable of
participating in
genuine love
relationships with
others. Develops
consideration and
concerns outside the
self.

Peers

Early Adolescence

Heterosexual contacts
enter into personal
relationships

Late Adolescence

Masters expression of
sexual impulses.
Forms satisfying and
responsible
associations. Uses

Cognitive Stage of Development by

Jean Piaget

How
intelligence
and
cognitive
functioning
developed in children
Human intelligence has a
series of stages based on age

Process
1. Assimilation
Taking in the experiences from the
environment
2. Accommodation
When what is taken from the
environment does not match the persons
existing structure and thus changes the
structure to match the new information

3. Equilibrium
Balance between
environment

the

mind

and

Stages and Age

1. Sensorimotor ( Birth- 2 years)
Child develops sense of self as separate
from the environment and concept of object
permanence
2. Preoperational (2-6 years old)
. Child develops to express self with language
. Understands the meaning of symbolic
gestures and begins to classify things

3. Concrete Operations (6-12 years)

Child begins to apply logic to thinking
Understands spatiality and
reversibility and is increasingly social
and ably to apply rules
Concrete thnking
4. Formal operations (12-15 years)
Abstract thinking
Logical thinking
Maturity

SHALL WE HAVE THE

QUIZ?