Last update Oct. 26, 2025

PSY 101       Class 25: Personality I: The Big Five and Psychoanalysis

Think of some of the most vivid individuals in contemporary life over the last 20 years...

           

What are they like?   Why are they like this?

Personality

In their behavior, human beings tend to be

• Consistent: tendency to behave regularly in a certain way

• Distinctive: each person has a particular set of individual or characteristic qualities or combination of traits

Trait Theory: The "Big Five"

Robert McCrae       Paul Costa

The "Five-Factor" Theory (FFT; also known at the "Big Five" model) argues that personality characteristics are grounded in five basic traits, i.e., a set of durable dispositions to act or behave in a certain way across different situations. Our personalities are varying mixtures and combinations of these five traits.

Susan Cain: Quiet: The Power of Introverts (2012)
TED Talk: Feb 2012

OCEAN: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

Openness to Experience	Inquisitive, intellectually curious, sensitive to beauty, nonconforming, imaginative, tolerant, thinker, dreamer	Pragmatic, data-driven, conforming, down-to-earth, non-artistic, conventional	Closedness
Conscientiousness	Dependable, ethical, goal-directed, organized, self-directed	Aimless, unreliable, sloppy, careless	Lack of Direction
Extraversion	Outgoing, sociable, talkative, affectionate Sensitive to rewards found in social interactions	Inward-looking, secure with self, solo reflection, quiet Find experiences in social settings less rewarding Introversion is NOT a negative personality trait	Introversion
Agreeableness	Warm, pleasant, trusting, empathetic	Unpleasant, argumentative, always competitive	Antagonistic
Neuroticism	Neurotic, anxious, guilty, hostile, worrying, shy, withdrawn	Secure, placid, flexible, unruffled, solid	Emotionally Stable

• The 5 factors (OCEAN) appear to be moderately to highly heritable.
  
  
• After childhood and adolescence, the 5 factors tend to remain relatively stable across the life span.

Some Correlations with Life Outcomes

• Note that the correlations below are significant but not very close to r = 1.0. Therefore, there are multiple other factors of personality, genetics, life history, etc. related to these outcomes. Indeed, each of the "Big 5" factors may only be a small contributor to these specific outcomes.

• Note, too, that correlation does NOT equal causation. Thus, someone who scores at one or the other side of these factors may not necessarily be prone to the outcome stated.
  

Openness to Experience	(possibly) longer life Intelligence Plays musical instrument Left-wing political identification	Right-wing political identification	Closedness
Conscientiousness	Career success Lower illness Longer life (> 5 years) Honesty	Addictive disorders (ETOH, nicotine, cannabis, gambling) Making poorer health choices Higher levels of mental disorders	Lack of Direction
Extraversion	Career success Social popularity Party goer	Working in areas which permit freedom from distraction, e.g., accounting, architecture, psychologist, computer programming, writing	Introversion
Agreeableness	Lower divorce Honesty Lower income	Higher income among men Addictive disorders (ETOH, nicotine, cannabis, gambling)	Antagonistic
Neuroticism	Lack of career success Divorce Mental & physical illness Loneliness Addictive disorders (ETOH, nicotine, cannabis, gambling)	Intelligence	Emotionally Stable

Psychoanalytic (Freudian) Theory

        

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• Came from middle-class Jewish household & raised in Vienna, Austria & trained as a doctor specializing in neurology.
  
  
• Many early patients (late 1880s-early 1890s) came to him with vague symptoms of anxiety, unexplained weaknesses and paralyses, and other impairments without clear-cut origin. His approach to treating these patients was increasingly comprised of innovative strategies which he would eventually label as "psychoanalysis".
  
  
• His treatment in psychoanalysis required his patient to lie on a couch and say whatever came to mind without censoring any thought. The material included dreams the patient had. Over the course of many sessions, patterns became clear about what sorts of conflicts were occurring in the patient's unconscious mind.
  

Structure of the Personality

Freud actually had TWO (2) different but complementary theories of how we as persons are constituted. One is a structure of personality model and the second is a "level of consciousness" model.

Structure of Personality Model

Id    (Latin for "It")	The primitive component of the personality, completely unconscious, which is filled with tremendous psychic energy (which Freud termed "libido"). This energy forms a set of biological urges to eat, defecate, engage in sex, etc. After World War I, Freud also proposed the presence of an aggressive (destructive) energy [which he termed "Thanatos" (the "Death" instinct)].	Operates according to the Pleasure Principle: the demand for instant gratification of all its urges    Acts like a 2-year-old child
Ego    (Latin for "I")	The last component of the personality to develop fully, the ego mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality (the world). It is always making decisions about how best to act.	Operates according to the Reality Principle: that behavior accord with what the world accepts (requires delay of gratification & often a modification of how urges are met)    Acts like an "Adult Executive"
Superego       (Latin for "Above I")	Arising in childhood around ages 4-6 as a response to parental demands, the superego serves as a moral component of the personality. Mostly unconscious, the superego has incorporated the rules, regulations, and moral viewpoints of society, particularly those of parents. That small part of the superego which is conscious is our conscience.	Operates according to the Perfection Principle which requires that behavior be morally perfect or be punished   Acts like an "uncompromising 7-year-old"

Levels of Awareness (or Consciousness) Model

Conscious = What we are currently aware of (thoughts, memories, desires, goals, etc.) at any particular point of time

Preconscious = What we can easily become aware of (memories, etc.) which are just below the surface of consciousness

Unconscious = What we cannot easily become aware of (thoughts, memories, desires, urges, goals etc.) that are deeply buried beneath the surface but which continue to exert significant control on our behavior

The graphic below uses the metaphor of the iceberg which is mostly below water (i.e., below the level of consciousness) to portray Freud's two theories of how the mind works.

Conflict and the Tyranny of Sex and Aggression

• In Freud's understanding of personality, our external behaviors are the result of internal wishes or desires by or conflicts among the id, ego, and superego.

• The focus of these conflicts involve how to express libido (sexual energy) and aggression in daily life.

Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms

Conflicts within the psyche (mind) which involve sexuality and aggressive wishes are sometimes unresolved and habitually influence ways in which individuals act in the world. These conflict show up in the form of defense mechanisms.

Defense Mechanisms = psychological responses by which our mind changes, redirects, or eliminates unbearable or high levels of anxiety arising from (1) conflicts between the demands of the id (pleasure) versus the superego (perfection) or (2) between the id (pleasure) and reality (as understood by the ego) or (3) unbearable traumatic memories.

Many different mechanisms have been described. Some of these include the following.

• Repression: the mind literally blots out all memory or awareness of a traumatic memory or experience

• Projection = attributing one's own thoughts, feelings, and desires to another. A person who unconsciously has an unacceptable desire or feeling will deal with it by saying that it is someone else who has those feelings.

• For example, research suggests that many highly homophobic males will strongly denounce gays and their "agenda" or "lifestyle" even though they seem themselves to respond unconsciously to images of partially or completely unclothed other males.  Or, those who are most vociferous in preaching against hedonism or sexual promiscuity and for "family values" may themselves be drawn into extramarital affairs or otherwise be unfaithful to their partners. 

• Intellectualization: to avoid the painful feelings of emotions or certain desires, the individual speaks or thinks about them in unemotional ways and emphasizes the thoughts or ideas rather than the feelings. For example, after surviving a terrible car crash, someone might talk about the details of the car's speed, the road conditions, etc., without ever acknowledging a fear of injury or dying.

• Reaction Formation: an individual who has a strong set of unacceptable feelings such as anger will behave in the opposite way, e.g., the person who is "extra" nice or especially pleasant may be covering over very different kinds of feelings.

• Sublimation: an individual who may have strong sexual or aggressive feelings will transform those feelings by means of creative activity such as painting, music composition, novel writing, or volunteering to aid other people.

Note that different psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and clinical psychologists have identified and described more than 20 different defense mechanism found across the spectrum from psychologically mature to psychotic individuals.

Stages of Psychosexual Development

We've already looked at the way in which Erik Erikson altered Freud's understanding of development. Here is the original outline. Freud argued that we grow up through a set of psychosexual stages in which difference parts of our bodies become the focus of our erotic (libidinal) energies. 

Stage	Age	Erotic Focus	Experiences
Oral	Birth-1	Mouth: Sucking, feeding, biting	Experience of mother's breast; weaning
Anal	2-3	Anus: Expelling or retaining feces	Toilet Training
Phallic	4-5	Genitals: Masturbatory stimulation	Oedipal Crisis: Identification with same-sex parent
Latency	6-12	None (repression of sexual feelings)	Learning in school and social contact with outside world
Genital	From onset of puberty	Genitals: Sexual intimacy & intercourse	Developing capacity for Love and Work (Lieben und Arbeiten)

This page was originally posted on 10/24/03