Английский язык учебник

Unit VI

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

APPROACHING THE TOPIC

Discuss the following questions.

1.What is personality?

2.What are the main characteristics of Freud’s theory of personality?

3.What are defense mechanisms?

VOCABULARY

1.ego, n – “я” (сам), субъект мысли

2.cheat, v – мошенничать, обманывать

3.conscience, n – 1. сознательность, общественное сознание; 2. совесть; 3. высокая мораль

conscious, a – 1. сознательный; 2. относящийся к сознанию consciousness, n – 1. сознание; 2. сознательность

4.controversial, a – спорный, дискуссионный

5.deem, v – полагать, думать, считать

6.denial, n – 1. отрицание, отклонение; 2. отказ, несогласие deny, v – 1. отрицать; 2. отказываться

7.displacement, n – 1. смещение, перемещение; 2. замещение, замена

8.fantasize, v – воображать, фантазировать

fantasy, n – 1. фантазия, воображение; 2. иллюзия, игра воображения

9.hostility, n – враждебность, враждебное отношение hostile, a – враждебный

10.id, n – ид (один из структурных компонентов личности по З. Фрейду)

11.innate, a – врождённый

12.libido, n – 1. либидо; 2. либидозное влечение; 3. энергия либидо

libidinal, a – относящийся к либидо

libidinous, a – 1. сладострастный, чувственный;

2. возбуждающий чувственность

13.maladaptive, a – неадекватный

maladapt, v – 1. плохо приспосабливаться; 2. плохо использовать

maladaptation, n – недостаточная приспособляемость, плохая адаптация

14.moderation, n – 1. умеренность, воздержание; 2. выдержка, ровность (характера); 3. замедление

moderate, v – сдерживать, смягчать

15.mold, v – формировать, создавать

16.preconscious, a – предсознательный

17.projection, n – 1. проекция; 2. выступ, нарост

18.premise, n – (пред)посылка

19.rationalization, n – разумное объяснение, логическое обосно вание

rationalize, v – давать рационализированное объяснение rationality, n – разумность, рациональность rationalism, n – рационализм

20.reliance, n – 1. доверие, уверенность; 2. опора, надежда reliability, n – надёжность, достоверность

reliable, a – надёжный, достоверный rely, v – полагаться (on, upon)

21.repression, n – 1. подавление, вытеснение; 2. сдерживание repress, v – подавлять, сдерживать

22.revert, v – 1. возвращаться в прежнее состояние; 2. возвра щаться к ранее высказанной мысли

23.shift, v – перемещать, сдвигать, менять shift, n – перемещение, сдвиг, изменение

24.sublimation, n – сублимация

sublimate, v – придавать возвышенный характер, сублими ровать

25.superego, n – суперэго, сверх «я»

26.trait, n – 1. характерная черта (особенность) человека; 2. признак

27.unconscious, a – подсознательный, бессознательный

DEVELOPING VOCABULARY

Exercise 1. Translate the following word combina tions into Russian paying attention to your active vocabulary.

To cheat in an examination, to cheat at cards; con scious superiority, public conscience, to lose conscious

ness; a controversial speech, to be fond of controversy; denial of a request for help, to deny friendship; displace ment is a defense mechanism; to live in a world of fan tasy, sexual fantasies; a fantasist is a person who fanta sizes; feeling of hostility, open hostility, social hostility, a hostile look; innate aggression, innate drives, innate feeling of pride; bisexual libido; the maladaptive behaviour of slum children; moderation in eating and drinking, to a moderate extent, a moderate appetite; to mold one’s skills; optical projection, visual projection; a major premise, a minor premise, private premises; ra tional conduct, to rationalize one’s fears; to place much reliance on the doctor; to rely upon him; unconscious re pression; to revert to the original mental condition; to shift one’s ground, a shift in emphasis; universal trait, character trait; unconscious forces.

Exercise 2. Translate the following sentences into Russian paying attention to your active vocabulary.

1.The ego is the part of personality that develops through one’s experience with reality.

2.The lie detector tests have been the subject of much controversy.

3.I was conscious of having offended her. When will she regain consciousness?

4.They deemed that he was no longer capable of man aging his own affairs.

5.The id is the totally inborn or inherited portion of personality.

6.Fantasy provides an escape from anxiety through imagination or daydreaming.

7.He was given a hostile reception. She displaced her hostility towards her friend.

8.His innate eloquence (красноречие) helped him over come the difficult situation.

9. Her maladapted speeches would not help the cause.

10.You should moderate your language. He showed great moderation in not responding angrily to the attack on his character.

11.His character was molded more by his experiences in life than by his education.

12.Aspects of our mental life of which we are not con scious at any moment, but that can be easily brought to awareness are stored at a preconscious level.

13.Projection is often used in conjunction with aggres sion and hostility.

14.We are relying on your discretion. His chief reliance was placed on his own courage.

15.He rationalized his dislike of authority.

16.The girl is no longer the “centre of attention” and reverts to her earlier behaviour.

17.He managed to shift attention away from internal problems.

18.Ann’s kindness is one of her most pleasing traits. The common traits in the American character are gener osity and energy.

19.He also maintained that most of our mental life took place on the unconscious level.

Exercise 3. Translate the following sentences into English using the indicated words from the vocabulary list.

READING

FREUD’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY

A theory is a series of assumptions; in our particu lar case, these assumptions are about people and their

personalities. The ideas or assumptions that constitute a theory are based on observations and are reasonably and logically related to each other. The ideas of a theory should lead, through reason, to specific, testable hypoth eses. In short, a theory is an organized collection of test able ideas used to explain a particular subject matter.

What then is personality? We’ll say that personal ity includes the affects, behaviours, and cognitions of people that characterize them in a number of situations over time. Personality also includes those dimensions we can use to judge people to be different from one another. So with personality theories we are looking for ways that allow us to describe how people remain the same over time and circumstances and to describe differences that we know exist among people (R. F. Baumeister, 1987). Note that personality somehow resides inside a person; it’s something a person brings to his or her interactions with the environment. Here’s another way of saying the same thing: “Personality refers to the enduring, inner char acteristics of individuals that organize their behaviours” (Deglera et al., 1991).

We begin our discussion of personality with the psy choanalytic approach associated with Sigmund Freud and his students. We begin with Freud because he was the first to present a unified theory of personality. Freud’s theory of personality has been one of the most influential and, at the same time, most controversial in all of science. There are many facets to Freud’s theory (and those of his students), but two basic premises char acterize the approach: (1) a reliance on innate drives as explanatory concepts for human behaviour, and (2) an acceptance of the power of unconscious forces to mold and shape behaviour. Freud’s ideas about personality arose from his reading of the works of philosophers, his observations of his patients, and intense self examina tion. His private practice provided Freud with experi ences from which he proposed a general theory of per sonality and a technique of theory. Here we review some

of Freud’s basic ideas about the structure and dynamics of human personality.

Central to Freudian personality theory is the notion that information, feelings, wants, drives, desires, and the like can be found at various levels of awareness or consciousness. Mental events of which we are actively aware at the moment are conscious or in consciousness. Aspects of our mental life of which we are not conscious at any moment but that can be easily brought to aware ness are stored at a preconscious level. When you shift your awareness to think about something you may do this evening, those plans were probably already there, in your preconscious mind. Cognitions, feelings, and motives that are not available at the conscious level are said to be in the unconscious. Here we keep ideas, memories, and desires of which we are not aware and cannot easily be come aware. Remember the significance of the uncon scious level of the mind; even though thoughts and feel ings are stored there so that we are completely unaware of them, the contents of the unconscious mind still in fluence us. Unconscious content, passing through the preconscious may show itself in slips of the tongue, humour, neurotic symptoms, and dreams. Freud believed that unconscious forces could explain behaviours that otherwise seemed irrational and beyond description. He also maintained that most of our mental life took place on the unconscious level. According to Freudian theory, our behaviours, thoughts, and feelings are largely gov erned by innate biological drives, referred to as instincts in this context. These are inborn impulses or forces that rule personalities. There may be many separate drives or instincts, but they can be grouped into two catego ries. On the one hand are life instincts (eros) or impulses for survival, including those that motivate sex, hunger, and thirst. Each instinct has its own energy that com pels us into action (drives us). Freud called the psychic energy through which the sexual instincts operate libido. Opposed to the life instincts are death instincts

(thanatos). These are largely impulses of destruction. Directed inward, they give rise to feelings of depression or suicide; directed outward, they result in aggression. In large measure, life (according to Freud) is an attempt to resolve conflicts between these two natural but dia metrically opposed instincts.

As we have seen, Freud believed that the mind oper ates on three interacting levels of awareness: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Freud proposed that per sonality also consists of three separate, though interact ing, structures or subsystems: the id, ego, and super ego. Each of these structures or subsystems has its own job to do and its own principles to follow.

The id is the totally inborn or inherited portion of personality. It resides in the unconscious level of the mind, and it is through the id that basic instincts de velop. The driving force of the id is libido, or sexual en ergy; although, it may be more fair to say “sensual” rather than “sexual” so as not to imply that Freud was also talking about adult sexual intercourse. The id oper ates on the pleasure principle, indicating that the major function of the id is to find satisfaction for the basic plea surable impulses. Although the other divisions of per sonality develop later, our id remains with us always and is the best energy source in our lives.

The ego is the part of the personality that develops through one’s experience with reality. In many ways, it is our self, the rational, reasoning part of our personal ity. The ego operates on the reality principle. One of the ego’s main jobs is to try to find satisfaction for the id, but it does so in ways that are reasonable and rational. The ego may delay gratification of some libidinal impulse or may need to find an acceptable outlet for some need. Freud said that “the ego stands for reason and good sense while the id stands for untamed passions” (Freud, 1933).

The last of the three structures to develop is the su perego, which we can liken to one’s sense of morality or conscience. It reflects our internalization of society’s

rules. The superego operates on the idealistic principle. One problem we have with our superegos is that they, like our ids, have no contact with reality and, therefore, often place unrealistic demands on the individual. The superego demands that we do what it deems right and proper, no matter what the circumstances. Failure to do so may lead to guilt and shame. Again, it falls to the ego to try to maintain a realistic balance between the con science of the superego and the libido of the id.

Although the dynamic processes underlying person ality are often complicated, the concepts underlying these processes are not as complicated as they sound. Suppose a bank teller discovers an extra $20 in her cash drawer at the end of the day. She certainly could use an extra $20. “Go ahead. Nobody will miss it. The bank can afford a few dollars here and there. Think of the fun you can have with an extra $20,” is the basic message from the id. “The odds are that you’ll get caught if you take this money. If you are caught, you may lose your job; then you’ll have to find another one,” reasons the ego. “You shouldn’t even think about taking that money. Shame on you! It’s not yours. It belongs to someone else and should be returned,” the superego protests. Clearly, the interaction of the three components of one’s person ality isn’t always this simple and straightforward, but this example illustrates the general idea.

Gerow J., Bordens K. Psychology: An Introduction. Carrollton, USA, 2000, pp. 375–377

COMPREHENSION CHECK

Exercise 1. Say whether these statements are true (T) or false (F), and if they are false, say why.

T F 1. Personality includes the effects, behaviours, and cognition that character ize a person in a variety of situations.

Exercise 2. Read the text again, divide it into logical parts, and give names to each of them.

Exercise 3. Make up questions to the following an swers.

1.

Personality is something a person brings to his or her interactions with the environment.

2.

Freud was the first to present a unified theory of personality.

3.

A reliance on innate drives as explanatory con cepts for human behaviour and an acceptance of