Term paper assignment

Topics Covered

· Theories of the conscious self

· Defining and explaining consciousness

· Maximizing consciousness

· Determinism vs. free will?

· Conscious vs. unconscious agencies?

Early Theories: James and Freud

· James: “Self-as-Knower” was one’s inner awareness.

· Knower was agentic: independently willful.

· Freud: “Ego” was seat of conscious operation.

· Was one of three main parts of personality.

Freud’s “Ego”—A Breakdown (Image)

· Consciousness

· An internal sense organ

· Defense Mechanisms

· Protect self from painful thoughts

· Preconscious and Rational Thought

· Ego negotiates learned information

· Access to Motility

· Ego moderates acting in the social world

Definition of Consciousness

· Earliest definition: rooted as con-scientia—“we both know.”

· Implies one can “share” information with themselves.

· Modern definitions focus on “bicameral mind”—intrabrain communication (e.g., Pinker, 1997):

· Self-awareness;

· Access to information;

· Sentience.

Evolution of Consciousness

· ~400 BCE: people realized that internal “voices” were part of their own minds.

· Subsequently we began monitoring and controlling those internal voices.

Maximizing Consciousness

· “Flow”: focusing/structuring consciousness according to own needs (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi, 2002).

· Characteristics:

· Clear goals;

· Complete concentration;

· Low self-conscious behavior;

· Merging of action and awareness;

· Timelessness.

The Flow Channel (chart)

Free Will: The Question of Voluntary Action

· In religion:

· Calvinism vs. Arminianism

· In psychology:

· Deterministic psychology (Freud / Skinner)

vs.

· Free Will psychology(Eccles /Pelletier)

Free Will and Agency: Modern Views

· Western tradition generally accepts free will as an ethical imperative; true determinism is impossible to prove.

· Agency: any part of personality that exerts will.

· Often combines many functional areas of personality.

Conscious Agency? Testing the Free Will Debate

· Wegner et al. (1999): cursor control study.

· Confederate and participant co-controlled mouse.

· Cursor stops on image; who controlled the stop?

· People don’t know when they are/are not in control!

· Libet (1985): finger-raising experiment.

· Raising a finger is accompanied by a negative electrical shift in the brain.

· Participant responses were delayed by 300-400 ms.

· People don’t know exactly when they exert will!

Alternative (Unconscious) Agencies?

Freud’s View, Revisited

· Freud’s “Id” (present from birth): source of pleasure-seeking urges.

· Mental energy—core sexual/aggressive drives

· Dreams and fantasies—plays out/experiments with urges

· Communicates desires to ego

· Freud’s “Superego” (age 3-5): instilled morals and values; the “ego ideal.”

· But still no observable evidence for either as an “agency”!

Dissociative Identity Disorder

· Dissociative Identity Disorder: Presence of two or more distinct identities or personalities that control behavior.

· The extra personalities are known as subpersonalities, or “alters.”

· Mutually cognizant

· One-way or mutually amnestic

· Switching is often sudden and dramatic.

· Result of repressive self-hypnosis after trauma?

Case Study: Dissociative Identity Disorder

· Julie

· Best mother and very strong individually, but stubborn.

· Heavy smoker

· Let Jerrie out to victimize herself whenever she was ashamed (e.g., after taking LSD).

· Jerrie

· Tough, gay, able to cope, dressed in “masculine” fashion.

· Sophisticated, sure, accomplished in business world.

· Did not smoke or do drugs.

· Jenny

· Frightened, shy, vulnerable.

· Felt she had created two “Frankensteins” now out of her control.

· Hoped to integrate Julie and Jerrie as best mother for Adam.

Part 3: Personality Organization

Chapter 8: How the Parts Fit Together

The Major Areas of Personality: How the Parts Fit Together

Topics Covered

· Why should we give personality a structure?

· Biologically-based structures

· Awareness-based structures

· Trait-based structures

· An integrated systems structure

Considering Personality Structure

· Personality structure: the division of personality into areas according to specific rules.

· A good organizational structure for personality should:

· Be empirically accurate;

· Be comprehensive;

· Feature an appropriate number of divisions;

· Divide well (areas should be distinct).

Multiple Ways to Organize a Complex System— Example: The United States

· Geographical contours

· State boundaries

· Time zones

· Major cities

An “Areas of Processing” Model: The Trilogy of Mind

· Very generalized: divides personality by the processes it carries out.

· Motivation: Basic urges directing the individual.

· Emotion: Feelings to communicate to others.

· Cognition: Thoughts and reasoning about information.

A Brain to Match? The Triune Brain

· MacLean: three evolved brains in one…

1. “Reptilian” Brain

· Sleep/wake cycle

· Hunting for food

· Heart and lung regulation

· Attention

· Motor/sensory movements

2. “Paleo-Mammalian” Brain

· Caregiving for young

· Emotions

· Social Interactions

· Memory

3. “Neo-Mammalian” Brain

· Language

· Higher cognitive functions (judgment, goal planning, etc.)

Awareness-Based Structural Models

· Awareness models (e.g., Freud’s) are based on issues of what a person can reasonably know about themselves.

· Involve contrasting conscious awareness with the unconscious.

The “No-Access” Unconscious

· Mental activities to which consciousness is simply not connected.

· Includes automatic / implicit processes:

· Ex.: messages in the nervous system.

· Ex.: optical illusions.

The “Unnoticed” Unconscious

· Non-conscious influences that can be brought to awareness if taught or attended.

· Ex.: Bowers (1984) study on influencing art preferences.

· Ex.: Casasanto (2009) study on handedness and cognitive judgments.

Freud’s “Dynamic” Unconscious

· Consciousness: basic internal awareness.

· Preconscious: things which can be retrieved into conscious.

· Unconscious: matters one doesn’t know about.

· Either naturally inaccessible or due to active repression.

A Trait-Based Structural Model: The Big Five

· Factor analysis: from ~18,000 words to ~100 common adjectives to “Big Five” trait factors:

· Extraversion / Agreeableness / Conscientiousness / Neuroticism / Openness.

· Purpose: to organize all traits hierarchically and consistently.

· Based on “lexical hypothesis”—that the most important traits are found in common speech.

Personality Structure

· Personality

· Extraversion-Introversion

· Activity

· Sociability

· Assertiveness

· Agreeableness-Hostility

· Trust

· Cooperation

· Modesty

· Conscientiousness-Carelessness

· Competence

· Order

· Self-discipline

· Nueroticism-Em. Stability

· Anxiety

· Moodiness

· Self-consciousness

· Openness – Closedness

· Imagination

· Aesthetics

· Intellect

Trait-Based Structural Models