PART 3: PERSONALITY ORGANIZATIONCHAPTER 10: DYNAMICS OF SELF… The Power of the Self Copyright ©...

PART 3: PERSONALITY ORGANIZATION CHAPTER 10: DYNAMICS OF SELF…

The Power of the Self

Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach


Theme and Variation on

Topic 10. Dynamics of Self-Control

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The Lecture and the Book…

• Chapter 10: Dynamics of Self-Control

1. What Are Dynamics of Self-Control?

2. How Does Self-Control Occur?

3. Is Self-Control Always Conscious?

4. How Do We Deal with the Pain of Falling Short?

5. How is Self-Control (or its Absence) Expressed?

• Lecture 10: The Power of Self 1. The Totalitarian Ego

2. Self-Control

3. Conscious vs. Unconscious Control

4. Falling short (Defense)




The Egotistical Ego

• Theory by Anthony Greenwald

• The ego is like a dictator, and behaves in three ways similar to dictators – Egocentrism– Beneffectance– Conservatism




Maintenance People:

Pool

Heating Plant

Roofs

Maintenance People:

Pool

Heating Plant

Roofs

Professors:

Colleagues’ offices

Grants offices

Personnel offices

Professors:

Colleagues’ offices

Grants offices

Personnel offices

Students:

Dormitories

Dining halls

Sports facilities

Students:

Dormitories

Dining halls

Sports facilities

The Real, Total,

College Campus

The Real, Total,

College Campus

Egocentrism: The person is the center of all he/she learns. Some part is unique.

Example: Different people learn about different parts of campus.




The Egotistical Ego

Egocentrism• Ultimately, your mental model is unique:

– A year in Stoke Hall– Now live in the Gables– Spend a lot of time in Paul Arts– My locker at the field house– Breaking New Grounds– Seeing my friend in Portsmouth




The Egotistical EgoBeneffectance

• A person takes responsibility for: – desired outcomes– not undesired, outcomes

• Ex. Accident reports to insurance companies – As I approached the intersection, a sign suddenly

appeared in a place where a stop sign had never appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid an accident.

– A telephone pole was approaching. I was attempting to swerve out of its way when it struck my front end.




The Egotistical Ego

Confirmation Bias

• Once one makes up one’s mind, one looks for confirming rather than disconfirming evidence.




Feedback Loops• Feedback loops come in

different forms• The concept originated

with cybernetics and the work of Norbert Weiner

• We are mostly interested in a negative feedback loop– Negative because it

eliminates (negates) discrepancies

– The loop involves four parts (shown to right).

2. Feedback

3. Compare Actions

To Standard

4. Potential Modification of

Action

1. Action




Feedback Loops

2. Person is interested in good works

3. Compare Actions To Goals

4. Modify story to talk about good works

1. Talk about

earning money

Substantial Discrepancy

Goal: Present self in appealing light




Feedback Loops

2. Person is interested in good works

3. Compare Actions To Goals

4. Continue story of good works

1. Talk about

good works

Little Discrepancy

Goal: Present self in appealing light




Dynamics of the Self

Focus on Non-Conscious Control





Standard Control and Dissociation

Mental Control:

Standard Condition

(No Dissociation)

Activity is Guided

Consciously

Ex. Driving a car;

watching the road

• Standard Mental Control: – Consciousness and action

are joined• Dissociation: The splitting

of conscious cognitive activity– Originally thought due to

trauma and repression• Neo-Dissociationism

(Ernest Hilgard)– Cognitive barriers can be

established so as to isolate or modularize some part of the mind




Mental Dissociation• Example:

– Highway Hypnosis (to right)

– When you are thinking, who is driving?

• Second Example:– Talking to yourself– When you are talking…who

is listening?

Mental Control:

Dissociative

Condition

Consciousness

of Activity

Ex. Thinking

about a

Relationship.

Non-Conscious

Guiding of

Activity

Ex: Driving




The Classic Suggestion Effect…

• In the classic suggestion effect:– the psychologist’s (or other’s) instructions are for the

participant to imagine a movement or idea. – Some people will then make the movement or

imagine the idea vividly – The experience may be felt as outside of their control

• Although the 'classic suggestion effect' is not hypnosis, it predicts ability at hypnosis.




Characteristics of Hypnotic Trance

1. Suppression of Planning – Loss of initiative– Lack of desire to carry out action– Hilgard Party study




Characteristics of Hypnotic Trance2. Redistribution of Attention

– Attention is sluggish, unfocussed– Selective inattention– Ex. (from James) Make a stroke on paper or blackboard, and

tell the subject it is not there,and he will see nothing but the clean paper or the board. Next, he not looking, surround the original stroke with other strokes exactly like it and ask him what he sees. He will point out one by one all the new strokes and omit the original one every time…Obviously, then, he is not blind to the kind of stroke in the least. He is blind only to one particular stroke…and he must distinguish it with great accuracy…in order to remain blind to it…





3. Increased Availability of Emotional and Visual Memories

– Hypnotic mood inductions– Peter Barach depth experiment





4. Reduction in Reality Testing and Tolerance for Reality Distortion

– Falsified personal memories• Ex. Can suggest memories which simply aren’t

true

– Trance Logic: Problem solving within the logic of the trance • Ex. …determining which person is real and which

is hallucinated…





5. Increased Suggestibility

6. Enhanced Role Behavior – Ex. On a hypnotically suggested magic

carpet ride, a participant may complain that she forgot her sweater and is cold

7. Amnesia for hypnosis– Uncertain characteristic: Too many motives




Post-Hypnotic Suggestions

• Participant instructed to perform an act (e.g., cross the room and open an umbrella) at a cue…

• Instructed to forget the hypnotic instruction after awakening from hypnosis

• Asked why they did it: Incorrectly explained the reason as “wanting to test the umbrella” upon seeing the cloudy day through the window.




Dynamics of the Self

Focus on Mental Defense





Defense Mechanisms

• Deal with the pain of falling short

• Defense mechanisms protect the conscious executive from mental pain, e.g., humiliation, shame, fear…– Original descriptions: Sigmund Freud – Systematized by: Anna Freud




Suppression

• Suppression means consciously not thinking about something

• Example: Not thinking about an upcoming exam

Consciousness

Something safe to think about

Something unsafe or painful to think about

Self command:Don’t think about it!




Repression

• Repression involves the forgetting (forcing out of consciousness) of material that is threatening or unpleasant.

• Example: Forgetting a worrisome dental appointment.

Consciousness



Forgotten matter




Suppression… and…Repression

Consciousness



Consciousness



Don’t think about it

Forgotten matter

self command




Suppression: Research Example

• Experimental Studies by Dan Wegner:– Instructions: In a moment I want you to not think of

something for three minutes (I will tell you what it is)– If you happen to think of it, make a mark on a page

and then continue not to think of it.– Ready? Don’t think about…a white bear

• Findings:– People can suppress ideas– The ability to do so varies considerably– People who are successful suppressing may find,

later, that they can’t stop thinking about what they first pushed away from consciousness




Repression: Research Example Experimental

Condition

Control (Neutral) Condition

Experimental (Threat) Condition

Participants were played sentences below their threshhold of hearing (masked by white noise)

Carson City is the capitol of Nevada

You father will no longer support you

Outcome (indicating unconscious defense)

White noise is judged moderate in this condition

White noise is judged far louder in this condition




Denial

• The statement that something that is true is false (or something that is false is true)– Example: Cigarettes don’t cause cancer

• This is the least mature of all defenses.

• It is common, and normal, among children.– Example: “I didn’t take those cookies from the

cookie jar.”




Projection

• Seeing a problem that one has oneself, in someone else.

• Example: “I’m not angry, you’re angry.”




Rationalization • Definition: Rationalization involves coming up

with a plausible reason for doing something which does not, however, reflect the real reason.

• Examples (from alcoholics): – “I don’t drink every day…I don’t have a problem…

(minimizing) – I don’t drink half of what Sam does…(justifying) – I started drinking because of the problem I had; if you

had the same problem I had, you would drink this much too. (analyzing)

– It will get better later.” (postponing)




Sublimation

• Definition: Sublimation involves seeking a socially-approved outlet for a socially problematic motivation

• Example: To express aggression, a person may become a butcher or a surgeon– Job description: Butchers in meat packing plants slaughter

animals and slice the carcasses into large wholesale cuts. Grocery store butchers, also called meat cutters, separate the wholesale cuts of meat into retail cuts or individual size servings.

– Quotes from a surgeon:• “We are going to wage a war on that cancer”• “I am going to try to cut every last part of it out until there is nothing

left of the cancer.”• “It makes me very angry it (the cancer) is in there.”




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