are you aware? copyright © 2007 allyn & bacon mayers personality: a systems approach part 2:...

Part 2: Parts of Personality Chapter 7: The Conscious Self

Are You Aware?

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

Are You Aware?

Theme and Variation on

Topic 7. The Conscious Self

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Are You Aware?


The Lecture and the Book…

• Chapter 7: The Conscious Self

1. What is the Conscious Self?

2. What Does it Mean for the Self to Be Conscious?

3. Does the Self Possess Free Will?

4. Are there Alternatives to the Conscious Self?

5. How is the Conscious Self Expressed?

• Lecture 7: Are You Aware?

– The Self as Knower

– Freud’s Ego

– Consciousness• Definition

• Evolution

– Conscious Flow

– Determinism and Free Will

– (If time) Unconscious selves


Are You Aware?


Example 1: The Self-as-Knower (W. James)

• Self-as-Known: Model of Self

• Self-as-Knower: Awareness– Imagine losing…

• your memories before this morning

• sensations of your legs,

• sensations of your body

– How much can you lose, and still be a knower?

• Can we place agency within the Self-as-Knower?

Models

of the Self

“Self as Known”

Conscious

Awareness

“Self as Knower”


Are You Aware?


Freud’s Ego

• The seat of consciousness, for Freud

• Part of three structures also including the– Id – primitive desires

– Superego – social dictates

Ego

SuperegoId


Are You Aware?


Focus on Freud’s Ego

Access to Motility

the ego develops from the body

homunculus (the sensory-motor

portion of the cerebral cortex

that control movement). The

ego gives the green or red light

to acting in the world

The Preconscious and

Rational Thought

the ego contains learned

information and operates

with it in rational termsDefense

Mechanisms

protect consciousness

from painful thoughts

Consciousness

an internal sense organ


Are You Aware?


Definition of Consciousness

• Earliest Definition:

We both know – as partners in a bridge game know...

• Later Conception:

Two parts of the mind know…


Are You Aware?


Evolution of Consciousness

• Julian Jaynes believed there were no indications of self-reflection before 400 B.C.E.

• Before that, people heard voices inside their heads, and believed those voices came from gods.

Temple erected to the god Apollo


Are You Aware?


Evolution of Consciousness

• Modern consciousness evolved when people recognized the internal voices were part of their own minds (as opposed to from gods)

• People began monitoring, controlling and modifying those internal voices

• …as well as distracting themselves from them (see photo to right)


Are You Aware?


The Flow Experience

• …Is a means of structuring consciousness

• …Its characteristics– Complete concentration– Low self-consciousness– Merging of action and awareness– Timelessness– Clear goals


Are You Aware?


The Flow Experience -- Bringing it About

Stressed,Anxious

Unchallenged, Bored

Low Skill Level High

High

Challenge

Low


Are You Aware?


The Conscious Self

Focus on Free Will, Voluntary Action



Are You Aware?


Is the Self Determined? Or…

…can a ghost in the machine make changes?


Are You Aware?


The Sense of Free Will in DecisionsWill and Five Types of Decisions (James, W. Vol 2, Chapter on Will, pp. 531-534)

• The reasonable type decision. Matters settle themselves. We wake up, and things seem clear… We…sense… being free in seeing what is right.


Are You Aware?


The Sense of Free Will…

2. Ending hesitation due to outside forces. No way seems better than the other. We grow tired of the inconclusiveness…When outside forces say we must decide, we decide…one way or another, almost at chance.

3. Ending hesitation from within. We can no longer stand trying to figure out the best course of action. “Decide now!!!” we say – however reckless, and decide we do.


Are You Aware?


The Sense of Free Will…

4. Changes of heart… We suddenly become serious, our conscience awakens (or in some cases we become light and frivolous). Either way, the true answer seems clear.

5. “…we ourselves by our own willful act inclined the beam…the feeling of effort accompanies these…dreary resignation…[or the realization that by] murdering one alternative…[how much] he is making himself lose…the sense of inward effort.


Are You Aware?


Determinism vs. Free Will in Religion• Calvinism

– God is sovereign and chooses things

– Because all people have sin, salvation is according to God’s choice

– God chooses who is saved, and did so before the creation of the world

• Arminianism– God wants all people to be saved– God’s election of people to

salvation is a product of their religious faith

– Salvation will occur if people are sufficiently faithful to the tenets of Christianity


Are You Aware?


Determinism vs. Free Will in Science• Deterministic psychology

– Freud: Everything is determined by the major parts of the mind: e.g., conscious, unconscious, preconscious

– Skinner: Everything is determined by the nature of the organism in interaction with outside control…

• Free-will position– Pelletier: Indeterminism in physics

permits mental events to operate independently of the brain and to influence the brains events

– Sir John Eccles: The mind creates fields of “spatio-temporal” influence.


Are You Aware?


Determinism vs. Free Will

• Zeno of Citium, the Stoic Philosopher (not to be confused with Zeno of Elias) cited in Chaplin & Krawiec Systems and

Theories of Psychology, 1979, pp. 10-11. • Believed that everything is fated, determined• One day, Zeno discovered a slave who was

stealing from him. The slave said “According to your very teachings, it was determined that I would steal. Therefore, I am not personally responsible.”

• Zeno replied: “It has also been determined that I will beat you.”


Are You Aware?


The Ethical Tradition in Western Civilization

• There exists self-determinism in conduct• This conflicts with certain aspects of

science• Yet, until science proves there is strict

determinism, self-determinism – that is, free will, remains viable.

• From Chaplin & Krawiec (1979), Theories of Psychology pp. 10-11)


Are You Aware?


Freedom from the Free Will Debate

• Libet’s finger raising experiment: – Instruction: Say when you will raise

your finger– A negative electrical shift in the brain

arises related to raising a finger– 300 to 400 milliseconds later,

participants said they were going to start

• People don’t know when they exert will!

• From Chaplin & Krawiec (1979), Theories of Psychology pp. 10-11)


Are You Aware?


Freedom from the Free Will Debate

• Wegner’s cursor control study– Confederate and

participant co-controlled cursor

– Participant stops on an image “by choice”

– Sometimes the confederate controls it; sometimes not

• People don’t know when they control the cursor!


Are You Aware?


The Conscious Self

Focus on Unconscious Alternatives



Are You Aware?


Are there Unconscious Agencies…

• Are there some parts of personality that are:– Unconscious– Yet still exert free will?

• An agency is a part of personality that exerts free will.

• Usually, agencies are “superparts” combining many functional areas of personality.


Are You Aware?


Freud’s Concept of the Id

• The “it” dreams• Source of all mental

energy• Primary process

– Dreams– Fantasies– Elicits pleasures– Source of energy

• Unconscious

Aims of Desire

the id identifies what

it wants; this information

is communicated to the ego

Dreams and Fantasies

Play out and experiment

with desires

Mental Energy

Sexual desire; Aggressive desire


Are You Aware?


The superego

• Originates around age 3-5

• Instills cultural values

• Developed through identification with parents, and fear of their punishment

• (Older explanation: Oedipal/Electra complexes)

• Sometimes conscious, sometimes not

Ego-Ideal

(Ideal Self)Conscience


Are You Aware?


Alters and Dissociative Identity Disorder

• The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states, each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self

• At least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person’s behavior

• Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.


Are You Aware?


Alters and Dissociative Identity Disorder

Relationships Among Personalities • Called alternate personalities or

subpersonalities• Switching – sudden and dramatic

(growling, twitching, blinking)• Various Relationships

– Mutually cognizant (all know one another)

– Mutually amnestic (no awareness of each other)

– One-way amnestic – Etc.


Are You Aware?


A Case Study of Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Presenting problem: – A mother, Julie, and her son, age 9, are the

clients.– The child had been under performing at school

and poor social relations• Early History of Therapy

– Five weeks of family therapy proceed and some progress appears to be occurring


Are You Aware?


• On Week 6, Julie says, “Doctor, there is someone I’d like to introduce to you.”

• The therapist expected her to go to waiting room and introduce someone.

• Instead, the woman closed her eyes, frowned, and opened eyes saying, “I wish Julie would stop smoking, I hate the taste of tobacco.” -- Introduced self as Jerrie; Later in hour, introduced Jenny, as 3rd personality.



Are You Aware?


• Birth to 3: Original personality : Jenny– Ages 3-7: Physical Welfare neglected; sexually

molested by neighbor • Age 3: Jenny Invents Jerrie, a tough masculine

figure able to cope.– Age 8: parents gave her away as “incorrigible”

• Age 8: Jenny Invents Julie, who is more sensitive and less vulnerable to cruelty; Julie knows Jenny, but not Jerrie.



Are You Aware?


• Age 18: Jerrie and Julie alternate as external personalities; Jenny is always inside.

• Age 24: Jerrie marries; adopts Adam from husband’s previous marriage



Are You Aware?


Jenny Julie Jerrie

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.

Best mother, but rather stubborn and very strong individually. Heavy smoker. Julie took LSD and then let Jerrie out to victimize her.

Tough, able to cope, homosexual, dressed in masculine fashion. Sophisticated, sure, accomplished in the business world. Doesn’t smoke or do drugs.



Are You Aware?


• Jerrie told Adam there were two personalities who had contributed to his misery.

• Adam: “Mother is two people who keep going in and out, but both of them love me.” He was relieved rather than disturbed.

• Julie admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital with suicidal depression, but Jerrie talked her way out, and that was the last seen of them.



Are You Aware?


~ end ~

are you aware? copyright © 2007 allyn & bacon mayers personality: a systems approach part 2:...

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