12.10 CHANGING MINDS

  1. A prominent political candidate makes a Freudian slip on live television, calling his mother “petty”; he corrects himself quickly and says he meant to say “pretty.” The next day the video has gone viral, and the morning talk shows discuss the possibility that the candidate has an unresolved Oedipal conflict; if so, he is stuck in the phallic stage and is likely a relatively unstable person preoccupied with issues of seduction, power, and authority (which may be why he is a politician). Your roommate knows you are taking a psychology class and asks for your opinion: “Can we really tell that a person is sexually repressed, and maybe in love with his own mother, just because he stumbled over a single word?” How would you reply? How widely are Freud’s ideas about personality accepted by modern psychologists?

  2. While reading a magazine, you come across an article on the nature–nurture controversy in personality. The magazine describes several adoption studies in which adopted children (who share no genes with each other, but grow up in the same household) are no more like each other than complete strangers. This suggests that family environment—and the influence of parental behaviour—on personality is very weak. You show the article to a friend, who has trouble believing the results: “I always thought parents who don’t show affection produce kids who have trouble forming lasting relationships.” How would you explain to your friend the relationship between nature, nurture, and personality?

  3. One of your friends has found an online site that offers personality testing. He takes the test and reports that the results prove he is an “intuitive” rather than a “sensing” personality, who likes to look at the big picture rather than focusing on tangible here-and-now experiences. “This explains a lot,” he says, “like why I have trouble remembering details like other people’s birthdays, and why it’s hard for me to finish projects before the deadline.” Aside from warning your friend about the dangers of self-diagnosis via Internet quizzes, what would you tell him about the relationship between personality types and behaviour? How well do scores on personality tests predict a person’s actual behaviour?

  4. One of your friends tells you that her boyfriend cheated on her, so she will never date him or anyone who has ever been unfaithful because “once a cheat, always a cheat.” She goes on to explain that personality and character are stable over time, so people will always make the same decisions and repeat the same mistakes over time. What do we know about the interaction between personality and situations that might confirm or deny her statements?