Chapter 13 - Personality

This was the first chapter that I disagreed with various points throughout. I thought for the most part it was a pretty easy to read, educational chapter, but at times it seemed like the author was talking in circles and that certain points weren't necissarily always valid.

I found Freud's view of fixation very interesting, and although many of todays psychologists are beginning to doubt the credibility of his theories, I think this one should definitely remain considered. Basically, it said that fixation is a lingering focus of pleasure seeking energies at an early stage creating unresolved conflicts. A great example given in the book was a person seeking oral gratification later in life if deprived of is as an infant. This could include smoking or excessive eating. I realize it is not always true, but I think it certainly could be some of the time.

Regression was another interesting theory of anxiety defense that Freud came up with. It explained how, when put in stressful, high anxiety situations, people revert back to comforts like thumb-sucking or clinging to a parent.

One of the points I highly disagree with in the text was the point made about personal web sites. I don't agree with the author that most people use facebook or myspace as a canvas or self-expression rather than a way to falsely represent themselves. Many people who have added me on facebook are people I know and go to school with, and many of them use their pages to display sexy pictures for guys that have been photoshopped and dont even look like them. Statuses are set to bring on questions from friends, not always to express oneself.

Another disagreement I had with the text was the example given about learned helplessness. It's not so much the theory I disagree with, but the example of how this theory came to be. Who on earth would repeatedly SHOCK dogs to create fear and anxiety just for a psych experiment?! And why on earth was this example the one published and used in chapter 13? This is ridiculous and cruel to me and I wish the book hand't used it.

What did everyone else think of the 2 disagreements I had??