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THE AFRICAN PERSONALITY (There are negative stereotypes surrounding the…
THE AFRICAN PERSONALITY
There are negative stereotypes surrounding the African Personality
The Psychoanalytical Perspective of AP was major to the historical orientation of the AP
Ritchie: Says that severe weaning would result in a weak ego or insecure self- this view was endorsed by many
Parin: Assumed that there would be an oral personality associated with the frustration of weaning amount the AP He also assumed that they were dominated by the pleasure principle
Macrone: Proposed Psychoanalytical explanations for the racial conflicts in SA
= Some of hostility of the white man is sadistic- a fusion of aggressive and erotic impulses come to be displaced upon the man with the black skin- the hostility represents an indirect gratification of impulses which leads to development of guilt or fear of punishment which increases anxiety which increases hostility
Found evidence in immorality act for the demand for punishment for extramarital sex- it is motivated by unconscious factors ie it gives rise to a mixed population
He is one of the earliest SA personality theorists
Wilcocks: Call for an extension of this legislation as he believed it discouraged people from doing it
Biesheuvel: Criticised Ritchie (weaning) for making his conclusions without testing them against actual behaviour
Gaining insight into the AP is a valuable first step towards finding a solution to interpersonal conflict in human relations rather than power politics. This was also to accommodate rapid change in African societies and avoid stereotypes
- Knowledge of the Ap structure allows us to look below the surface of many behavioural defects
- Apartheid: reduce friction by providing opportunities for separate development
- The tradition directed personality had disappeared and was replaced by ID directed type ( directed by impulse only) amoung township dwellers- created his own stereotype
Projective tests were used to asses personality: De riddler, TAT: his respondents lived in a social environment and as a group appeared to be aggressive people- ID is dominant personality force, especially when looking at sexuality
AP personality is characterised by strong latent aggression and insufficient moderation and control
Wober: Argued that De Ridder had internal contradictions and it is unclear if Frued concepts were applied in cultures with competition and change
Concluded Psychologists have been sketchy in establishing what really happens in the childhood of the people they have tested
Sherwood: Surveyed 40 adult swazi people- revealed that basic personality structure has a close fit to the Psychoanalytical concept of orally satisfied cum genital personality structure: respondents- oral optimistic lacking traits in anal fixation and show traits of genital maturity
Ego's were well integrated and resilient
This was contradicted by others who saw the African personality as limited in its capacity to deal rationally with reality because of prolonged breast feeding and traumatic weaning
Wulf Sachs: Also a proponent of the late weaning hypothesised its negative consequences
Insanity is identical in Natives and Europeans
Jan Smuts: Holism : First South African Psychologist
coined holism
Every individual form of life is a unity that operates according to it's own inherent laws, forms and shapes the products
of life into a harmonious whole
Personality was constructed from a biological point of view
Whole is the essence of personality
A balanced whole\structure of various tendencies & capacities which are maintained in mutual & reciprocal harmony by the holistic nature of the personality itself
Without personality the mind /body relationship would be inexplicable as would hereditary and individual independance
he said Psychology was too analytical to do justice to the study of personality a new discipline should come: Personology
Personology:: Examine personality as a whole, its laws and phases of development, it would study its unique wholeness and unity , study it as a vital organism and organic whole
it would be of theoretical importance and practical - outside the psychology field whilst still containing it
Psychology was to impersonal to examine the highly personalised individual
Want a new biography focused on development of personality
Personality is illustrated by great artistic, ethical,and spiritual values and ideas which he relates to holistic tendency of personality - beyond his present work
Fitz PerlsEstablished the South African institute of Psychoanalysis
Wrote a book on Ego,Hunger and Aggression which he sent to smuts
Need to understand and appreciate the ego boundaries and their holist and destructive functions
Paper on oral resistance was rejected as only anal resistance was accepted at the time
Ernst Jones:has misgivings about Perls analytic qualities
Perls major contributions to Psych happened in his SA years
Marie Bonaparte: Trained by Freud , Arranged meetings of analysts and lectured on Freud
Shared an interest with Smuts in Psychobiography
Disagreed with Perls and Sachs
Gordon Allport and Thomas Pettigrew:Allport had experience in social ethics
Hoernle as a mentor
Had many interactions with SA academics such as Macrone
First taught at stellenbosch , lectured on prejudice and perception ; was not well received as psychological views were not balanced by a consideration of the structural aspects of racism - concerned with integration of all groups not present on oppressed blacks
lecture on: prejudice, perception,national character and intergroup conflict
Gained awareness of sociocultural factors in prejudice
Personality : a psychological interpretation was a landmark in personality theory as was nature of prejudice in intergroup attitudes
Marginality Hypothesis: Groups marginalised , developed a marginal personality : insecurity, self pity and exaggerated self pity but not supported
Petigrew; Personality factors equal correlates of prejudice for both SA and non-SA samples - not account for heightened intolerance of SA sample, his contribution : role of personality factors in prejudice & shift towards sociocultural explanations
N.Chabini Manganyi:First SA black psychologist to research personality
pursued research in psych biography
Approached personality from a psychoanalytic perspective
Research biography to restore identity and dignity to oppressed people
Findings on body image & stimulate ambiguity - Journal of personality assessment
Pure biography main focus
Kurt Danziger: Use Alport as a starting point: work on Psychological future of oppressed groups - imagine your life 50 years in the future and look back the result of this: systematic racism is independent of personality correlates
personality as an object of knowledge was too strictly confined by the limitations of the social contexts in which the research was located
Theoretical Model:
linked the structure of future biographies to the limited life chances- He compared autobiographies in terms of realism, avoidance and fantasy
Head of Psych at UCT
Met Piaget: abandoned his experimental studies to view his literature - reignite an older interest in direct investigation of social behaviour
World expert of history of Psychology
Alfred Adler: Founder of individual personality - broke away from Freud first
Smuts believed he covered the most important aspects of human personality - questioning the role of sex in personality , inferiority complex and power complex
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