10 key terms Flashcards
Personality
An individuals characteristic pattern of thinking feeling and acting
Free association
In psychoanalysis
A method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxed and says whatever comes to mind no matter how trivial or embarrassing
Psychoanalysis
Freuds theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts
Used to treat psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
Unconscious
According to Freud
A reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts wishes feelings and memories
Contemporary psych says it’s information processing or which we are unaware
Id
A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that according to Freud arrives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives.
Operates on pleasure principle immediate gratification
Ego
The largely conscious part of personality that according to Freud mediated Among the demands of the id superego and reality
Operates on reality principle
Realistically being pleasure than pain
Superego
Part of personality that (Freud) represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement and for future aspirations
Psychosexual stages
The childhood development (oral,anal, phallic,latency, genital) during which according to Freud the id pleasure seeking energy focus on distinct erogenous zones
Oedipus complex
Freud, a boys sexual desires toward mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
Identification
Process (Freud) children incorporate their parents values into their developing superegos
Fixation
(Freud) a lingering focus of pleasure seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage in which conflicts were resolved with
Defense mechanisms
In psychoanalysis, the egos protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
Repression
In psychoanalysis, defense mechanism that vanishes anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories Fromm consciousness
Regression
Psychoanalytical defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated
Reaction formation
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. This people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety arousing unconscious feelings
Projection
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
Rationalization
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism that offers self justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for ones actions
Displacement
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
Sublimation
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people re channel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities
Denial
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even perceive painful realities