2-2: Psychodynamic Psychology Flashcards

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1
Q

Who originated psychodynamic psychology?

A

Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century.

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1
Q

What is Psychodynamic Psychology?

A

Proposes that there are psychological forces underlying human behaviour, feelings, and emotions.

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2
Q

What was Freud’s core thought behind psychodynamic psychology?

A

He thought that the psychological processes are flows of psychological energy (libido) in a complex brain.

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3
Q

What did Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis assume?

A

That much of mental life is unconscious, and that past experiences, especially in early childhood, shape how a person feels and behaves throughout life.

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4
Q

What are the two types of conscious experience?

A
  1. Phenomenal, or in the moment
  2. Access, which recalls experiences from memory

An example of “Access” is that a teacher brings up adults struggling with technology. You, in turn, think of your own experiences with this.

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5
Q

What are the three levels of awareness that Sigmund Freud divided human consciousness into?

A
  1. Conscious
  2. Preconscious
  3. Unconscious
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6
Q

What is the Conscious Mind?

A

This is the level of awareness that contains thoughts, perceptions, and feelings that you are currently aware of and actively experiencing.

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7
Q

What is the Preconscious Mind?

A

The preconscious level includes thoughts, memories, and information that are not in your immediate awareness but can be readily accessed and brought into consciousness. For example, if someone asks you about your childhood, you can access memories and thoughts about your early experiences from your preconscious mind.

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8
Q

What is the Unconscious Mind?

A

The unconscious mind contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are not readily accessible to conscious awareness. These may include repressed memories, unresolved conflicts, and other elements of the psyche that are hidden from conscious view. Freudian psychoanalysis, for instance, emphasized the role of the unconscious in influencing behavior and personality.

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9
Q

What is the id?

A

The id is the most primitive and instinctual part of the personality. It operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of basic desires and needs, such as hunger, thirst, and sexual impulses. The id is impulsive, illogical, and primarily concerned with fulfilling its own desires without considering the consequences or the reality of the situation. It is present from birth and represents our innate, unconscious drives.

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10
Q

What is the ego?

A

The ego is the rational, conscious part of the personality. It develops as a person interacts with the external world and learns to navigate it. The ego operates on the reality principle, which involves balancing the desires of the id with the constraints of the external world. Its role is to find realistic and socially acceptable ways to meet the id’s desires while considering the consequences and limitations imposed by reality. The ego helps individuals make decisions and mediate between the id and superego.

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11
Q

What is the superego?

A

The superego represents the moral and ethical aspects of a person’s personality. It develops through socialization and internalization of societal and parental values, norms, and moral standards. The superego consists of two components:

Conscience: The conscience represents the internalization of rules and standards for good behavior. It punishes the ego with feelings of guilt and anxiety when it perceives behavior as morally wrong.

Ego Ideal: The ego ideal embodies the internalized standards of perfection and moral excellence. It provides a sense of pride and satisfaction when the individual behaves in ways that align with these idealized standards.

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12
Q

Instead of as a single entity, how do developmental psychologists view consciousness?

A

As a developmental process with potential higher stages of cognitive, moral, and spiritual quality.

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13
Q

How do social psychologists view consciousness?

A

As a product of cultural influence having little to do with the individual.

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14
Q

How do Neuropsychologists view consciousness?

A

As ingrained in neural systems and organic brain structures.

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15
Q

How do Cognitive psychologists view consciousness?

A

Cognitive psychologists base their understanding of consciousness on computer science.

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16
Q

What is psychoanalysis, and what is it used for?

A

A type of analysis that involves attempting to affect behavioural change through having patients talk about their difficulties.

Psychoanalytic scientists today also collect data in formal laboratory experiments, studying groups of people in more restricted, controlled ways

17
Q

Who was Carl Jung?

A
  • Carl Jung was a Psychodynamic psychologist.
  • He expanded on Freud’s theories, introducing the concepts of the archetype, the collective unconscious, and individuation.
  • Jung focused less on infantile development and conflict between the id and superego, and more on integration between different parts of the person.
  • Jung believed that a human being is inwardly whole, but that most people have lost touch with important parts of themselves
18
Q

Define

Active imagination

A

This refers to activating our imaginal processes in waking life in order to tap into the unconscious meanings of our symbols.

This was one of Jung’s concepts.

19
Q

Define

Archtypes

A

These primordial images reflect basic patterns or universal themes common to us all and that are present in the unconscious. (e.g. children are innocent)

This was one of Jung’s concepts.

20
Q

Define

Individuation

A

A unique calling in life that each person must fulfill by uniting their unconscious and conscious thoughts.

This was one of Jung’s concepts.

21
Q

Define

Introvert

A

Needs privacy and space; chooses solitude to recover energy; often reflective.

22
Q

Define

Extravert

A

Needs sociability; chooses people as a source of energy; often action-oriented.

23
Q

Define

Thinking funtion

A

Sees cause and effect relations; cool, distant, frank, and questioning.

24
Q

Define

Feeling function

A

Has a sense of valuing positively or negatively.

This is not the same as emotion.

25
Q

Define

Sensing function

A

Oriented toward the body and senses; detailed, concrete, and present.

26
Q

Define

Intuitive

A

Goes with hunches; impatient with earthy details; impractical; sometimes not present.

27
Q

What is…

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

A

An assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.

Inspired by Jung’s personality theory

28
Q

What does the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) provide individuals with?

A

A measure of their dominant preferences based on the Jungian functions.

The goal of knowing about personality type is to understand and appreciate differences between people. As all types are equal, there is no best type.

29
Q

How did Freud’s theory describe dreams?

A

Freud’s theory described dreams as having both latent and manifest content.
* Latent content relates to deep unconscious wishes or fantasies
* Manifest content is superficial and meaningless

30
Q

Define

Threat-Simulation Theory

A

Dreaming should be seen as an ancient evolutionary (biological) defense mechanism.

Dreams allow us to practice responding to threatening events. This enhances neurocognitive mechanisms required for efficient threat perception and avoidance.

31
Q

Define

Expectation Fulfillment Theory

A
  • Dreaming serves to discharge emotional arousals (however minor) that haven’t been expressed during the day.
  • This practice frees up space in the brain to deal with the emotional arousals of the next day and allows instinctive urges to stay intact. Thus, the expectation is fulfilled in the dream.
  • Dreams are metaphorical in order to avoid false memories. This is why dreams are usually forgotten.
32
Q

Define

Activation-Synthesis Theory

A
  • Dreams don’t actually mean anything. They are simply your neurons randomly firing during sleep and your mind trying to make sense of that neural activity.
  • We construct the dream stories after we wakeup in an attempt to understand the random neural activity and images
33
Q

Define

Continual-Activation Theory

A
  • Dreaming is a result of brain activation and synthesis.
  • The hypothesis states that the function of sleep is to process, encode, and transfer data from short-term memory to long-term memory.
  • Dreaming and REM sleep are simultaneously controlled by different brain mechanisms. NREM sleep processes the conscious- related memory (declarative memory), and REM sleep processes the unconscious-related memory (procedural memory).
  • It is through this processes of continual-activation in the brain that we learn and consolidate information into memory.
34
Q

How do men and women’s dreams differ?

A

Nielsen and colleagues (2003) found that:
* Women’s dreams related mostly to negative factors (failure, loss of control, snakes/insects)
* Men’s dreams related primarily to positive factors (magic/myth, alien life)

35
Q

Define

Incubation

A

The concept of “sleeping on a problem,” or letting unconscious processes work through the problem.

Incubation can take a variety of forms, such as taking a break, sleeping, or working on another kind of problem either more difficult or less challenging.

Studies have found that incubation results in increased problem-solving ability and creativity.

36
Q

What might the positive effects of incubation be due to?

Incubation is letting unconscious processes work through the problem.

A
  1. Spreading activation: When problem solvers disengage from the problem-solving task, they naturally expose themselves to more information that can serve to inform the problem-solving process.
  2. Selective forgetting: Once disengaged from the problem-solving process, solvers are freer to let go of certain ideas or concepts that may be inhibiting the problem-solving process.
  3. Problem restructuring: When problem solvers let go of their initial problem, they are then freed to restructure or reorganize their representation of the problem and thereby capitalize on relevant information not previously noticed.
37
Q

Define

Neural Correlates of Consciousness

A
  • The smallest set of neural events and structures sufficient for a given conscious percept or explicit memory.
  • Neuronal correlates of consciousness may be viewed as what causes consciousness.
  • Consciousness may be thought of as a state-dependent property of some undefined complex, adaptive, and highly interconnected biological system.
  • Progress in neurophilosophy has come from focusing on the body rather than the mind.
38
Q

What does the study of neural correlate to?

A

The study of neural correlates of consciousness seeks to link activity within the brain to subjective human experiences in the physical world.

39
Q

What happens in perceptual illusions?

A

In a perceptual illusion, like the Necker Cube, the physical stimulus remains fixed while the perception fluctuates, allowing the neural mechanisms to be isolated and permitting visual consciousness to be tracked in the brain.

The Necker cube is an optical illusion that consists of a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional wire frame cube.

40
Q

What do functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans measure?

A

Activity in the brain.