2-2: Psychodynamic Psychology

Question 1

Who originated psychodynamic psychology?

Answer 1

Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century.

Question 1

What is Psychodynamic Psychology?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What was Freud’s core thought behind psychodynamic psychology?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What did Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis assume?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What are the two types of conscious experience?

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

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

Answer 5

1. Conscious
2. Preconscious
3. Unconscious

Question 6

What is the Conscious Mind?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is the Preconscious Mind?

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

What is the Unconscious Mind?

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

What is the id?

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

What is the ego?

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

What is the superego?

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

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

Answer 12

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

Question 13

How do social psychologists view consciousness?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

How do Neuropsychologists view consciousness?

Answer 14

As ingrained in neural systems and organic brain structures.

Question 15

How do Cognitive psychologists view consciousness?

Answer 15

Cognitive psychologists base their understanding of consciousness on computer science.

Question 16

What is psychoanalysis, and what is it used for?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Who was Carl Jung?

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

Define

Active imagination

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Define

Archtypes

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Define

Individuation

Answer 20

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

This was one of Jung’s concepts.

Question 21

Define

Introvert

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Define

Extravert

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Define

Thinking funtion

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Define

Feeling function

Answer 24

Has a sense of valuing positively or negatively.

This is not the same as emotion.

Question 25

Define

Sensing function

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Define

Intuitive

Answer 26

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

Question 27

What is…

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Answer 27

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

Question 28

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

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

How did Freud’s theory describe dreams?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Define

Threat-Simulation Theory

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

Define

Expectation Fulfillment Theory

Answer 31

• 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.

Question 32

Define

Activation-Synthesis Theory

Answer 32

• 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

Question 33

Define

Continual-Activation Theory

Answer 33

• 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.

Question 34

How do men and women’s dreams differ?

Answer 34

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)

Question 35

Define

Incubation

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

What might the positive effects of incubation be due to?

Incubation is letting unconscious processes work through the problem.

Answer 36

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.

Question 37

Define

Neural Correlates of Consciousness

Answer 37

• 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.

Question 38

What does the study of neural correlate to?

Answer 38

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

Question 39

What happens in perceptual illusions?

Answer 39

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.

Question 40

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

Answer 40

Activity in the brain.