Ch.3, Textbook, Psychoanalytic Theory In depth

Question 1

Define the difference between vitalism and mechanism.

Answer 1

Vitalism: argues that science could not fully explain biological life because life arose from non material forces
Mechanists: argued that science COULD fully explain biological life, opened the door to natural sciences of person

Question 2

Define free association.

Answer 2

Free Association: pioneered by Freud, patients are encouraged to let their thoughts run free without inhibition; became both a therapy technique and scientific method for identifying personality

Question 3

Define freud’s idea of the mind as an energy system.

Answer 3

Derived psychological principles from physiological principle; understood biology as the bases of psychology
Body is a mechanist energy system, and therefore so is the mind: mind obtains mental energies from physical bodily energies
Mind directs energetic forces, as well as contains them
Energy is limited: may be channeled into sexual activity or artistic pursuits, among others

Question 4

Define Freud’s concept of quiescence.

Answer 4

bodily needs create tension, and the body is driven to reduce that tension (created by hunger, sex drive etc.)

Question 5

Define Catharsis.

Answer 5

reuer, Freud, release and freeing of one’s emotions by talking about one’s problems (confirmed the idea of the mind being an energy system, with the need to release energy created from traumatic events if they occur)
^^Also examines “unconscious events” creating psychological or physical distress, people were not aware that they needed catharsis to remedy the distress

Question 6

Define Conversion disorder.

Answer 6

Often people may fake hysteria to attract attention (histrionic)
However, brain activation of conversion disorder patients does differ in recent studies: stronger connection between regions of brain associated with emotional and portions of brain associated with motor skills
Regions of the brain charged with emotional response may hijack the brain’s normal systems for controlling movement

Question 7

Define Freud’s Pleasure Principle.

Answer 7

individuals seek pleasurable gratification of those drives, the role of society is to constrain these basic instincts
Freud based his personality model on physics: based a theory of enormous breadth on relatively narrow evidence, as well as only using case studies to generate his “data”

Question 8

Define conscious awareness, preconscious, unconscious, and motivated unconscious.

Answer 8

Conscious Awareness: thoughts we are aware of at any given moment
Preconscious: contains mental thoughts of which we would easily become aware of if we attended to them
Unconscious: contents of which we are unaware of and cannot become aware except under special circumstances (Freud said these things were anxiety provoking Motivated Unconscious: mental items enter the unconscious for motivated reasons (they are traumatic or stressful); thoughts in the unconscious influence the conscious experience

Question 9

Define Subliminal Perception:

Answer 9

perception of stimuli at a level below that required for awareness

Question 10

Define perceptual defense.

Answer 10

the process by which it is thought that certain stimuli are either not perceived or are distorted due to their offensive, unpleasant, or threatening nature.

Question 11

Define manifest and latent content of dreams.

Answer 11

Content of dreams reveals the unconscious
Manifest Content: storyline of the dream / WISH FULFILLMENT
Latent Content: consists of unconscious ideas, wishes, emotions, and drives that are manifested in the dreams storyline

Question 12

Define Idahoan’s Global Workspace model of consciousness.

Answer 12

distinguished two conceptual spaces in the brain in which consciousness occurs
^Global Workspace, Dahaen: term that refers to a neural system that represents information that can be shared among different systems of the brain, Similar to Freud’s by recognizing large amounts of mental processes occurring outside of consciousness, BUT THEY ARE NOT UNCONSCIOUS FOR THE SAME REASONS AS FREUD THOUGHT

Question 13

Define the Integration Consensus:

Answer 13

consciousness occurs when brain systems coordinate or integrate multiple mental activities and regions of the brain

Question 14

Define Freud’s egos.

Answer 14

ID: original source of all drive energy, seeks the release of excitation or tension to return to a quiet normal state; operates according to the pleasure principle, pursues pleasure and avoids pain
Superego: opposite of the ID, ethical standards, goals,
Ego: express and satisfy ID in accordance with opportunity and social constraint (operates according to the reality principle, gratification is delayed until reality enables one to obtain maximum pleasure with the least consequence), logical rational and tolerant of tension

Question 15

Define Life and Death instincts.

Answer 15

nstincts
Life Instinct: includes drives associated with id ego; also known as libido
Death Instinct: most controversial part of the theory, said that an organism would do anything to achieve calmness, including pursue death (suicide)

Question 16

Define projection./

Answer 16

People defend against the reality of their flaws by deflecting onto other each individuals
Recognize hostility in others rather than identifying it in themselves
Projection has been studied by analyzing specific thinking process that might lead people to project their undesired qualities onto others

Question 17

Define isolation.

Answer 17

In isolation, the action or thought is not denied consciousness, but it is denied the normal accompanying emotion (thoughts of strangling someone without the accompanied feeling of anger)
Result of using isolation: intellectualization, an emphasis on thought over emotion feeling: the feelings that do exist may be split
People who use isolation also use “undoing”: a person tries to cancel out or remove an unhealthy, destructive or otherwise threatening thought or action by engaging in contrary behavior.

Question 18

Define reaction formation.

Answer 18

Individual defends against expression of an unacceptable impulse by only recognizing and expressing its opposite
Person who utilizes reaction formation cannot admit to other feelings
Most clearly observable when the man who “wouldn’t hurt a fly” goes on a killing rampage; eaction Formation: You turn the feeling into its opposite. “I think he’s really great!” Projection: You think someone else has your thought or feeling. Undoing: You try to reverse or undo your feeling by DOING something that indicates the opposite feeling.

Question 19

Define rationalization.

Answer 19

More complex and mature than denial
People recognize the existence of an action but distort its underlying motive
Behavior is reinterpreted so that it seems rational and acceptable
Freud: argued that rationalization was used to express an impulse of the ID without feeling guilt following it

Question 20

Define sublimation.

Answer 20

The original object of gratification is replaced by a higher cultural goal that is far removed from a direct expression of the instinct
Freud: id instinct is channeled into a useful outlet
Channeling sadness into art; healthy coping mechanism

Question 21

Define repression.

Answer 21

A thought, feeling, or idea is dismissed from consciousness
Repressing traumatic events
People who repress react more strongly to stress and are more prone to develop illnesses

Question 22

Define Freud’s stages of psychosexual development.

Answer 22

Psychosexual Development, Oral Stage (Infant)
Erogenous zones: instinctual drives develop and center here
Sensual gratification is centered on feeding/biting/sucking
Anal Stage (2-3)
Toilet training phase
Phallic Stage (4-5)
Begins to learn of biological differences
Castration Anxiety: fear of losing genitals
Oedipus Complex: boy’s hostility is projected onto the father
Desire to kill father and marry mother
Young females blame the mother for their lack of penis; penis envy; wants to have a child with the father
Identification: results after Oedipus complex is resolved, identifying with the parent of the same sex
Latency Stage
Sexual urges/interest decreased
Genital Stage
Reawakening of Oedipus complex/ urges

Question 23

Define Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of development.

Answer 23

Trust vs. Mistrust (1yr)
Feelings of inner goodness, trust in others, and optimism
Formed by care of the mother
Negative Outcomes: sense of mistrust and pessimism
Autonomy v. Shame/Doubt (2-3 years)
“Let me do it phase”
Feelings of either individual agency or self-doubt
Negative Outcome: excessive conscious, doubtful, shame
Initiative vs. Guilt (4-5 years)
Pleasure in accomplishments, activities, directions, and purposes
Failure: guilt over lack of achievement
Stage where individual develops sense of industry, identity and role diffusion
Industry vs. Inferiority (Latency)
Pride in completion of goals, able to be absorbed in productive work
Failure; sense of inadequacy and inferiority to others
Stage where individual develops sense of industry, identity and role diffusion
Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence)
Confidence of inner sameness and continuity, promise of a career
Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early Adulthood)
Mutuality, sharing of thoughts, work, feelings
Failure: avoidance of intimacy
Generativity vs. Stagnation (Adulthood)
Ability to lose oneself in work and relationships
Failure: loss of interest in work, relationships failing
Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood)
Sense of order and meaning, content with self
Failure: despair and regret

Question 24

Define Marcia’s 4 identity statuses./ AMFD

Answer 24

Identity Achievement
Established sense of identity following exploration
Independent thought, intimacy in personal relations, complex moral reasoning, and resistance to group conformity
Identity Moratorium
Identity crisis
Struggling to answer who they are; still capable of high psychological functioning
Identity Foreclosure
Committed to an identity without having gone through a process of exploration; highly responsive to group conformity
Identity Diffusion
Individual lacks any strong sense of identity; vulnerable to blows regarding their self esteem, often disorganized in thinking, problems with intimacy
Marcia suggests that individuals differ in how they go about handling the process of identity formation, differences reflected in their sense of self, and interpersonal relations

Question 25

Define Freud’s primary process thinking and secondary process thinking.

Answer 25

Primary Process Thinking
Language of the unconscious; illogical and irrational, reality and fantasy are indistinguishable
Confusion of appearance and reality
Seen in children
Secondary Process
Reality testing and logic
Develops after the child has capacity for primary process thinking

Question 26

Define Epstein’s Experiential thinking and rational thinking.

Answer 26

Epstein, Experiential Thinking: analogous to primary process thinking, concrete and heavily influenced by emotion
Epstein, Rational Thinking: analogous to secondary process thinking; abstract, analytical, logical, develops later in evolutionary development

Question 27

Difference between Behavioral Unconscious and Psychodynamic Unconscious.

Answer 27

Behavioral Unconsciousness: behavior we are performing without awareness (Pavlov, Skinner)
Psychodynamic Unconsciousness: repository of all problematic thoughts/feelings/fears/sources of shame/anxiety that a person may have that is kept repressed/hidden in this unconsciousness (has to do with trauma, not behavior)

Question 28

Characteristics of Freud’s Theories; dynamic

Answer 28

exchange of energy; Freud sees energy coming from sexuality/aggression as being used by human beings to motivate behavior and being invested in different aspects of a person’s behavior/wishes/motives/beliefs (energy cannot be created or destroyed)

Question 29

Characteristics of Freud’s Theories, deterministic

Answer 29

Deterministic: Freud believed there was a cause to everything; everything was determined in one manner or another; any form of behavior could be determined by his theory