Chapter 14 Flashcards
Psychodynamic Theories
theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences. The unconscious and conscious minds interact.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud’s theory of personality attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders seek to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.
Unconscious
according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.
Free Association
in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.
Id
a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. (ex. baby crying whenever and wherever)
Ego
the partly conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.
Identification
the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos.
Freud thought identification with same-sex parents determined gender identity.
Superego
the partly conscious part of the personality that, according to Freud, represents the internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations. Focuses on how we ought to behave.
Psychosexual Stages
the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on the distinct erogenous zones.
- Oral (0-18 months)- pleasure centers on the mouth
- Anal (18-36 months)- focuses on bowel and bladder elimination.
- Phallic (3-6 years)- pleasure zone in the genitals
- Latency (6 years-puberty)- dormant sexual feelings
- Genital (puberty onward)- maturation of sexual interests
Oedipus Complex
Oedipus Complex: according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.
Fixation
in psychoanalytic theory, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved. (ex. biting one’s nails means problems in the oral stage)
Defense Mechanisms
in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
Repression
in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.
Freud believed that this enabled all other defense mechanisms: Regression, Reaction Formation, Projection, Rationalization, Displacement, Denial
Neo-Freudians
Neo-Freudians believed in his major concepts but differed in two ways: they placed more emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience/coping with the environment and they doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivations.
Collective Unconscious
Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history. This is discounted by modern psychologists.
False Freud Theories
- Dreams and Freudian Slips do not tell us about our unconscious mind.
- Gender Identity does not spring from a same-sex parent.
- Sexuality does not cause mental disorders.
- Repression is rare.
Terror-Management Theory
a theory of death-related anxiety; that explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death.