Chapter 15 Flashcards
Four ways of studying unconscious motivation
Freudian unconscious
Adaptive unconscious
Implicit motives
Priming
What is Freudian unconscious classified as?
Psychoanalytical understanding of unconscious motives
What are adaptive unconscious, implicit motives, and priming classified as?
Psychodynamic understanding of unconscious motives
Freud’s dual-instinct theory
2 competing instincts
Eros
Thanatos
Eros broadly
Instinct for life
Thanatos broadly
Instincts for death
Eros
e.g., instincts for: sex, nurturance, affiliation
Thanatos
E.g., instincts for: aggression toward self (self-criticism, depression), aggression toward others (anger, prejudice)
Does the id actually exist?
The subcortical brain makes for a pretty fair id (amygdala, striatum, etc.)
Pleasure and unpleasure brain centres
Does the ego actually exist?
The cortical brain makes for a pretty fair ego
Prefrontal cortex governs learning, memory, decision-making, intellectual problem-solving
Executive control centre that perceives the worlds and learns to adapt to it
Are the cortical and subcortical brain structures connected? Implications?
Yes, by intricately interrelated neural pathways and structures
Interrelationships show how one structure affects another (e.g., how the amygdala excites and inhibits the PFC)
Adaptive unconscious
The automatic pilot that carries out countless computations and innumerable adjustments during acts such as tying your shoes, driving a car, or playing the piano (i.e., procedural knowledge)
Appraises the environment, sets goals, makes judgments, and initiates action, all while the person is thinking about something else
What is the adaptive unconscious (unconscious mind) AKA?
System 1
Adaptive unconscious (system 1)
Automatic
Intuitive
Fast, quick
Rash, uncontrollable
Involuntary, unintentional
Effortless
Emotional
Efficient, but impulsive
Thoughts come to mind automatically
First impressions
Not open to education and training
Conscious mind AKA?
System 2
Conscious mind/system 2
Controlled
Analytical, logical
Slow
Thoughtful, controllable
Voluntary, intentional
Effortful
Rational
Self-control, self-regulation
Thoughts have to be effortfully produced
Reflective judgment
Open to education and training
4 main principles of the contemporary psychodynamic perspectives
The unconscious
Psychodynamics
Ego development
Object relations theory
The unconscious from the contemporary psychodynamic perspective
Much of mental life is unconscious
Psychodynamics from the contemporary psychodynamic perspective
Mental processes operate in parallel with one another
Ego development from the contemporary psychodynamic perspective
Healthy development involves moving an immature socially dependent personality to one that is more mature and interdependent with others
Objects relation theory from the contemporary psychodynamic perspective
Mental representations of self and other form in childhood that guide the person’s later social motivations and relationships
Early relationships become templates/schemas that shape how we view ourselves and others for the rest of our lives
Implicit motives
Enduring, non-conscious forces that energize people’s behaviour toward the attainment of specific social incentives
Examples of implicit motives
Doing something well to show personal competence
Involvement in a warm and secure relationship
Having impact on others
Implicit implication in implicit motives
The motive is implied or inferred from the person’s characteristic thought, emotion, and behaviour
What is the nature of the unconscious according to Freudian insight?
The unconscious is a storehouse of infantile desires that must be repressed and kept out of consciousness because of its anxiety-provoking properties
What is the nature of the unconscious according to contemporary view?
The adaptive unconscious is much more. It continually sizes up the world, generates gut feelings, makes judgments, sets goals, learns, and carries out innumerable tasks and procedures automatically and skillfully
Why does the unconscious exist according to Freudian insight?
People have a long list of unacceptable desires, so they develop defenses to avoid knowing what their unconscious motives and feelings are
Why does the unconscious exist according the contemporary view?
The mind is a well-designed two-tiered system in which the adaptive unconscious does a great deal of automatic thinking and coping, while the conscious mind steps into help when reflective, analytical thinking is needed
Implicit motivation
All the motives, emotions, attitudes, and judgments that operate outside a person’s conscious awareness and that are fundamentally distinct from self-report motives, emotions, attitudes, and judgments
What are explicit (self-report) motives linked to?
The self-concept
What are implicit motives (projective techniques) linked to?
Emotional experiences
What are well-studied implicit motives?
Achievement, power, intimacy, autonomy, prejudice
Priming
Exposure to a stimulus that is outside one’s conscious awareness that evokes an implicit response
What do primes activate?
An unconscious mental representation that primes action
Prime
Prepare action consistent with the unconscious mental representation
Three studies that illustrate the impacts of primes
Cleaning solution study
Briefcase study
Library study
Cleaning solution study
In one room, the faint scent of cleaning solution (citrus smell) was present
Follow-up study: Gave participants’ a cookie to eat that was very crumbly. Those primed with the clean scent were more likely to clean up the crumbs they left behind compared to those who were exposed to a neutral-scented room
Briefcase study
Same procedure as cleaning study, but in a follow-up study involving a negotiating task, those exposed to a briefcase were more argumentative and competitive in their negotiation
2 ways to deal with the clash between the id and the ego according to psychodynamics
Repression
Suppression
Repression
The process of forgetting information or an experience by ways that are unconscious, unintentional, and automatic
Repression is the ego’s counterforce to the id’s demanding desires
Suppression
The process of removing a thought from attention by ways that are conscious, intentional, and deliberate
Premises of suppression
- We all have unwelcomed thoughts
- We all desire peace of mind (serenity of consciousness)
- To achieve #2, we suppress #1
- But, mental control can backfire
What does suppression become
Obsession
What does healthy ego development involve?
Advancing from heteronomy to autonomy
What does healthy personality development involve?
Not only learning to regulate sexual and aggressive feelings but also moving from an immature, socially dependent state to a mature, interdependent one
Healthy development involves moving from heteronomy (immature, social dependence on others) to autonomy (mature, independent)
Six stages of ego development
Impulsive
Self-protective
Conformist
Conscientious
Individualistic
Autonomous
Impulsive as a stage of ego development
Strongly selfish; others are “nice to me/mean to me”; very weak ego
Self-protective as a stage of ego development
First signs of rule-based constraint; goal is to not get caught or blamed
Conformist
Strong identification with own group - family, peers
Conscientious as a stage of ego development
Internalization of rules, feels responsible for others, feels responsible for achievement
Individualistic as a stage of ego development
Heightened sense of individuality; tolerance for others
Autonomous as a stage of ego development
Acknowledges and copes with inner conflicts (e.g., personal needs vs. social duties); self-motivating; self-regulating
Motivational importance of ego development
The ego develops to defend against anxiety (ego defense)
The ego develops to empower the person to interact more effectively and more proactively with its surroundings (ego offense)
Name all 11 defense mechanisms
Denial
Fantasy
Projection
Displacement
Identification
Regression
Reaction formation
Rationalization
Anticipation
Humor
Sublimation
Denial
Ignoring or refusing to acknowledge an unpleasant external reality
Fantasy
Imagining omnipotent achievement
Projection
Assigning one’s own unacceptable desire or impulse to someone else
Displacement
Anxiety released onto a substitute object when the actual source is powerful
Identification
Taking on the characteristics of someone viewed as successful
Regression
Returning to an earlier state of development when anxious
Reaction formation
Expressing the strong opposite of one’s true feelings or motives
Rationalization
Justifying a disturbing or an unacceptable thought or feeling by selecting a logical reason to think or feel that way
Anticipation
Forecasting future danger in small steps so to cope with the danger gradually rather than all at once
Humor
Capacity to not take oneself too seriously, as in accepting one’s shortcomings and talking about it in a socially acceptable way
Sublimation
Transforming a socially unacceptable and productive source of energy
Vulnerability to depression as a function of maturity level of defense mechanisms and amount of life stress
High life stress + immature defense mechanisms = vulnerability to depression
