Chapter 9 - Psychoanalytic Approaches Flashcards
What is the Intrapsychic Domain?
-deals with mental mechanisms of personality (many are unconscious)
-classic and modern versions of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis
Who is Sigmund Freud?
-born in 1856; raised in Vienna
-medical degree
-studied hypnosis with Jean-Martin Charcot
-treated patients with “nervous-disorders” and developed theory of the unconscious
-adult personality a result of how one coped with sexual and aggressive urges
What are the fundamental ideas of psychoanalytic approach?
-personality as a complex interplay of conscious and unconscious motives, thoughts, and feelings
-behaviour motivated by unconscious factors
–parapraxis
What is Parapraxis?
-it’s also called Freudian slip
-when you want to say something but another word comes out
-ex: saying mom instead of miss to a teacher
What are the fundamental assumptions of psychoanalytic theory?
-human mind is like a “hydraulic” system
-personality change occurs with redirection of a person’s psychic energy
-unconscious mind operated under its own power
-emphasis on interaction and conflict between the unconscious and conscious mind
-unconscious thoughts must be discovered in indirect ways
-developed large theoretical models to explain a wide range of clinical observations
What are instincts?
-strong innate forces that provide all the energy in the psychic system
What was Freud’s theory of instincts and who influenced him?
-original theory was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution
-two instinct classes (at first):
–self-preservation instincts
–sexual instincts
What modifications did Freud do to his initial theory of instincts?
-collapsed self-preservation and sexual instincts into one –> life instinct (libido)
-added death instinct (thanatos)
What are the 3 parts that make up the human mind (Freud)?
- Conscious: thoughts, feelings, and images (aware)
- Preconscious: info one is not presently thinking about but can be retrieved and made conscious (memories, stored knowledge)
- Unconscious: thoughts & memories we’re unaware of (sexual/aggressive urges, thoughts & feelings); largest part of human mind
What is the iceberg metaphor?
-“motivated unconscious”
-material can “leak” into thoughts, feelings, and behaviours
(if not managed it can take over)
What is the Dynamic Unconscious?
-id: instincts
-ego: rational (who you are)
-superego: moral (society’s norms)
What is the Id?
-most primitive part of the mind, source of all drives and urges
-operates according to the pleasure principle: desire for immediate gratification
-functions according to primary process thinking
-wish fulfillment: something unavailable is conjured up and the image of it is temporarily satisfying
What is the Ego?
-constrains id to reality
-develops within first two or three years of life
-operates according to reality principle: ego understands that id urges are often in conflict with social and physical reality
-operates according to secondary process thinking
What is the Superego?
-internalizes ideals, values, and moral of society (or care-givers)
-what some refer to as the “conscience” or ego-ideal
-main tool of the superego in enforcing right and wrong is the emotion of guilt
-like id, superego is not bound by reality
What is Anxiety?
-state of tension which motivates individuals to do something
What are the 3 types of anxiety?
-Reality Anxiety: conflict between ego and external reality
-Neurotic Anxiety: conflict between id and ego
-Moral Anxiety: conflict between ego and superego
What are Defence Mechanisms and their 2 characteristics?
-when the ego is not in control of anxiety through rational methods, resorts to unrealistic methods
2 characteristics:
1. denying, falsifying & distorting reality
2. operate unconsciously
What are the 3 big categories of defence mechanisms and their respective mechanisms?
-Primitive (id): denial, projection, regression
-Neurotic (not facing the issue): repression, displacement, reaction formation, rationalization
-Mature (accepted by society): sublimation, humour, suppression, altruism
What is Repression?
-keeping the unconscious from consciousness by pushing it down
-repressive coping: not allowing anxiety to become fully conscious; slow reaction times to disturbing sexual and aggressive phrases
What is Denial?
-not acknowledging unconscious content
-fundamental attribution error
What is Displacement?
-moving a troubling impulse onto a different, less threatening object
-anger is a common example
(urges might show up in dreams)
What is Projection?
-protecting the Ego by attributing your own undesirable characteristics to others
-false consensus effect (assuming other are similar to us/have the same thoughts as us)
What is Rationalization?
-reinterpreting behaviour through use of plausible but inaccurate excuses
What is Reaction formation?
-disguising unconscious content by turning it into its opposite (ex: homophobic people enjoy gay sex)
What is Sublimation?
-channelling unconscious impulses into work (art)
-relatively healthy
How is humour a defence mechanism?
-releases tension between unconscious and conscious
-diffuse an uncomfortable situation
-help people cope with negative experiences
What are the 4 styles of humour?
-affiliative (want to make everyone laugh)
-self-enhancing (laugh at yourself)
-aggressive (mean; sarcasm)
-self-defeating (self-deprication)
What is the empirical evidence for defence mechanisms?
-considerable evidence for reaction formation and denial
-some evidence for projection
-little evidence for displacement or sublimation
-more likely to protect self-esteem than defend against unconscious drives
What are the psychosexual stages of personality development?
-oral stage (birth to 1)
-anal stage (1-3 years)
-phallic stage (3-5 years)
-latency stage (6-puberty)
-genital stage (puberty through adult life)
What is the Oral Stage?
-id driven
-source of pleasure and tension reduction are the mouth, lips, and tongue
-key conflict is weaning - withdrawing from the breast or bottle (oral fixation; need to suck, how they eat)
What is the Anal Stage?
-libido is attached to anus
-child obtains pleasure from first expelling feces and then, during toilet training, from retaining feces
-focus on potty training
-many conflicts arise around the child’s ability to achieve self-control, self mastery, self knowledge
What are the 2 resulting patterns of anal fixation?
-anal retentive: pleasure obtained from neatness and order
-anal expulsive: pleasure obtained from messiness and disorganization
What is the Phallic Stage?
-libido is attached to genitals (child discovers they do(n’t) have a penis)
-sexual desire directed toward the parent of opposite sex
-produces Oedipal and Electra conflicts (unconscious wish to have opposite-sex parent all to self by eliminating the same-sex parent)
-castration anxiety
What is the Latency Stage?
-little psychological development occurs
-libido remains dormant until puberty
-focus of child is on learning skills and abilities necessary to succeed as adult
What is the Genital Stage?
-libido is focused on the genitals, but not in manner of self-manipulation associated with the phallic stage
-this stage is not accompanied by specific conflict
-people reach this stage only if conflicts are resolved at previous stages
What is the goal of psychoanalysis?
-to make the unconscious conscious
-1st aim of psychoanalysis is to identify unconscious thoughts and feelings
-once a patient is aware of this material, the 2nd aim is to enable the person to deal with it realistically and maturely
What are 3 techniques for revealing the unconscious?
- Free association
- Dream analysis
- Projective techniques
What is free association?
-resistance: blockage or refusal to disclose painful memories during free association
-analysis of repression: barring unacceptable ideas, memories, or desires from conscious awareness; leaving them to operate in the unconscious mind
What is dream analysis?
-manifest content: liberal meaning
-latent content: underlying meaning
-wish fulfillment: symbolic expression of a wish
How does personality impact dreaming?
-high neuroticism: more nightmares
-low in neuroticism and high in openness: more dreams about flying
-high in openness: more strange and different people and more likely to remember dreams
-highly agreeableness: more people in their dreams
What are projective techniques?
-project their own personalities into what they report seeing
-hostile and aggressive person might see teeth, claws, and blood
-oral fixated might see food or people eating
