Chapter Fifteen Flashcards
Personality
An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
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 embarassing
Psychoanalysis
Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking 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.
Id
Contains 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.
- Newborn babies are id-dominated
Ego
The largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, 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
Superego
The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscious) and for future aspirations
- Said to emerge around the ages of 4 to 5
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 distinct erogenous zones
Oral Psychosexual Stage
0-18 months.
Pleasure centers on the mouth- sucking, biting, chewing.
Psychological theme: Dependency.
Adult character: Highly dependent/Highly independent
Anal Psychosexual Stage
18-36 months.
Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control.
Psychological theme: Self-control/Obedience.
Adult character: Anally retentive/Anally Expulsive
Phallic Psychosexual Stage
3-6 years.
Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings (Oedipus complex; Electra complex)
Psychological theme: morality/sexuality identification.
Adult character: promiscuous and amoral/asexual and puritanical
Latency Psychosexual Stage
6 years-Puberty.
Dormant sexual feelings.
Genital Psychosexual Stage
Puberty-Death.
Maturation of sexual interests.
Psychological theme: Maturity and creation and enhancement of life
Oedipus Complex
According to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
- Some psychoanalysts believe in the female parallel “Electra Complex”
Identification
The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos
Fixation
According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
ex: Smoking shows a fixation for the oral stage
Defense Mechanisms
In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
- 6 defense mechanisms exist : Repression, Regression, Reaction Formation, Projection, Rationalization, and Displacement
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
Regression
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated
Reaction Formation
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings.
Projection
Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others