Clinical Psychology - Psychodynamic/Humanistic Flashcards
id
The id is present at birth, and its life (sexual) and death (aggression) instincts are the primary source of psychic energy. It operates according to the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of its instinctual needs using unconscious irrational means.
ego
The ego develops at about six months of age and operates according to the reality principle. Although it also seeks to at least partially gratify the id’s instincts, it attempts to do so in realistic rational ways.
superego
the last aspect of personality to develop. It represents the internalization of society’s values and standards and acts as the conscience. It attempts to permanently block (rather than gratify) the id’s instincts.
Freudian defense mechanisms
The defense mechanisms deny or distort reality and operate on an unconscious level, and they include repression, denial, reaction formation, projection, and sublimation:
Repression
is the basis of all other defense mechanisms, is involuntary, and involves keeping undesirable thoughts and urges out of conscious awareness.
Denial
is an immature defense mechanism that involves refusing to acknowledge distressing aspects of reality. Methods of denial include ignoring, distorting, and rejecting reality.
Reaction formation
involves defending against an unacceptable impulse by expressing its opposite,
projection
involves attributing an unacceptable impulse to another person
sublimation
involves channeling an unacceptable impulse into a socially desirable (and often admirable) endeavor.
the process of analysis consists of four steps
(1) Confrontation involves helping clients recognize behaviors they’ve been unaware of and their possible cause. (2) Clarification brings the cause of behaviors into sharper focus by separating important details from extraneous material. (3) Interpretation involves explicitly linking conscious behaviors to unconscious processes. (4) Repeated interpretation leads to catharsis (the experience of repressed emotions) and insight into the connection between unconscious material and current behavior and then to working through, which is a gradual process during which the client accepts and integrates new insights into his/her life.
Jung’s personal unconscious
consists of a person’s own forgotten or repressed memories,
Jung’s collective unconscious
consists of memories that are shared by all people and are passed down from one generation to the next. The collective unconscious contains archetypes, which are universal thoughts and images that predispose people to act in similar ways in certain circumstances. They’re expressed in myths, symbols, and dreams and include the persona, shadow, hero, and anima and animus.
Jung’s individuation
occurs primarily during the second half of life and is “the process by which a person becomes a psychological ‘in-dividual,’ that is, a separate, indivisible unity or whole”
Adler’s style of life
to describe the ways in which a person strives for superiority and proposed that a person’s style of life develops during early childhood. According to Adler, people have adopted a healthy style of life when their goals reflect not only concerns for personal achievement but also for the well-being of others. In contrast, they’ve adopted a mistaken (unhealthy) style of life when their goals focus on overcompensating for feelings of inferiority and reflect a lack of concern about the well-being of others.
object constancy
which refers to the development of mental representations (introjects) of the self and objects that allow the individual to value an object for reasons other than its ability to satisfy the individual’s needs.
The normal autistic stage of object constancy
occurs during the first few weeks of life. During this stage, infants are totally self-absorbed and unaware of the external environment.
the normal symbiotic stage of object constancy
during which infants become aware of the external environment but are unable to differentiate themselves from their caregivers.
separation-individuation stage of object constancy
begins at about five months of age and continues until the child is about three years old. It consists of four substages during which object constancy gradually develops: differentiation, practicing, rapprochement, and beginning of object constancy.
Introjection in gestalt therapy
occurs when people adopt the beliefs, standards, and values of others without evaluation or awareness,
projection in gestalt therapy
occurs when people attribute undesirable aspects of themselves to other people
Retroflection in gestalt therapy
occurs when people do to themselves what they’d like to do to others
deflection in gestalt therapy
occurs when people avoid contact with the environment
confluence in gestalt therapy
occurs when people blur the distinction between themselves and others.
Normal (existential) anxiety in existential therapy
is in proportion to an objective threat, does not involve repression, and can be used constructively to identify and confront the conditions that elicited it and motivate positive change
neurotic anxiety in existential therapy
is disproportionate to an objective threat, involves repression, and keeps people from reaching their full potential.
success identity in reality therapy
When a person chooses to fulfill his/her needs responsibly (in positive, constructive ways that don’t infringe on the rights of others), the person has adopted a success identity
failure identity in reality therapy
when a person chooses to fulfill his/her needs irresponsibly (in negative, destructive ways that infringe on the rights of others and do not always help the person get what he/she wants), the person has adopted a failure identity.
PERMA model in positive psychology
Positive emotions (P) refers to experiencing pleasure, hope, gratitude, love, and other positive emotions. Engagement (E) refers to being truly engaged in situations or tasks and is characterized by being in a state of “flow” – i.e., a state of being totally immersed in an activity accompanied by a high level of joy and sense of fulfillment. Relationships (R) refers to having positive and meaningful interpersonal relationships. Meaning (M) refers to being dedicated to a cause that’s bigger than oneself. And accomplishment-achievement (A) refers to striving to better oneself and accomplish one’s goals.
personal constructs in personal construct therapy
which are bipolar dimensions of meaning (e.g., fair/unfair, friend/enemy, relevant/irrelevant) that arise from a person’s experiences and may operate on an unconscious or conscious level.
Freudian Psychoanalysis
Freudian psychoanalysis reflects a deterministic and pessimistic view of human nature that views current psychological problems as being due to unconscious unresolved conflicts that arose during childhood. It also assumes that these conflicts cause anxiety and are the result of the divergent demands of the three aspects of personality – the id, ego, and superego. The main goals of Freudian psychoanalysis are “to make the unconscious conscious and to strengthen the ego so that behavior is based more on reality and less on instinctual cravings and irrational guilt”
Jung’s Analytical Psychology
The primary goal of analytical psychotherapy is to bring unconscious material into consciousness to facilitate the process of individuation
Adler’s Individual Psychology
He also proposed that people are motivated by feelings of inferiority that arise during childhood in response to real or imagined inadequacies and by a striving for superiority to overcome inferiority feelings. The primary goal of Adlerian psychotherapy is to replace the client’s mistaken style of life with a healthier, more adaptive one by helping the client overcome feelings of inferiority and develop a stronger social interest.
Object Relations Theory
Therapies based on object relations theory view behavior as being motivated primarily by a desire for human relationships, and they focus on the impact of early relationships between a child and primary caregivers (objects) on the child’s future relationships.The primary goal of object relations therapy is to provide clients with a corrective reparenting experience in order to replace the client’s maladaptive introjects with more adaptive ones and thereby improve his/her current relationships.
Roger’s person centered therapy
based on the assumption that all people have an innate drive toward self-actualization, which motivates them to achieve their full potential. According to Rogers, the drive toward self-actualization can be thwarted when a person experiences incongruence between his/her self-concept and experience. The primary goal of person-centered therapy is to help the client become a “fully functioning person” who is not defensive, is open to new experiences, and is engaged in the process of self-actualization.
Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is based on the assumptions that (a) people are motivated to maintain a state of homeostasis, which is repeatedly disrupted by unfulfilled physical and psychological needs, and (b) people seek to obtain something from the environment to satisfy their unfulfilled needs in order to restore homeostasis. Gestalt therapists consider gaining awareness of one’s current thoughts, feelings, and actions to be the curative factor in therapy.
Existential therapy
These therapies emphasize personal responsibility and choice and are based on the assumption that “each person must ultimately define his/her personal existence” The primary goal of therapy is “to help clients lead more authentic lives … by assisting them in taking charge of their life, helping them choose for themselves the values and purposes that will define and guide their existence, and supporting them in actions that express these values and purposes”
Reality therapy
proposes that people have five basic innate needs (love and belonging, power, fun, freedom, and survival) and that the ways a person chooses to fulfill his or her needs determine whether he/she has a success or failure identity. The primary goal of reality therapy is to replace the client’s failure identity with a success identity by helping the client assume responsibility for his or her actions and adopt more appropriate ways to fulfill his or her needs.
Positive psychology
“is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present)”
Personal construct therapy
personal construct therapy focuses on how people construe (perceive, interpret, and anticipate) events. It proposes that there are alternative ways of doing so and that people can change the way they construe events to alleviate undesirable behaviors and outcomes.
