Exam 3: Ch 8-11 Flashcards
Therapeutic alliance
Freudian belief. Emotional bond between therapist and patient. Gets its power through transference.
Transference
The natural act of applying the ways one thinks, feels, and behaves toward one important person toward another important person in a later relationship.
Ex: Patient may relate to their therapist in the way they relate to their mother, role model, or even superior enemy??
Countertransference
Reaction of the therapist toward the patient in response to their transference
Cure rate of psychoanalysis
Very low, even zero
For which cases may psychoanalysis actually be beneficial?
For complex, long-term mental disorders. Leichsering and Rabung conducted a study on 1053 patients and found that long-term psychoanalytic therapy was more effective than short-term
5 Shortcomings of Freud’s Theory
- Excessive complexity
- Case study method (and its uncheckable-ness)
- Vague definitions
- Untestable
- Sexism
Anna Freud
Freud’s favorite daughter. Continued her father’s work in the area of defense mechanisms. Published a survey of them
Major Deviations in neo-Freudianism from Freud’s Theory
- Less emphasis on sexuality (neo-Fs rebranded libido as general motivation towards life and creativity)
- Greater emphasis on conscious activities rather than unconscious (gave way to ego psychology)
- New focus on interpersonal relationships in the current period rather than instinctual drives and mental life (like childhood conflicts) as the sources of psychological difficulties
Ego psychology
Post-Freud. Focuses on the conscious aspects of the mind. Closer to modern-day psychotherapy rather than psychoanalysis. Focuses on perception, memory, learning, reasoning, and rational, conscious thinking
Alfred Adler
One of Freud’s former followers who believed that Freud focused too much on sex as the ultimate motivator. Instead, Adler championed social interest: the desire to relate positively and productively to others
Name the concept: Johnny felt like the dumbest kid in his class all throughout primary school. As an adult, Johnny makes a conscious, daily effort to keep up with reading and current events to avoid feeling so stupid or ill-informed ever again
Organ inferiority: People are motivated to compensate for whatever they felt was their weakest aspect in childhood
What does the following situation give rise to?
Young boys are raised with the expectation to act as members of the dominant gender, BUT their mother has ultimate control over much of their short lives thus far
Masculine Protest: Adults striving for power to compensate for feeling inferior as a child.
A specific kind of compensation coined by Adler.
The idea that everyone keeps a part of one’s self private; they wear a social mask when out in public.
Jung’s idea of Persona
Collective unconscious and archetypes
Jung’s idea that all people share innately human memories and ideas, most of which reside in the unconscious. Some of these are archetypes.
Archetypes: Inborn models of people, behaviors, and personalities than play a role in influencing human behavior
Anima
The prototypical idea of the female that is held in the mind of the male. The root of a man’s feminine side
-Jung
Animus
The prototypical idea of the male that is held in the idea of the female. The root of a woman’s masculine side
-Jung
Which new-Freudian proposed introversion vs extraversion?
Carl Jung
Jung’s four basic ways of thinking
Sensing: Establishes what is present
Thinking: Enables us to recognize the meaning of what is present
Feeling: Tells us the value of what is present
Intuiting: Assesses the implications of what is present
Horney’s Contributions
Disagreement with Freud’s idea of “penis envy” - Rather stated that women are likely jealous of the relative freedom men enjoy in society.
Comparable belief to Freud in that adult behavior is based on efforts to overcome the basic anxiety acquired in childhood.
Basic Anxiety
Horney’s concept of the determinant of adult behavior. It is the fear of being alone in the hostile world
Erikson and Freud
Erikson claimed to be a loyal Freudian but asserted that conflicts take place in the conscious mind as well as the unconscious. The conflicts of Erikson’s stages take place in the conscious mind. Major differences included the classification of Erikson’s theory as psychosocial (rather than sexual) and that if focuses on development throughout life rather than stopping at puberty.
Which theory is the following most in line with?
One may only relate to another through the image one holds in their mind of that other. When the other and the image are inconsistent, conflicts arise
Object relations theory
Which phase of Erikson’s corresponds with Freud’s oral stage?
Trust vs mistrust (0-2 years old). Child learns whether their needs will be met or ignored. Child develops confidence and hope that the basic needs will be met
Erikson’s stage that corresponds with Freud’s anal phase:
Autonomy vs shame and doubt. Child learns to control their bowels. Child learns who is in charge - conflict may arise. Balance is ideal
Erikson’s stage that corresponds with Freud’s phallic stage
Initiative vs Guilt. Child begins to fantasize about life as an adult. Includes sexual fantasies. Child develops sense of right and wrong. Leads to a principled adult morality. Child understands why there are rules rather than just blindly conforming
Latent stage in Freud’s theory corresponds with which in Erikson’s?
Industry vs Inferiority. Child develops the skills and attitudes necessary to succeed in the world. Child must start to control their imagination and unfocused energy
The first stage at which Erikson’s theory noticeably deviates from Freud’s:
Identity vs Identity Confusion. Occurs during adolescence Individuals make decisions on what is important to them. Goals and values are chosen
Erikson’s sixth stage (young adulthood)
Intimacy vs Isolation. Task is to find an intimate life partner with whom to further develop
Erikson’s stage at middle age
Generativity vs Stagnation.
Does life become firmly set in stone and one settle into passive comfort, or do they nurture the next generation for success?
Final stage of Erikson’s theory
Integrity vs Despair. In elderly people. Based on feelings about the course of one’s life. Are there regrets or has the person developed wisdom and it content with their course of action?
In psychoanalytic lingo, emotionally important people are called ___
objects
Object relations theory
Analysis of interpersonal relationships. Most active area of psychoanalytic thinking at present.
Neurotic Needs
Unrealistic and contradictory desires that one believes they feel while attempting to avoid basic anxiety. They are not really desirable and cannot be attained:
Ex: Finding a life partner that fulfils all of one’s needs, to be loved by everyone, to dominate everyone, to be independent of everyone
Part of Horney’s Theory
Transference
The repetition of psychologically important relationships
Four principal themes of Object Relations Theory
- Every relationship has aspects of satisfaction and frustration (pleasure and pain)
- The mix of love and hate (everyone you love will frustrate you at some point)
- The distinction between the parts of the love object and the whole person
- The psyche of the baby (and the adult) is aware of and disturbed by such contradictory feelings
Melanie Klein
Supporter of object relations theory and notable for her work with children (off which she based most of her theories). For child therapy, she developed the use of play for communication and diagnosis - this led her to theorize that children split the good and bad parts of objects and thus wish to destroy the bad part and worship the good part
Paranoid position
Klein’s concept of how children wish to destroy the bad part of an object because they fear they will be destroyed by it
Depressive position
Klein’s concept of children wishing to worship and protect the good parts of object because they fear losing it
Mary loves her blanket so much that she threw a tantrum when her mother tried to take it from her before walking into her first preschool class.
Name the concept
According to DW Winnicott, the blanket is an example of a transitional object, which is anything that helps a child bridge the gap between their own private fantasy and reality. Such objects may be a blanket, a stuffed animal, or a niffle.
False self
Winnicott’s idea that children and eventually adults ordinarily (and not necessarily in a negative fashion) display themselves outwardly in a “fake” way. Examples include acceptable social etiquette and common politeness.
The ultimate act of the false self
Suicide
What is the function of the false self?
For oneself: To protect the true self by keeping it invisible
For others: To meet their expectations of the expectations of society
Major distinction between the base-evidence of psychoanalysis vs current clincal psychology
Psychoanalysis is based on anecdotal evidence whereas current psychological developments made based on results of using the scientific method
Westen and his definition of psycholanalytic studies
A modern psychoanalyst who stated that any modern psych research may be considered “a little” psychoanalytic as long as it addresses any one of the following:
- Examination of mental processes that occur simultaneously and can conflict
- Unconscious mental processes
- Compromises amond mental processes negotiated outside of consciousness
- Self-defensive thought and self-deception
- Influence of the past on current functioning (especially childhood patterns that continue into adulthood)
- Sexual or aggressive wishes that influence thought, feeling, and behavior
The study in which participants were shown neutral or sexually-charged words and then their recognition time was recorded was studying which unconscious process?
What did the results imply?
Study was assessing perceptual defense.
Overall, participants took longer to consciously recognize sexually-charged words even when their sweat gland activity indicated that they saw it. Implies that there may be unconscious processes at work that shield uncomfortable topics from the conscious
Parallel Distributed Processing
Concept of modern-day psychologists that supports the idea of there being many processes going on in the mind at the same time but only a fraction of it comes to the conscious.
Define conscious thought in terms of the theory, parallel distributed processing
Conscious thought is the compromise of the numerous simultaneous processes occurring in the mind (much of which are unconscious)
Freud would argue that one who is stingy, orderly, and rigid is fixated at which stage?
Anal
Catharsis
Supported by Freud. It is comprised of freely expressing an issue that is troublesome in order to improve physical and mental health. There is actual evidence of its efficacy.
Paul Meehl
Psychological methodologist. Asserted that one does not appreciate psychoanalysis simply by reading about it - it must be performed on and even by oneself.
However, he conceded the fact that there is not enough experimental research to support his conclusion and the efficacy of psycholanalysis
Somatic Marker Hypothesis
Damasio’s idea that emotions enable people to decide on matters in ways that maximize good outcomes and minimize bad ones. Allows people to focus on what is really important.
Explains why Gage and Elliot could not make rational decisions (damages to their frontal lobes disconnected emotion from decision-making)
Heritability
The percentage of the variance in a population that can be attributed to variance in genes
Heritability coefficient for twin studies
.40
Heritability coefficient for non-twin studies
.20
Heritability for adoptive sibling studies.
What are the implictions?
Only .05 - shows that a shared family environment does not seem to matter very much
Stress test of Reproductive Instinct
Not everyone wants many children
People do not have to behave in evolutionarily adaptive ways
Conservative bias
Implies that current ways are unchangeable
Funder’s stance on whether bio will replace psychology
NO! Biological reductionism is unjust because we do not know enough about the biology of personality to conclude that that is where its roots lie. ALSO biology leaves out most of psychology and does not ask many of the important questions
Results from prefrontal lobotomy patients suggest that the frontal lobes are associated with what?
Cognitive` control
Which hormone is associated with high levels of sociability, self-acceptance, and dominance?
Testoserone
C-system
Refers to effortful processing of information
X-system
Refers to automatic, unaware, effortless processing
Brain systems and their implications for psychosurgery
Systems rather than discrete areas explain why results of psychosurgery were so unpredictable and often disappointing
Prefrontal leucotomy
Small areas of the white matter behind each frontal lobe were damaged. First instance of psychosurgery
