Freud Flashcards
1
Q
Who is Sigmund Freud?
A
- neurologist
- 1856-1939
- lived primarily in Vienna
- created theory from personal experiences and memories
- studied with Charcot in Paris
- explored benefits of cocaine
- developed psychoanalytic practice
2
Q
Freud’s Austria
A
- Characterized by an even more rigorous form of Victorian sexual morality than England
- Intense moral preoccupation with sexuality, particularly in women and children
- Young women were expected to be chaste before marriage
- Sexual exploration and masturbation were assiduously suppressed
3
Q
What was Freud’s general theory?
A
- Unusual, or “perverse,” sexual desires dominate the mind
- These became unconscious, no longer under the control of a person’s self-conscious and voluntary choices
- Manifested in a person’s involuntary actions, like mistakes and slips of the tongues, as well as in mental pathologies, like obsession, paranoia, hysteria, and anxiety
4
Q
What did Freud and Breuer work on together?
A
- studies in hysteria
- use of hypnosis in treating hysteria
- case of Anna O.
5
Q
What is free association?
A
- under the right circumstances, patients describe previously hidden material that seemed related to the causes and cure of their hysterical symptoms
6
Q
What did Freud discover about hysteria?
A
- Physical changes could not be observed
- Early traumatic sexual experiences were responsible for hysterical symptoms expressed by adult patients
traumatic events –> physical changes in the nervous system –> anxiety symptoms later in life
7
Q
What is psychic determinism?
A
- Idea that unconscious forces have the power to influence behaviour
8
Q
What is the topographic model?
A
- personality is divided into three levels of awareness
9
Q
What are the 3 parts of the topographical model?
A
- conscious
- preconscious
- unconscious
10
Q
What is the conscious?
A
- contains the thoughts you are currently aware of
- experiences in awareness
- limited aspect of personality
- changes constantly
- can deal with only a small percentage of all the information stored in the mind
11
Q
What is the preconscious?
A
- large body of retrievable information
- storehouse of memories and thoughts
- can call into consciousness
12
Q
What is the unconscious?
A
- thoughts that cannot be easily brought into awareness
- no immediate access
- except under extreme situations
- home of the instincts
- responsible for much of everyday behaviour
- majority of thoughts
13
Q
What is the structural model?
A
- divides personality into 3 parts often not at peace with each other
14
Q
What are the 3 parts of the structural model?
A
- id
- ego
- superego
15
Q
What is the id?
A
- at birth
- selfish part of you
- buried in unconscious
- impulses center on themes of sexuality and aggression
- id impulses ever present, held in check by other parts of healthy adult personality
- pleasure principle: concerned only with what brings immediate personal satisfaction regardless of physical or social limitations
- wish fulfillment: if the desired object is not available, id will imagine what it wants
16
Q
What is the ego?
A
- 2 years
- reality principle: primary job is to satisfy id impulses in a manner that takes into consideration the realities of the world and consequences of the action
- keep impulses unconscious
- moves freely between conscious, preconscious and unconscious
17
Q
What is the superego?
A
- 5 years
- represents society’s values and standards
- internalized values
- places more restrictions on what we can do
- primary weapon is guilt
- conscience
18
Q
What conflicts threaten the ego?
A
- reality anxiety
- neurotic anxiety
- moral anxiety
19
Q
What is reality anxiety?
A
- tangible dangers
- threat is really there
20
Q
What is neurotic anxiety?
A
- id vs ego
- vague feelings of anxiety sparked by the sensation that unacceptable unconscious thoughts are about to burst through the awareness barrier and express themselves in consciousness
21
Q
What is moral anxiety?
A
- id vs superego
- superego can become too powerful and burden the ego with impossible standards of perfection
- ever present feeling of shame and guilt
22
Q
What is the structural model like in a healthy individual?
A
- a strong ego does not allow the id or the superego to much control over the personality
- below our awareness we have an eternal state of tension between a desire for self-indulgence, a concern for reality, and the enforcement of a strict moral code
23
Q
What is the Triebe?
A
- strong internal forces that motivate human behaviour
- drives or instincts
- propelling forces of personality
- form of energy
24
Q
What are the 2 important instincts?
A
- libido
- thanatos
25
Q
What is the libido?
A
- life or sexual instinct
- oriented toward survival
- most of human behaviour
- erotic content and any action aimed at receiving pleasure
26
Q
What is the thanatos?
A
- death or aggressive instinct
- compulsion to destroy and conquer
- desire to die and return to the earth
- mostly turned outward and expressed against others
27
Q
What are defense mechanisms?
A
- ego strategies to defend against anxiety
- techniques of ego to deal with unwanted thoughts and desires and reduce or avoid anxiety
- provoked by everyday conflicts
- denials or distortions of reality
28
Q
What are the types of defense mechanisms?
A
- repression
- sublimation
- displacement
- denial
- reaction formation
- intellectualization
- projection
- regression
- rationalization
29
Q
What is repression?
A
- active effort by the ego to push threatening material out of consciousness
- or keep from ever reaching consciousness
- requires constant expend of energy
- most important
30
Q
What is sublimation?
A
- ego channels threatening unconscious impulses into socially acceptable actions
- id is allowed to express aggression and ego doesn’t have to tie up energy holding back impulses
- most successful
31
Q
What is displacement?
A
- channelling id impulses to nonthreatening objects
- do not lead to social rewards
- many of our irrational fears are symbolic displacements
32
Q
What is denial?
A
- refusal to accept that certain facts exist
- insist something is not true despite evidence to the contrary
- extreme form of defense
- less in touch with reality, more difficulty functioning
33
Q
What is reaction formation?
A
- hide by acting in a manner opposite to threatening unconscious desires
- expression of opposite id impulse
- as if thought is so unacceptable that the ego must prove how incorrect the notion is
34
Q
What is intellectualization?
A
- removal of emotional content from the thought before allowing it to enter awareness
- considering something in strictly intellectual, unemotional manner
- helps bring previously difficult thoughts into consciousness without anxiety
35
Q
What is projection?
A
- attribute a disturbing impulse to someone else instead of to ourselves
- free ourselves from the perception that we are the one who holds a certain thought
36
Q
What is regression?
A
- retreat to an earlier, more childlike, safer period of life
37
Q
What is rationalization?
A
- reinterpreting behaviour
- generating self-justifying explanations for our negative behaviours
38
Q
What is Freud’s psychosexual stages development theory?
A
- Sequence of development made up of stages characterized by primary erogenous zones and sexual desires
- Each stage has a specific influence on the adult personality
- Adult personalities of people are greatly influenced by the events of early childhood
- Personality develops in stages
- Each stage defined by erogenous zone
- Resolve conflict to move to next stage
39
Q
What is an erogenous zone?
A
- part of the body, when touched, provides pleasure
40
Q
What is a fixation?
A
- results when child is unable to move through a stage
- excessive frustration or gratification
- the tying up of psychic energy
- less energy for normal functioning
- adult expresses behaviours characteristic of fixated stage
41
Q
What are the psychosexual stages of development?
A
- oral
- anal
- phallic
- latent
- genital
42
Q
When is the oral stage?
A
- first 18 months
43
Q
What are the primary erogenous zones of the oral stage?
A
- mouth
- lips
- tongue
44
Q
What is a fixation at the oral stage?
A
- traumatic weaning or feeding problems
- leads to oral personality
- dependent on others
- infantile need for oral satisfaction
- fixation after teething; excessive levels of aggression
45
Q
When is the anal stage?
A
- 18 months to 3 years
46
Q
What are the primary erogenous zones of the anal stage?
A
- anal region
47
Q
What is a fixation at the oral stage?
A
- traumatic toilet training
- anal personality
- orderly and rigid
- stubborn or generous
48
Q
When is the phallic stage?
A
- 3 to 6 years
49
Q
What are the primary erogenous zones of the phallic stage?
A
- penis or clitoris
50
Q
What characterizes the end of the phallic stage?
A
- Oedipus complex
51
Q
What is the Oedipus complex?
A
- sexual attraction for their opposite sex parent
- boys develop castration anxiety
- girls develop penis envy
- Oedipal desire never fully eliminated, they are repressed
52
Q
What is castration anxiety?
A
- fear that their father will discover their thoughts and cut off their penis
- think this fate has already befallen girls
53
Q
What is penis envy?
A
- desire to have a penis
- feelings of inferiority and jealousy because of its absence
54
Q
How is the Oedipus conflict resolved?
A
- repress desire for opposite sex parent
- type of reaction formation
- identify with same sex parent
- boys begin taking on masculine characteristics and girl feminine characteristics
- adopting parents values and standards paves way for superego
55
Q
When is the latency stage?
A
- 6 years to puberty
56
Q
What are the primary erogenous zones of the latency stage?
A
- none
57
Q
What is the latency stage?
A
- sexual desires abate
- boys and girls are uninterested in each other
58
Q
When is the genital stage?
A
- puberty
59
Q
What are the primary erogenous zones of the genital stage?
A
- adult genital regions
60
Q
What is the genital stage?
A
- if a child progressed to this stage, without leaving large amounts of libido fixated at earlier stages, normal sexual functioning is possible
61
Q
What are the seven techniques for to get at unconscious material?
A
- dreams
- projective tests
- free association
- freudian slips
- hypnosis
- accidents
- symbolic behaviour
62
Q
What are dreams?
A
- provide id impulses with a stage for expression
- type of wish fulfillment
- manifest content; what the dreamer sees and remembers
- latent content: what is really being expressed
- unacceptable images can safely surface in our dreams in symbolic form
- trained psychoanalysts can identify common dream symbols
63
Q
What are projective tests?
A
- Assesses unconscious material by asking test takers to respond to ambiguous stimuli
- Identifying objects, telling a story, or drawing a picture
- Provides insight into what is going on in the unsconsious
64
Q
What is free association?
A
- strange, uncensored ideas flowing into awareness
- temporarily bypass the censoring mechanism employed by ego
- not so easy
65
Q
What are Freudian slips?
A
- unconscious associations that momentarily slipped out
66
Q
What is hypnosis?
A
- ego put into a suspended state during a deep hypnotic trance
- bypass ego and get directly to unconscious material
- not all clients are responsive
67
Q
What are accidents?
A
- intentional actions stemming from unconscious impulses
- resistance: consciously did not remember, unconsciously deliberate effort to thwart
68
Q
What is symbolic behaviour?
A
- daily behaviours that are symbolic representations of unconscious desires
- ex: daisies symbolize mother, man liked rubbing feet into doormat with images of daises; symbolically acting out hostility toward mother
69
Q
What is psychoanalysis?
A
- system of psychotherapy
- developed by Freud
- bring crucial unconscious material that is causing the disorder into consciousness where it can be examined in a rational manner
- client speaks freely, without distractions
- therapist and client work together to help ego exercise appropriate control over id impulses and/or oppressive superego
- therapist interprets significance of statements, behaviours, and dreams
70
Q
What are some drawbacks to psychoanalysis?
A
- lengthy
- expensive
- transference and countertransference
- early insight could be threatening for an unprepared ego
- clients must obtain a reasonable understanding of psychoanalytic theory before appreciating therapist’s interpretations
71
Q
What is an indication that psychoanalysis is getting close to crucial material?
A
- resistance
72
Q
What is transference?
A
- emotions associated with people from the past are displaced onto the therapist
- handling transference is delicate and crucial part of therapy process
73
Q
What is countertransference?
A
- therapists displace their own feelings toward other individuals onto the client
74
Q
How do psychoanalysists measure personality contructs?
A
- projective tests
- bypass direct reports
75
Q
How do projective tests work?
A
- ambiguous stimuli
- describe what they see, tell stories, react to material
- responses highly idiosyncratic (individual)
- projections from the unconscious
- significance of response not apparent to test taker
76
Q
What are some types of projective tests?
A
- Rorschach inkblot test
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- Human Figure Drawing test
77
Q
What is the Rorschach inkblot test?
A
- 10 cards with blots of ink
- client describe what they see
78
Q
What is the TAT?
A
- ambiguous pictures
- client tells a story about each
79
Q
What is the Human Figure Drawing test?
A
- client draws a picture
- sometimes asked to draw person or family or tree
- mostly for children
80
Q
What are the strengths of Freud’s theory?
A
- first comprehensive theory of human behaviour and personality
- set the direction for subsequent personality theory and research
- developing first system of psychotherapy
- techniques like free association, hypnosis and dream interpretation became standard tools
- popularizing and promoting many important psychological concepts
81
Q
What are the criticisms of Freud’s theory?
A
- ideas not original or groundbreaking; many ideas appear in literature that predates Freud’s work
- many hypotheses generated by theory not testable
- heavy reliance on case studies to support theory falls short of standards
- patients hardly represented typical adults
- all info about clients was filtered through Freud
- possible that Freud, consciously or unconsciously, caused his patients to say what he wanted to hear
