Freud

Question 1

What are conscious thoughts?

Answer 1

Those that we are aware of

Question 2

What are preconscious thoughts?

Answer 2

Thoughts that we can become aware of

Question 3

What are unconscious thoughts?

Answer 3

Wishes and desires that we cannot access directly but can influence our behaviour, they use up our energy by repression

Question 4

Why is early experience important?

Answer 4

The first 5 years of childhood define our personality: id/ego/superego, anxiety can be created from conflict with parents, unresolved conflicts lead to fixation and defence mechanisms

Question 5

What are our two urges and what do they do?

Answer 5

Life - Eros and Death - Thanatos, basic instincts that drive our behaviour

Question 6

What is the ID?

Answer 6

it represents our pleasure principal, wishes and desires

Question 7

What is the Ego?

Answer 7

It makes decisions based on the demands of the id and restrictions of the superego - reality principal

Question 8

What happens if the ego is not developed?

Answer 8

Aggression could be caused

Question 9

What is the super ego?

Answer 9

The morality principal, learnt from our parents and society

Question 10

What happens if the superego is underdeveloped and the id is strong?

Answer 10

It may make you aggressive

Question 11

What are the defense mechanisms and why do they exist?

Answer 11

They are designed to help the Ego keep peace between the superego and the id
>repression
>displacement
>projection
>sublimation

Question 12

What is repression?

Answer 12

Involves keeping unwanted thoughts into the unconscious and not allowing them to surface into the conscious

Question 13

What is displacement?

Answer 13

Taking out anger on something else

Question 14

What is projection?

Answer 14

The superego’s hostility is directed towards other people who seem to be acting on those same feelings; often involves “blaming the victim”

Question 15

What is sublimation?

Answer 15

The id’s urges are acted upon, but are transformed into something that is socially acceptable - e.g sport may be a disguise for aggression or art

Question 16

How is thanatos related to defense mechanisms?

Answer 16

Defense mechanisms often project thanatos outwards, so that we harm other people and not ourselves

Question 17

Methods of psychoanalysis?

Answer 17

> Dream analysis
Symbol analysis
Free association
Slips of the tongue

Question 18

Who did Freud use for his psychoanalysis?

Answer 18

Middle aged, Vienes women suffering from neurosis and people with phobias like Little Hans

Question 19

What is Catharsis?

Answer 19

Talking therapy, an emotional way to vent aggression - e.g watching a boxing match

Question 20

What did Hokanson (1974) find that supports catharsis?

Answer 20

He found that behaving in an aggressive way reduced tension in the individual as shown by biological measures

Question 21

What did Verona and Sullivan (2008) find that supports catharsis?

Answer 21

People who reacted in an aggressive way to being made frustrated in a task had a reduced heart rate compared with those who did not react aggressively

Question 22

What did Hokanson (1974) find that refutes catharsis?

Answer 22

Reduction in tension after behaving aggressively seemed to increase the likelihood of later aggression

Question 23

What did Bushman et al (1999) find against catharsis?

Answer 23

That those who read an article about violence, were more likely to be violent

Question 24

What reduced the reliability of Freud’s theory?

Answer 24

> Cannot be tested scientifically - unconscious??

>Qualitative data is hard to replicate

Question 25

Is there validity for Freud’s theory?

Answer 25

> Qualitative data is rich in validity as it is personal and has a lot of detail
But, Little Hans’s dreams and emotions were reported through his father so very subjective
Although, psychoanalysis has been successful

Question 26

Why is the thoery subjective?

Answer 26

Qualitative data always has an element of bias because the researcher will affect the way it can be interpreted, it isn’t falsifiable

Question 27

Is it generalisable?

Answer 27

Qualitative data involves info from unique individuals which means findings are unique and cannot be generalised, e.g Middle Aged Vienes Women

Question 28

Does it have credibility?

Answer 28

Case studies are credible in that they are personal nad are rich in detail, but no evidence for what is really in the unconscious so lacking

Question 29

A strength of the theory?

Answer 29

He was the first person to think that childhood experiences shape us as adultss