Freud

Question 1

(Freud) Six general characteristics of the theory:

Answer 1

1. A dynamic approach
2. A structural approach
3. A topographic approach
4. A developmental stage approach
5. Psychoanalytic methods
6. different parts, but interconnected

Question 2

(Freud) What makes this a dynamic approach?

Answer 2

1. Freud noted powerful drives (nervous energy) in his patients, which led him to see personality as dynamic
2. Nervous energy variously termed as psychic energy, drive energy, libido, and tension
3. analogous to energy in physics, psychic energy builds up and can be distributed, transformed and discharged
4. discharge of tension leads to pleasure
5. Pleasure principle: whenever possible, energy is discharged without delay
6. Reality principle: small amounts of energy are discharged, but only in an indirect route, and/or after a delay

Question 3

(Freud) Where does this psychic energy come from?

Answer 3

1. Human body has certain instincts/biological drives
2. 1. Two basic instincts:
3. 1.1. Eros: sex, self-preservation, love, life forces, striving toward unity
   - ->available energy: libido
4. 1.2. Destructive instinct: aggression, undoing connections, death instinct, hatred
5. Instincts involve excitation in some regions of the body
   - ->change in the site of excitation underlies movement from stage to stage
6. Interplay between mind and body, psychic energy is derived from biological energy
7. Aim of drive is to remove bodily need, discharge tension, and experience pleasure
8. Libido becomes attached to an object
   - ->infants to their mother and others that satisfy their needs

Question 4

(Freud) What is the meaning of the structural approach?

Answer 4

1. Psychological structure through which energy flows
   –>structures mediate between the drives and behavior
2. Three major structures:
    Id: seat of biologically based drives
    Ego: mechanism for adapting to reality
    Superego: analogous to the conscience

Question 5

(Freud) Id:

Answer 5

1. Exists from birth
2. Seat of innate desires, main source of psychic energy
3. Wants immediate satisfaction (pleasure principle)
4. Energy of id is invested
    in action on an object that would satisfy an instinct (e.g., sucking a nipple)
    or in images of an object that would give partial satisfaction – hallucinatory wish fulfillment (primary-process thought) (e.g., imagining a bottle of milk)

Question 6

(Freud) Ego:

Answer 6

1. Develops when babies discover that there is a difference between images (e.g., their wish) and reality, between the self and outer world
2. Possesses rational thought, intellectual activities such as perception, logical thought, problem solving and memory (= secondary-process thought)
3. Ego must make decisions: evaluates present situation, recalls decisions and events in the past, predicts consequences
4. Decision making involves delay of energy discharge (reality principle)
5. Energy for ego comes from id
6. Mediates between the Id and external world
7. Threats and dangers from both arouse anxiety – if too strong, defense mechanisms come into play

Question 7

(Freud) Superego:

Answer 7

1. The last structure to develop
2. Arises when children resolve their Oedipus complex and develop identification with their parents (see stages)
3. Two parts:
4. 1. conscience (negative, composed of the parents’ prohibitions; punishes the person with feelings of guilt etc.)
5. 2. ego ideal (positive, standards of conduct towards which a person strives, reward: feelings of self-esteem and pride)
6. Opposes both id and ego
7. Rewards, punishes and makes demands

Question 8

(Freud) Defense mechanisms:

Answer 8

1. Repression: prevents a threatening thought from reaching consciousness
2. Reaction formation: acting the opposite of the way one feels
3. Regression: returning to earlier form of behavior
   - ->defense mechanisms needed to deal with high anxiety but at the cost of using energy which could have been used otherwise

Question 9

(Freud) What is the meaning of the topographic approach?

Answer 9

Three regions:

1. Unconscious: thoughts and feelings that are repressed, therefore unknown
2. Preconscious: capable of becoming conscious (not actively barred from consciousness)
3. Conscious: what a person is aware of at a moment (only a few thoughts at any one time)

Question 10

(Freud) The connection between the structural and topographical approaches:

Answer 10

1. All the id resides in the unconscious – the largest area
2. Ego and superego span the three layers
3. Developmental changes in relative size of unconscious, preconscious and conscious
4. No separation between unconscious, preconscious and conscious

Question 11

(Freud) Claims about the stage approach:

Answer 11

1. first few years of life most important years for formation of personality
2. development involves psychosexual stages

Question 12

(Freud) General nature of stages:

Answer 12

1. defined in terms of the part of the body around which drives are centered
2. each stage presents new need that must be handled by the mental structure
3. movement from one stage to another is biologically determined
4. invariant order
5. regression to earlier behavior to escape unbearable tense experiences
6. partial integration in the last stage (component instincts merge)

Question 13

Freud’s methodology:

Answer 13

1. Freud did not study children directly
2. Adult personalities seen as residues of childhood
3. Methods:
4. 1. free association: patients verbally report their ongoing stream of thought
5. 1.1. every psychological event has a meaning, does not occur randomly
6. 1.2. Freud abstracted common themes underlying seemingly unrelated thoughts or behavior
7. 2. dream analysis: during dreams disturbing unconscious thoughts can be expressed and wishes fulfilled
8. 2.1. thoughts are often disguised (until unmasked in psychoanalysis)

Question 14

(Freud) What are the 5 stages?

Answer 14

1. Oral stage
2. Anal stage
3. Phallic stage
4. Period of latency
5. Genital stage

Question 15

(Freud) Oral stage:

Answer 15

roughly birth to 1 year

1. Oral experiences lead to both pleasure and pain:
2. 1. pleasure from satisfaction of oral drives
3. 1.1. sucking, chewing, eating, and biting give gratification by relieving uncomfortable sexual excitations
4. 1.2. oral activities cause pleasant sensual feelings, are satisfying by themselves
5. 2. pain from frustration and anxiety:
6. 2.1. if tensions are not satisfied but continue to intensify
7. 2.2. frustrations may come from parental demands (e.g., not nighttime feeding)
8. 3. coping with frustrations will form basis for later personality
9. Too little or too much oral gratification disturbs development
10. Formation of attachment to the mother
11. Mother as first and strongest love-object, as prototype of all later loverelations
12. As typically mother satisfies needs, she becomes primary love object
13. If attachment is too strong, the infant becomes overly dependent on the mother

Question 16

(Freud) Anal stage:

Answer 16

roughly 1 to 3 years

1. Maturation moves infants to anal stage, concern moves from oral to anal area
2. Physiological need to defecate creates tension, relieved by defecation
3. 1. pleasure: Anal stimulation and reduction of tension
4. 2. frustration: parents demand toilet training, thus self-control
5. Goal: to allow enough but not too much gratification and to develop self-control

Question 17

(Freud) Phallic stage:

Answer 17

roughly 3 to 5 years

1. Possession of the phallus in boys and its absence in girls is a major concern
2. Pleasures and problems center on the genital area
3. Problem: sexual urge is directed toward the parent of other sex
4. Freud believed that conflict is more intense for boys – Oedipus complex
5. 1. boy has sexual desires for his mother and does not want to share her with his father
6. 2. boy fears that father, in retaliation, will castrate him
7. 3. boy represses his desire for his mother and his hostility toward his father
8. 4. identifies with his father – emotional bond, strives to be like him, internalizes beliefs, values, attitudes
9. 5. superego result of this identification
10. Freud: girls face similar, but much less intense conflict
11. 1. girl desires fathers
12. 2. experiences penis envy as she realizes that father has something she does not have
13. 3. girl feels she has been castrated and blames her mother for the loss
14. 4. compared to boys less anxiety and therefore less repression (as less threat, because castration not possible)
15. 5. identifies with her mother – weaker identification than boys with father
16. 6. as a consequence, weaker conscience in girls
17. With identification and waning phallic stage, children`s basic personality is set
18. Conflicts are resolved in characteristic ways
19. Personality changes, but primarily by further differentiation of the basic structure

Question 18

(Freud) Period of latency:

Answer 18

~ 5 years to beginning of puberty

1. Period of relative calm
2. Sexual drives are repressed, no new area of bodily excitement emerges
3. Focus on school activities and play, primarily with children of the same sex
4. Sexual energy continues to flow, but channeled into social concerns and defenses against sexuality
5. Ego and superego continue to develop

Question 19

(Freud) Genital stage:

Answer 19

adolescence

1. Sexual impulses reappear
2. Fused with earlier ones, channeled into adult sexuality
3. Love becomes more altruistic
4. Choice of partner influenced by attitudes and social patterns developed in earlier years
5. By the end, a relatively stable state is achieved by most people

Question 20

(Freud) What famous case study is related to this theory?

Answer 20

“Little Hans”

“Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy” (1909/1955a)

1. Freud’s only analysis of a child
2. Conducted by mail in a series of letters with the boy’s father, who made the observations
3. Central in the formation of the developmental concept identification
4. Freud identified three themes:
5. 1. oedipus complex
6. 2. sibling rivalry
7. 3. fear of punishment for masturbation

Question 21

(Freud) By what processes does a child’s thinking progress?

Answer 21

1. Development proceeds because of disturbances to the system
2. Freud vs. Piaget:
3. 1. psychological pain vs. logical inconsistency cause imbalance
4. 2. less responsive vs. responsive to external information
5. Freud: Five sources of conflict that stimulate development

Question 22

(Freud) Five sources of conflict that stimulate development:

Answer 22

1. Physical maturation
2. 1. changes in nervous system, motor development, hormonal changes, drives etc.
3. 2. move them from stage to stage as bodily site of pleasure changes
4. External frustrations
5. 1. people or events that don’t allow immediate expression of needs, cause buildup of tension
6. Internal conflicts
7. 1. battle among id, ego, and superego
8. Personal inadequacies (e.g., skill, knowledge)
9. Anxiety (anticipation of physical or psychological pain)

Question 23

(Freud) Dynamics of sources of conflict:

Answer 23

1. These elements cause unpleasant state of tension
2. Child attempts to resolve in accordance with pleasure and reality principle
3. Disturbances initiate change
4. Ego has primary responsibility for guiding the course of change
5. Accumulation of small changes adds up to long-term change
6. Attachment and identification also serve as mechanisms of development

Question 24

(Freud) What is the basic nature of humans?

Mechanistic view, organismic view or contextualism

Answer 24

1. Description of conflicted, contradictory nature of humans
2. Theory had elements of mechanistic and organismic worldviews:
3. 1. Mechanistic: psychological energy like hydraulic system
4. 2. Organismic:
5. 2.1. the mind as a structured whole consisting of id, ego, and superego in a dynamic balance that changes developmentally
6. 2.2. humans are active in their attempts to cope with drives

Question 25

(Freud) Is development qualitative or quantitative?

Answer 25

1. Stagelike changes imply that development involves qualitative change:
2. 1. sexual drive dominant in oral, anal, phallic or genital area
3. 2. psychological organization: new acquisitions (e.g., superego, defense mechanism)
4. Quantitative changes:
5. 1. gradual strengthening of the ego, superego
6. 2. strengthening defense mechanism

Question 26

(Freud) How do nature and nurture contribute to development?

Answer 26

1. Biologically based theory of development
2. 1. maturation
3. 2. biologically based drives
4. Freud sees experience as important:
5. 1. expression of drives is modified by social environment
6. 2. experiences first five years especially important

Question 27

(Freud) What is it that develops?

Answer 27

1. Essence of development: emergence of structures – id, ego, superego
   – that channel, repress, and transform sexual energy
2. Structures and dynamic processes are both affective and cognitive

Question 28

(Freud) Applications:

Answer 28

1. Freud`s theory used in clinical practice with adults and children
2. Message for parents to be sensitive to the conflicts in their child and to provide support for the resolution of these conflicts
3. Importance of attachment and relationship during identification

Question 29

(Freud) Evaluation: Strengths:

Answer 29

1. Discovery of central developmental
   phenomena
   1.1. developmental stages
   1.2. psychological structures
   1.3. unconscious motivation
   1.4. importance of early experiences
2. Focus on nonlogical thought
   2.1. could enrich contemporary cognitive
   approaches focusing on rational problem solving
   2.2. irrational thought processes as important as rational ones
   2.3. content of children`s thought more wide ranging

Question 30

(Freud) Evaluation: Weaknesses:

Answer 30

1. Uncertain testability of central claims
   concerning development
   1.1. methods of free association and dream
   analysis - replication of data gathering difficult
   1.2. lack of definitions
   1.3. distance between notions and observable behavior
2. Overemphasis on childhood sexuality
   2.1. data from Victorian era
   2.2. reflection of male-oriented society