Lecture 3 Psychodynamic Approaches Flashcards
Levels of consciousness
Conscious thought, preconscious mind, unconscious mind, repression, no clear division, but different degrees
- dreams, stressful times, in symptoms of illness or psychological disturbance, alcohol or drugs
The unconscious and dreams
- Preserve sleep by representing wishes as being fulfilled
- Manifest content of dreams
- Latent content of dreams
Primary and Secondary processes
Primary - irrational thinking/dreams, the Pleasure Principle
Secondary - rational thought, the Reality Principle
Freud and the nature of human beings
Structure and development of personality underlies human nature and motivation
Libido?
- Child born with fixed amount of mental energy
- Adult sex drives
Motivation?
- To satisfy basic instinctual drives
- Sexual drives
- Life-preserving drives
- Thanatos (self-destructive, death instinct)
Structure of human personality according to Freud?
Super ego, Ego, and Id
Id?
- Raw, uninhibited instinctual energy
- Source of impulses and mental energy
- Also drives for basic survival needs, and sex, aggression and self-destruction
Ego?
- Planning, thinking and organizing
- Mediator between child and world
- Reality principle and secondary processes -> social factors
Superego?
- Conscience (internalized parental attitudes etc.)
- Acts in opposition to the Id
- Also regulation of the ego…
Theory of Psychosexual development
Oral stage (birth to 1) -> Anal stage (18months - 3yrs) -> Phallic stage (3-5) -> Latency stage (5-12) -> Genital stage (12-18)
What can go wrong in Psychosexual development?
Fixation can occur at any stage, internal resistance to transferring libidinal energy to new objects
What can go wrong with Personality components?
Conflicting demands of Id, Ego and Superego, Intrapersonal anxiety, can occur at any stage, Latency phase -> defence mechanisms
Defence Mechanisms?
Regression, Repression, Denial, Displacement, Phobic avoidance, undoing, sublimation… difficult to test
Who are the three Neo-Freudian theorists?
Adler, Jung & Horney
Adler’s Individual Psychology overview
Inferiority feelings:
- Experienced from birth - helpless infant
- Strive for mastery to fulfil potential
Birth order:
- Unique treatment of each child
- Individual experience of the family
‘Style of life’ developed from family experience
When inferiority is not compensated for - Neurotic personality develops
What is Teleology? (Adler)
- Contrast with deterministic approach
- Overarching goal of superiority/mastery
- Driving achievement and maximizing potential
- Goal is fictitious -> never achievable
Basic concerns in development of personality types (Adler)
Three generalized concerns; work, friendship, love
Role of parents? (Adler)
- Provide accurate conceptualizations
- Introduction to “social life”
- Interactional relationships
- “Equality” - both parents have crucial roles
Effects of birth order: Eldest child
Child: ‘dethroned monarch’, understands status
Adult: conservative, respect authority, maintains status quo, intellectual attainment
Second child
Child: competitive, reacts to behaviour of older sibling
Adult: demanding of themselves, unrealistic goals
Youngest child
Child: babied by family, attention and pampering
Adult: high dependency, desire to excel, need for praise
Only child
Child: without ‘rivals’, likely to be pampered (by mother)
Adult: need for approval, difficulty with criticism/dislike, intellectually able and high achieving
Alderian Personality Types: Ruling Type
- Lacks social interest
- Intense striving for power
- Emotionally manipulative
- Possibly result of addiction, delinquency or domineering adulthood
