Midterm 2 Flashcards
According to Freud, the human mind consists of 3 parts. Describe them
Conscious mind - the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions a person is currently aware of
Preconscious mind - Any information that you are not presently thinking of but could be made conscious
Unconscious mind - Information that cannot be accessed consciously (largest part)
What is psychic determinism?
Psychic determinism is the idea that nothing happens by chance - all accidents of daily life, including mental illness symptoms, can be attributed to unconscious activity
Define the main functions of the id, ego, and superego in daily life (provide an example)
id - the source of all drives and urges that operates on the pleasure principle and immediate gratification
Ego - The ego balances the competing forces of the id and the superego into acceptable acts, it operates on the reality principle
Superego - the internalized values, morals, and ideals of society, known as the conscience, also not bound by reality
Ex. Someone says a mean thing to you.
The id may say hit them, whereas the superego says that thou shall not hit. You ego balances these and instead confronts the person without aggression.
Provide examples of the following defence mechanisms: denial, displacement, rationalization, reaction formation, and projection
Denial: Not believing someone killed themselves to cope with suicide
Displacement: Taking your anger out on your partner so you don’t yell at your boss and get fired
Rationalization: Telling your parents you got a bad grade because the instructions were vague and everyone else got a bad grade too (common among educated people)
Reaction formation: Killing someone with kindness
Projection: Accusing your partner of cheating when you’re having an affair
Which defence mechanism did Freud suggest was the healthiest ego defence? Provide a specific example
Sublimation - allowing yourself to express id tendencies in healthy and acceptable ways
Ex. Sky diving might be a form of sublimating a death wish
Name and briefly summarize the stages in Freud’s theory of psychosexual development
- Oral stage (birth-18m) : the conflict is weaning/withdrawing from the breast or bottle and the fixation is dependency/overly independent
- Anal stage (18m-3yr): The conflict is gaining self-control and withstanding defecating whenever babies feel bowel tension; fixation results in with obedience or anti-authority
- Phallic stage (3y-5y): children discover their own genitals and they direct sexual desire to the parent of the opposite sex (oepdipal conflict/penis envy); fixation results in over-under sexualized
- Latency stage (6y-puberty): lack of sexual conflict, focus on cognitive development
- Genital stage (puberty-life): libido is focused on the genitals but not in manner of self-manipulation, there is no major conflict in this stage; theme is creation and life enhancement
According to Freud, what is fixation? What are the implications of a fixation for adult personality?
Fixation is when a child fails to resolve the major conflict in their stage and are unable to progress to the next stage.
When people fixate on a stage they use a lot of psychic energy which negatively impacts the energy required for the next stage if one is to resolve their fixated stage.
When people fixate they do not achieve a complete personality and will struggle
Name and describe the psychoanalytic techniques for revealing the unconscious
Free Association - having someone resist the urge to think before speaking and allow themselves to speak about whatever comes to mind
Dreams - analyzing dreams by uncovering and interpreting unconscious material (distinguish between manifest content and latent content)
Projective techniques - analyzing how individuals react to ambiguous figures/ to determine what personality traits they are projecting onto the image (inkblot)
Summarize the process of psychoanalysis
A psychoanalyst begins to understand the unconscious source of a patients problems by applying psychoanalytic technique and offering many interpretations.
A psychoanalyst must help a patient work through resistance - a stage where individuals try to prevent the analyst from discovering their unconscious memories
As an individual begins to understand the unconscious source of their problems they experience insight (intense emotional experience)
Individuals use transference (role playing) to work though issues an individual has with a past/present individual
They also use repetition compulsion to play out our interpersonal problems with new people
What are the 5 basic assumptions or ideas supported by contemporary psychoanalysis
- Unconscious plays a huge role in our behaviour; but not as ubiquitous as Freud suggested
- Behaviour often reflects compromises in conflict among mental processes
- Childhood plays an important part in personality development esp. relationship styles
- Mental representations of the self and relationships guide our interactions with others
- Personality development involves more than just sex/aggression - maturing from socially dependent to independent relationships
Narcissistic individuals have a high self-esteem.
True or False
False.
They appear to have a high self-esteem but they are actually fragile and vulnerable.
List Erikson’s eight stages of development. How does Erikson’s theory of development compare and contrast with Freud’s theory of psychosexual development?
- Trust vs. mistrust
- Autonomy vs. shame/doubt
- Initiative vs. guilt
- Industry vs. inferiority
- Identity vs. role confusion
- Intimacy vs. stagnation
- Integrity vs. despair
Erikson believed that an individual must progress through a set of psychosocial crises. He argued that personality development continued into late adulthood and there was no period of latency
Freud believed in psychosexual crises and through personality was developed larger by age 5
Both argued that an individual can become fixated if crisis is not resolved
What were the main contributions of Karen Horney to ego psychology?
She stressed that cultural norms are used to determine what is acceptable for a typical male and female of that culture. She is the reason we discuss gender differences and use terms such as feminine and masculine when referring to roles and traits.
She argued that women desired social power and did not suffer from penis envy
Define narcissism and discuss the narcissistic paradox
Narcissism is an inflated self-admiration and constant desire to draw attention to oneself (entitlement, sense of being special, extreme self-focus, etc)
The paradox is that although people high in narcissism appear to be high in self-esteem, they actually doubt their value and worth and are vulnerable to criticism
What is the main premise of object relations theory?
It is the idea that social relationships and their origins in childhood are the most important things in personality development
The assumptions are that:
1) internal wishes/desires are not as important as the development of relationships with others
2) Other people become internalized by the child in mental objects (esp. mother)
3) First social attachments that infants develop forms prototypes for all future relationships
What are the 3 primary styles of attachment in childhood? How do they relate to or predict behaviours in adult relationships?
Secure attachment, avoidant attachment, and ambivalent attachment
Research indicates attachment styles are moderately stable throughout life, thus if people have bad relationships as children they are likely to have bad relationships as adults. However, positive relationships can compensate for earlier bad relationships.
Distinguish among deflect, need, motive, and press. How are they related, and what role do they play in personality?
A need is the readiness to respond in a certain way under certain circumstances - they organize perception (guiding us to see what we want) and action
A motive is an internal state that arouses/directs behaviour due do a deficit of a need
Press refers to need-relevant aspects of the environment - A person requires a press in order to influence their behaviour (beta vs. alpha)
What is apperception? How is it measured by the TAT, and what are the implications of this measurement for needs and motives?
Apperception is the act of interpreting the environment and perceiving the meaning - a persons apperception is influenced by their needs and motives, thus people perceive things differently depending their needs/motives
The TAT measures apperception by asking people to perceive ambitious situations in order to determine underlying motives
What are the ‘Big Three’ motives? Describe them in your own words, and consider practical examples of each
- Need for achievement is when people strive to be successful
ex. They take on challenges at work because they want to succeed in being promoted - Need for power is when people prefer to have an impact over others
ex. A person picks friends who they think are less interesting so that they can impress them - Need for intimacy is when people strive for close relationships
Ex. A friend who likes talking about your desires and makes a lot of eye contact
What sex differences have been observed in each of the big three motives?
When it comes to level of need, the only motive which has a sex difference is intimacy. Women have higher nInt than men
nAch - Men are found to be more geared to achievement at work, whereas women can desire achievement at work or with a family, women are more likely to be high in nAch if they had a rough family life whereas men are more likely when they have supportive parenting, women are less likely to engage in direct competition
nPow- Men with high need are more likely to behave impulsively and aggressively, but not women
What are the needs on Maslow’s Hierarcy? Give an example of each
Physiological - needs for immediate and long-term survival (ex. food, air, sex)
Safety - shelter and security (having a home safe from danger)
Belonginess - a strong desire to belong to groups (having a close relationship with someone)
Esteem - Having high esteem from others and outsells (being seen as strong and competent, while also feeling you are worthwhile)
Self-actualization - developing ones true potential (going to school for a topic you are passionate about)
*self-transcendence - setting goals that extend beyond yourself (volunteering with homeless without an alternative motive besides altruism)
If you had a friend who was interested in self-actualizing, what advice would you give them? What traits or characteristics would you suggest they try to develop?
People on the path to self-actualization should take responsibilities for their actions/decisions and make an effort to move and grow in a positive direction
Some important traits are to accept themselves and others, do not try to fit in, focus on the present and do not dwell over the past or petty issues, be creative, be open to new experiences.
I could also use a client-centre approach instead of suggesting traits. Have a person decide for themselves because I cannot decide how someone should be, that is not what self-actualization is about
Describe the key differences between individuals who are field dependent and those who are field independent
An individual who is field dependent relies on external/environmental cues
An individual who is field independent relies on internal bodily sensation cues to ignore clutter of background information
Field independent people are able to analyze complex situations and extract information; Field dependent people see the big picture more readily
They are more likely to favour natural sciences, math, engineering, they are autonomous and lack social skills, they can learn better in a hyper-media environment, can interpret facial expressions better, and have an easier time learning a new language
Consider individual differences in pain tolerance. What is the main difference between reducers and augmenters?
Reducers have a high pain tolerance because their nervous system reduces the effect of sensory stimulation
Augmenters have low pain tolerance because their nerves system amplifies subjective impact of sensory stimulation
How would you summarize Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory?
He argued that people employ personal constructs to interpret and predict events. No two people have the same contruct system and thus have their own unique interpretations of the world
People experience anxiety when our personal contracts don’t help us understand unpredictable events
What is locus of control, and how is it seen to vary between people?
Locus of control describes a persons perception of responsibility for life events and whether one locates responsibility internally or externally
People who have a generalized internal locus of control are more likely to take charge and take more responsibility. It is seen as more adaptive and conducive to well-being.
Other people have an external locus of control and believe outcomes are out of their control
Name and define the three dimensions involved in explanatory style. How can they be used to define optimism and pessimism?
Internal-external
Stable-Unstable - an explanation is either thought of as permanent (stable) or temporary (external)
Global-specific - global affects many situations in ones life whereas specific only affects the particular situation
Pessimism is when one emphasizes internal, stable and global causes
Optimism is when one emphasizes external, temporary, and specific causes
Define self-efficacy, and explain how it is related to performance. When is self-efficacy most important?
Self-efficacy is the belief that one can execute a specific course of action to achieve a goal
It is related to performance because self-efficacy leads to better performance which then increases self-efficacy further
It is most important when first starting out on a task. If a task is too complex it can be broken down into subgoals
What are the two primary ways in which people regulate their goal-directed behaviours according to Higgins?
Promotion focus - the person is covered with advancement, growth, and accomplishments
Prevention focus - the person is concerned with safety, protection, and the prevention of negative outcomes
What are two different ways of defining intelligence?
Achievement view of intelligence - how much knowledge a person has acquired relative to others in their cohort
Aptitude view of intelligence - the ability to learn
According to Freud, all human activity is driven by ______
Psychic energy - it motivates action, is constant throughout lifetime, it comes from instincts, and is held in the Id.
According to Freud, what are the two fundamental categories of instincts?
Life instinct (libido) which contains sexual and self-preservation instincts
Death instinct (Thanatos) which contains aggressive and destructive instincts
What is the motivated unconscious?
Freud’s idea that unconscious material can take on a life of its own but leaking into thoughts/feelings and influencing behaviour
Conjuring up an image of punching someone in the face that is being mean to you, but not actually doing it, in order to satisfy the need to hurt them is an example of what?
Wish fulfillment
The Id operates on secondary process thinking, whereas the Ego operates on primary processing thinking.
True or False
FALSE
The Id operates on primary thinking without logical rules or anchor in reality
The Ego operates on secondary thinking - developing and devising strategies for problem solving in order to obtain satisfaction
