Mind,Attitude Flashcards
What is mind? (Nature and Theories/Models of Mind)
The mind is the element of a person that makes them aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel. It is the faculty of consciousness and thought, a person’s ability to think and reason (the intellect). It is the set of thinking faculties including cognitive aspects such as consciousness, imagination, perception, thinking, judgment, language, and memory, as well as non-cognitive aspects such as emotion.
Where is the mind located? (Nature and Theories/Models of Mind)
Under the scientific physicalist interpretation, the mind is housed, at least in part, in the brain. The mind is also referred to as the ‘Ghost in the Machine’ by philosopher Gilbert Ryle.
What is the difference between the mind and the brain? (Nature and Theories/Models of Mind)
The brain is a physical organ, while the mind is a set of faculties including consciousness, perception, reasoning, imagination, and emotion that are not tangible but are housed in or associated with the brain.
What is the purpose of the mind? (Nature and Theories/Models of Mind)
The mind exists to absorb information, transform it into conscious knowledge, and lead it into action.
What are the common attributes of the mind? (Nature and Theories/Models of Mind)
Consciousness, perception, reason, reasoning, imagination, memory, emotion, attention, free-will, capacity for communication, intuition. One attribute of the mind is that it experiences bodily realities and also experiences spiritual realities.
What is Freud’s theory of the mind? (Sigmund Freud and the Mind)
Freud compared the human mind to an iceberg: the tip above the water represents consciousness; the vast part below the surface symbolizes the unconscious mind. He proposed two theories of the mind: the structural and topographical theories.
What is the structural theory of the mind? (Sigmund Freud and the Mind)
The structural theory is Freud’s second formulation of the mind. The mind contains three parts: Id (a reservoir of energy derived from instincts, governed by the pleasure principle), Ego (largely conscious part of the mind, governed by the reality principle, mediates between external reality, the id and superego), Superego (represents the conscience of society; it originates from a conflict between the id and ego in the course of development).
What is the topographical theory of the mind? (Sigmund Freud and the Mind)
Freud’s first formulation of the mind: the unconscious mind (contains repressed thoughts and feelings not available to the conscious mind), subconscious mind, preconscious mind, and conscious mind.
How do the levels of the mind interact? (Understanding the Workings of the 3 Levels of the Mind)
The conscious mind works closely with the preconscious. Unlike the preconscious, the conscious does not have direct access to the unconscious mind. Repression (a defense mechanism) works to prevent the contents of the unconscious from entering either consciousness or the preconscious. A barrier of censorship exists between the unconscious and preconscious—this barrier is the conscious mind.
What is the evidence for the existence of the unconscious mind? (Understanding the Workings of the 3 Levels of the Mind)
The presence of dreams (some dreams represent gratification of unconscious instinctive impulses and wish fulfilment), parapraxis or Freudian slips (errors of speech or hearing that reveal unconscious feelings), and hypnosis (a psychotherapeutic technique that bypasses the conscious mind to reveal material in the unconscious).
What are the contents of the mind? (Contents of the Mind)
The mind contains items capable of being formed and manipulated by mental processes and faculties. These include: thought, point of view, purpose, plans, questions, interpretation and inference, information, concepts, assumptions, emotions, percepts, intentions, ideas, dreams, visions, values. These are mental events, particular happenings of something going on in the mind.
What are the positive faculties of the mind? (Faculties of the Mind: Positive)
Intuition, creativity, thinking, reasoning, understanding, imagination, believing, judging, knowing, dreaming, perceiving, interpretation, wisdom, decision, deciding, appraisal, etc. These strengthen the mind.
What are the negative faculties of the mind? (Faculties of the Mind: Negative)
Doubt, fear, anxiety, anger, disbelief, guilt, suspicion, distrust, distortions, twisting, misunderstanding, ignorance, prejudice, etc. These weaken the mind.
What are the primary contents of the mind? (Primary Contents of the Mind)
Ideas, precepts, concepts, thoughts, and ideologies.
What are defense mechanisms
Defense Mechanisms
•Are unconscious ways of handling situations that overwhelm the ego and result in anxiety or threaten self-esteem.
•They are used to camouflage a weak spot in the personality.
•Like defending themselves against physical pain, people protect themselves, though unconsciously, from emotional pain.
•The technique they use to do this, defense mechanisms, work by keeping conflict out of the conscious mind.
•This protection serves to decrease anxiety and thereby helps the individual maintain a sense of safety, equilibrium, and self-esteem.
What causes conflict to overtake us?
Defense Mechanisms
•The ego’s role is to mediate conflict between the id and superego, juggling their demands with the realities of the world.
•The ego is referred to as the executive or manager of our minds.
•If it mediates successfully, we can go on to the higher intellectual and creative pursuits of life.
•If it is unsuccessful, and the id or superego becomes too strong, conflict will overtake us and psychological disorders will develop.
•Because these conflicts are all within the mind, they are referred to as intrapsychic conflicts.
•The ego fights a continual battle to stay on top f the warring id and superego.
•Occasionally, their conflicts produce anxiety that threatens to overwhelm the ego.
Id, Ego, Superego – Freud’s Theory of Personality
Part What it is How to remember it Example
Id The instinctual, selfish part that wants pleasure right now “I want!” A baby crying for food or someone craving cake even if it’s unhealthy
Ego The realistic part that balances between the Id and Superego “Let’s be smart about this.” You want cake (Id), but you wait until after lunch (Ego)
Superego The moral part — your inner judge of right and wrong “You shouldn’t!” You feel guilty for wanting cake because you’re on a diet
Mnemonic to Remember:
I - E - S → “I Eat Sensibly”
• I = Id = Impulsive
• E = Ego = Executive/Balance
• S = Superego = Strict/Moral
Simple Analogy: Like a Team:
• Id = the child who wants candy all the time.
• Superego = the strict parent who says “no candy ever.”
• Ego = the adult mediator who says “you can have one candy after dinner.”
Define attitudes
Attitudes are made up of or contain three things. State them
Do you need all three before an attitude can exist?
State three sources of evaluation judgment (sources you can use to give evaluation about an object)
The negative or positive evaluation you give about an object
It is a learned tendency to react to objects either negatively or positively
They’re beliefs that predispose one to act or feel in certain ways
Made up of:
Beliefs
Behavior
Feelings
Or Affections(feelings)
Behavior
Cognitive processes(beliefs)
These above are thought of as determining attitudes singly or in combination.
Not al 3components necessarily need to be in place for na attitude to exist. You may develop a positive attitude towards a product you se on TV without developing any beliefs
about it or even engaging in
any behaviour relevant
to the product.
What is a value?
Explain symbolic and instrumental attitudes
Values - enduring beliefs about important life goals that transcend specific situations e.g. ‘Peace’, Wisdom’,
‘Equality and Happiness’.
They constitute an important aspect of self-concept and serve as guiding principles for a person.
Research (Homer & Kahle, 1988) indicates that values influence behaviour through their influence on attitude
In summary: Values are your deep beliefs about what is important in life. They influence your behavior by influencing your attitude. They are like your personal compass — they guide your decisions, behavior, and what you think is right or wrong.
What is a symbolic attitude?
It’s when your attitude (how you feel or think about something) is not based on logic or facts — but instead based on deep values or beliefs you learned early in life.
Why is it called symbolic?
Because you don’t just see the thing as it is — you see it as a symbol of something deeper. Your feelings about it are really about what it represents to you, not just what it actually is.
Example 2:
Someone may strongly support flying their national flag everywhere.
Not just because it’s a flag — but because, to them, it symbolizes loyalty, pride, and identity.
Even if you explain with facts that the flag doesn’t mean someone is more patriotic, they won’t change their mind easily, because their attitude is based on deep feelings, not logic.
Key Points Again:
• Based on values learned early in life (like religion, culture, tradition).
• Emotional, not logical and involve deep emotional intensity due to how deeply rooted their beliefs are.
• Influenced by your social group (like family or community).
• Hard to change with facts, because the attitude is tied to what the thing represents in your mind.
Example again is Someone might reject birth control — not because of medical reasons, but because birth control symbolizes immorality or going against religious beliefs they learned early in life.
So their negative attitude isn’t just about the medicine — it’s about what it represents to them: a threat to purity, tradition, or moral values.
Or Mental Health:
In some communities, people avoid talking about depression or anxiety — not because they don’t believe it exists, but because mental health issues symbolize weakness or shame, based on cultural values they grew up with.
Instrumental or utilitarian attitudes:
attitudes based on direct benefits and costs of the attitude object.
Evaluations center solely on its utility for the person, and not its relation to long standing values.
So they’re not saying they won’t take the birth control because of any religious beliefs but because if they take it, they may get a reaction to it or cause hormonal imbalance
State five ways attitudes are formed
Explain the self perception theory
“We are very well trained and very good at finding reasons for what we do, but not very good at doing what we find reasons for:” (Abelson, R. 1972)
Mere Exposure
• Chance Conditioning
Rewards and Punishment
• Interacting with others
• Child rearing
• Mass media
Great question!
Chance Conditioning is a type of learning or attitude formation that happens by accident or unexpectedly, usually from a random experience that leaves a strong impression.
It means your attitude toward something changes simply because of a one-time, unplanned event, not because of repeated exposure or deep thinking.
Simple Example:
• You eat a new type of food for the first time, and you get food poisoning.
Now you hate that food — even though it may not have been the food’s fault.
That’s chance conditioning — your negative attitude was shaped by one bad experience.
Another Example (Health-related):
• A person visits a hospital and has a rude encounter with a nurse.
Even though it was just one nurse, they develop a negative attitude toward hospitals in general.
That’s also chance conditioning — one random event shaped the attitude.
Summary:
Chance conditioning = forming attitudes because of a one-time, accidental experience that leaves a strong emotional impact.
Self Perception Theory> the theory that we often infer our internal states, such as our attitudes by observing our behaviour.
We often do not know what our attitudes are, and instead simply infer them from our behaviour and the circumstances under which they occur.
It contends that instead of attitudes causing behaviour, it is behaviour that causes attitudes
Or self perception is how you see yourself. So you’ll be able to tell via your behavior. That’s basically what the theory says. You’re able to know how you see yourself by the way you behave.
WHEN DO ATTITUDES PREDICT BEHAVIOUR
WHEN DO ATTITUDES PREDICT BEHAVIOUR
• Level of Attitude-Behaviour Specificity > specific attitudes are much better predictors of behaviour than more general attitudes
• Attitude Strength
• Attitude Accessibility (potent)
Sure! Here’s a brief and clear explanation:
Attitude Strength and Attitude Accessibility help explain when your attitude is likely to influence your behavior.
- Attitude Strength
• A strong attitude is one you feel deeply about — it’s stable, well-formed, and important to you.
• These attitudes are more likely to predict your behavior, because you’re more committed to acting in line with them.
Example:
If you strongly value honesty, you’re more likely to speak the truth even in difficult situations — because that attitude is strong and central to your identity.
- Attitude Accessibility (Potency)
• This refers to how easily and quickly an attitude comes to mind.
• The more accessible it is, the more likely it will guide your behavior — especially in the moment.
Example:
If you have a very accessible attitude that smoking is harmful, you’re more likely to refuse a cigarette immediately — you don’t have to stop and think; your attitude pops up quickly and affects your choice.
In Short:
When your attitude is strong and/or easily accessible, it is more likely to predict and influence your behavior in real-life situations.
Want a quick comparison table for better understanding?
BEHAVIOUR AND ATTITUDE
CHANGE
• When behaviour and attitudes are inconsistent, the attitudes often change to match the behaviour
• The theory of Cognitive Dissonance explains the tendency of attitudes to sometimes shift to be consistent with behaviour
• Cognitive Dissonance> states that inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviour are uncomfortable.
This discomfort motivates people to do what they can to reduce the discomfort or dissonance.
What is persuasion
Explain mind matter or body mind dichotomy
Persuasion > the process of changing another person’s attitudes through arguments and other related means
Great! Here’s a simple explanation:
Mind-Matter Dichotomy (also called Mind-Body Dualism):
This is the idea that the mind and the physical body (or matter) are two separate and different things.
• Mind = thoughts, emotions, consciousness, soul
• Matter = physical body, brain, bones, organs, etc.
This concept suggests that even though the mind and body interact, they are not the same. The mind is non-physical, while the body is physical.
Example:
• If you feel sad (mind), your body might cry (physical reaction).
• If you get injured (body), your thoughts may change (mind).
So, the mind affects the body, and the body affects the mind, but they are seen as two separate kinds of reality.
In Philosophy:
This idea was made popular by René Descartes, who said:
“I think, therefore I am.” — showing that the mind (thinking) is different from the body (physical matter).
Simple Summary:
The Mind-Matter Dichotomy is the belief that the mental world (thoughts, emotions) and the physical world (body, brain, things) are separate but interacting.
State the qualities of a persuasive communicator
The qualities of a speaker
The characteristics of the message
The characteristics of the listeners
Qualities of Persuasive
Communication
• Characteristics of the Speaker
- Credibility
- Attractiveness
- Intent
Characteristics of the Message
Fear Appeals
- relatively strong emotional appeal
- listeners think that the fearful outcome happen to them
- the message offers an effective way of the fearful outcome
Two-sided Arguments(make sure your fear appeal message talks about both the good and bad aspect else if you only talk about the bad aspects, it can backfire)
• Characteristics of the Listeners
- Intelligence
Need for Social Approval
Self Esteem
Audience Size
Gender
Define displacement, sublimation,denial,repression,projection,rationalization,reaction formation as examples of defense mechanism.
Why are defense mechanism useful?
Examples of defense mechanisms.
•Displacement
•Transfers a feeling, or a response to, an object that causes discomfort onto another, usually less threatening, object or person.
•Sublimation:
Directs potentially maladaptive feelings or impulses into socially acceptable behavior.
•Denial:
Refusal to acknowledge some aspect of objective reality or subjective experience that is apparent to others.
•Projection:
Falsely attributes own unacceptable feelings, impulses, or thoughts to another individual or object.
•Rationalization:
Conceals the true motivation for actions, thoughts, or feelings through elaborative reassuring or self-serving but incorrect explanations.
•Reaction formation:
Substitutes behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are the direct opposite of unacceptable ones.
•Repression:
Blocks disturbing wishes, thoughts, or experiences from conscious awareness.
Defense mechanisms, con’d
•Usefulness of DM
•People in need of psychiatric and medical care commonly use defense mechanisms to deal with the fear and pain associated with their illnesses.
•However, defense mechanisms that prevent a patient from seeking care or complying with treatment recommendations can ultimately be harmful.
What are mature and less mature defense mechanisms
Defense mechanisms, con’d
•Mature and less mature defense mechanisms
•The type used by an individual is closely associated with that person’s coping style and personality.
E.g. a person who tends to become childlike and demanding when stressed by illness is coping by using the defense mechanism of regression.
•Less mature defense mechanisms protect the person from anxiety and negative personal feelings, but at significant social cost.
•Mature defense mechanisms serve the same function but without important social cost. E.g. using the less mature mechanism displacement a man deals with his unacknowledged anger toward his employer by verbally abusing his office assistant.
In contrast, using the mature mechanism of sublimation, the same man could deal with his anger by engaging in a strenuous game soccer.
When a man with low self-esteem donates time to visit patients in the hospital, he is using the defense mechanism of altruism to feel better about himself. This is a mature DM
•Other mature DMs are humor: expressing personally uncomfortable feelings without causing emotional discomfort.
•Suppression: a person deliberately pushes anxiety-provoking or personally unacceptable emotions out of conscious awareness. E.g. a prostate cancer patient who mentally changes the subject when his mind wanders to the possibility of relapse, yet seeks appropriate treatment for his illness, is using suppression as a defense mechanism
State some examples of mature defense mechanisms and less mature defense mechanisms
More mature defense mechanisms, e.g.s.
•Altruism:
•Unselfishly assisting others to avoid negative personal feelings.
•Humor:
•Expression of feeling without causing discomfort.
•A man who has had a leg amputated makes jokes about one-legged people.
•Sublimation:
•Rerouting an unacceptable drive in a socially acceptable way.
•A man whose son was killed by a drunk driver regularly speaks to high school students about the dangers of drinking and driving.
•Suppression:
•Consciously putting aside but not repressing unwanted feelings.
•A breast cancer patient decides that she will worry about her illness for only 10 minutes per day.
Less mature defense mechanisms
•Acting out:
•Avoiding personally unacceptable feelings by behaving in an attention-getting, often socially inappropriate manner.
•A teenager with a terminally ill younger sibling begins to do badly at school and argues with her parents at home.
•Denial:
•Not believing personally intolerable facts about reality.
•An accountant who had myocardial infarction 2 days ago is found doing push-ups on the floor of the coronary care unit. The patient who exercised regularly prior to the MI, states that his heart attack was not serious and that he does not want to fall behind in his fitness programme.
•Displacement
•Transfer of emotions from an unacceptable to acceptable person or object.
•A man whose son was killed by a drunk driver attacks and seriously injures a drunken street person.
•Dissociation
•Separation of function of mental processes.
•A woman who was sexually abused as a child has two distinct personalities in adulthood.
Less mature defense mechanisms, con’d
•Identification
•Unconsciously patterning one’s behaviour after that of someone who is more powerful
•A man who had a critical punitive father berates and verbally insults his own son.
•Intellectualization
•Using the mind’s higher functions to avoid experiencing uncomfortable emotions
•A physician who has received a diagnosis f pancreatic cancer excessively discusses the statistics of the illness with his colleagues and family.
•Isolation of affect
•Failing to experience the feelings associated with a stressful life event, although logically understanding the significance of the event.
•Without showing any emotion, a woman tells her husband the results of tests that show that her cancer has metastasized
•Projection
•Attributing one’s own personally unacceptable feelings to mothers
•A man who has sexual feelings for his brother’s wife begins to believe that his own wife is cheating on him.
•rationalization
•Giving seemingly reasonable explanations for unacceptable or irrational feelings
•A medical student who fails the final genetics exam says that it does not matter because it was not an important course.
Less mature defence mechanisms, con’d
•Reaction formation
•Denying unacceptable feelings and addopting opposite attitudes.
• a man who is unconsciously attracted to a coworker frequently picks fights with her.
•Regression
•Appearance of childlike pattterns of behaviour during stressful situations.
•A hospitalised 48-year old patient insists on only eating hot dogs saucage), french fries, and ice cream.
•Somatization
•Turning an unacceptable impulse or feeling into a physical symptom
•A man who is anxious about a new job develops a headache the morning of the first day of work.
•Splitting
•Believing people or events are either all bad or all good because of intolerance of ambiguity.
What’s the difference between repression and denial which are the common defense mechanisms used by medical patients
What is the difference between regression and undoing as common defense mechanism used by medical patients
Common defense mechanisms in medical patients
•Repression: is the most basic DM. the others are used only when repression fails. It is closely related to denial. Both commonly used by medical patients.
•In repression, a patient unconsciously refuses to believe an aspect of internal reality.
•In denial, he unconsciously refuses to believe an aspect of external reality.
The key difference is what is being rejected:
• Repression → The person unconsciously blocks out an internal reality (thoughts, feelings, memories) because they are too painful or unacceptable.
• Example: A person who experienced childhood trauma has no recollection of the event, even though it affects their behavior.
• Denial → The person unconsciously refuses to accept an external reality (a fact or event happening around them).
• Example: A person diagnosed with cancer insists the doctors made a mistake and refuses treatment.
Simple Explanation:
• Repression = “I don’t remember it.” (Internal)
• Denial = “That didn’t happen.” (External)
Both are unconscious defense mechanisms, but repression affects memory, while denial affects perception of reality.
Repression → Memory is erased (Internal)
• Denial → Reality is ignored (External)
Yes, this explanation covers two different defense mechanisms: Undoing and Regression.
- Undoing → Trying to “reverse” a past action by doing something good now.
• Example: A man who cheated on his spouse suddenly becomes overly affectionate and buys expensive gifts to “undo” his guilt.
• Example: A person who yelled at their friend feels guilty and later excessively praises them to “make up” for it. - Regression → Returning to childlike behaviors when under stress.
• Example: A hospitalized adult starts whining, pouting, or demanding attention like a child.
• Example: A stressed college student sleeps with a teddy bear or sucks their thumb.
In the AIDS example:
• Undoing → The woman believes she can “erase” past drug use by adopting a healthy lifestyle.
• Regression → When hospitalized, she reverts to childish behaviors, seeking comfort and attention.
Both are unconscious defense mechanisms used to cope with guilt or stress.
What are the three defense mechanism used by intellectuals
What about the ones used by dramatic people
DM used by intellectuals
•Educated people tend to use DMs that employ the mind’s higher functions.
Include
•Rationalisation: an individual unconsciously distorts his/her perception of an event so that its negative outcome seems reasonable.
•A blind man who believes that he now has supernatural hearing is using this DM
•Intellectualization: involves using cognition to avoid negative emotions.
•The pilot who explains the technical details of the engine failure to the passengers is using this defense mechanism.
•Isolation of affect: an individual does not consciously experience any emotion when thinking about or describing an emotional event.
•The person who expresses no emotion when talking about the loss of a loved one has isolated his emotions from the sad event.
These dramatic DMs characterise somatoform and dissociative disorders.
•Using somatisation, a person unconsciously deals with negative emotions by experiencing and expressing physical symptoms. The somatoform disorders are a group of conditions that present with physical symptoms without sufficient biological basis.
•In dissociation, the person mentally separates part of his/her consciousness from reality, sometimes even “forgetting” that certain events have in fact occurred.
•E.g. a teenager with dissociative amnesia has no conscious memory of a car accident in which he was driving and his girlfriend was killed
Key Difference:
• Dissociation → A person disconnects from reality, memory, or identity to escape distress.
• Isolation of affect → A person separates emotions from an event, thinking about it logically without feeling anything.
Dissociation (Detachment from Reality or Self)
• The person mentally “checks out” to avoid emotional pain.
• May involve memory gaps, feeling detached from the body, or experiencing the world as unreal (derealization).
Examples:
• A woman who was in a car accident forgets the entire event but has no brain injury.
• A victim of abuse feels like they are watching themselves from outside their body.
• A soldier in battle feels numb and disconnected as if in a dream.
Isolation of Affect (Thinking Without Feeling)
• The person acknowledges the event but doesn’t feel any emotion about it.
• Emotions are suppressed, and the event is described in a detached, robotic way.
Examples:
• A doctor calmly explains a tragic diagnosis to a patient without showing emotion.
• A person describes their traumatic past in a factual, emotionless manner.
• Someone who just lost a loved one discusses funeral plans without any visible sadness.
Quick Trick to Differentiate:
• Dissociation = “I wasn’t there even though it happened .” (Memory/Reality Disconnect)
• Isolation of Affect = “I don’t feel anything about it.” (Emotional Disconnect)
Both are defense mechanisms used to cope with distress but work in different ways.
The person may lose memory of the event (dissociative amnesia) or feel like they are watching themselves from the outside (depersonalization).
Explain identification and projection as defense mechanisms that explain aspects of psychopathologies
Defense mechanism and psychopathology
•Some defense mechanisms can explain apects of psychopathology. E.g.
•Identification: some abused children grow into abusers by unconsciously patterning himself after a powerful figure from his past- identification with the aggressor.
•Projection: attributing one’s own personally unacceptable feelings to others, can be associated with paranoia or even with common prejudice.
•The man with unconscious homosexual impulses who begins to believe, erroneously, that his boss is making sexual advances toward him.
•Others include
Acting out
•Reaction formation
Explain transference, negative and positive transference and then countertransference
Explanation of Transference Reactions
- Definition of Transference:
Transference is when a person unconsciously applies feelings, expectations, or attitudes from past relationships (especially childhood) to new relationships in adulthood. This happens because early relationships (especially with parents) shape how we interact with others later in life. - Where Transference Occurs:
People commonly experience transference in relationships with authority figures, such as:
• Doctors
• Therapists
• Teachers
These figures unconsciously remind the person of someone important from their past, leading to emotional reactions based on that past relationship.
Types of Transference Reactions:
- Positive Transference
• The patient develops unrealistic confidence or admiration toward the doctor.
• May overidealize the doctor, trusting them excessively.
• In some cases, this can lead to romantic or sexual feelings toward the doctor.
Example:
• A patient sees their doctor as a “savior” and believes they are the only one who can help them, just as they saw their father as a protective figure in childhood.
- Negative Transference
• The patient projects anger, resentment, or frustration onto the doctor.
• Happens if the doctor does not meet their unconscious expectations (e.g., they expect constant attention but feel ignored).
• Can lead to noncompliance (ignoring medical advice) because the patient resents the doctor.
Example:
• A patient who had a strict, unapproachable father becomes angry at their doctor for not giving them special attention, even though the doctor is treating them appropriately.
Countertransference (Doctor’s Transference Toward the Patient)
• Just as patients experience transference, doctors can also project their own past experiences onto patients.
• This is called countertransference and can affect the doctor’s judgment.
Example:
• A doctor who had a difficult relationship with their mother might feel irritated by a demanding elderly female patient without realizing why.
Key Takeaways:
• Transference → Patients project feelings from past relationships onto doctors/therapists.
• Positive Transference → Overidealization, unrealistic confidence, sometimes romantic feelings.
• Negative Transference → Anger, resentment, noncompliance with medical advice.
• Countertransference → Doctors unconsciously project their past emotions onto patients.
Understanding transference is crucial in healthcare and therapy to maintain professional boundaries and ensure objective, effective care.
