Module 6: Classical and Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theories Flashcards
Most psychologists describe their therapeutic approach as electric. What does this mean>
Means that they incorporate techniques from diverse theoretical schools
What are 2 key assumptions that psychoanalysts tend to make?
- Maladaptive behaviours stem from unconscious and unresolved conflicts from the patient’s childhood
- All behaviours are meaningful for understanding the unconscious (aka psychic determinism)
What are 3 important ways that modern psychoanalysis differs from the early approaches (i.e., Freud)?
- More collaborative and emphasizes the importance of therapeutic alliance
- Often time-limited and focus on a particular problem
- Analyst is more active and contributes more to helping the patient resolve their problem
Dr. Otto Kernberg contends that there are 4 components that define the psychoanalytic technique:
- Interpretation
- Analysis of transference
- Analysis of countertransference
- Technical neutrality
Interpretation generally focuses on…
defence mechanisms
Interpretation can involve 3 things:
Clarification
- analyst asks questions to clarify the patient’s perspective on their conscious experience
Confrontation
- the analyst highlights nonverbal components of the patient’s behaviour bringing them into the patient’s conscious awareness
Interpretation
- analyst shares a hypothesis about the patient’s behaviour
When the client repeats or “plays out” conflicts about their past with the analyst
Transference
What tends to predominate during transference?
Defence mechanisms
The analyst’s reactions to the patient and what they are saying and/or doing
Countertransference
Countertransference is influenced by…
What is going on in the patient’s and analyst’s lives
Remaining neutral with respect to the patient’s internal conflicts; not imposing own values or ideas; analyst acts as a mirror that reflects back the patient’s assumptions, behaviours, etc.
Technical neutrality
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development is based on the concept of epigenesis which is the assumption that:
development happens in clearly defined, sequential stages
Erikson proposed that when people successfully resolve a psychosocial task, they emerge from the stage with a ___________. If they do not successfully resolve a psychosocial task they emerge with a ________________ or a ___________________
virtue; malignancy; maladaptation
What stage (aka psychosocial task) characterizes age 0-2? What is the associated virtue, significant relationship, existential question, and examples?
Trust vs. Mistrust
Virtue: Hope
Relationship: Mother
Existential question: Can I trust the world?
Examples: Feeding, abandonment
What stage (aka psychosocial task) characterizes age 2-4? What is the associated virtue, significant relationship, existential question, and examples?
Autonomy vs. Shame
Virtue: Will
Relationship: Parents
Existential question: Is it ok to be me?
Examples: Toilet training, dressing oneself
What stage (aka psychosocial task) characterizes age 4-5? What is the associated virtue, significant relationship, existential question, and examples?
Initiative vs. Guilt
Virtue: Purpose
Relationship: Family
Existential question: Is it okay for me to do, move, and act?
Examples: Exploring, using tools, making art
What stage (aka psychosocial task) characterizes age 5-12? What is the associated virtue, significant relationship, existential question, and examples?
Industry vs. Inferiority
Virtue: Competence
Relationship: Neighbours, school
Existential question: Can I make it in the world?
Examples: School, sports
What stage (aka psychosocial task) characterizes age 13-19? What is the associated virtue, significant relationship, existential question, and examples?
Identity vs. Role confusion
Virtue: Fidelity
Relationship: Peers, role models
Existential question: Who am I? What can I be?
Examples: Social relationships
What stage (aka psychosocial task) characterizes age 20-24? What is the associated virtue, significant relationship, existential question, and examples?
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Virtue: Love
Relationship: Friends, partners
Existential question: Can I love?
Examples: Romantic relationships
What stage (aka psychosocial task) characterizes age 25-64? What is the associated virtue, significant relationship, existential question, and examples?
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Virtue: Care
Relationship: Household, co-workers
Existential question: Can I make my life count?
Examples: Work, parenthood
What stage (aka psychosocial task) characterizes age 64+? What is the associated virtue, significant relationship, existential question, and examples?
Ego integrity vs. Despair
Virtue: Wisdom
Relationship: Humankind
Existential question: Is it ok to have been me?
Examples: Reflection on life
Malignancies occur when…
a person receives too little of the positive aspect of the task and too much of the negative aspect
Which is worse, malignancies or maladaptations?
Malignancies
Maladaptations occur when…
a person receives too much of the positive aspect of the task and too little of the negative
Freud believed that there were strong innate forces that provided all the energy in the psychic system and he called these forces __________
instincts
Freud developed two instincts:
Libido (life) instinct and Thanatos (death) instinct
Freud contended that most symptoms of mental illness are caused by unconscious motivations. Hysterical symptoms for example, did not occur by chance, rather they were physical expressions of repressed traumatic experiences. What is this called?
Psychic determinism
Freud’s Anna O case study demonstrates:
the “talking cure”
Bringing a traumatic memory into conscious awareness removes the symptoms associated with it
Dreams and fantasies (which are characteristic of the id) are examples of what process of thinking?
Primary process thinking
Wish fulfillment
Engaged in by the id
Something unavailable is conjured up in the mind and this is temporarily satisfying
Ego depletion occurs as a result of…
attempts at self-control
Taking into account the constraints of reality about when and how to express a desire or urge is an example of what process of thinking?
Secondary process thinking
The _________ and _________ are not bound by reality
id; superego
The emotion of _________ is the main tool of the superego in enforcing right and wrong
guilt
When a person whose desires are in conflict with reality or with internalized moral they will appear more ___________
anxious
Efforts to defend oneself from anxiety are called:
defence mechanisms
What are the 3 types of anxiety that Freud identified? Briefly describe each.
- Objective
- fear
- in response to real threat - Neurotic
- conflict between id and ego - Moral
- conflict between ego and superego
Defence mechanisms serve two functions:
- To protect the ego
- To minimize anxiety and distress
Freud first developed this concept (defence mechanism) as a global strategy that the ego uses to maintain forbidden impulses in the unconscious
Repression
A person engaging in this defence mechanism insists that things are not the way they seem
Denial
Through this defence mechanism, a threatening or unacceptable impulse is challenged or redirected from its original source to a less threatening target
Displacement
This is a common defence mechanism among educated people and involves generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might otherwise appear socially unacceptable
Rationalization
This defence mechanisms involves projecting our own unacceptable qualities onto others
Projection
This effect is similar to projection and it is the tendency to assume that others are similar to you
False consensus effect
This is the most adaptive defence mechanisms and involves channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive instincts into socially desired activities
Sublimation
According to Freud and his psychosexual stages, if a child fails to fully resolve a conflict at a particular stage of development they may get stuck in that stage. This is known as __________
fixation
Elizabeth Loftus has conducted the most research on…
authenticity of recovered memories
What are 2 prominent factors that can influence people to have false memories?
- The popular press
- Specific techniques in psychotherapy (i.e., suggestive interviewing, interpretation of symptoms as past trauma, etc.)
What is the imagination inflation effect?
Having individuals imagine various events which can lead them to later rate these events as more familiar
Who supports the notion that the unconscious can have its own autonomous motivation (aka the motivated unconscious)?
Freud
Rather than viewing the unconscious as motivation, contemporary views tend to refer to it as the…
cognitive unconscious
Psychologists who refer to the unconscious as cognitive in nature rather than motivated in nature posit that…
thoughts are unconscious because they are not in conscious awareness, NOT because they have been repressed or because they represent unacceptable urges or wishes
i.e., typing can be unconscious
Research on the phenomenon of subliminal perception demonstrates that:
information can get into the mind and have some influence without going through conscious experience but unconscious information does not seem to influence people’s motivations
Who is the prominent student of Freud who emphasized the ego as a powerful, independent part of personality?
Erik Erikson
Establishing a secure identity is seen as the primary function of the _______
ego
How were Erikson’s stages of development similar to Freuds? How were they different?
Similarities:
- Stage model of development
- Each stage represents a conflict to be resolved
- Notion of fixation
Differences
- Time span of development
- Nature of conflicts
Who was another early proponent of ego psychology that questioned some of the more paternalistic notions of Freudian psychoanalysis (i.e., penis envy)?
Kate Horney
Describe Karen Horney’s stance on Freud’s idea of penis envy?
Horney taught that the penis was a symbol of social power rather than an organ that women desired
Girls did not have a secret desire to become boys, rather, they desired the social power given to boys
What is the phrase coined by Karen Horney that highlights the gender difference in response to competition and achievement situations?
Fear of success
According to Otto Kernberg and Heinz Kohut, in normal personality functioning, most people develop a stable and relatively high level of…
self-esteem
Most of us engage in a self-serving bias. Describe what this is
Tendency for people to take credit for success yet deny responsibility for failure
Taking self-serving bias too far, that is, having a style of inflated self-admiration is a hallmark feature of what personality trait?
Narcissism
What is the narcissistic paradox?
People high in narcissism appear to be high in self-esteem but actually have doubts about their value and worth as individuals and thus they are vulnerable to criticism
What concept can explain why narcissist have a tendency toward aggression and violence in response to criticism?
The narcissistic paradox
What theory emphasizes social relationships and their origins in childhood?
Object relations theory
What are the 2 basic assumptions of object relations theory?
- The internal wishes, desires, and urges of the child are not as important as the development of relationships with significant others, particularly parents
- The others, particularly the mother, become internalized by the child in the form of mental objects
What adult relationship style is characterized by mistrust, suspicion, and fear of commitment?
Avoidant attachment
What adult relationship style is characterized by uncertainty, neediness, and reassurance?
Ambivalent attachment
Adults with an avoidant attachment style tended to report that their parents were ____________ in their marriage
unhappy
Adults with an ambivalent attachment style tended to report that their family was…
aloof and distant
Describe the nature of romantic relationships for those with an ambivalent attachment
Frequent and short-lived
Focus on keeping partner happy
Stressful being apart
Describe the nature of romantic relationships for those with an avoidant attachment style
Fear of intimacy
Rarely develop emotional commitments
Not emotionally supportive of partner
