Neo-Freudians

Question 1

What are neo-Freudians?

Answer 1

• elaborated on Freud’s theory
• retained the unconscious as a key determinant of behaviour
• impact of early childhood experiences on personality development
• later experiences also influenced adult personality
• defense mechanisms and dream interpretation

Question 2

What are three limits and liabilities of Freudian theory?

Answer 2

• idea that adult personality is formed entirely by experiences in the first 5 or 6 years of life
• emphasis on instinctual sources of personality, failed to appreciate social and cultural forces
• theory is negative and pessimistic

Question 3

Who are the main neo-Freudians?

Answer 3

• Alfred Adler
• Carl Jung
• Erik Erikson
• Karen Horney

Question 4

What did Freud think about religion?

Answer 4

• religious behaviour represents a form of neurosis
• starts with baby’s feelings of helplessness and longing for a powerful protector
• religion is a type of collective wish fulfillment
• project our imagines saviour in form of God
• God is an unconscious father figure

Question 5

What did Jung think about religion?

Answer 5

• provides with sense of purpose and feelings of security
• each of us inherits a God archetype in our collective unconscious
• takes advantage of powerful archetypal symbols in promoting themselves to followers
• seek psychotherapy when their religion fails to provide reassurance
• many of his patients needed to resolve the conflict between good and evil sides of their personalities

Question 6

What did Erich Fromm think about religion?

Answer 6

• people turn to the power of authority of the church to escape an internal sense of powerlessness and loneliness
• religion provides escape from fears
• authoritarian religions vs humanistic religions

Question 7

What are authoritarian religions?

Answer 7

• we are under the control of a powerful God
• deny people their personal identity

Question 8

What are humanistic religions?

Answer 8

• God is a symbol of our own power
• provide an opportunity for personal growth

Question 9

What are personal narratives?

Answer 9

• procedure to study personality
• ask participants to tell their life stories or some critical scenes
• reveal personality in telling way

Question 10

How is personality measured through personal narratives?

Answer 10

• interview
• code the stories using preset criteria
• if judges agree on majority of assessments, ratings are reliable and useful
• scores consistent over time
• affected by life experiences

Question 11

What are flaws to personal narratives?

Answer 11

• participants may selectively remember flattering portrayals or overlook failures and embarrassments

Question 12

What have psychologists found personal narratives especially useful for?

Answer 12

• studying generativity vs stagnation
• number of generativity stories written by elderly people peaked during midlife decades, as predicted
• highly generative adults are more likely to provide stories in which bad situations lead to good outcomes
• highly generative adults wrote stories containing more themes about friendship, sharing, affiliation, nurturance, and being prosocial

Question 13

What are strengths of the neo-freudian theories?

Answer 13

• elaboration of important concepts that Freud ignored or de-emphasized; role of social factors
• describe personality beyond first few years of life
• more optimistic and flattering picture of humankind
• introduced new concepts
• pave the way for humanistic personality theories and step in evolution of social learning approaches
• techniques and approaches adopted/adapted by many contemporary psychotherapists

Question 14

What are criticisms of the neo-freudian theories?

Answer 14

• supported with questionable evidence
• collective unconscious comes from myths, legends, dreams, occult phenomena, artwork
• relied heavily on information from patients
• biased interpretations
• may not be applicable to normal functioning adults
• oversimplified or ignored important concepts