Psych 101 Flashcards
what is the Personality definition
- The distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterise a person’s response to life situations.
what is the psychoanalytical approach?
- psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and theory of personality
who was Psychoanalytic approach created by?
- Sigmund Freud
Where is Psychoanalytic approach used?
-used free association and dream interpretation to access unconscious motivation
define conscious
- the region of the psyche that contains thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and other aspects of mental life currently present in awareness.(tip of iceberg)
define preconscious
- thoughts, feelings, memories, that we are not consciously aware of but we can get to (middle of iceberg)
What is ID
- institution drives present at birth
- pleasure principle
-exists totally within unconscious
-does not distinguish between reality and fantasy
define unconscious
- wishes, impulses, desires, that we cannot access (bottom of iceburg/bulk).
- This is the bulk of your personality according to Freud.
define ego
-develops second, after the id in infancy
-reality principle
-mediator between id and superego (i.e CEO of personality)
-operated primarily at conscious level
define superego
-last to develop (4-5 years of age when emerges)
-based on idealistic principle
-internalisation of society and families moral standards
-blind quest for moral perfection
how do these systems work tg?
- -Constant struggle between the ids impulses and the counterforces of the ego and superego
-Anxiety results when the ego confronts impulses that threaten to get out of control
what are defense mechanisms?
-unconscious mental processes that are employed by the ego to reduce anxiety by denying or distorting reality
NORMATIVE: almost everyone uses these at times; maladjusted people use them excessively
what are the different types of defense mechanisms
- Repression
- Displacement
- Reaction formation
- Sublimation
- Projection
- Rationalization
- regression
- denial
- intellectualization
define repression according to Freud
- preventing painful or dangerous thoughts from entering consciousness
define displacement
- substituting a less threatening object for the original object of impulse
define reaction formation
- refusing to acknowledge unacceptable urges, thoughts, or feelings by exaggerating the opposite state
define sublimation
- working off unmet desires or unacceptable impulses in activities that are constructive
define projection
- -transferring unacceptable motives or impulses to others
define rationalization
- substituting socially acceptable reasons or thoughts or action based on unacceptable motives
define regression
- responding to a threatening situation in a way appropriate to an earlier age or level of development (ex: adult having a temper tantrum)
define denial
- protecting oneself from an unpleasant reality by refusing to perceive it
define intellectualization
- ignoring the emotional aspects of a painful experience by focusing on abstract thoughts, words, or ideas
What are some psychosexual stages?
- periods of development in which the id’s pleasure-seeking tendencies are focused on specific pleasure-sensitive areas of the body (erogenous zones)
define fixation
- a state of arrested psychosexual development in which instincts are focused on a particular theme