Psychoanalytic Theory Flashcards
When was Sigmund Freud born?
May 6, 1856
Father and main proponent of Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud’s most famous work
Interpretation of Dreams
Level of mental life that includes drives and instincts that are beyond awareness but that motivate most human behaviors.
Unconscious
Level of mental life that contains images that are not readily available in our awareness but they can become conscious either quite easily or with some level of difficulty.
Preconscious
Level of mental life that plays a relatively minor role in the theory of Freud. As he defined the term, it corresponds to its ordinary everyday meaning, and includes all the sensations and experiences of which we are aware of at any given moment (Schultz & Schultz, 2017 p.44).
Conscious
Freud’s level of mental life that is completely unconscious and contains our basic instincts. It serves the pleasure principle and operates through the primary process.
Id
principle in which the goal is immediate satisfaction/gratification of needs and immediate reduction of tension.
Pleasure Principle
Freud’s level of mental life that serves the idealistic or morality principle. Its two subsystems include the conscience and the ego-ideal.
Superego
Subsystem of superego which results from punishment for our improper behavior
Conscience
Subsystem of superego which stems from rewards for our behaviors which are socially acceptable
Ego-ideal
Freud’s level of mental life that operates through the secondary process and is governed by the reality principle.
Ego
It is responsible for reconciling the unrealistic demands of the id and the superego. It grows out of the id during infancy and becomes the person’s sole source of communication with the external world.
Ego
Many everyday slips of the tongue, misreading, incorrect hearing, misplacing objects and temporarily forgetting names or intentions are not chance accidents but reveal a person’s unconscious intentions.
Freudian slip/Slip of the tongue
This refers to those forces that motivate people
Drives/Instincts
This originate in the id but they come under the control of the ego
Drives/Instincts
Characteristic of drives which refers to the amount of force drives exerts.
Impetus
Characteristic of drives which refers to the region of the body in a state of excitation or tension
Source
Characteristic of drives which refers to seek pleasure by removing that excitation or reducing the tension
Aim
Characteristic of drives which refers to the person or thing that serves as the means through which
the aim is satisfied
Object
Type of drive which aims for pleasure, which can be gained through the erogenous zones especially the mouth, anus, and genitals.
Sex (life instinct, Eros)
Forms which satisfy both sexual and aggressive drives.
Sadism and masochism
The destructive instinct which aims to return a person to an inorganic state (death) so the aim of the drive is self-destruction, but it is ordinarily directed against other people.
Aggression (death instinct, Thanatos)
It is a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger.
Anxiety
The only Freudian mental level that can experience anxiety.
Ego
Possible sources of anxiety
Id, superego, and outside world
The apprehension about an unknown danger. This anxiety is the result of the ego’s dependence on the id.
Neurotic Anxiety
Anxiety which stems from the conflict between the ego and superego or the former’s dependence on the latter.
Moral Anxiety
It is closely related to fear; unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger. This anxiety is produced by the ego’s relation with the real world.
Realistic Anxiety
Mechanisms which operate to protect the ego against the pain of anxiety according to Freud
Defense Mechanisms
Involves forcing unwanted, anxiety-loaded experiences into the unconscious. However, these memories don’t just disappear; they continue to influence our behavior.
Repression
It is marked by the repression of one impulse and the ostentatious expression of its exact opposite.
Reaction Formation
This takes place when people redirect their unwanted urges onto other objects or people in order to disguise the original impulse.
Displacement
This develops when the ego remains at the present, more comfortable psychological stage when the prospect of taking the next becomes too anxiety provoking, making psychological change difficult.
Fixation
This is when people sometimes abandon coping strategies and revert to patterns of behavior used in earlier stage of development when confronted by stressful events.
Regression
This involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.
Projection
This takes place when people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego to reduce feelings of inferiority.
Introjection
This allows human to act out unacceptable impulses by converting these behaviors into a more acceptable form.
Sublimation
This happens when we provide excuses or justifications to our actions to make them more acceptable.
Rationalization
This works to reduce anxiety by thinking
about events in a cold, clinical way (detachment).
Intellectualization
Freud’s theory of personality development
Psychosexual Theory
During this stage an infant’s primary motivation is to receive pleasure through the mouth. Activities involve sucking, biting, cooing and basically placing everything in the mouth region.
Oral Stage
Phase where infants feel no ambivalence toward the pleasurable objects and needs are usually satisfied with minimum frustration and anxiety
Oral Receptive
Phase where infants respond to others through biting, cooing, closing their mouth, smiling and crying.
Oral Sadistic
The main conflict in the oral stage
Weaning or withdrawing the breast or bottle
The first autoerotic experience in oral stage, a defense against anxiety that satisfies sexual but not nutritional needs.
Thumb sucking
The main source of pleasure is from the anal. The emphasis during this stage is toilet training. Children obtain pleasure from both retention and expulsion of feces.
Anal Stage
Anal triad of an anal character.
Orderly, stingy, and obstinate
First stage where pleasure and conflicting feelings associated with the genitals.
Phallic Stage
The male child unconsciously begins to
develop a sexual interest in his mother , sees his father as a rival and develops the desire to eliminate the father.
Oedipus Complex
The female child unconsciously begins to develop a sexual interest in her father, sees her mother as a rival and develops the desire to eliminate the mother.
Female Oedipus Complex or Electra Complex
The fear of losing one’s penis; the boy’s hostile fantasies and impulses about his father will create a fear of retaliation.
Castration Anxiety
The girls wish that they have the anatomical part missing on them
Penis Envy
Sexual impulses lie dormant during this stage
Latency Period
The child channels his energies toward developing social, intellectual and moral skills instead. Peer relationships and the school are the child’s primary preoccupations.
Latency Period
Begins with puberty, when adolescents experience a reawakening of the sexual aim and the beginning of the sexual period.
Genital Stage
Beginning of the genital stage
Puberty
Sexual gratification obtained solely through stimulation by oneself of one’s own body
Autoerotism
Oral character that is a result of overindulgence in infancy
Oral Receptive
Oral character that is a result when the needs of the infant is severely frustrated
Oral Aggressive
What is an Oral Receptive Character?
- The individual has become too spoiled, is excessively dependent on others for gratification
- Too trusting, accepting, and guillible; admire others’ strength but make little attempt to fend for themselves
What is an Oral Aggressive Character?
- The person learns to exploit others and may develop sadistic attitudes.
- Tends to envy others and tries to dominate them
What is an Anal Retentive Character?
obsessed with organization or excessive neatness
What is an Anal Expulsive Character?
reckless, careless, defiant, disorganized
What is a Male Phallic Character?
- reaction to a severe castration anxiety; they behave in a reckless, resolute and self assured manner
- Overvaluing of the penis is reflected in excessive vanity and exhibitionism. They have to prove that they are real men.
What is a Female Phallic Character?
- Primary motive is penis envy
They are considered as “castrating women” and continuously strives for superiority over men.
What is a Genital Character?
The ideal type for Freud. Such people are sexually mature and capable of sublimating their id impulses.
What is Freud’s Concept of Humanity?
- Determinism
- Nature/Biology
- Causality
- Unconscious determinants
- Mid between uniqueness vs. universality