Psychodynamic Psychotherapies

Question 1

What is clinical psychology concerned with?

Answer 1

the study, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological and behavioral disorders.

Question 2

What assumptions do psychodynamic therapies share?

Answer 2

1. ) human behavior is motivated largely by unconscious processes.
2. ) early development has a profound effect on adult functioning.
3. ) universal principles explain personality development and behavior.
4. ) insight into unconscious processes is a key component of psychotherapy.

Question 3

The psychodynamic psychotherapies include …

Answer 3

1. ) Freud’s psychoanalysis
2. ) Adler’s individual psychology
3. ) Jung’s analytical psychotherap
4. ) the therapeutic approaches of the object-relations theorists.

Question 4

The worldview underlying Freudian psychoanalysis has been summarized as …

Answer 4

“…essentially pessimistic, deterministic, mechanistic, and reductionistic. According to Freud, human beings are determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations, biological and instinctual needs and drives, and psychosexual events that occurred during the first five years of live” (Corey, 1977 p. 12)

Question 5

What are the 2 separate, but interrelated, theories within Freud’s Personality Theory?

Answer 5

1. ) a structural theory (i.e. drive theory)

2. ) a developmental theory

Question 6

Freud’s structural theory posits the personality with what 3 structures …

Answer 6

the id, the ego, and the superego

Question 7

Id

Answer 7

• present at birth
• consists of the person’s live and death instincts, which serve as the source of all psychic energy
• it operates on the basis of the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of its instinctual drives and needs in order to avoid tension.

Question 8

Ego

Answer 8

• develops around 6 months of age in response to id’s inability to gratify all of its needs
• operates on the basis of the reality principle
• defers gratification of the id’s instincts until an appropriate object is available in reality
• employs secondary process thinking, which is characterized by realistic, rational thinking and planning

Question 9

What is the primary task of the ego?

Answer 9

to mediate the often conflicting demands of the id and reality, and the superego (once it develops)

Question 10

Superego

Answer 10

• emerges when a child is between 4 and 5 years of age
• represents and internalization of society’s values and standards, as conveyed to the child by parents through rewards & punishments.
• in contrast to the ego, which postpones gratification of the id’s instincts, the superego attempts to permanently block the id’s socially unacceptable impulses

Question 11

Freud’s Developmental Theory emphasizes …

Answer 11

• the sexual drives of the id
• and proposes that an individual’s personality is formed during childhood as the result of certain experiences that occur during five predetermined psychosexual stages of development.

Question 12

What are the 5 stages of psychosexual development in Freud’s Developmental Theory?

Answer 12

oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital

Question 13

during each stage of Freud’s Developmental Theory …

Answer 13

• the id’s libido (sexual energy) is centered on a different part of the body
• resulting in over- or under-gratification of sexual needs needs during that stage
• this is associated with different personality outcome
• e.g. oral needs not being met can lead to oral-dependent personality

Question 14

Another essential component of Freud’s Personality Theory is …

Answer 14

anxiety

Question 15

Freud described anxiety as …

Answer 15

an unpleasant feeling linked with excitement of the autonomic nervous system.

Question 16

Freud proposed the function of anxiety is …

Answer 16

to alert the ego to an impending internal or external threat (i.e. to danger arising from a conflict between the id’s impulses and the demands of the superego or reality or from an actual threat in the external environment..

Question 17

When the ego is unable to ward off danger through rational, realistic means …

Answer 17

it may resort to one of its defense mechanisms.

Question 18

What 2 characteristics do Freud’s defense mechanisms share?

Answer 18

• they operate on an unconscious level

- they serve to deny or distort reality

Question 19

What are Freud’s defense mechanisms?

Answer 19

• Repression
• Reaction formation
• Projection

Question 20

Repression

Answer 20

• most basic defense mechanism
• underlies all other defense mechanisms
• occurs when the id’s drives and needs are excluded from conscious awareness by maintaining them in the unconscious

Question 21

Reaction formation

Answer 21

• avoiding an anxiety-evoking impulse by expressing its opposite.

Question 22

Projection

Answer 22

• a threatening impulse is attributed to another person or external source.

Question 23

While the defense mechanisms …

Answer 23

can be considered adaptive because they serve to reduce anxiety, they may lead to dysfunction behavior when they become the ego’s habitual way of dealing with danger.

Question 24

What is the Freudian view of Maladaptive Behavior?

Answer 24

For Freudians, psychopathology stems from an unconscious, unresolved conflict that occurred during childhood.

• e.g. phobias are the result of displacement of anxiety onto an object or event that is symbolic of the object or event involved in an unresolved conflict
• e.g. depression is due to object loss coupled with anger toward the object turned inward
• e.g. mania represents a defense against libidinal or aggressive urges that threaten to overwhelm the ego

Question 25

What is the primary goal of Freudian psychoanalytic psychotherapy?

Answer 25

to reduce or eliminate pathological symptoms by bringing the unconscious into conscious awareness and integrating previously repressed material into the personality.

Question 26

What is the primary Freudian therapy technique?

Answer 26

analysis

Question 27

What are the primary targets of Freudian analysis?

Answer 27

client's free associations, dreams, resistances, and transferences.

Question 28

Underlying the analysis o 4 types of client events is the assumption of ...

Answer 28

``` psychic determinism (i.e. the belief that all behaviors are meaningful and serve some psychological function) - e.g. Freud believed that slips of the tongue (parapraxes) are not meaningless accidents but expressions of unconscious motives. ```

Question 29

Analysis of 4 events consists of what 4 techniques?

Answer 29

Confrontation, Clarification, Interpretation, and Working Through

Question 30

Confrontation

Answer 30

making statements that help the client see behavior in a new way.

Question 31

Clarification

Answer 31

clarifying the client's feelings and restating their remarks in clearer terms.

Question 32

Interpretation

Answer 32

goes a step further by more explicitly connecting current behavior to unconscious processes - less likely to elicit anxiety and resistance - therefore, more effective when they address motives & conflicts close to a client's consciousness than when they relate to material buried deep in the unconscious.

Question 33

Improvement in psychoanalysis is attributed to ...

Answer 33

catharsis, insight, and working through

Question 34

Catharsis

Answer 34

the emotional release resulting from the recall of unconscious material

Question 35

Catharsis paves the way for ...

Answer 35

the client's insight into the relationship between his/her unconscious processes and current behaviors.

Question 36

Working Through

Answer 36

- final & longest stage in psychoanalysis | - allows the client to gradually assimilate new insights into his/her personality.

Question 37

Current Status: Recent modifications to the Freudian approach include ...

Answer 37

- a more collaborative, egalitarian view of the therapeutic relationship - and a reconceptualization of transference and countertransference.

Question 38

Regarding Transference, some experts suggest ...

Answer 38

it is not a distortion but, instead, ... - the patient's response to the therapist's actual behavior, and - an attempt to imbue that behavior with personal meaning (Gil, 1982)

Question 39

Transference

Answer 39

the process of projecting one's feelings toward an important figure in your life onto someone else (esp. therapist/analyst).

Question 40

Countertransference

Answer 40

the process of the therapist/analysts projecting emotions/motives from a past object onto the client.

Question 41

Similarly, countertransference is viewed ...

Answer 41

- not just as the therapist's distorted response to the patient, but - when recognized and managed, as a potential source of information about the patient and an important contributor to the curative process (Langs, 1982)

Question 42

In recent years, a number of brief psychodynamic therapies have been developed. As noted by Prochaska & Norcross (2003), they have several characteristics ...

Answer 42

- in addition to being time limited, they target a specific interpersonal problem that is usually identified in the first session, - begin using interpretation early in the therapeutic relationship, and - emphasize the development of a strong working alliance.

Question 43

In addition, positive transference is considered ...

Answer 43

more important than negative transference by many practitioners of brief psychodynamic psychotherapy, - because it promotes a positive therapeutic relationship, - maximizes the client's motivation to work toward the achievement of therapeutic goals, and - reduces the likelihood that progress in therapy will be slowed down by the development of a full-scale transference neurosis.

Question 44

Positive Transference

Answer 44

apply enjoyable aspects of your past relationships to your relationship with your therapist (or other emotional object).

Question 45

Negative Transference

Answer 45

transference of negative and hostile feelings, rather than positive ones, onto a therapist (or other emotional object).