The Intrapsychic Domain: Psychoanalytic Approaches to Personality Flashcards
What is the basis of psychoanalytic theory?
- Psychic energy is the source of energy in everyone that fuels motivation.
- This energy is governed by the law of conservation of energy.
- Personality change is seen as a redirection of psychic energy.
What are the instincts associated psychoanalytic theory?
Libido - life - Includes not just sexual energy but any life-sustaining or pleasure-seeking urges.
Thanatos - death - Expressed as aggression toward others or self.
Both instincts can act at the same time.
What is the conscious mind?
Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions currently in awareness.
What is the pre-conscious mind?
Memories and thoughts easily brought to mind (e.g., remembering what you wore yesterday).
What is the unconscious mind?
According to freud, the largest part of the mind, containing repressed urges and desires.
What is psychic determinism?
Freud believed that every action, thought, or feeling has a reason, and all are driven by unconscious motivations. Therefore, the mind is a deterministic system.
What are Freudian Slips (Parapraxes)?
Everyday mistakes (e.g., calling someone by the wrong name, forgetting an appointment) reveal hidden unconscious desires.
What is Freud’s legacy?
Freud built on Breuer’s observations to create a comprehensive theory of personality.
His ideas on the unconscious mind remain influential in psychology.
What is Psychoanalytic Structure of Personality?
Id, ego, and superego
What is the Id?
Primitive & dominant in infancy
Drives all urges
What is the pleasure principle?
Seeks immediate gratification without concern for reality, logic, or morality.
What is primary process thinking?
A type of irrational and fantasy-driven thought that lacks logical structure.
Fantasies, dreams
What is wish fufillment?
Creating mental images or fantasies to provide temporary satisfaction.
What is the ego?
Constraints “id” within reality
Develops around 2-3 years of age
What is the reality prinicple?
Mediating between the impulsive id and the constraints of the external world.
What is secondary process thinking?
Trying to find strategies fulfill needs in a way that is based in reality
What is the super ego?
Internalizes values, morals (around age 5)
The conscience
Punishes wrongdoing with guilt and shame.
The ego-ideal
Rewards moral behavior with feelings of pride and accomplishment.
Not necessarily reality-based
People can set their own standards
An overly strict superego can lead to what?
Excessive guilt and anxiety
Weak superego can result in what?
A lack of moral responsibility.
What is Objective Anxiety?
Real threat
Here, the ego’s control is threatened by an external force rather than an internal conflict.
What is Neurotic Anxiety?
Id-ego conflict
It arises from the fear that the ego may lose control over an unacceptable desire of the id
What is moral anxiety?
Id/ego & super ego conflict
A person suffering from chronic guilt or shame over failing to meet high moral standards, even unattainable ones, experiences moral anxiety.
The ego functions to minimize anxiety & cope with threats via?
defense mechanisms
What is repression?
Preventing unacceptable thoughts, feelings, urges from reaching conscious awareness
People tend to recall pleasant memories more easily than unpleasant ones due to repression.
What is denial?
Insisting that things are not as they seem by refusing to see facts, which keeps memories unconscious, denial distorts perception.
A person in denial may dismiss unflattering feedback, minimize health risks, or fantasize about alternative realities.
What is displacement?
A threatening/unacceptable impulse is directed from its source to non-threatening target
What is rationalization?
Generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that otherwise appear socially unacceptable
What is reaction formation?
To reduce an urge, one may show an opposite reaction
What is projection?
Project own unacceptable desires, urges &/or qualities onto others
Related to False Consensus Effect.
What is sublimation?
Channeling unacceptable instincts into a socially desirable activity. Sublimation allows for controlled expression of the id’s urges, preventing them from becoming destructive.
What is the oral psychosexual stage of development?
0 - ~1.5 yrs
Mouth
Weaning
Outcome is smoking, nail-biting, over-eating
What is the anal psychosexual stage of development?
~1.5 - 3 yrs
Toilet-training & self- control
Orderliness OR messiness
What is the phallic psychosexual stage of development?
3 -5 yrs
Genitals
Sexual desire toward opposite-sex parent
Sexual dysfunction
Oedipus Complex
Electra Complex
What is the latent psychosexual stage of development?
6 yrs - puberty
Focus on learning, skill & social development
Little psychological development
What is the genital psychosexual stage of development?
Puberty- adulthood
Genitals – but different than phallic
None
Personality development & sexual maturity due to completing prior stages
Personality is determined by what according to Freud?
Conflict resolutions, the balance of pleasure vs. demands, people’s defense mechanisms, & the (psychosexual) stages reached
What is psychoanalysis?
A form of psychotherapy used to treat mental health difficulties/disorders & to restructure personality by making the unconscious conscious
What are the goals of psychoanalysis?
1st Goal: Identify unconscious thoughts/feelings
2nd Goal: Once patient is aware of this material, help them deal with it maturely/realistically
What are techniques for revealing the unconscious?
Free association, dream analysis, projective tests
What is the Process of Psychoanalysis?
Interpretation(s) – (by psychoanalyst)
Leads to insight by patient
What is resistance?
Patient sets up unconscious obstacles that work against progress
What is transference?
Reaction (displacement) toward therapist as if therapist were someone in patient’s life
What are criticisms of Psychoanalysis
Lack of Scientific Rigor:
Freud did not use experimentation or hypothesis testing.
Psychoanalysis is not subjected to falsifiability, making it more a belief system than a science.
Issues with Evidence:
Freud’s research was based on case studies of wealthy, highly verbal women.
His observations were made only during therapy sessions.
What are Specific Disagreements with Freud’s Theories?
Overemphasis on sexual drives in childhood development.
Personality development does not stop at age 5 (adolescence and adulthood bring major changes).
His negative view of human nature (selfish, aggressive) is disputed by psychologists who propose a more positive or neutral perspective.
Freud’s views on women
