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Personality > The Psychoanalytic Perspective > Flashcards

The Psychoanalytic Perspective Flashcards

1
Q

Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)

A

Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst

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2
Q

Psychoanalytic assumptions

A
  1. Personality is dynamic - result of ever-changing set of
    forces which operate either in harmony or opposition
  2. Behaviour motivated by forces beyond conscious
    awareness
  3. Energy used for performing work of mind obtained from biologically-based instinctual drives
  4. Personality development powerfully influenced by early experience
  5. Mental health dependent upon balance of forces in one’s life – “everything in moderation”
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3
Q

The Conscious Level

A

• Contains elements about which a person is currently
aware
• Contents can be articulated verbally
• Contents can be thought about in a rational/logical manner

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4
Q

The Preconscious Level

A

• Represents elements in ordinary memory—
those outside of current attention
• Contents are easily brought to current awareness
• Examples:
• What you had for dinner last night
• Your grandmother’s first name

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5
Q

The Unconscious Level

A

• Elements of the mind that are
actively kept from consciousness
• Generally, a repository for images, feelings and ideas associated with anxiety, fear, and pain
• Contents cannot be brought to consciousness directly, but can only enter awareness in distorted form
• Even though they are outside of awareness, the contents of the unconscious can have a dynamic
influence on personality

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6
Q

The structural model

A 
❖Complements the topographical model
❖Describes the three components of personality functioning
• Id (Latin for “It”)
• Ego (Latin for “I”)
• Superego (Latin for “over I”)
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7
Q

The Id

A

• Is the original part of personality; present at birth
• Embodies inherited, instinctive, and primitive aspects of personality
• Tied to biological functions
• Operates entirely in the unconscious
• Functions as the engine of personality,
through which all psychic energy comes
• Conforms to the “Pleasure Principle”

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8
Q

The Ego

A

• Evolves out of the id because Id functions cannot deal effectively with objective reality
• Operates primarily at the conscious and preconscious, but also at the unconscious
• Operates according to the = “Reality Principle”
• No moral sense, simply wants to fulfill needs
given the constraints of reality

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9
Q

The Superego

A
  • Embodiment of parental and societal values
  • Arises from complex feeling resulting from relationship with parents
  • love and affection—obtained by doing what parents think is right
  • punishment and disapproval—obtained by avoiding what parents think is wrong
  • Introjection: the process of incorporating values from an external source (i.e., mostly parents, sometimes society)
  • Operates at all levels of consciousness
  • interesting implication: feelings of guilt for no apparent reason H.Gaeta, 202
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10
Q

The Id – the pleasure principle

A

❖ Asserts that the true purpose of life is the immediate
satisfaction of all needs
❖ Gives no consideration to risk, environment, social
constraints or problems in satisfying needs
❖ Unmet needs result in a state of aversive tension
❖ Mechanism for discharge of tension = “Primary
Process”

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11
Q

The Ego – the reality principle

A

❖ Introduces a sense of rationality and logic into personality functioning
❖ Idea that behavior is governed by an external, objective world
❖ Focus on effectively expressing Id impulses by taking into account the external world
if risk is associated with need, fulfilling behavior is too high
• directs behavior to another way to meet need
• delays to later, safer, or more sensible time
❖ Mechanism for matching tension and producing need to a real object/activity = “Secondary Process”

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12
Q

Goals of Superego

A

❖ Inhibit any Id impulse that would cause disapproval
from parents
❖ Force ego to act morally, rather than rationally
❖ Guide person toward perfection in thought, word and
behaviour
>. Problem: While Superego exerts a civilizing effect, its
perfectionism is not realistic

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13
Q

The “drives” of personality

A

❖ Basic assumptions:
• People are complex energy systems
• Energy used in psychological work is released through biological processes
• These processes, which operate through the Id = “drives”
❖ Two elements to drives:
• Biological need state (influences motives)
• Psychological representation (press influences motives)

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14
Q
  1. Life or sexual drives (Eros)
A
  • Concerned with survival, reproduction, and pleasure
  • Examples: Hunger, pain avoidance, sex
  • Energy resulting from Eros = “Libido”
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15
Q
  1. Death drives (Thanatos)
A
  • The goal of all life is death
  • Usually held back by Eros
  • No label for energy resulting from Thanatos
  • Physiological analog: Apoptosis (programmed cellular suicide)
  • Redirected harm toward self onto others may represent the foundation of aggression
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16
Q

Catharsis

A

❖ The release of the tension resulting from an unmet
drive
❖ Implications for aggressive energy:
• overcontrolled aggression—exaggerated ego and superego processes in which there is a strong inhibition against aggression (straw that broke the camel’s back syndrome)
• mixed effects on the reduction of arousal following
aggressive acts
• mixed findings on the effects of future aggression

17
Q

Anxiety!!!

A

Ego’s work = balance demands of internal &
external world & Id & Superego.
❖ Sometimes overwhelmed causing -
ANXIETY!!! - German “Angst”
❖ Freud saw it as warning signal to ego
❖ When ego operates optimally person experiences minimal anxiety

18
Q

Types of anxiety

A
  1. Reality anxiety —fear of something real in
    world
  2. Neurotic anxiety —fear of punishment
    resulting from Id impulses getting out of
    control
  3. Moral anxiety —fear of violating moral/ethical
    codes arising from Superego
19
Q

Defense mechanisms

A

Defense mechanism = theoretical concept
Describes how behaviours, feelings & ideas
are used to:
• avoid or manage some powerful or
threatening feeling, signalled by anxiety
• maintain self-esteem – strong consistent
positively valued sense of self
• protect against dis-integration & anxiety
• modify unwanted impulses

20
Q

Defense mechanisms: 1-6

A
  1. Repression: Unconscious forcing something out of
    consciousness
  2. Suppression: Conscious repression
  3. Denial: Refusal to believe event took place or condition exists
  4. Projection: Ascribing unacceptable impulses, desires or qualities to someone else
  5. Introjection: Taking on board attitudes, feelings,
    behaviours of some significant other person
  6. Rationalisation: Finding a reason/excuse for behavior done for unacceptable reasons
21
Q

Defense mechanisms: 7-12

A
  1. Intellectualisation: Thinking in cold, analytical or detached way about things that normally evoke distress
  2. Reaction formation: Guards against expression of unacceptable impulse by replacing it with opposite
  3. Regression: Giving up mature coping styles in favor of those from earlier stages of psychosexual development in which they fixated
  4. Dissociation: disruption in normally occurring connection between feelings & thoughts, behaviour & memories
  5. Displacement: Redirection of emotion, impulse or preoccupation from initial object to another
  6. Sublimation: e.g. painting, music
22
Q

Repression & Suppression

A 
❖ An unconscious act of forcing something out of 
consciousness
❖ Conscious repression = suppression
• important in restraining Id impulses
• also applies to painful information memories, 
behaviours
❖ Not always all-or-nothing act 
• can have partial repression
23
Q

Denial

A

❖ Refusal to believe event took place or
condition exists
❖ Generally deals with threats that
originate outside dynamics of mind
❖ Effective at keeping anxiety at bay, but
requires constant psychic energy
❖ Because of energy cost of repression &
denial, other strategies developed to
free-up energy

24
Q

Projection

A 
❖ Ascribing unacceptable impulses, 
desires or qualities to someone else
❖ Serves to express Id’s desire releasing
energy required to suppress it
❖ Masks expression of impulse in way 
that it’s not recognized by Ego or 
Superego
25
Q

Introjection

A

❖ Taking on board attitudes, feelings,
behaviours of significant other person
❖ Enables development of Superego
❖ Operates as defense mechanism by
maintaining or restoring cathexis with desired or lost ‘object’.
Cathexis: process of investment of mental or
emotional energy in person, object, or idea

26
Q

Rationalisation

A 
❖ Finding reason/excuse for behaviour 
conducted for unacceptable reasons
❖ Rationalisation after a failure
maintains self-esteem
❖ Common response to success and 
failure experiences
27
Q

Intellectualisation

A

❖ Thinking in a cold, analytical or detached way about things that normally evoke distress
❖ Allows disassociation of thought from
feelings
❖ Suggests intellectual part of idea can exist in conscious mind while emotional quality remains
unconscious

28
Q

Reaction formation

A

❖ Guards against expression of unacceptable impulse by replacing it with its opposite
❖ Clues to behaviour motivated by an opposite impulse, e.g.
• going overboard
• hints or tinges of impulse being defended against

29
Q

Regression

A

❖ Giving up mature coping styles in favour of those from earlier stages of psychosexual development in
which they are fixated
❖ Often represents thoughts & actions permeated by concerns of earlier stage

30
Q

Dissociation

A

❖ Dissociative amnesia = inability to recall important
personal information of a traumatic nature
❖ Dissociative identity disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) = particular form of dissociative disorder where
2 or more distinct identities concurrently take control of
individual’s behaviour accompanied by an inability to
recall personal information too extensive to be
explained by ordinary forgetting

31
Q

Displacement

A

❖ Redirection of emotion, impulse or
preoccupation from initial object to another
❖ Shift to new object less threatening, thus
anxiety reduced e.g. punch a pillow instead of boss

32
Q

Sublimation: Part 1

A

Is considered more adaptive than other defense mechanisms
❖ Transforms Id impulses, wishes etc. into
socially acceptable forms
❖ Expressed impulse, permits energy release
& is more acceptable, thus anxiety is reduced
❖ Considered most mature of defense
mechanism: e.g. painting, music

33
Q

Sublimation: Part 2

A

❖ Defenses such as:
denial, withdrawal, projection, introjection
involve boundary between self & outside world & lack of appreciation of separateness & constancy of those
outside of us
❖ Other defenses involve boundaries within mind itself such as between experiencing & observing parts of self:
repression, intellectualisation, displacement, reaction formation

34
Q

Limitations and strengths of Freud’s theory

of anxiety, defense & self-protection

A

❖Limitations
• difficult concepts to test
• defense mechanisms provide endless flexibility, making prediction difficult & any result explainable
❖Strengths
• Freud’s was first comprehensive theory of personality
• it’s centrality to the key issues of personality
• intuitive appeal of it’s major themes

35
Q

Behavioural problems & change

A

❖ Problems arise from overuse of defenses:
• unresolved conflict resulting in fixation
• broad libidinal repression of basic needs (psychosexual development)
• repressed trauma
❖ Goal of therapy is to free-up energy by releasing need to repress through awareness and insight:
• Consequences of therapy
▪ resistance—actively fighting against awareness of repressed conflicts and impulses
▪ transference—displacements onto therapist

36
Q

Dreams

A

❖ “Royal road to the unconscious”—Freud
❖ Two Aspects
• Manifest Content—actual sensory images
• Latent Content—the source of the manifest content; the meaning underlying the dream
Sources
▪ concurrent sensory stimulation (e.g., barking dog, ringing phone)—guardians of sleep
▪ current concerns—thoughts, feelings, concerns in life
▪ unconscious Id impulses—present in all dreams

Personality (11 decks)

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