Theories Flashcards
Structuralism
-father of experimental psychology
-analyzed the human mind using the process of introspection (the examination/observation of one’s own mental/emotional processes
- believed there are basic elements,structures which constitute the mind and the consciousness could be broken down into sensations and feelings
Ex: when confronted with an experience an individuals emotions emerge first and then the individual cognitively understands the experience and reacts behaviorally
Functionalism
-(work/operate) function of consciousness was more (adjusted to new conditions) adaptive than the structure (arrangement/pattern) of consciousness
-believed that humans first experience a situation and then the emotional reaction occurs
Ex: human mental states (thoughts &behaviors) arise bc of their functional role (how they operate in adjusted conditions) to the individuals environment
Psychoanalytic theory of personality
- psychoanalysis seeks to relieve the person of neuroses( distressing psychological disorders that are not associated with an extreme distortion of reality using free association and dream analysis to uncover repressed conflicts that are re-lived on an emotional and intellectual level. It continues until mature understanding is achieved and integrated in a new form into the personality
1 levels of consciousness
2 structure of personality
3 psychosexual stages of child development
- Levels of consciousness
Conscious: mental activities of which we are fully aware
Pre conscious: feelings, thoughts and ideas of which are not currently aware but can bring to our awareness easily can take them to the conscious level
Unconscious: feelings, thoughts,memories and desires of which we are unaware (Freud focused on this level)
- The structure of personality
-The ID (Pleasure principle) only one present at birth. It is the unconscious and includes everything inherited including instincts. Operates on pleasure and seeks immediate gratification of instinctual urges with no regard for anything or anyone
EX: a newborn is seen as ID and only has a desire to satisfy its needs
The Ego (Reality Principle)
Develops from the ID it is intertwined with the psychosexual development of the child. The ego operates on reality principle is aware of the individuals needs and the realities of the real world. Seeks gratification of these needs in a socially acceptable manner. The defenses of the ego is designed to keep the anxiety level of the individual to a manageable level by keeping anxiety-producing impulses out of conscioisness
The superego (Morality Principle)
Arises from the ego. Adopts values from his/her environment and belief about what constitutes good and bad
Psychosexual stages of development
At each stages a diff body part of the body is the primary source of erotic pleasure. When there is insufficient/excessive satisfaction at any stage is called fixation. A child’s experience at each stage determines adult personality and character of future relationships. Pathology occurs when there is a failure to negotiate one of the psychosexual stages. Under or over gratification can lead to fixation. Trauma is the result of fixation
Stage 1: Oral stage
Birth- 1 years of age
Infant uses mouth as means of investigating the world. Primarily erotic zone is the mouth
Stage 2 Anal stage
2-3 years of age the focus is on teaching the child control over bowel and urinary functions
Stage 3 Phallic stage (psychosexual stages of development)
3-6 years of age when the penis, clitoris and vulva become source of erotic pleasure
Stage 4 Latency Period (psychosexual stages of development)
6-11 years old when sexual feelings continue to be repressed and the superego maintains parental standards. The child’s failure to satisfactorily negotiate this stage may lead to discomfort with member of the opposite sex in adulthood, avoidance of intimacy or aggressive, emotionally detached sexual acitivity
Stage 5 Gential stage (psychosexual stages of development)
12 years to Adulthood there is a greater development of primary and secondary sex characteristics and the primary focus of erotic pleasure is the genitals
Individual psychology
Theories of personality development and methods of psychoanalysis
Individual psychology- Personality development
-human beings begin in a state of inadequacy or inferiority
- basic drive toward self-actualization or superiority
- an individual must be seen in relation to his environment and not id, ego or superego
-individuals degrees of functioning successfully in groups (family, friends work, society) is the primary indicator of an individuals welllness
-birth order of a child, physical problems, pampering and neglect all have an sig impact on the development of personality
-children develop a self image or fiction about themselves which influences children to interpret and respond to events in their lives
Individual psychology- methods of psychoanalysis
- social worker task is to help an individual identify dysfunctional fictions and to develop a new more positive self-image and life goals
- data collection includes assessing the clients drive toward self perfection, degree of activity and interest in contributing to the greater good of society
-psychoanalysis should be non-authoritarian social worker and clients is equal
Behaviorism
Analyzing behavior
- little Albert
EX: a child attempts to approach and pet every dog mom gets mad and every time mom sees she increases the punishment. The child is afraid of dogs. The child has been conditioned to fear dogs and therefore changes his behavior toward dogs
Classical/Respondent conditioning
4 of them
- unconditioned means that the associations have not yet been learned
Classical conditioning terms- unconditioned stimulus
Stimulus that innately evokes a response in the organism
EX: meat powered presented to the dogs
Pavlov presented to his dogs that resulted in the unconditioned or innate response of salivation
Classical conditioning terms- unconditioned response
Imante response to a stimulus
The salivation of the dogs when presented with the unconditioned stimulus of the meat powered
Classical conditioning terms- conditioned stimulus
Stimulus that does not innately evoke a response in a organism but the organism learns to response to bc it was paired with an unconditioned stimulus in the past
EX: the dogs learned to response to the ringing of the bell bc the bell had been repeatedly paired with the meat powered
Classical conditioning terms- conditioned response
Organisms learned response to a conditioned stimulus
Dogs learned response to the ringing of the bell was salivation
Cognitive development
Interesting in why children give the particular answers they give in tests of cognitive ability using qualitative interviews with children
Cognitive development- Assimilation
A way of learning a person incorporates (integrate new info/experience into their existing structure) aspects of his/her environment into an existing thought structure
EX: a child knows about dogs encounters a car they might initially call the car a dog bc it shares similar features
An adult interprets a political event based on their existing political beliefs
Cognitive development- Accommodation
Another way of learning modifying current thought structure to incorporate a new perceived feature of the environment
EX: an adult re-evaluates their political belief based on a new info/experience like meeting a person changing their poticial belief
Development of a child’s cognitive abilities- Piaget Stage 1
Sensorimotor
(Birth-2 years of age)
An infants knowledge is limited to his/her sensory perceptions and motor activities
-They have simple motor responses to sensory stimuli
-they utilizar skills and abilities from infancy like looking, sucking, grasping and listening to learn more about the environment
There are six substages in stage one
Piaget Stage 1 - substage 1
Impulsive and reflex actions- actions taken for their own sake
EX: sucking
Piaget Stage 2- sub stage 2
Primary circular actions receptive actions that are combined over time
EX: looking at and touching a stuffed animal
Piaget Stage 1- substage 3
Practicing secondary circular or repetitive actions for their consequences
EX: pushing a bowel repeatedly off the high chair tray to be picked up by a parent
Piaget Stage 1- substage 4
Coordinating secondary schemes applying them to a new situations child experiments with goal directed bx
EX: taking the lid off a box to retrieve a toy placed inside
Piaget Stage 1- substage 5
Tertiary circular actions/continuation of experiment with more variability
Child shows increase flexibility and creativity in previously acquire bx and skills
EX: experimenting with dropping toys and other objects to observe the effect
Piaget Stage 1-substage 6
Invention through mental combinations
Child increasingly performs experiments internally and object permance is fully developed
EX: child now understands that an object does not cease to exist when out of sight
Piaget Stage 2
Pre-operational 2-7yrs old
Children use new abilities to represent objects in a wide variety of activities not organized or logical, use objects to represent something in a play or pretend manner
EX: child uses an object to represent something else like using a cardboard box as a car
Piaget Stage 3
Concrete operations 7-11yrs
Highest level of cognitive development
Children begin thinking logically and able to utilize their new cognitive skills of reversibility and decentrarion to think about the steps of a process in a new order
EX: they understand that if they pour water from a wide glass to a tall thin glass the amount of water stays the same
Piaget Stage 4
Formal operations 11years to adult of achieved at all
The young person has the ability to reason not only about tangible objects and events but also about hypothetical or abstract ones, use rational thinking and abstract reasoning
Highest stage of cognitive and rarely achieved
Child development
How children learn
Child development- zone proximal development
The range of tasks that an individual can complete while learning new information
E: child learns a task on his own (without help from an adult) that he is functioning at a lower limit of ZPD
EX: child is given assistance by a teacher, mentor or other adult he can reach the upper level of potential skill
Child development-Scaffolding
An adult providing more help to a child who is attempting a difficult task and then
less help and support as the task becomes easier for the child
Child development-Learning process
-Culture and social environment
-not only exclusive to stimulus and response
- parents, teachers, other significant persons that support tools through modeling, questioning, prompting and suggesting that will help accomplish task that they may not be able to accomplish on their own
Child development- the child’s use of language
Language is vital to the transmission of culture, voluntary self regulation and thinking process
EX: highschool group project
Non vygotsky is reading on their own and taking the test
Social psychology- Lewinsky equation for bx
Acknowledge that both nature (inborn tendencies) and nurture (environmental experiences) interact in the shaping of individuals
Social psychology- force field analysis
Identifying helping forces which drive people toward a goal and hindering forces which block movement toward a goal
Social psychology- leadership climates
Three styles of leadership authoritarian, democratic, laissez faire
Ego defense
Unconscious strategies used by the ego to minimize distress causes by the conflicting demands of the id and superego
EX: a mature ego meets these conflicting demands through a process of acknowledging the demands and developing a way of meeting these challenges
EX: An immature ego is more to resort to the frequent use of defense mechanisms which involved self-deception and deception to others
Compensation
Seeking success in one are of life as a substitute for success in another area of life that has been limited bc of personal or environment barriers
EX: disabled athlete becoming a computer expert
Conversion
Transformation of anxiety into a physical dysfunction like paralysis/blindness which does not have a physiological basis (meaning it’s not how the body function)
EX:seizures as a defense against ongoing abuse
Denial
Is a refusal to acknowledge aspect of reality
EX: having cancer but refuses the dx
Displacement
Shifting of negative feelings one has about a person or situation into a different person or situation
EX: husband is angry at his boss and then is angry with his wife
Identification
Mechanism by which anxiety is handled through identifying with the person or thing producing the anxiety
(Fully taking the persons emotion)
EX: identifying with a kidnapper
