Week 5

Question 1

The idea that personality is filled with conflict brings up another theme: defense as a key aspect of human functioning. The psychoanalytic view assumes that everyone experiences threats about aspects of himself or herself. Maybe you have desires you think are shameful; maybe you’ve done things you regret; maybe you feel unworthy as a human being. Whatever most threatens you, your defensive processes keep it from overpowering you. This idea of continual defense is an important aspect of psychoanalytic thought.

Question 2

conscious

Answer 2

refer to the part of the mind that holds what you’re now aware of

Question 3

Causal Relationships between unconscious preconscious and conscious

Answer 3

Question 4

Unconscious

Answer 4

A part of the mind that is not directly accessible to awareness. Source of desires and repository for urges, feelings, and ideas that are tied up with anxiety, conflict or pain. They exert a continuing influence on actions and conscious experience

Question 5

Preconscious

Answer 5

effectively memory

Question 6

Id

Answer 6

The id (the Latin word meaning “it”) is all the inherited, instinctive, primitive aspects of personality.

Functions entirely in the unconscious. It’s closely tied to basic biological processes, which underlie life. Freud believed that all psychic energy comes through it. Thus, the id is the “engine” of personality.

Question 7

Pleasure principle

Answer 7

That all needs should be satisfied immediately. Unsatisfied needs create aversive tension states.

Question 8

primary process

Answer 8

forming an unconscious mental image of an object or event that would satisfy the need. In the case of a hungry infant, the primary process might produce an image of mother’s breast or a bottle.

The experience of having such an image is called wish fulfillment.

Question 9

wish fulfillment

Answer 9

The experience of having an image caused by the primary process

Question 10

reality principle

Answer 10

Ego. This means taking into account external reality along with internal needs and urges. Because the ego orients you toward the world, it leads you to weigh the risks of an action before acting. If the risks seem too high, you’ll think of another way to meet the need. If there’s no safe way to do so immediately, you’ll delay it to a later, safer, or more sensible time.

Thus, a goal of the ego is to delay the discharge of the id’s tension until an appropriate object or context is found.

Question 11

secondary process:

Answer 11

ego. matching the unconscious image of a tension-reducing object to a real object. Until such an object can be found, the ego has to hold the tension back.

The ego’s not trying to block the id’s desires permanently. The ego wants those urges to be satisfied. But it wants them satisfied at a time and in a way that’s safe—that won’t cause trouble because of some danger in the world

Question 12

self-control:

Answer 12

the ability to hold back one behavior you want to do (at least temporarily, and sometimes for longer) in favor of some other behavior.

Question 13

delay of gratification

Answer 13

being able to put off rewards until a later time.

Question 14

Reality testing

Answer 14

The ego’s checking to see whether plans will work before they are put into action.

Question 15

The ego ideal

Answer 15

comprises rules for good behavior or standards of excellence

Question 16

Conscience

Answer 16

The part of the superego that punishes ­violations of moral standards.

Question 17

Superego

Answer 17

superego (a joining of two Latin words meaning “over I”). Freud held that the superego develops while the person resolves a particular conflict during development (discussed later in the chapter). Embodies parental and societal values.

Made up of the conscience and ego-ideal

Question 18

introjection

Answer 18

The process of “taking in,” or incorporating, the values of the parents (and wider society) is called

Question 19

three interrelated goals of the superego

Answer 19

First, it tries to prevent (not just postpone) any id (it) impulse that would be frowned on by one’s parents.

Second, it tries to force the ego (I) to act morally, rather than rationally.

Third, it tries to guide the person toward perfection in thought, word, and deed. The superego exerts a “civilizing” influence on the person, but its perfectionism is quite removed from reality.

Question 20

Ego strength

Answer 20

The ego’s ability to be effective despite conflicting (Barron, 1953). With little ego strength, the person is torn among competing pressures. With more ego strength, the person can manage the pressures.

Question 21

Drive

Answer 21

A drive has two related elements: a biological need and its psychological representation. For example, a lack of sufficient water in the body’s cells is a need that creates a psychological state of thirst, a desire for water. These elements combine to form a drive to drink water.

Question 22

“hydraulic” model of drives

Answer 22

If a drive isn’t expressed, its pressure continues to build.

Question 23

Eros

Answer 23

a set of drives that deal with survival, reproduction, and pleasure.

Question 24

2 classes of drives

Answer 24

life or sexual instincts (eros)

death instincts (also termed Thanatos).

Question 25

Collectively, the energy of these life instincts is known

Answer 25

libido

Question 26

The term catharsis is used to refer to

Answer 26

the release of emotional tension in a moment were build-up is relieved.

Question 27

reality anxiety

Answer 27

arises from a danger in the world.

Question 28

neurotic anxiety

Answer 28

Is an unconscious fear that your id impulses will get out of control and make you do something that will get you punished.

Question 29

moral anxiety

Answer 29

This is the fear people have when they have violated (or are about to violate) their moral code. If your moral sense forbids cheating and you’re tempted to cheat, you feel moral anxiety.

Question 30

When anxiety arises, the ego responds in two ways.

Answer 30

First, it increases problem-oriented coping efforts. It tries to deal (consciously) with the source of the threat.

Second, the ego engages defense mechanisms: tactics it develops to help avoid the other kinds of anxiety.

Question 31

Defense mechanisms share two characteristics:

Answer 31

First, they all can operate unconsciously.

Second, they all distort or transform reality in one way or another

Question 32

Denial

Answer 32

A refusal to believe that some real condition exists.

Denial prevents us from becoming aware of unpleasant things in our lives.

Question 33

Difference between repression and denial

Answer 33

Repression deals with threats that originate within the dynamics of the mind. Denial deals with threats from other sources.

Question 34

projection

Answer 34

When you reduce anxiety by linking your own unacceptable qualities to someone else. You project traits, impulses, desires, or even goals onto another person

Question 35

rationalization

Answer 35

In rationalization, you reduce anxiety by finding a rational explanation (or excuse) for some behavior you really did for unacceptable reasons.

For example, a man who cheats on his income tax may rationalize his behavior as reducing the amount of money spent on weapons in the world.

Question 36

Displacement

Answer 36

shifting an impulse from one target to another. This often happens when the intended target is threatening. Displacement is a defense in such cases because substituting a less threatening target reduces anxiety.

Question 37

Sublimation

Answer 37

lets impulses be expressed, by transforming them to an acceptable form. For example, sexual impulses may be expressed as artistic creation.

Question 38

Fixation can occur for two reasons:

Answer 38

A person who’s overindulged in a stage may be reluctant to leave it and move on, and

a person whose needs are deeply frustrated in a stage can’t move on until the needs are met.

Question 39

The oral stage of development begins…

Answer 39

from birth to roughly 18 months.

Question 40

2 sub-stages of the oral stage

Answer 40

this part is called the oral incorporative phase, because they are more or less limited to taking things in (food and other experiences)

The second part of the oral stage starts with teething. It’s called the oral sadistic phase. Sexual pleasure now comes from biting and chewing (and even inflicting pain—thus sadistic)

Question 41

The anal stage of development begins…

Answer 41

begins at about 18 months and continues into the third year.

Question 42

The phallic stage of development begins…

Answer 42

begins during the third year and continues through the fifth year

At first, the awakening sexual desires are completely autoerotic; self-stimulation. Gradually, however, the libido shifts toward the opposite-sex parent, as boys develop an interest in their mothers and girls develop an interest in their fathers.

In traditional psychoanalytic theory, the boy’s fear is quite specific: He fears that his father will castrate him to eliminate the source of his lust. Freud termed this castration anxiety.

Question 43

Latency period

Answer 43

from about age 6 to the early teens, is a time when sexual and aggressive drives are less active. The lessening of these urges results partly from the emergence of ego and superego. During this period, children turn their attention to other pursuits, often intellectual or social in nature.

Question 44

genital stage

Answer 44

later adolescence and adulthood

If earlier stages have been negotiated well, the person enters this stage with libido still organized around the genitals, and it remains focused there throughout life

Sex now revolves around mutual gratification (not just narcissistic)

Not necessarily fully achieved

Question 45

Psychopathology of everyday life

Answer 45

when we forget things, get our words jumbled and have accidents

Question 46

parapraxes

Answer 46

memory lapses, slips of speech, and accidents that provide insights into a person’s true desires

Question 47

Manifest content

Answer 47

is the images—what most of us think of as “the dream.”

Question 48

latent content

Answer 48

the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and wishes behind the manifest content. Latent content tells why a dream takes the form it does.

Sourced in sensory stimulation, current concerns and unconscious impulses

Question 49

Projective techniques

Answer 49

Ways of assessing unconscious processes (e.g. Thematic Apperception Test, Rorschach inkblot test)

Question 50

Source of problems according to psychoanalysis

Answer 50

Childhood experiences (fixation, robbing later cognition)

Repression of basic needs and urges (overly punitive superego or a harsh environment causes too many urges to be buried, and the person’s basic nature will be distorted)

Buried trauma

Question 51

Seduction theory

Answer 51

Abandonded theory that Freud’s patients had mostly been seduced (abused) by their parents

Question 52

free association

Answer 52

the person was simply to say aloud whatever came to mind

Question 53

Resistance

Answer 53

When people in therapy sometimes actively fight against becoming aware of repressed conflicts and impulses

Question 54

transference

Answer 54

Transference is a set of displacements. Specifically, feelings toward other people in the patient’s life are displaced (transferred) onto the therapist.

Question 55

The goal of psychoanalytic psychology is

Answer 55

This term doesn’t mean an intellectual understanding. Instead, it implies the re-experiencing of the emotional reality of repressed conflicts, memories, or urges, previously unconscious parts of one’s personality

Question 56

Solutions to the three problems:

Answer 56

Fixation - Relive prior conflict to work through
Repressed trauma - Relive experience for catharsis of feelings
Repressed basic needs - Gain emotional insight into the needs and their acceptability

Question 57

Topographical model

Answer 57

Conscious, preconscious and unconscious

Question 58

Structural model

Answer 58

id, ego, superego