Lecture 2- psychoanalytic and humanistic approaches

Who are the 4 major psychoanalysts?

• Freud

• Adler

• Jung

• Horney

What was Freud influenced by?

• Conservation of energy

• Hypnosis as treatment for hysteria

What did Freud conclude about mental disorders?

Examining brain anatomy could not sufficiently explain mental disorders

What does ‘conscious’ refer to?

Thoughts that we are aware of at any given moment

What does ‘prconscious’ refer to?

Thoughts that we can become easily aware of, e.g date of birth

What does ‘unconscious’ refer to?

Content that we are unaware of or can only become aware of in certain situations

What is the ‘id’?

• Seeks release of unconscious and primal needs/desires (food, sex etc)

• Wants immediate gratification

• Not concerned with moral or social rules

What principle does the id work on?

Pleasure principle

What is the ‘superego’?

• Controls moral/rule-bound behaviour, including ideals and ethics

• Rewards good behaviour and punishes bad

• Conflicts with the id

What is the ‘ego’?

• Balances the id’s urges with superego’s constraints

• Wants long-term gratification

• Logical, rational, resilient

• = you

What principle does the ego work on?

Reality principle

What did Freud suggest about personality?

• Psychosexual development occurs in stages

• In which personality and individual differences develop

What happens at each stage of psychosexual development?

Sexual energy is focused on a different target

What happens if sexual energy is stuck or fixated at a stage?

Conflicts can occur and these can leave a deep imprint on adult personality

What are the 5 stages of psychosexual development?

• Oral stage

• Anal stage

• Phallic stage

• Latency stage

• Genital stage

Describe the oral stage of psychosexual development

• Up to 2 years

• Focus on oral pleasure

• e.g feeding, thumb sucking

Describe the anal stage of psychosexual development

• 2-3 years

• Tension between pleasure (release) from toileting and social pressure to delay

Describe the phallic stage of psychosexual development

• 4-5 years

• Focus on genitals

• Realisation of physical male/female differences

• Leads to psychological gender differentiation

• Oedipus/Electra complexes

What is a Oedipus complex?

• A son’s feelings of desire for their opposite-sex parent (mother)

• Resentment toward the same-sex parent (father)

• Who they view as a rival

What is a Electra complex?

• Penis envy

• A daughter’s feelings of desire for their opposite sex parent (father)

Describe the latency stage of psychosexual development

• 6 years until puberty

• Key conflicts resolved

• Child represses sexuality

• Channels energy into social and intellectual pursuits

Describe the genital stage of psychosexual development

• Puberty until death

• Sexual and aggressive drives return

• Seeks pleasure through sexual contact with others

• Ego and superego now fully developed

What can too much/too little gratification at one stage cause cause?

Fixation

According to Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, what may happen to adults under stressful conditions?

May regress to the stage they were previously fixated on

What behaviours may result from oral fixation?

• Eating

• Drinking

• Smoking

What personality types may result from oral fixation?

• Demanding

• Impatient

• Envious

• Depressed

• Dependent on others

What behaviours may result from anal fixation?

• Rigid organisation (anal retentive)

• Carelessness (anal expulsive)

What personality types may result from anal fixation?

• Need for power/control

• Anxiety over losing control

• Rigid and perfectionistic

• Concerned with pleasure

• Cruel

• Intense emotionality

• Messy

What behaviours may result from phallic fixation?

• Seductive

• Flirtatious

• Promiscuous

What personality types may result from phallic fixation?

Male

• Exhibitionistic

• Vain

• Aggressive

Female

• Naive

• Seductive

• Submissive

What behaviours may result from latent fixation?

• Asexual

• Disengaged

• Lacks close friends

What personality types may result from latent fixation?

• Immaturity

• Inability to form deep and lasting adult relationships

What behaviours may result from genital fixation?

Maladaptive fixation not possible

What personality types may result from genital fixation?

If the individual transitions successfully through the prior stages, can now form heterosexual relationships

What did Jung suggest about personality?

• Believed Freud over-emphasised sexuality

• Embraced a ‘mythological’ approach

• Rejected scientific method

• Proposed a ‘collective conscious’

• Focused on dual aspects of the personality (private self vs persona presented to others)

• Therapy should help the expression of the unconscious

What does the ‘collective unconscious’ proposed by Jung refer to?

• Plato’s Meno

• Soul is immortal, reincarnated

• All knowledge is kept within the soul

• We forget everything at birth due to trauma

What did Adler suggest about personality?

• Believed Freud over-emphasised sexuality

• People consciously strive to improve their lives

• Relationships (parents, peers etc) and desire to contribute to society shape individuals

• Individuals focus on compensating for painful inferiorities (inferiority complexes)

What did Horney suggest about personality?

• Culture is a primary influence on personality

• Personality types relate to strategies to reduce interpersonal anxiety

• Women are more likely to envy men’s status, power and freedom than their penises

• Women are socialised into gender roles

What does humanistic psychology propose about personality?

• People have an innate tendency towards self-actualisation

• Personality is a result of you trying to become your best self

• Personality is NOT fixed, development is lifelong

Describe humanistic psychology as a discipline

• Concerned with more developed and healthier aspects of human behaviour

• Emphasis on the present

• Self-reflection and choice are key to development

• Focus on goals/outcomes of behaviour rather than individual differences or behavioural mechanisms

According to humanistic psychology, how does personality change over time?

• Internal experiences influence our personality when we are young

• As we age, external rules replace internal experiences

• Changing our personality

What is the ‘self’?

An organised pattern of perceptions, consciously available

How is the ‘self’ integrated and organised?

• Endures over time

• Characterises who you are

• Maintained and updated as the ‘self’ changes

How do the ‘self’ and our actions interact?

• We try to behave in ways consistent with our ‘self’

• Aim for consistency and congruence between ‘self’ and actions

What happens if there is incongruence between the ‘self’ and behaviour?

• Creates distress

• ‘Not being myself’

Who are 2 key humanist psychologists?

• Maslow

• Rogers

What did Maslow suggest about personality?

• Focused on a person-centered approach

• Criticised psychology’s focus on psychopathology to understand personality (abnormal behaviours)

• Thought focus on health and thriving was more important (positive psychology movement)

• HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

• Development begins with basic needs, similar to animals

• Such as food, water, warmth, rest

• Once lower needs satisfied, more uniquely human motives drive behaviour

What are some criticisms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

• Signs of self-actualisation can appear at early levels of the hierarchy (e.g talents during starvation/war)

• Humans don’t reliably follow the sequence (e.g refuse to eat another human even if starving)

What are some strengths of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Humans do broadly evolve through the stages as they age (e.g physiological needs important in childhood, belongingness important for teens etc)

What is self-actualisation?

• Hard to define!

• Realisation or fulfilment of one’s talents or potential

• Maslow’s examples: Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt

When do peak experiences occur?

When people are engaged in self-actualising activities

What is ‘flow’?

• Activity is challenging and useful

• One’s attention is completely absorbed by the activity

• Clear goals and feedback

• Concentration can only be on the current task

• Achievement of personal control

• Loss of self-consciousness and sense of time

What did Rogers suggest about personality?

• Focused on therapeutic method and use of person-focused therapy

What is person-centered therapy?

• Goal is to make patients more fully functioning and happier

• Involves creating a proper relationship with patients

• Open and genuine

• Uses reflection to help patients understand their personality

What is personality controlled by, according to the psychodynamic approach and humanistic approach?

• Psychodynamic → unconscious forces

• Humanistic → our own actions/choices

Is personality fixed or fluid, according to the psychodynamic approach and humanistic approach?

• Psychodynamic → fixed (based on early life experiences)

• Humanistic → not fixed (lifelong development)

What is the adult psychological experience, according to the psychodynamic approach and humanistic approach?

• Psychodynamic → repeating conflicts of the past

• Humanistic → achieving self-actualisation

What is healthy personality functioning, according to the psychodynamic approach and humanistic approach?

• Psychodynamic → denying impulses

• Humanistic → congruence

What is anxiety caused by, according to the psychodynamic approach and humanistic approach?

• Psychodynamic → impulses of the id

• Humanistic → incongruence between ‘self’ and one’s experience