AP Psych Modules 55-56

55 Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Theories 56 Humanistic Theories

Personality

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Sigmund Freud

psychoanalytic theory proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality.

humanistic theories

focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment.

Trait theories

examine characteristic patterns of behavior

Social-cognitive

theories explore the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context

psychodynamic theories

theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences.

psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions.

unconscious

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

Freuds Free association

Unsuccessful hypnosis trials —> ____ in which he told the patient to relax and say whatever came to mind, he assumed that a line of mental dominoes had fallen from his patients’ distant past to their troubled present —>he believed, would allow him to retrace that line, following a chain of thought leading into the patient’s unconscious.

Free Association

in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial orembarrassing.

preconscious area

According to freud where we store the larger unconscious mind, with its thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories —> can retrieve them into conscious awareness.

Freuds strongest intrest was…

the mass of unacceptable passions and thoughts that he believed we repress from our consciousness because they would be too unsettling to acknowledge. Freud believed that without our awareness, these troublesome feelings and ideas powerfully influence us, sometimes gaining expression in disguised forms—the work we choose, the beliefs we hold, our daily habits, our upsetting symptoms.

freud’s 3 layers of mind

conscious, preconscious, and unconscious

three parts of personality

impulsive id, conscious ego, and restraining superego

Freud believed that human personality

arises from a conflict between impulse and restraint—between our aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological urges and our internalized social controls over these urges. Freud believed personality arises from our efforts to resolve this basic conflict—to express these impulses in ways that bring satisfaction without also bringing guilt or punishment.

id

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. (present rather than future time perspective, predisposed to abuse tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs, who would rather party now) think infants

ego

the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. Operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.(young child responds to the real world, bring’s long-term pleasure)

superego

the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations. age age 4 or 5 (how we ought to behave)

strong super ego

person may be virtuous yet guilt ridden

weak super ego

person may be outrageously self-indulgent and remorseless

erogenous zones

He concluded that children pass through a series of psychosexual stages, during which the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct pleasure-sensitive areas of the body called ___.

psychosexual stages

the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones.

Oral (0–18 months)

Pleasure centers on the mouth—sucking, biting, chewing

Anal (18–36 months)

Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

Phallic (3–6 years)

Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings —> Oedipus complex is present

Latency (6 to puberty)

A phase of dormant sexual feelings

Genital (puberty on)

Maturation of sexual interests

Oedipus complex

according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father. —> led too what we know as gender identity

what happens when a boy relises they cant beat there dad for their mothers love?

Through this identification process,children’s superegos gain strength

identification

the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’values into their developing superegos.

fixation

in psychoanalytic theory, according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved.

defense mechanisms

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories. —> enables Seven Defense Mechanisms

1. Regression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

2. Reaction formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

3. projection

Disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

4. Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions

5. Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

6. Sublimination

Transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives

7. Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

Ex. of Freudian Slip

as when a financially stressed patient, not wanting any large pills, said, “Please do not give me any bills, because I cannot swallow them.” (When the day I hit the bus and was bullied abt it told Mr. Kuhn a question and switched one of the words with DMV😭)

Freud view on jokes

expressions of repressed sexual and aggressive tendencies

Freuds view on dreams

as the “royal road to the unconscious.” The remembered content of them (their manifest content) he believed to be a censored expression of the unconscious wishes

what did freud do in his dream analysis?

searched for patients’ inner conflicts

neo freudians

broke off from Freud in two important ways. First, they placed more emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience and in coping with the environment. And second, they doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivations. Instead, they tended to emphasize loftier motives and social interactions.

Alfred Adler and Karen Horney

believed that childhood social, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality formation

Alfred Adler

gave us the inferiority complex idea, believed that much of our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority feelings that trigger our strivings for superiority and power.

Karen Horney

said childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security. Opposed Freud’s assumptions that women have weak superegos and suffer “penis envy,” and attempted to balance his masculine bias saying it was the work of the masculine tendency to lower women’s self-respect

Carl Jung

disciple-turned-dissenter, less emphasis on social factors and agreed with Freud that the unconscious exerts a powerful influence containing our repressed thoughts and feelings. Believed we also have a collective unconscious, a common reservoir of images, or archetypes, explains why, for many people, spiritual concerns are deeply rooted and why people in different cultures share certain myths and images

collective unconscious

Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history.

contemporary [psychodynamic] theorists agree with Freud in that

1. much of our mental life is unconscious

2. we often struggle with inner conflicts among our wishes, fears, and values

3. childhood shapes our personality and ways of becoming attached to others.

projective test

a personality test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics. —> aims to provide “psychological X-ray” a test would need to provide some sort of road into the unconscious

Henry Murray (1933)

1. demonstrated a possible basis for projective tests at a party hosted by his 11-year-old daughter(murder game, after playing photos r viewed as more malicious)projected

   their inner feelings into the pictures.

2. created the Thematic Apperception

   Test (TAT) people view photo and project their own feelings onto it when explaining, projecting their own goals—> test subject should be unaware of how much info they just gave

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes. (provides a valid and reliable map of people’s implicit motives which is consistent)

Hermann Rorschach

Rorschach inkblot test, in which people describe what they see in a series of inkblots. In a childhood game he and his friends would drip ink on a paper, fold it, and then say what they saw in the resulting blot

Rorschach inkblot test

the most widely used projective test; a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.

flaw in Rorschach inkblot test

inaccurately diagnosed many healthy adults as pathological, test is good only to some extent tho

Modern criticisms of Freud

1) Lack of empirical evidence 2) Overemphasis on sexuality 3) Lack of cultural and gender diversity in his theories 4) Limited focus on conscious processes 5) Inadequate scientific methodology.

• say his theory’s were always correct because it “is like betting on a horse after the race has been run”

Modern repression

extreme, prolonged stress, such as the stress some severely abused children experience, might disrupt memory by damaging the hippocampus ). But the far more common is that high stress and associated stress hormones enhance memory.

Modern Unconscious Mind

Freud was right about a big idea that underlies today’s psychodynamic thinking: We have limited access to all that goes on in our mind ,Our two-track mind has a vast out-of-sight realm. Some argue that “most of a person’s everyday life is determined by unconscious thought processes”

Yet many research psychologists now think of the unconscious not as hot passions and repressive censoring but as cooler information processing that occurs without our awareness. To these researchers, the unconscious also involves the schemas that automatically control our perceptions and interpretations, the priming by stimuli to which we have not consciously attended the right-hemisphere activity that enables the split-brain patient’s lefthand to carry out an instruction the patient cannot verbalize the implicit memories that operate without conscious recall, even among those with amnesia the emotions that activate instantly, before conscious analysis the stereotypes and implicit prejudice that automatically and unconsciously influence how we process information about others.

Unconscious mind today includes

schemas , priming, right-hemisphere activity, implicit memories, even among those with amnesia the emotions that activate instantly, before conscious analysis the stereotypes and implicit prejudice that automatically and unconsciously influence how we process information about others

Research also supports two of Freud’s defense mechanisms

1. reaction formation (trading unacceptable impulses for their opposite)—> unconsciously gay ppl hate gay people

2. projection (attributing our own threatening impulses to others)—>People who cheat on their assignments or shoplift petty items “for thrills” tend to think many others do the same

Freuds projection effect is now called __

the false consensus effect(the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.)

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

defense mechanisms

seem motivated less by the sexual and aggressive undercurrents that Freud imagined than by our need to protect our self-image.

Finally, research has supported Freud’s idea that we unconsciously __ ourselves against _.

defend, anxiety

death anxiety

increases aggression toward rivals and esteem for oneself

terror-management theory

a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people’s emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death.

prospect of death

promotes religious sentiments, and deep religious convictions enable people to be less defensive—less likely to rise in defense of their worldview—when reminded of death

contemplating death

people prioritize their close relationship

actual death of loved ones

can provoke protective responses

Two pioneering theorists—Abraham Maslow(1908–1970) and Carl Rogers (1902–1987) = humanistic theorists

offered a third-force perspective that emphasized human potential.

1. In contrast to Sigmund Freud’s emphasis on disorders born out of dark conflicts, these humanistic theorists emphasized the ways people strive for self-determination and self-realization.

2. In contrast to B. F. Skinner’s behaviorism’s scientific objectivity, they studied people through their own self-reported experiences and feelings.

humanistic theories

theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth.

hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.

Abraham Maslow’s Self-Actualizing Person

motivated by a hierarchy of needs

physiological needs —> personal safety —> seek love —> seek self esteem —> seek self-actualization(the process of fulfilling our potential) + self-transcendence (meaning, purpose, and identity beyond the self).

hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.

self-actualization

according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one’s potential.

self-transcendence

according to Maslow, the striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self.

L

Maslow (1970) developed his ideas by studying healthy, creative

people rather than troubled clinical cases. He based his description of self-

actualization on a study of those, such as Abraham Lincoln, who seemed

notable for their meaningful and productive lives. Maslow reported that

such people shared certain characteristics: They were self-aware and self-

accepting, open and spontaneous, loving and caring, and not paralyzed by

others’ opinions. Secure in their sense of who they were, their interests

were problem-centered rather than self-centered. They focused their

energies on a particular task, one they often regarded as their mission in

life. Most enjoyed a few deep relationships rather than many superficial

ones. Many had been moved by spiritual or personal peak experiences.

These, said Maslow, are mature adult qualities found in those who have

learned enough about life to be compassionate, to have outgrown their

mixed feelings toward their parents, to have found their calling, to have

“acquired enough courage to be unpopular, to be unashamed about being

openly virtuous.”

Carl Rogers’ Person-Centered Perspective

people are basically good and are endowed with self-actualizing tendencies. Unless thwarted by an environment that inhibits growth agreed with much of Maslow’s thinking

Carl rogers believed growth-promoting social climate provides:

Acceptance: they offer unconditional positive regard

Genuineness: When people are genuine, they are open with their own feelings, drop their facades, and are transparent and self-disclosing.

Empathy: When people are empathic, they share and mirror other’s feelings and reflect their meanings.

unconditional positive regard

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Roger believed people can grow with age

things get better with age because of acceptance, genuineness, and empathy.

Maslow + Rogers central feature of personality

one’s self-concept—all the thoughts and feelings we have in response to the question, “Who am I?” Can be positive or negative! Rogers said goal = to help others know, accept, and be true to themselves.

Posititive self concept

we tend to act and perceive the world positively

Negative self concept

—if in our own eyes we fall far short of our ideal self—said Rogers, we feel dissatisfied and unhappy.

self-concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am I?”

Assessing the Self

1. psychologists presumed that interviews and intimate conversation would provide a better understanding of each person’s unique experiences.

2. Some researchers believe our identity may be revealed using the life story approach—collecting a rich narrative detailing each person’s unique life history

Evaluating Humanistic Theories (SWCA)

Humanistic theories focus on individual's self-actualization and personal growth.

Strength: Emphasizes the importance of subjective experiences and personal agency.

Weakness: Lacks empirical evidence and scientific rigor.

Criticism: Overly optimistic and ignores the role of unconscious processes, concepts are vague and subjective, very naive to world problems

Application: Used in counseling and therapy to promote self-awareness and personal development.

Critics of Roger say that his quote“The only question which matters is, ‘Am I living in a way which is deeply satisfying to me, and which truly expresses me?’”

This emphasis on individualism—trusting and acting on one’s feelings, being true to oneself, fulfilling oneself—could lead to self-indulgence, selfishness, and an erosion of moral restraint

Critism leveled against humanistic psychology is…

that it is naive

more key info

Action requires enough realism to fuel concern and enough optimism to provide hope. (Pessimism often fulfills its own predictions by restraining our efforts at change.) Humanistic psychology, say the critics, encourages the needed hope but not the equally necessary realism.