Psychoanalytic, Psychosocial, and Moral Developmental Theories

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory, Erik Erikson's psychosocial developmental stages, and Lawrence Kohlberg's moral development work based on lecture notes.

Jean Charcot

The French physician in Paris with whom Sigmund Freud studied the technique of hypnosis after becoming bored as a physician in Austria.

Dynamic Approach

Freud's theoretical approach centered on the theme that each child is born with a certain amount of sexual energy (libido) that is biologically guided to specific bodily locations called erogenous zones.

Libido

Sexual energy in Freud's theory, defined as the ability to experience physical or sexual pleasure, which shifts across erogenous zones to mark new developmental stages.

Erogenous Zones

Specific biologically guided locations within the body where sexual energy is focused, identified as the oral, anal, and genital areas.

Id

The dark, mysterious side of personality inherited at birth and the main source of sexual energy; it seeks immediate gratification without delay, drives impulsive and selfish behaviors, and is known as the spoiled child of personality.

Ego

The mind's avenue to the real world, required for physical and psychological survival; it carries out perception, logical thought, problem solving, and memory, and uses defense mechanisms when threatened by intense anxiety.

Repression

A defense mechanism that involves denying or forgetting that danger exists.

Reaction Formation

A defense mechanism characterized by acting in a manner completely opposite from the way one truly feels.

Projection

A defense mechanism that entails attributing one's own unacceptable behavior or desires to others.

Regression

A defense mechanism where an individual returns to an earlier form of behavior, such as bed-wetting or thumb-sucking.

Fixation (Freudian Defense Mechanism)

A defense mechanism defined by remaining at a present level of development, characterized by a lack of maturity despite aging.

Sublimation

A defense mechanism involving substituting a desire for a specific object or person with a less desirable option.

Compensation

A defense mechanism where an individual makes up for failure in one area by heavily applying oneself in another area (e.g., performing well in psychology while failing math).

Identification (Defense Mechanism)

A defense mechanism characterized by adopting the characteristics of an aggressor or bully in order to compensate for one's own sense of inadequacy.

Displacement

A defense mechanism involving retaliating against a substitute target other than the actual person toward whom retaliation is desired (e.g., a father scolded by his boss taking anger out on his children).

Superego

A personality structure that emerges when children resolve the Oedipus complex; it opposes both the id and ego, watches over the ego's thoughts under the principle that thinking is as bad as doing, and comprises the conscience and ego ideal.

Conscience

The negative component of the superego that punishes the child with feelings of guilt.

Ego Ideal

The positive component of the superego representing standards of conduct toward which a child strives, rewarding the child with positive self-esteem and pride.

Unconscious

The geographic region of the mind containing repressed and unknown thoughts and feelings; the primary dwelling place of the id.

Preconscious

The geographic region whose thoughts can enter consciousness by creating mental images or linking words into language.

Conscious / Perceptual Conscious

The geographic region of the mind encompassing whatever content a person is aware of at any given moment.

Free Association

A psychoanalytic method requiring a patient to orally report their ongoing, unedited stream of thought.

Dream Analysis

A psychoanalytic method consisting of the patient's verbal reporting of their mental activity during sleep (dreams).

Transference

A psychoanalytic phenomenon wherein a patient develops positive and/or negative feelings, attraction, or dislike toward their therapist.

Oral Stage

Freud's first psychosexual stage (birth to age 1), where the libido centers on the mouth and pleasure comes from sucking; improper weaning can cause fixation leading to alcoholism, nail-biting, smoking, or thumb-sucking.

Anal Stage

Freud's second psychosexual stage (ages 1 to 3), where physical pleasure derives from expelling and later withholding bowel movements, making toilet training the primary developmental concern.

Anal Personality

An adult personality pattern resulting from difficult toilet training, characterized by traits such as being overcontrolling, compulsive, extremely neat, stingy, hostile, defiant, and rigid.

Phallic Stage

Freud's third and most complex stage (ages 3 to 6), where the erogenous zone is the genital area, pleasure is derived from stimulation (masturbation), and children experience sexual attraction toward the opposite-sex parent.

Oedipus Conflict / Complex

A crisis during the phallic stage where a child perceives the same-sex parent as a rival; resolved either by forcing desires into the unconscious or by identifying with the same-sex parent, failing which causes adult impotence in men or rigidity in women.

Latency Stage

Freud's fourth stage (ages 6 to 11/12), during which the libido remains repressed and inactive while the child focuses on school, same-sex friendships, cognitive skill acquisition, and cultural values.

Genital Stage

Freud's fifth stage (adolescence, ages 12 to 13), wherein the libido reemerges at puberty toward peer partners, aiming toward mature adult sexuality and biological reproduction.

Little Hans Case Study

Freud's case study of a five-year-old boy suffering from a phobia of white horses with black muzzles and blinders (symbolizing his pale father with a mustache and eyeglasses), driven by Oedipal castration anxiety and masturbation guilt.

Eight Ages of Man

Erik Erikson's division of the entire human life cycle into eight critical developmental periods during which ego identity reaches distinct climaxes.

Basic Trust vs. Basic Mistrust

Erikson's stage 1 (birth to age 2), where infants learn trustfulness in others and their own trustworthiness, while developing the necessary mistrust to detect danger and discriminate honesty.

Psychosocial Modality of Getting and Giving

The modality of Erikson's first stage, rooted in oral prototypes (sucking, biting, teething, weaning), through which taking in sensory stimulation lays the foundation for becoming a giver to others later in life.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Erikson's stage 2 (ages 2 to 3), centering on developing self-control and independence versus feelings of shame (sinking down in self-consciousness) and doubt regarding unseen bodily control.

Psychosocial Modality of Holding On vs. Letting Go

The behavioral modality of Erikson's second stage, representing behavioral counterparts to biological retention and elimination and marking the child's earliest encounter with societal rules and law and order.

Initiative vs. Guilt

Erikson's stage 3 (ages 3 to 5), where enhanced language and mobility expand the imagination, accompanied by the modality of taking initiative, forming and executing goals, and competing against others.

Industry vs. Inferiority

Erikson's stage 4 (age 5 to puberty at 12/13), where successful experiences produce feelings of competence, while failure or dismissal of one's efforts by admired figures brings feelings of inadequacy.

Identity and Repudiation vs. Identity Diffusion

Erikson's stage 5 (ages 12/13 to 18), where adolescents must integrate childhood role models into a coherent ego identity under the psychosocial modality 'to be oneself or not to be oneself.'

Identity Diffusion / Crisis

The failure to integrate identifications during adolescence, leaving the individual with a fragmented personality lacking a core, which later manifests as adult immaturity, intolerance, cruelty to others, and introversion.

Intimacy and Solidarity vs. Isolation

Erikson's stage 6 (ages 20 to 40), characterized by building solidarity of 'us' against threatening outsiders; failure to achieve intimacy results in isolation and cold, empty social relationships (lacks a psychosocial modality).

Generativity (Generation) vs. Stagnation and Self-Absorption

Erikson's stage 7 (ages 40 to 60), where adults focus on guiding the next generation, characterized by the psychosocial modality of faith in the future, belief in mankind, and caring for others.

Integrity vs. Despair

Erikson's stage 8 (age 60 to death), involving acceptance of life's limitations and integration of all previous stages, contrasted with despair marked by regret, fear of death, and disgust with oneself.

Lawrence Kohlberg's Moral Developmental Theory

A developmental theory formulated in a doctoral dissertation aimed at analyzing Jean Piaget's theory, established by a Harvard professor of education who died in 1897 and assessed morality by presenting subjects with moral scenarios.