Week 9

The core assumptions of psychodynamic theory: 

• Primacy of the Unconscious 

• Critical Importance of Early Experiences 

• Psychic Causality 

Primacy of the Unconscious:  

The activities of the mind (or psyche) are presumed to be largely unconscious. (memories, motives, feelings) 

Critical Importance of Early Experiences: 

Early childhood events play a role in shaping personality, emphasizes these events as determinants of personality development and dynamics.  

Psychic Causality: 

Nothing in mental life happens by chance—that there is no such thing as a random thought, feeling, motive, or behavior. 

The Topographic Model 

Proposed that the mind could be divided into three regions: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. 

The conscious part of the mind is

what you are thinking, feeling, and focusing on in the moment.  

The preconscious part of the mind is

what holds the possible things that could make it into your conscious mind but aren’t there because you aren’t focusing on it. 

The unconscious part of the mind is

what contains anxiety-producing material (for example, sexual impulses, aggressive urges) that are deliberately repressed.  

The Psychosexual Stage Model 

Stages of oral, anal, Oedipal, latency, and genital. Frustration or over gratification during a particular stage was hypothesized to result in “fixation” at that stage and thereby influencing personality. 

The Structural Model 

id, ego, and superego.  

The id is…

the instinctual part of the mind  

The ego is…

the logical, reality-oriented part of the mind 

The superego is…

the conscious which guides morality  

When the id is more in charge you…

Have an impulsive personality style. 

When the superego is more in charge you…

Have a very restrained, overcontrolled personality 

When the ego is most in control you…

Have a balanced personality 

Ego defenses

mental strategies that we use automatically and unconsciously when we feel threatened. They help us to navigate upsetting events at the cost of distorting reality. 

Object relations theory: 

personality can be understood as reflecting the mental images of significant figures. These mental images (introjects) serve as templates or blueprints for later interpersonal relationships. 

Logotherapy:

focuses on person’s will-to-meaning (the primary source of one’s motivation in life) 

noogenic neurosis:

one’s search for meaning can be frustrated. This existential frustration can lead noogenic neurosis 

Covey’s habits of effective people: 

1) be proactive 

2) begin with the end in mind 

3) put first things first, 

4) think win/win 

5) seek first to understand, then to be understood 

6) synergize 

7) sharpen the saw 

The eighth habit: find your voice and inspire others to find theirs. 

experiential field:

a constantly changing private world that is our lives 

Hot Wet

Blood

Hot dry

Yellow bile 

Cold wet

phlegm

Cold dry

black bile 

Strong emotions (high arousal)

melancholic and Choleric  

Weaker emotions (lower in arousal)

Phlegmatic and sanguine

Four humors: 

Sanguine = cheerful 

Melancholic = Unhappy 

Choleric = bad tempered 

Phlegmatic = calm 

Thanatos

the desire for death and dying 

Reaction formation

When we are presented with something threatening, we can act in a way that is opposite to that. 

Intellectualization

when you remove the emotional part of what you are thinking about 

Projection

we project onto others what we feel are weaknesses or challenges to ourselves 

Sublimation

channel some of the hot sweaty desires into positive and productive behaviors 

Anal retentive

very tightly wound person 

Anal expulsive

very outgoing, too much

Hypnogogic state

Waking dream 

Hypnopompic state

When we are waking up from the end of the dream 

How to probe the unconscious: 

Dreams 

Rorschach test 

Themaic apperception test

Free association 

Hypnosis 

Freudian slips 

Symbolic behaviour

Themaic apperception test

series of pictures where you must come up with a story of what might be happening 

Neo Freudian Carl Jung argued what?

He argued that there was a collective unconscious  

Primordial images – archetypes

Extroversion and introversion first mentioned by Jung

Alfred Adler proposed

Striving for superiority 

(“inferiority complexes”) 

Parental influences, birth order 

 Adler’s idea of what guided a primary drive was striving for superiority 

Karen Horney claimed Neurosis could be reflected in the way people move in the world: 

• Moving towards people 

• Moving against people 

• Moving away from people 

Feminine psychology: 

• Womb envy 

• Frustration at unequal treatment 

Erich Fromm 

Mechanisms of escape: 

• Authoritarianism  

• Destructiveness 

• Automaton conformity (found ourselves a nieche in the world and don’t step outside of it) 

Positive freedom – not what should I do but rather what do I want to do 

Erik Erikson  

Ego is the foundation of our identity and mastery of the world around us, if we cannot establish this then we have an identity crisis. 

Neo Freudians:

Carl Jung

Alfred Adler

Erich Fromm

Erik Erikson

Karen Horney

Attachment style: Positive model of other. Positive model of self

Secure attachment

Attachment style: Positive model of other. Negative model of self

Preoccupied attachment

Attachment style: Negative model of other. Positive model of self

Dismissing attachment

Attachment style: Negative model of other. Negative model of self

Fearful attachment