PSYTHEO Quiz 1: Psychodynamics Perspective

Hysteria

Paralysis or improper functioning of certain parts of the body with a psychogenic and sexual origin.

Wandering Womb

The belief that hysteria was strictly a female disorder.

Catharsis

Removing hysterical symptoms through "talking them out."

Free Association Technique

Therapeutic technique that replaced hypnosis, where patients verbalize everything that comes to mind.

Unconscious

Drives, urges, and instincts that motivate most of our words, feelings, and actions; exist beyond our awareness and are not available to the conscious mind.

Phylogenetic Endowment

Unconscious processes passed down from generation to generation, not from repressed childhood events.

Preconscious

Elements that are not conscious but can become conscious quite readily or with some difficulty.

Suppression

Often creates feelings of anxiety.

Repression

Anxiety from suppression stimulates this; forcing unwanted experiences into the unconscious as a defense.

Conscious

Mental elements in our awareness that we can retrieve any time; the only level of mental life directly available to us.

Perceptual Conscious System

What we perceive through our sense organs enters our consciousness if not too threatening.

Id

Seeks pleasure; serves the pleasure principle; has no contact with reality and reduces tension by satisfying basic desires.

Pleasure Principle

The principle governing the id, focused on immediate gratification.

Primary Process

The id operates through this; survival is dependent on the development of a secondary process.

Ego

Only region of the mind in contact with reality; governed by the reality principle; the decision-maker, executive branch of the personality.

Reality Principle

The principle governing the ego, substituting the pleasure principle of the id.

Superego

Guided by moralistic and idealistic principles; grows out of the ego and has no energy of its own.

Conscience

Subsystem of the superego based on experiences with punishments; what we should not do.

Ego-ideal

Subsystem of the superego based on experiences with rewards; what we should do.

Drives

Instinct, drive, impulse; a constant motivational force; internal stimulus that cannot be avoided through flight.

Impetus

Amount of force a drive exerts.

Source

Region of the body excited or tense (characteristic of drives).

Aim

Drive seeks pleasure by removing excitement or reducing tension.

Object

Serves as the means where the aim is satisfied.

Libido

Sexual energy; the entire body is invested with this.

Erogenous Zones

Areas of the body capable of producing sexual pleasure (mouth and anus).

Narcissism

Primary and secondary; investment of libido in oneself.

Love

Investment of libido on an object or person other than themselves.

Sadism

Inflicting pain or humiliation on another person; in moderation, a common need existing in all sexual relationships.

Masochism

Sexual pleasure from suffering pain and humiliation inflicted by themselves or by others.

Aggression

Aim to self-destruct, return to an inorganic state (death).

Anxiety

Felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation warning the person against impending danger.

Neurotic Anxiety

Apprehension about an unknown danger from impulses from the id.

Moral Anxiety

Conflict between the ego and the superego; from the superego.

Realistic Anxiety

Closely related to fear; nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger from the external world.

Repression (Defense Mechanism)

When the ego is threatened by undesirable id impulses, it protects itself by repressing the impulses; forces threatening feelings into the unconscious.

Reaction Formation

Repressed impulse becomes conscious through adopting a disguise that is opposite of its original form; exaggerated character, obsessive and compulsive form.

Displacement

Redirection of unacceptable urges onto a variety of people or objects so the original impulse is disguised.

Fixation

Permanent attachment of the libido onto an earlier, more primitive stage of development; universal.

Regression

During times of stress and anxiety, libido may revert back to an earlier stage before the developmental stage; usually temporary.

Projection

Ego reduces anxiety by attributing the unwanted impulse to an external object or person; seeing unacceptable feelings in others that actually reside in their unconscious.

Paranoia

Extreme type of projection.

Introjection

People incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego; inflated sense of self-worth; keeps feelings of inferiority to a minimum.

Sublimation

Substituting a cultural or social aim; socially unacceptable actions are transformed into socially acceptable ones.

Infantile Period

Pregenital sexual development in the first 4-5 years after birth.

Oral Phase

Life sustaining nourishment through the oral cavity, gaining pleasure through the act of sucking; the mouth is the first organ to provide an infant with pleasure.

Oral-Receptive Phase

Receive into one's body the object of choice (nipple).

Oral-Sadistic Phase

Responds to others through biting, cooing, closing their mouth, smiling, crying; aided with the emergence of teeth.

Anal Phase

Aggressive drive where the first year of life takes the form of oral sadism; reaches fuller development when the anus emerges as a sexually pleasurable zone during the 2nd year.

Sadistic-Anal Phase

Satisfaction gained through aggressive behavior or excretory function.

Early Anal

Satisfaction by destroying or losing objects; destructive nature of the sadistic drive is stronger than erotic one.

Late Anal

Interest towards feces, being proud of it.

Anal Character

Neat and orderly people who receive erotic satisfaction from it; those who were overly resistant to toilet training.

Anal Triad

Anal eroticism is transformed into orderliness, stinginess, and obstinacy/stubbornness, which typify the adult anal character.

Phallic Phase

3-4 years of age, genital area becomes the leading erogenous zone; marked by a contrast between male and female development due to anatomical differences.

Anatomy is Destiny

Statement emphasizing the crucial role of anatomical differences in the phallic phase.

Male Oedipus Complex

Desire to have his mother, rivalry towards his father; feelings of ambivalence play a role in the evolution of the castration complex.

Castration Anxiety

The boy becomes aware that girls do not have a penis, so he thinks they got theirs cut off.

Female Oedipus Complex

Desire to have her father, who can satisfy her wish for a penis by giving her a baby, rivalry towards her mother.

Penis Envy

Girl's wish for a penis, emerging in the female Oedipus complex.

Latency Period

4th to 5th year until puberty; both boys and girls go through a period of dormant psychosexual development.

Genital Period

Reawakening of the sexual aim during puberty; autoeroticism is given up, sexual energy is directed towards someone else; reproduction is now possible.

Maturity

Genital period begins at puberty, continues throughout the individual's lifetime; attained by everyone who reached physical maturity.

Psychological Maturity

After a person has passed through the earlier developmental stages in an ideal manner; balance among structures of the mind.

Transference

Strong sexual or aggressive feelings that patients develop towards their analyst during the course of treatment.

Positive Transference

Permits patients to more or less relive childhood experiences.

Negative Transference

Form of hostility that must be recognized by the therapist to overcome any resistance to treatment.

Dream Analysis

Transform manifest content of dreams into the important latent content.

Manifest Content

Surface meaning or conscious description given by the dreamer.

Latent Content

Unconscious material in dreams.

Freudian Slips (Parapraxes)

Everyday slips of the tongue, misreading, temporarily forgetting names or intentions that reveal a person's unconscious intentions.

Fehlleistung

German word for "faulty function."

Striving for Success or Superiority

The one dynamic force behind people's behavior.

Final Goal

Personal superiority or goal of success; fictional and has no objective existence but has great significance since it unifies personality.

Compensation

Striving force as a means of compensation for feelings of inferiority or weakness.

Striving for Personal Superiority

Striving for superiority with little or no concern for others; motivated largely by exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority.

Inferiority Complex

Exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority.

Striving for Success

Psychologically healthy people motivated by social interest and success of all humankind.

Fictionalism

Expectations of the future; a subjective fictional final goal that guides our style of life.

Fictions

Ideas with no real existence, but influence people as if they really existed.

Physical Inferiorities

People developing a fiction or belief system to overcome the physical deficiencies to become strong and superior.

Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality

Each person is unique and indivisible; all thoughts and feelings move toward a single goal and purpose.

Organ Dialect

A deficient organ expresses the direction of the individual's goal; disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in isolation.

Social Interest

"Social feeling" or "Community feeling"; a feeling of oneness with all humanity; membership in the social community of all people.

Style of Life

Refers to the flavor of a person's life including goals, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude towards the world.

Socially Useful Style of Life

Highest form of humanity; expressed through action; solves neighborly love, sexual love, and occupation.

Creative Power

Each person is empowered with the freedom to create their own style of life; responsible for who they are and how they behave.

Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies

Subjective feelings encouraged by a defective body; accompanied by feelings of inferiority.

Pampered Style of Life

Weak social interest but a strong desire to perpetuate the parasitic relationship they had with their parents.

Neglected Style of Life

Likely to borrow heavily from feelings creating a neglected style of life; develop little social interest and self-confidence.

Safeguarding Tendencies

Enables people to hide their inflated self-image and to maintain their current style of life.

Excuses

Protects a weak but artificially inflated sense of self-worth; "Yes, but" and "If only" formats.

Aggression (Safeguard)

Used to safeguard their exaggerated superiority complex to protect their fragile self-esteem.

Depreciation

Undervalue other people's achievements and overvalue their own.

Accusation

Blaming others for their own failures and to seek revenge.

Self-Accusation

Self-torture and guilt as a means of hurting people close to them; devalue themselves to inflict suffering on others.

Withdrawal

Running away from difficulties, unconsciously escaping life's problems by setting a distance between themselves and the problems.

Moving Backward

Psychologically reverting to a more secure period of life; may sometimes be conscious.

Standing Still

Do not move in any direction, just avoiding all responsibilities by ensuring themselves against any threat of failure.

Hesitating

"It's too late now"; allows neurotic individuals to preserve their inflated sense of self-esteem.