8 Psychodynamic approach

Recall theoretical approaches

5 of them

we on third now which is psychodynamic

Personality reflects the unique ways in which each person has resolved their intrapsychic conflicts (e.g., defense mechanisms)

• E.g., Conscientious people are trying to compensate for their chaotic inner feelings by creating a neat, organized, and orderly external world

• E.g., Creative people are sublimating their anxiety

difference from trait approach:

Psychodynamic posits that people are high AND low on certain traits

• E.g., narcissism (and confidence)

Allports encounter with Freud

Was Allport that little boy?

• “I’m not that little boy! I’m a psychologist—your peer, not your patient”

• Raised in an “abnormally clean environment of a home hospital”

• Allport was an extremely “prim,” “well starched,” and “orderly” man

• Developed a very neat and orderly theory (trait psychology) – opposite of Freud’s “seething cauldron” of unconscious forces battling for control of the mind

• Devoted career to countering Freud’s theory

Basic assumptions of Psychodynamic approach

1. Psychological determinism

2. Importance of the unconscious

3. Intrapsychic conflict

4. Defense mechanisms

5. Importance of early childhood experiences

Basic assumptions of Psychodynamic approach: 1 Psychological determinism

• No behavior is random

• “I fished around in my mind...”

• Behavior is determined by conscious and unconscious drives, needs, wishes, and fears

Basic assumptions of Psychodynamic approach: 2 Importance of the unconscious 

Unconscious

• Sexual and aggressive drives

• Repressed content

Contents of the unconscious want to come out!

• Allport’s unconscious fear of being inadequate (just a “little boy” with a dirt phobia) came out in the story he “fished out”

Freudian slips: “I don’t think we’ve been properly seduced.”

Projective techniques

• Rorschach test

Basic assumptions of Psychodynamic approach: 3 Intrapsychic conflict  

Conflicts between Id, Ego, and Superego determine behavior

Id

• All drives and urges

• “Pleasure Principle”

Ego

• Constrains the Id to reality

• “Reality Principle”

Super-Ego

• Internalized values

• Moral standards of parents and society

Dreams and the unconscious

Freud

• Dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious”

• “Wishes suppressed during the day assert themselves in dreams”

Basic assumptions of Psychodynamic approach: 4 Defense Mechanisms  

Resolve conflict and reduce anxiety, Explain seemingly inexplicable aspects of our behavior, Personality = set of defense mechanisms

Repression

• Unpleasant thoughts and feelings are pushed out of awareness

• E.g., Allport tried to push feelings of insecurity out of his mind (but they came out anyway)

Denial

• Refusal to accept reality

• E.g., “I am not that little boy”

• Convincing yourself that an unpleasant or traumatic event did not, or will not, occur

• E.g., death of a close loved one

Displacement

• Threatening impulse/desire is redirected elsewhere

• E.g., Getting in a fight with your romantic partner after you find out you did badly on an exam

Rationalization

• Generating logical reasons for outcomes that otherwise would not be acceptable

• E.g., “I did poorly on the GRE, but I never wanted to go to grad school anyway

Reaction Formation

• To block an impulse, the exact opposite behaviors/desires are displayed

• E.g., someone who is worried about the morality of their own behavior decides to write a book telling other people how to be virtuous

Projection

• Projecting one’s own unacceptable qualities onto others

• E.g., Narcissists think everyone is out for themselves

Sublimation

• Convert unacceptable desire into acceptable behavior

• E.g., watch/play sports to sublimate aggressive feelings

• E.g., clean the house to make oneself feel less anxious

Intellectualization

• Translates anxieties into theories or jargon that put emotions at a distance

• E.g., Reframing a threatening situation into intellectual (and possibly cold) terms

Traits are a reflection of defense mechanisms

• Conscientious people are trying to compensate for their chaotic inner feelings by creating a neat, organized, and orderly external world

• Socially inhibited people are repressing their true thoughts and feelings

• Creative people are sublimating their anxiety

• Neurotic people have “immature” defense mechanisms

• Narcissistic people are trying to repress their underlying feelings of insecurity and worthlessness

Basic assumptions of Psychodynamic approach: 5 Importance of childhood experiences

• Foundation for adult personality is built during early childhood

• General foundation for much of developmental psychology as a field

• Allport’s hospital-like home & strict upbringing = orderly adult personality

• Research shows evidence for continuity of personality from childhood to adulthood and the importance of early childhood experiences

• But, no support for Freud’s theory of psychosexual development (oral, anal, etc. stages).

Neo Freudians and contemporary research

Differ from Freud in that they did not focus on:

• Sex and sexuality (instead: motivation)

• Unconscious processes (instead: conscious processes)

• Instinctual drives and mental life (instead: interpersonal relationships)

Freud influenced:

• Carl Jung (archetypes; persona; anima/animus; four ways of thinking)

• Karen Horney (feminist psychology; basic anxiety)

• Erik Erikson (psychosocial stages of development)

• Melanie Klein and DW Winnicott (object relations theory)

contemporary research:

Not really any psychoanalytic scientists/researchers today

BUT, psychodynamism and Freud impacted many contemporary lines of research that are very large fields of study today

• E.g., developmental psychology

• E.g., Attachment Theory

Importance of digging through early life experiences is also a critical part of psychotherapy

Attachment theory 

• Contemporary research topic that uses psychoanalytic approach to explain why “maternal deprivation” often leads to anxiety, anger, and depression

• Attachment as the basis of love

• Children learn lessons from early experiences with adult caregivers

• Tested theory on infants and mothers with “strange situation” task

recall: strange situation experiment