psychoanalytic perspective

Personality

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Viewing human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind (Freud)

Unconscious mind

Reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

Free Association

Patients asked to say everything that comes to their mind in order to tap into unconscious. (Freud)

Freudian Slip

Unintentional error revealing subconscious feelings

Psychoanalysis

Involves the process of uncovering painful, embarrassing unconscious memories. Once retrieved/released, patient feels better

Personality structure

Develops as a result of our efforts to resolve conflicts between our impulses (id) and social restraints (ego)

Id

Seeks immediate gratification. Sexual, aggressive drives. Operates on the pleasure principle

Ego

"Executive" Mediates the Id/Superego's demands. Operates on the reality principle

Superego

Provides standards for judgment (conscious) and for future aspirations. Middle of iceberg

Psychosexual Stages

Id's pleasure seeking energies focus on pleasure-sensitive body areas during different developmental stages

Oral Psychosexual Stage

(0-18 months) Pleasure centers on the mouth - sucking/biting/chewing

Anal Psychosexual Stage

(18-36 months) Demand of control, pleasure focused on bladder/bowel elimination

Phallic Psychosexual Stage

(3-6 years) Pleasure zone in genitals, coping with incestuous sexual feelings

Latency Psychosexual Stage

(6-puberty) Dormant sexual feelings

Genital Psychosexual Stage

(puberty-on) Maturation of sexual interests

Oedipus Complex

Boy's sexual desire for their mother and jealousy/hatred for their rival father

Electra Complex

Girl's sexual desire for their father and jealousy/hatred for their rival mother

Identification

Children cope with threatening feelings by identifying with the parent of the opposite gender

Defense mechanisms

Ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

repression

banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from conscious

regression

individual retreats to a more infantile psychosexual sage

reaction formation

causes the ego to unconsciously switch unacceptable impulses into their opposites [internalized homophobia, “THEY ARE SUCH SWEATTSSS”]

projection

people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

rationalization

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

displacement

shifts sexual/aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable/less threatening object/person.

sublimination

rechanneling unacceptable impulses to more socially acceptable

denial

rejecting the seriousness of a real event [ex: “f it we ball” (their legs were cut off]

Alfred Adler

believed in childhood social tensions, without Freud’s sexual expect. child struggled with inferiority complex during growth

Karen Horney

believed in the social aspects of childhood growth and development, disagreed with Freud’s assumption that women have ‘penis envy’ and had weak superegos

collective unconscious

(Carl Jung) common reservoir of images derived from species past. [mother=nature]

projective tests

evaluate personality with psych. instrument that reveals unconscious

thematic apperception test

(Henry Murray) People express inner feelings through stories made analyzing an ambiguous scene.

Rorschach inkblot test

(Hermann Rorschach) Set of 10 inkblots that identify one’s feelings by analyzing one’s interpretation of the blots

Projective Tests - Criticisms

Projective tests lack reliability and validity