Week 7 - The Psychoanalytic Perspective

Psychodynamic

• Personality is a set of processes that are always in motion

• Forces emerge that can be channeled, modified, or transformed

• Pressures within personality can conflict within the personality

Defense mechanisms

• key aspect of human functioning

• Keep our feelings of shame, feeling unworthy, unlovable, etc. from overpowering us

Personality also includes

• Lust

• Aggression

• Sexuality

• death

• Evolutionarily- humans purpose in life is reproduction

Human Behavior

highly symbolic of other hidden qualities

Topographical Model of Mind

• conscious

• preconscious

• unconscious

Conscious

what we are aware of

Preconscious

ordinary memory (brought to awareness easily)

Unconscious

• part of the mind that’s not directly accessible to awareness

• Source of desires, urges, feelings, and ideas that are tied to anxiety, pain, or conflict

• where the core of our personality takes place

structure model

• id

• ego

• superego

Id- Present at birth (“It”)

• Inherited, instinctive, primitive aspects of personality

• Functions entirely in the unconscious

• Basic biological processes which underlie life

• Pleasure principle- needs should be satisfied immediately

• Primary process

• wish fulfillment

Primary process

forming an unconscious mental image of an object of an event that would satisfy the need

wish fulfillment

experience of having such an image

Ego (“I”)

• Tried to make sure the id’s impulses are expressed effectively

• Reality principle

• Weights the risks of an action before acting

• Secondary process

• Reality testing- allows the ego to form plans of action to satisfy the needs and test the plans mentally

• “executive” role in personality- mediates id and superego

• No moral sense– entirely pragmatic and practical

Reality principle

taking into account external reality along with internal needs and urges

Secondary process

delays the discharge of the id until an appropriate object or context is found

Reality testing

allows the ego to form plans of action to satisfy the needs and test the plans mentally

Superego (“Over I”)

• Embodiment of parental and societal values

• Need to do what parents want us to do to receive love and avoid punishment

• Introjection

• Ego ideal

• Conscience

• Operates on all three levels of consciousness

Introjection

taking in or incorporating values of parents

Ego ideal

rules for good behaviors and standards of excellence

Conscience

rules about what behaviors the parents disprove of and punish

3 goals of superego

1. Tries to prevent (not just postpone) an id impulse that would be frowned upon by parents

2. Tries to force the ego to act morally, rather than just rationally

3. Tries to guide the person toward perfection in thought, work, and deed

Ego strength

• the ego has to deal with the desires of the id, the moral dictates of the superego, and the constraints of reality

• Little ego strength- person is torn among competing pressures

• More ego strength- can manage the pressures

Motivation

• We are comprised of complex energy systems

• Biological drives that exist via the id: instinct and drive

• If drive isn’t expressed, its pressure continues to build

• “hydraulic model”

hydraulic model

trying to prevent a drive from being expressed creates more pressure towards its expression

two classes of drives

eros and thanatos

Eros (Life or Sexual instincts)

• Deals with survival, reproduction, and pleasure

• Energy is called libido

Thanatos (Death instincts)

• Life leads naturally to death and that people desire to return to nothingness

• Cell-death function is coded in your cells

• Aggression- form of the death drive

• If Eros blocks the expression of death drive, tension remains

• Expressed self-destruction but turned onto others

Catharsis

release of emotional tension, ex: aggression

Aggression

can help dissipate arousal, but not clear why, some evidence suggests that actual retaliation produces this effect, but not symbolic of any fantasy retaliation

defense mechanisms

• anxiety

• repression

• denial

• projection

• rationalization

• intellectualization

• displacement

• sublimation

anxiety

a warning signal to the ego that something bad is about to happen, if ego was perfect it would never be felt

reality anxiety

arises from fear in the world

neurotic anxiety

unconscious fear that your id impulses will get out of control and make you for something that will get you punished

moral anxiety

fear that people have when they have violated (or are about to violate) their moral code

Repression

keep an unacceptable impulse out of consciousness

denial

Refusal to believe an event took place or a condition exists

projection

reduce anxiety by ascribing your own unacceptable qualities to someone else

Rationalization

Finding a rational explanation (or excuse) for a behavior that you really did for unacceptable reasons

Intellectualization

The tendency to think about threats in cold, analytical, and emotionally detached terms

Displacement

Shifting an impulse from one target to another

Sublimation

Lets impulses be expressed by transforming them into acceptable forms

Psychosexual Development

Early experiences are critical in determining adult personality; Development is through stages, each of which is associated with an erogenous zone

fixation

Overindulged in a stage and may be reluctant to leave it and move on, or A person whose needs are deeply frustrated in a stage can’t move on until the needs are met

stages of psychosexual development

• oral

• anal

• phallic

• latency

• genital

oral stage

• 0-18 months

  • substage 1: oral incorporative (0-6 months)

  • substage 2: oral sadistic (6-18 months)

anal stage

18 mos- 3years; Pleasure comes from defecation, Emphasis on punishment, ridicule, productivity, and creativity and shame of failure

Phallic Stage

3-5 years old, Children begin to masturbate, libido shift towards the opposite sex parents, as boys develop interests in their mothers (Oedipus complex) and girls develop interests towards fathers (Electra complex)

Latency period

• 6-teens

• Lessening of urges

• Pursue intellectual and social activities

Genital stage

• adolescence on

• Activity organized around genitals and remains focused there throughout their life

• Earlier sexuality- narcissistic

• Not about sharing mutual sexual gratification with someone

  • Becomes capable of loving others, not for selfish reasons

Parapaxes

memory lapses, slips of speech, accidents

Freudian slips

error in speech that suggests an unconscious feeling or desire

Forgetting

an attempt to keep something from consciousness

Slips of tongue

person expresses all of an unconscious thought despite wanting to keep it hidden

dreams

The Road to Unconscious

Manifest content

sensory images- what most of us think of

Latent content

the unconscious feelings, thoughts, and wishes behind the manifest content

sources of dreams

1. sensory stimulation- eg. Thunderstorm, dog barking, etc.

2. current concern- what has been on your mind

3. unconscious impulses- blocked from expression when awake and often related to core conflicts

projective assessments

• Confronts people with ambiguous stimuli

• Reflections of unconscious feelings, attitudes, desires, and needs

• People perceive aspects of themselves in the stimulus

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Ten inkblots, five black, two black and red, and three pastel, are scored using Exner’s system to identify depressed and psychotic individuals.

Behavior Change

Freud’s theory posits childhood experiences, repression, and buried trauma as the origins of psychological issues.

Free Association

simply say aloud whatever comes to mind

Resistance

actively fight against becoming aware of repressed conflicts and impulses

Transference

set of displacements- feelings towards other people in the patient’s life are displaced onto the therapist

Insight

emotional catharsis; Re-experiencing of the emotional reality of the repressed conflicts, memories, or urges

behavioral theory problems

The theory’s ambiguity, flexible defenses, and reliance on biased case studies make it difficult to test and disconfirm.