PSYC 4331 Personality: Ch 9 Psychoanalytic Approaches to Personality

What are the two fundamental instincts that Freud believed provide all psychic energy?

The life instinct (libido) and the death instinct (thanatos)

According to Freud, the desire for immediate gratification is known as__

Pleasure principle

Which part of the personality structure operates on the pleasure principle?

The id

What is the term for the part of the mind that contains all thoughts, feelings, and perceptions you are presently aware of?

The conscious mind

Information that is not currently in your awareness but can be easily retrieved is stored in which part of the mind?

The preconscious mind

In Freud’s theory, which part of the mind is the largest and holds unacceptable or traumatic information hidden from view?

The unconscious mind

The Freudian assumption that nothing happens by chance and that every act, thought, and feeling has an underlying reason is called__

Psychic determinism

What is another name for a ‘slip of the tongue,’ which Freud believed was an expression of the motivated unconscious?

A Freudian slip (aka parapraxis)

Which component of personality, according to Freud, is the ‘executive’ that operates on the reality principle?

The ego

The part of the personality that internalizes societal values and ideals and is often referred to as the ‘conscience’ is the __

Superego

What is the primary took their superego uses to enforce its standards of right and wrong?

The emotion of guilt

A well-balanced mind, free from anxiety, is achieved by having a strong __ to balance the demands of the id and superego.

Ego

What is objective anxiety, according to Freud?

It is fear that occurs in response to a real, external threat to the person

Which type of anxiety arises from a direct conflict between the id and the ego, where the ego may lose control over an unacceptable urge?

Neurotic anxiety

Moral anxiety is caused by a conflict between which two parts of the personality?

The ego and the superego

What are the two main functions of defense mechanisms?

To protect the ego and to minimize anxiety and distress

What is the defense mechanism of repression?

The process of preventing unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or urges from reaching conscious awareness

A person insists that things are not the way they seem to deny an anxiety-provoking reality. Which defense mechanism is being used?

Denial

If a woman who is angry with her boss goes home and yells at her husband, which defense mechanism is she using?

Displacement

What is the defense mechanism of rationalization?

Generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might otherwise appear socially unacceptable to reduce anxiety

Continually displaying behavior that indicates the opposite of an unacceptable impulse is known as __

Reaction formation

A person who is insecure about their own intelligence constantly calls other people ‘stupid.’ Which defense mechanism might be at play?

Projection

What modern psychological concept is similar to projection and refers to the tendency to assume others are similar to oneself?

The false consensus effect

Which defense mechanism involves channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive instincts into socially desired activities, like sports or art?

Sublimination

According to Freud, the successful hallmark of mature adulthood is the ability to __ and to __. 

Work; love

In Freud’s psychosexual stage theory, what is the term for getting ‘stuck’ in a stage due to failure to resolve its conflict?

Fixation

What is the first stage of psychosexual development, occurring during the first 18 months of life?

The oral stage

What is the main conflict during the oral stage?

Weaning from the breast or bottle

Fixation at which psychosexual stage might lead to an adult personality that is compulsive, overly neat, and rigid?

The anal stage

What is the primary conflict during the anal stage?

Toilet training and achieving self-control

The phallic stage occurs between what ages?

Between 3 and 5 years of age

What is the term for a young boy’s unconscious wish to have his mother all to himself by eliminating his father?

The Oedipal conflict

What is castration anxiety in the context of the Oedipal conflict?

A little boy’s fear that his father will remove his penis as punishment for his sexual desire for his mother

How is the Oedipal conflict successfully resolved for boys?

Through identification, where the boy wants to become like his father

In Freudian theory, what is the female counterpart to castration anxiety?

Penis envy

The conflict for young girls during the phallic stage, involving a desire for the father and envy of his penis, is sometimes called the __

Electra complex

Which psychosexual stage, occurring from stage 6 to puberty, is considered a period of psychological rest with no specific sexual conflicts?

The latency stage

What is the final stage of psychosexual development, beginning at puberty and lasting through adulthood?

The genital stage

What is the primary goal of psychoanalysis as a therapy method?

To make the unconscious conscious, allowing the person to deal with repressed material realistically and maturely

What is the psychoanalytic technique where a patient relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or absurd?

Free association

Freud called dreams ‘the royal road to the unconscious.’ What is the difference between manifest and latent content in a dream?

Manifest content is what the dream actually contains, while latent content is what the elements of the dream symbolically represent

The idea that a person projects their own personality onto an ambiguous stimulus, like an inkblot, is known as the __

Projective hypothesis

In psychoanalysis, what is the term for the intense emotional experience that accompanies the release of repressed material into conscious awareness?

Insight

When a patient in psychoanalysis unconsciously sets up obstacles to progress, such as forgetting appointments, what is this stage called?

Resistance

What is transference in the context of psychoanalysis?

The process where the patient begins reacting to the analysis as if he or she were on an important figure from the patient’s own life