AP Psychology: Psychoanalytic Approach
Psychoanalytic Perspective & Approach
Unconscious: Psychic domain of which the individual is not aware, but which is the storehouse of repressed impulses, drives, and conflicts that are unavailable to consciousness.
Unconscious and mental processes
Importance of sexual and aggressive instincts
Consequence of early childhood
Psychoanalytic Approach
Developed by Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and a theory of personality
Emphasizes unconscious motivation – the main causes of behavior lie buried in the unconscious mind
Psychodynamic Perspective
A more modern view of personality that retains some aspects of Freudian theory but rejects other aspects
Retains the importance of the unconscious mind
Less emphasis on unresolved childhood conflicts
Personality Structure & Psychoanalytic Divisions of the mind
Id, ego, superego
Ego defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety for when ego can not find a compromise
Id: instinctual drives present at birth (“I want”)
does not distinguish between reality and fantasy
operates according to the pleasure principle
Ego: develops out of the id in infancy (“I will”)
understands reality and logic
mediator between id and superego
Superego (“I should”)
internalization of society’s & parental moral standards
One’s conscience; focuses on what the person “should” do
Develops around ages 5-6
Partially unconscious
Can be harshly punitive using feelings of guilt
Psychosexual Stages
-In Freudian theory, the childhood stages of development
during which the id’s pleasure seeking energies are
focused on different parts of the body
-The stages include: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital
-A person can become “fixated” or stuck at a stage and as an adult attempt to achieve pleasure as in ways that are equivalent to how it was achieved in these stages
Oedipus Complex
-Boys feel hostility and jealousy towards their fathers but knows their father is more powerful. This leads to…
-Castration Anxiety results in boys who feel their father will punish them by castrating them.
-Resolve this through Identification – imitating and internalizing one’s father’s values, attitudes and mannerisms.
-The fact that only the father can have sexual relations with the mother becomes internalized in the boy as taboo against incest in the boy’s superego.
Electra Complex
-Girls also have incestuous feelings for their dad and compete with their mother.
-Penis Envy – Little girl suffer from deprivation and loss and blames her mother for “sending her into the world insufficiently equipped” causing her to resent her mother
-In an attempt to take her mother’s place she eventually identifies with her mother
-Fixation can lead to excessive masculinity in males and the need for attention or domination in females
Defense Mechanisms
Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
AP Psychology: Psychoanalytic Approach
Psychoanalytic Perspective & Approach
Unconscious: Psychic domain of which the individual is not aware, but which is the storehouse of repressed impulses, drives, and conflicts that are unavailable to consciousness.
Unconscious and mental processes
Importance of sexual and aggressive instincts
Consequence of early childhood
Psychoanalytic Approach
Developed by Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalysis is both an approach to therapy and a theory of personality
Emphasizes unconscious motivation – the main causes of behavior lie buried in the unconscious mind
Psychodynamic Perspective
A more modern view of personality that retains some aspects of Freudian theory but rejects other aspects
Retains the importance of the unconscious mind
Less emphasis on unresolved childhood conflicts
Personality Structure & Psychoanalytic Divisions of the mind
Id, ego, superego
Ego defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety for when ego can not find a compromise
Id: instinctual drives present at birth (“I want”)
does not distinguish between reality and fantasy
operates according to the pleasure principle
Ego: develops out of the id in infancy (“I will”)
understands reality and logic
mediator between id and superego
Superego (“I should”)
internalization of society’s & parental moral standards
One’s conscience; focuses on what the person “should” do
Develops around ages 5-6
Partially unconscious
Can be harshly punitive using feelings of guilt
Psychosexual Stages
-In Freudian theory, the childhood stages of development
during which the id’s pleasure seeking energies are
focused on different parts of the body
-The stages include: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital
-A person can become “fixated” or stuck at a stage and as an adult attempt to achieve pleasure as in ways that are equivalent to how it was achieved in these stages
Oedipus Complex
-Boys feel hostility and jealousy towards their fathers but knows their father is more powerful. This leads to…
-Castration Anxiety results in boys who feel their father will punish them by castrating them.
-Resolve this through Identification – imitating and internalizing one’s father’s values, attitudes and mannerisms.
-The fact that only the father can have sexual relations with the mother becomes internalized in the boy as taboo against incest in the boy’s superego.
Electra Complex
-Girls also have incestuous feelings for their dad and compete with their mother.
-Penis Envy – Little girl suffer from deprivation and loss and blames her mother for “sending her into the world insufficiently equipped” causing her to resent her mother
-In an attempt to take her mother’s place she eventually identifies with her mother
-Fixation can lead to excessive masculinity in males and the need for attention or domination in females
Defense Mechanisms
Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
