psychodynamic theory of human thought and behaviour
the mind is full of psychological or intrapsychic forces that motivate people’s actions
-many of these are ones that we arent consciously aware of
-they originate in early childhood
-these things that were formed in childhood that are in our unconscious are things that are at the root or our adult behaviours because we arent aware of them
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sigmund freud 1856-1939
- founded psychodynamic theory
- distinguished between what we are doing consciously and what is happening unconciously
- said that what we are aware of is really just the tip of the iceberg
- according to him it is the ego that has some awareness of what is going on, but is also doing processing below the level of awareness
- the superconsciousness is also a bit in conscious awareness, it is moral imparatives and is related to society
- the ID is the third part and is not in conscious awareness, it is the part that wants to seek pleasure
- ego and superego are in conscious, preconscious, and unconscious, although the superego has more in the unconscious
- the id is all in deep unconscious
freud’s three components of personality: the ID
- it is actually present at birth
- these are unconscious
- unconscious motives that are aimed at avoiding pain and obtaining pleasure
- includes life instinct and the death instinct
- life instinct is the want for sexual pleasure
- death instinct is the want for agression
- so according to freud, everything boils down to sex or violence
freud’s three components of personality: the ego (or negotiator)
-tries to seek a compromise between the constraints that society imposes on behaviour and the urges of the ID (we want things, but we can only get away with certain things)
freud’s three components of personality: the superego (your conscience)
-your conscience
-knows all the rules by parents or society that you are supposed to follow
-it is responsible for the pride when you do something good, and the shame when you dont
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the conflict of the ID and the superego
- if there is too much ID the person is uncontroled and selfish
- too much superego and the person is afraid to experience pleasure and is obsessed with the rules
- with these the ego can impose defence mechanisms to reduce conflict , it like finds places for the ID to appropriately manage the innapropriate urges
personality development according to freud
children must resolved a series of psychosexual stages, in order to be a healthy balanced adult
Psychosexual stage: oral stage (birth to 1yr)
- when the interaction with the world is largely through their mouths
- the conflict is that the ID wants more oral gratification than it can get, it wants all the food ever, but thats just not possible, so the ego says no.
- if not resolved the consequence is fixation at this stage, which can lead to too much reliance on oral gratification as an adult (smoking, overeating)
Psychosexual stage: anal stage
2-3 yrs
- key issue is control over bodily functions
- the conflict is where to put your waste and stuff, the ID wants no rules, no rules for cleanliness
- if this is not resolved, people may become anally fixated
- they can either be really uncontrolled with cleanliness and everyday things
- or they can be really obsessively clean and controlled if the superego was the one that was really dominant
Psychosexual stage: Phallic (oedipal) stage
4-5yrs
- key issue is gaining the opposite-sex parent’s love and attention
- the conflict is that the same-sex parent is a competitor
- freud says that this is the most important stage
- thought that it was different for boys and girls
- for boys they might see a little girl or their mom naked and wonder where the penis is and they think that the dad will cut off the penis if they get in trouble, so then they want to stop trying for attention from the mom and pay attention for the dad, then the superego emerges and they have a healthy superego
- for girls the superego is different, we dont have a strong urge to give up the feelings for the dad, he says that since we dont have to do that, then we dont have a strong superego
- failure of resolving this means that people will not have healthy relationships as an adult
Psychosexual stage: latency stage
6-puberty
- this is intermission cause basically nothing happens for personality
- all you haveto do is make friends
Psychosexual stage: genital stage
puberty to adulthood
- developing a healthy adult sexuality
- the conflict is that the ID wants sex all the time and the superego knows to follow rules of society so it makes coonstraints
- failure to resolve this leads to fixation, and an inability to experience pleasure in sex or if the ID wins, there is a lot of impulsive sex
some objections to the psychodynamic theory
- the theory of ID, superego and ego is too descriptive to be confirmed (or disconfirmed) scientifically (there is no way to measure it at all)
- the origins of the theory is a small number of clinical patients, with behavioural problems
- theory seeks to make sense of current behavioural problems based on descriptions of childhood events, then freud would say that those behaviours that they had were a result of the things that happened in childhhod. the problem is that people may not tell it accurately. the assumption that things in adulthood caused by certain events in childhood is false reasoning (post hoc ergo propter hoc)
objections to freuds theory: male centered
it is male centered, the penis envy is the idea that any emotional problems that females have is due to their dissatisfaction with being female
-this was challenged by karen horney, who thought that maybe mens problems came from their dissatisfaction with being male
objections to freuds theory: bleak view of human nature
all the emphasis is on sex and violence
- some of us think that we have other drives as well, and that we are more complex than that
- some think that there are drives that actually work with society instead of completely against it
- these people are the humanistic psychologists
humanistic psychologists
- suggest that humans have a natural tendancy towards goodness
- oppose the idea that unconscious urges dominate, they say that people can take control over their own behaviour and that they can become more self aware of why they are behaving in good or bad ways
carl rogers: humanistic psychology
had a more happy look on human behaviour
- said that the way that people behave across situations is maybe not because of their urges, but rather because of their self- concept
- we behave based on the way that we see ourselves
- we have rules that we want to live by, and standards and beliefs that control our behaviour
- we are who we think we are, if we think we are good people then we will be,
- how we see ourselves is not always up to us cause many times people define us for us
the rogerian approach to personality: we search for positive regard
we search for positive regard (all of us)
- so our self concept can get confused with what others think of us or want us to be
- so a child that is going to university that wants to be a musician may not be if parents want a doctor
- so therefore, our self-concept and behaviour are influenced by conditions of worth
the rogerian approach to personality: incongruence
self concept does not mesh well with actual experience (you are not doing what you want to be doing)
- can cause mental dissorder, if the two things are not in sync
- carl rogers thought that this incongruence was terrible and that thats why it would cause mental dissorders
the rogerian approach to personality: congruence
your self-concept meshes well with your actual experience
- you are doing what you are wanting to be doing
- some incongruence is always unavoidable
the rogerian approach to personality: sequence of incongruence
believes that affection from others is conditional > pump themselves up to seem better than they in their shortcomings in order to feel worthy of affection from others> this would result in an incongruence, cause you have a self concept that way overestimates your abilities, and pumps you up to a high self concept that you could never establish> produces recurrent anxiety>to reduce anxiety the person may get defencive behaviour like bullying people into thinking that they are the best person ever in order to maintain the slf concept> back to incongruence> then anxiety
abraham maslow
-similar to carl rogers
-though that humans were more than sexual and violent
-had the idea that people get more primitive needs met first before other needs like social
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maslows approach to personality
says that what people really want is to seek self-actualization, which means that people want to be the best that they can be
-the problem is that the word presents an obstacle to this b\c it makes it necessary to fulfill other needs first, before you reach the ultimate goal
maslow’s needs hierarchy (bottom to top)
- physiological needs: hunger, thirst etc.
- safety an security: long term survival and stabbility
- belongingness adn love needs: affiliation and acceptance
- esteem needs: achievement and recignition
- cognitive needs: knowlede adn understanding
- aesthetic needs: order and beauty
- need for self actualization: realization of potential (a highly congruent person) he didn’t think that many people made it this far
