Sigmund freud
-created psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
psychoanalysis
unconscious mind is the most powerful force behind thought and behaviour
Freud’s three layers of consciousness
1) Conscious layer
- what we are aware of at any moment
- surface of awareness
2) Pre-conscious layer
- below the surface of awareness
- not conscious but can become so easily
3) Unconscious layer
- all the drives, urges, or instincts that are outside awareness
- motivate most of our speech, thoughts, feelings, or actions
The three provinces of the mind/ CONTROL AND REGULATION OF IMPULSES
1) id
2) ego
3) superego
id
ego
-develops at the end of first year of life
-sense of self
-operates on the “reality principle”
manages the conflict between impulses and control
superego
big id
-overly impulsive and thrill seeking
big ego
- can manage impulse and controls
big superego
-overcontrolling and represses emotions
defence mechanisms
unconscious strategies mind uses to protect itself
-distorts and denies reality
2 qualities:
1) they are unconscious
2) deny/distort reality
Repression
-most basic
-is the basis of all defence mechanisms
keeping threatening thoughts/ideas out of conscious awareness
ex: sexual and aggressive impulses
reaction formation
sublimation
psychosexual stage theory
- as we develop a different part of body becomes erogenous/a source of pleasure
4 stages of psychosexual development
1) Oral stage
- 12-18 months
- mouth is centre of pleasure
ex: infants suck, bite, and chew
2) Anal stage
- 2nd-3rd year of life
- pleasure is from holding and releasing bladder/bowels
- potty training
- ex: child learn to control their bladder/bowels
3) Phallic stage
-ages 3-6
-self pleasure from genitals
“phallic”= penis like, applies to girls and boys
-most complex and controversial
-pleasure from oedipal complex
Latency Stage
4) Genital stage
- puberty to rest of life
- mature, interpersonal sexual pleasure, sexual pleasure from other people outside the family
oedipal complex
fixation
defence mechanism of focusing on earlier stages of development
Types of fixations
oral fixation may lead to smoking and sarcasm, nail biters
anal fixation may lead to obsessive cleanliness
phallic fixation may lead to “daddy/mommy issues”, attraction to people like opposite sex parent
genital fixation may lead to immature sexuality that is self or other focused, different fetishes
issues with freud’s theories
1) based only on case studies about adults (not children)
2) only focused on male development, not female
3) concepts difficult to operationally define and measure
Alfred Alder
- saw freud as a collegeau, not a follow
Alder’s Assumptions
Striving for superiority
-major drive of all behaviour is to overcome physiological and psychological challenges
not sex or aggression
-done via compensation
compensation
making up for feeling weak
inferiority complex
the need to dominate to compensate for feeling weak