Chapter 6: Psychoanalytic Perspective (Psychoanalytic Structure and Process)

Question 1

Major Assumption

Answer 1

• personality made up of set of dynamic processes or forces
• dynamic forces can conflict with each other: responsible for motivation
• motivation is largely unconscious

Question 2

Sigmund Freud

Answer 2

Topographical Model of the Mind: conscious, preconscious, unconscious

Question 3

The Conscious

Answer 3

awareness

Question 4

The Preconscious

Answer 4

memory, outside the conscious but can be brought to the conscious mind

Question 5

The Unconscious

Answer 5

outside the conscious awareness

Question 6

Freund’s Structural Model of the Mind

Answer 6

• ID
• EGO
• SUPEREGO

Question 7

The ID

Answer 7

• the hedonist
• basic drives, motives and instincts
• operates on pleasure principle: when drives cause pressure or tension, ID acts to discharge the tension
• Primary Process Thinking: imagine what will fulfill need and form fantasy of it
• ID is totally irrational, wishes are unsatisfactory and unrealistic: operates in inner world

Question 8

The Ego

Answer 8

• the mediator
• one’s sense of self
• operates on reality principle: transforms the ID’s urges into actions that will be effective and realistic: takes external world into account
• secondary process thinking: delays gratification of ID urges until it is appropriate (reality testing: problem solving, executive functioning)
• Ego has no moral sense, pragmatic and value free

Question 9

The Superego

Answer 9

• one’s sense of right and wrong
• embodies values of parents, family and society
• inner conflicts are resolved as introjection
• divided into two parts
  1. ego-ideal values: conforming to values of ego ideal feels good
  2. the conscience: sense of wrong and prohibited behavior: punishes with guilt after the behavior
• superego operates on all levels of consciousness

Question 10

Conflict between ID and SUPEREGO

Answer 10

• resolved by the ego (ego strength)
• ego puts the breaks on the Id
• superego directs id behavior in a moral way
• healthy personality: balance between all drives

Question 11

Unresolved conflicts of Id, Superego, Ego

Answer 11

• lead to anxiety and neurosis

- goal of psychoanalysis: discover unresolved conflict through introspection, free association, dream analysis

Question 12

Drive

Answer 12

a biological need state which leads to a psychological need or desire

Question 13

2 Types of Drives

Answer 13

1. Eros

2. Thanatos

Question 14

Drive Eros

Answer 14

• life instincts
• survival
• sex
• reproduction
• pleasure

Question 15

Drive Thanatos

Answer 15

• death instinct
• all humans desire to return to inanimate state
• aggression stems from death instinct

Question 16

Interpretation of Dreams

Answer 16

• dreams as wish fulfillment
• manifest content (overt)
• latent content (unconscious): too taboo to enter conscious mind, takes symbolic form

Question 17

Catharsis

Answer 17

• tension builds as a result of drives
• release of emotional tension is called catharsis
• important concept in psychodynamic therapies

Question 18

Ego-Defense Mechanisms

Answer 18

defense mechanisms: strategies for reducing anxiety caused by thoughts, desires, or impulses

• helpful in short-run, but unhealthy in long-run
• ex. repression

Question 19

Special Defense: Displacement

Answer 19

• changing the way blocked energy or impulse is expressed
• transfer object
• anger towards boss, expressed toward boyfriend
• considered neurotic defense

Question 20

Special Defenses: Sublimation

Answer 20

• transfer of energy or object so that expression becomes socially acceptable
• e.g. aggression, play football instead
• considered a natural defense
• move beyond ID drives and become civilized

Question 21

Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development

Answer 21

• in each stage, libido is discharged through specific part of the body
• successful progression through stages: healthy personality
• unsuccessful progression through stages: fixiation
• fixiation: libido gets stuck in that stage, harder to resolve conflicts

Question 22

Oral Stage

Answer 22

• birth to 18 months
• main source of stimulation: mouth
• mouth brings tension reduction and pleasure
• process: eating
• oral sadistic phase: pleasure from chewing, biting

Question 23

Oral Stage Personality Traits

Answer 23

• optimism, trust, dependency, gullibility
• related to traits of verbal aggression
• oral character: eating, drinking, smoking, nail biting

Question 24

Anal Stage

Answer 24

• 18 month to 3 years
• anus focus of libido
• sexual pleasure comes from defecation
• toilet training: external control over internal urge

Question 25

Anal Stage Personality Traits

Answer 25

- toilet training with praise: adult productivity and creativity - toilet training with punishment: rebellious, withholding

Question 26

Phallic Stage

Answer 26

- 3 to 5 years - genitals - first: pleasure from self - masturbation begins - later: opposite sex focus - hostility for same sex parent begins

Question 27

Phallic Stage: Oedipus Complex

Answer 27

- boys first sexual longings for another in the person of his mother - castration fear

Question 28

Phallic Stage: Electra Complex

Answer 28

- girls first sexual longings for another in the person of her father - penis envy

Question 29

Phallic Stage Personality Traits

Answer 29

- successful resolution of this stage leads to identification with same-sex parent - unsuccessful resolution: machismo, sexual aggression, workaholic, flirtatious, seductive, impotence

Question 30

Latency Period

Answer 30

- age 6 to puberty - sexual and aggressive drives are less powerful - ego and super ego continue to emerge and develop - focus on intellectual pursuits

Question 31

Genital Stage

Answer 31

- puberty through adulthood - libido focus on genitals - Freud: only a few people pass this stage successfully

Question 32

Genital Stage Personality Traits

Answer 32

- healthy: sexual desire for others, desire for mutual attachment and sexual gratification - control over sexual impulses

Question 33

Psychoanalytic Perspective CONs

Answer 33

- vague, ambiguous, concepts are not operationally defined - concepts cannot be easily tested, little evidence - much based on Freuds experience with only a small set of patients

Question 34

Psychoanalytic Perspective PROs

Answer 34

- understanding of unconscious drives | - highlight importance of early childhood in formation of personality