1
Q
Who is Sigmund Freud?
A
- neurologist
- 1856-1939
- lived primarily in Vienna
- created theory from personal experiences and memories
- studied with Charcot in Paris
- explored benefits of cocaine
- developed psychoanalytic practice
2
Q
Freud’s Austria
A
- Characterized by an even more rigorous form of Victorian sexual morality than England
- Intense moral preoccupation with sexuality, particularly in women and children
- Young women were expected to be chaste before marriage
- Sexual exploration and masturbation were assiduously suppressed
3
Q
What was Freud’s general theory?
A
- Unusual, or “perverse,” sexual desires dominate the mind
- These became unconscious, no longer under the control of a person’s self-conscious and voluntary choices
- Manifested in a person’s involuntary actions, like mistakes and slips of the tongues, as well as in mental pathologies, like obsession, paranoia, hysteria, and anxiety
4
Q
What did Freud and Breuer work on together?
A
- studies in hysteria
- use of hypnosis in treating hysteria
- case of Anna O.
5
Q
What is free association?
A
- under the right circumstances, patients describe previously hidden material that seemed related to the causes and cure of their hysterical symptoms
6
Q
What did Freud discover about hysteria?
A
- Physical changes could not be observed
- Early traumatic sexual experiences were responsible for hysterical symptoms expressed by adult patients
traumatic events –> physical changes in the nervous system –> anxiety symptoms later in life
7
Q
What is psychic determinism?
A
- Idea that unconscious forces have the power to influence behaviour
8
Q
What is the topographic model?
A
- personality is divided into three levels of awareness
9
Q
What are the 3 parts of the topographical model?
A
- conscious
- preconscious
- unconscious
10
Q
What is the conscious?
A
- contains the thoughts you are currently aware of
- experiences in awareness
- limited aspect of personality
- changes constantly
- can deal with only a small percentage of all the information stored in the mind
11
Q
What is the preconscious?
A
- large body of retrievable information
- storehouse of memories and thoughts
- can call into consciousness
12
Q
What is the unconscious?
A
- thoughts that cannot be easily brought into awareness
- no immediate access
- except under extreme situations
- home of the instincts
- responsible for much of everyday behaviour
- majority of thoughts
13
Q
What is the structural model?
A
- divides personality into 3 parts often not at peace with each other
14
Q
What are the 3 parts of the structural model?
A
- id
- ego
- superego
15
Q
What is the id?
A
- at birth
- selfish part of you
- buried in unconscious
- impulses center on themes of sexuality and aggression
- id impulses ever present, held in check by other parts of healthy adult personality
- pleasure principle: concerned only with what brings immediate personal satisfaction regardless of physical or social limitations
- wish fulfillment: if the desired object is not available, id will imagine what it wants
16
Q
What is the ego?
A
- 2 years
- reality principle: primary job is to satisfy id impulses in a manner that takes into consideration the realities of the world and consequences of the action
- keep impulses unconscious
- moves freely between conscious, preconscious and unconscious
17
Q
What is the superego?
A
- 5 years
- represents society’s values and standards
- internalized values
- places more restrictions on what we can do
- primary weapon is guilt
- conscience
18
Q
What conflicts threaten the ego?
A
- reality anxiety
- neurotic anxiety
- moral anxiety
19
Q
What is reality anxiety?
A
- tangible dangers
- threat is really there
20
Q
What is neurotic anxiety?
A
- id vs ego
- vague feelings of anxiety sparked by the sensation that unacceptable unconscious thoughts are about to burst through the awareness barrier and express themselves in consciousness
21
Q
What is moral anxiety?
A
- id vs superego
- superego can become too powerful and burden the ego with impossible standards of perfection
- ever present feeling of shame and guilt
22
Q
What is the structural model like in a healthy individual?
A
- a strong ego does not allow the id or the superego to much control over the personality
- below our awareness we have an eternal state of tension between a desire for self-indulgence, a concern for reality, and the enforcement of a strict moral code
23
Q
What is the Triebe?
A
- strong internal forces that motivate human behaviour
- drives or instincts
- propelling forces of personality
- form of energy
24
Q
What are the 2 important instincts?
A
- libido
- thanatos
25
What is the libido?
- life or sexual instinct
- oriented toward survival
- most of human behaviour
- erotic content and any action aimed at receiving pleasure
26
What is the thanatos?
- death or aggressive instinct
- compulsion to destroy and conquer
- desire to die and return to the earth
- mostly turned outward and expressed against others
27
What are defense mechanisms?
- ego strategies to defend against anxiety
- techniques of ego to deal with unwanted thoughts and desires and reduce or avoid anxiety
- provoked by everyday conflicts
- denials or distortions of reality
28
What are the types of defense mechanisms?
- repression
- sublimation
- displacement
- denial
- reaction formation
- intellectualization
- projection
- regression
- rationalization
29
What is repression?
- active effort by the ego to push threatening material out of consciousness
- or keep from ever reaching consciousness
- requires constant expend of energy
- most important
30
What is sublimation?
- ego channels threatening unconscious impulses into socially acceptable actions
- id is allowed to express aggression and ego doesn't have to tie up energy holding back impulses
- most successful
31
What is displacement?
- channelling id impulses to nonthreatening objects
- do not lead to social rewards
- many of our irrational fears are symbolic displacements
32
What is denial?
- refusal to accept that certain facts exist
- insist something is not true despite evidence to the contrary
- extreme form of defense
- less in touch with reality, more difficulty functioning
33
What is reaction formation?
- hide by acting in a manner opposite to threatening unconscious desires
- expression of opposite id impulse
- as if thought is so unacceptable that the ego must prove how incorrect the notion is
34
What is intellectualization?
- removal of emotional content from the thought before allowing it to enter awareness
- considering something in strictly intellectual, unemotional manner
- helps bring previously difficult thoughts into consciousness without anxiety
35
What is projection?
- attribute a disturbing impulse to someone else instead of to ourselves
- free ourselves from the perception that we are the one who holds a certain thought
36
What is regression?
- retreat to an earlier, more childlike, safer period of life
37
What is rationalization?
- reinterpreting behaviour
- generating self-justifying explanations for our negative behaviours
38
What is Freud's psychosexual stages development theory?
- Sequence of development made up of stages characterized by primary erogenous zones and sexual desires
- Each stage has a specific influence on the adult personality
- Adult personalities of people are greatly influenced by the events of early childhood
- Personality develops in stages
- Each stage defined by erogenous zone
- Resolve conflict to move to next stage
39
What is an erogenous zone?
- part of the body, when touched, provides pleasure
40
What is a fixation?
- results when child is unable to move through a stage
- excessive frustration or gratification
- the tying up of psychic energy
- less energy for normal functioning
- adult expresses behaviours characteristic of fixated stage
41
What are the psychosexual stages of development?
- oral
- anal
- phallic
- latent
- genital
42
When is the oral stage?
- first 18 months
43
What are the primary erogenous zones of the oral stage?
- mouth
- lips
- tongue
44
What is a fixation at the oral stage?
- traumatic weaning or feeding problems
- leads to oral personality
- dependent on others
- infantile need for oral satisfaction
- fixation after teething; excessive levels of aggression
45
When is the anal stage?
- 18 months to 3 years
46
What are the primary erogenous zones of the anal stage?
- anal region
47
What is a fixation at the oral stage?
- traumatic toilet training
- anal personality
- orderly and rigid
- stubborn or generous
48
When is the phallic stage?
- 3 to 6 years
49
What are the primary erogenous zones of the phallic stage?
- penis or clitoris
50
What characterizes the end of the phallic stage?
- Oedipus complex
51
What is the Oedipus complex?
- sexual attraction for their opposite sex parent
- boys develop castration anxiety
- girls develop penis envy
- Oedipal desire never fully eliminated, they are repressed
52
What is castration anxiety?
- fear that their father will discover their thoughts and cut off their penis
- think this fate has already befallen girls
53
What is penis envy?
- desire to have a penis
- feelings of inferiority and jealousy because of its absence
54
How is the Oedipus conflict resolved?
- repress desire for opposite sex parent
- type of reaction formation
- identify with same sex parent
- boys begin taking on masculine characteristics and girl feminine characteristics
- adopting parents values and standards paves way for superego
55
When is the latency stage?
- 6 years to puberty
56
What are the primary erogenous zones of the latency stage?
- none
57
What is the latency stage?
- sexual desires abate
- boys and girls are uninterested in each other
58
When is the genital stage?
- puberty
59
What are the primary erogenous zones of the genital stage?
- adult genital regions
60
What is the genital stage?
- if a child progressed to this stage, without leaving large amounts of libido fixated at earlier stages, normal sexual functioning is possible
61
What are the seven techniques for to get at unconscious material?
- dreams
- projective tests
- free association
- freudian slips
- hypnosis
- accidents
- symbolic behaviour
62
What are dreams?
- provide id impulses with a stage for expression
- type of wish fulfillment
- manifest content; what the dreamer sees and remembers
- latent content: what is really being expressed
- unacceptable images can safely surface in our dreams in symbolic form
- trained psychoanalysts can identify common dream symbols
63
What are projective tests?
- Assesses unconscious material by asking test takers to respond to ambiguous stimuli
- Identifying objects, telling a story, or drawing a picture
- Provides insight into what is going on in the unsconsious
64
What is free association?
- strange, uncensored ideas flowing into awareness
- temporarily bypass the censoring mechanism employed by ego
- not so easy
65
What are Freudian slips?
- unconscious associations that momentarily slipped out
66
What is hypnosis?
- ego put into a suspended state during a deep hypnotic trance
- bypass ego and get directly to unconscious material
- not all clients are responsive
67
What are accidents?
- intentional actions stemming from unconscious impulses
- resistance: consciously did not remember, unconsciously deliberate effort to thwart
68
What is symbolic behaviour?
- daily behaviours that are symbolic representations of unconscious desires
- ex: daisies symbolize mother, man liked rubbing feet into doormat with images of daises; symbolically acting out hostility toward mother
69
What is psychoanalysis?
- system of psychotherapy
- developed by Freud
- bring crucial unconscious material that is causing the disorder into consciousness where it can be examined in a rational manner
- client speaks freely, without distractions
- therapist and client work together to help ego exercise appropriate control over id impulses and/or oppressive superego
- therapist interprets significance of statements, behaviours, and dreams
70
What are some drawbacks to psychoanalysis?
- lengthy
- expensive
- transference and countertransference
- early insight could be threatening for an unprepared ego
- clients must obtain a reasonable understanding of psychoanalytic theory before appreciating therapist's interpretations
71
What is an indication that psychoanalysis is getting close to crucial material?
- resistance
72
What is transference?
- emotions associated with people from the past are displaced onto the therapist
- handling transference is delicate and crucial part of therapy process
73
What is countertransference?
- therapists displace their own feelings toward other individuals onto the client
74
How do psychoanalysists measure personality contructs?
- projective tests
- bypass direct reports
75
How do projective tests work?
- ambiguous stimuli
- describe what they see, tell stories, react to material
- responses highly idiosyncratic (individual)
- projections from the unconscious
- significance of response not apparent to test taker
76
What are some types of projective tests?
- Rorschach inkblot test
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- Human Figure Drawing test
77
What is the Rorschach inkblot test?
- 10 cards with blots of ink
- client describe what they see
78
What is the TAT?
- ambiguous pictures
- client tells a story about each
79
What is the Human Figure Drawing test?
- client draws a picture
- sometimes asked to draw person or family or tree
- mostly for children
80
What are the strengths of Freud's theory?
- first comprehensive theory of human behaviour and personality
- set the direction for subsequent personality theory and research
- developing first system of psychotherapy
- techniques like free association, hypnosis and dream interpretation became standard tools
- popularizing and promoting many important psychological concepts
81
What are the criticisms of Freud's theory?
- ideas not original or groundbreaking; many ideas appear in literature that predates Freud's work
- many hypotheses generated by theory not testable
- heavy reliance on case studies to support theory falls short of standards
- patients hardly represented typical adults
- all info about clients was filtered through Freud
- possible that Freud, consciously or unconsciously, caused his patients to say what he wanted to hear
Psych 332 (personality)
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