AP Psychology Personality Module 55
Regression
-When faced w/anxiety, they retreat to a more infantile psycholosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated -Ex:A boy reverts to the oral comfort of thumb sucking in the car on the way to his 1st day of school
What role to defense mechanisms serve? Which part of personality is responsible for controlling defense mechanisms?
Egos protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
What is a "Freudian slip"?
Error in speech, memory or action that are believed to reveal unconscious thoughts
Why is it important to study Freud's ideas, even though many of them are no longer relevant to contemporary psychology?***
His ideas of Oedipal conflict & castration anxiety are disputed even by later psychodynamic theorists & therapists
Oral(0-18 m)
Infant seeks gratifcation through oral stimulation(sucking, chewing, biting)
Projection
-Disgusting our threatening impulses(problems & desires) by attributing them to others -Ex:Thinking that others speed because you speed
How does identification help children cope with the threatening feelings present during the phallic stage, according to Freud?
-Childrens superegos gain strength by incorporating their parents values -Early childhood relations-especially w/our parents influence our developing identity, personality & frailties
Explain how the image of an iceberg illustrates the three components of Sigmund Freud's view of the mind
-Illustrates that the mind is mostly hidden beneath the conscious surface -Id is totally unconscious, but ego & superego operate both consciously & unconsciously
What is the difference between manifest latent content in a dream?
-Manifest:Remembered content of a dream -Latent:Underlying meaning of a dream. Dreamers unconscious wishes
Genital(puberty on)
-Maturation of sexual interests -Sexual conflicts of childhood resurface & are often resolved through adolescence
Describe how free association is used as a tool in psychoanalysis
-Person relaxes & says whatever comes to mind -Believed it would allow them to trace the line of mental dominoes(thought) leading into the patients unconsciousness, where painful unconscious memories could be retrieved & released
Latency(6 to puberty)
-Phase of dormant sexual feelings -Focuses on social nature & development of friendships
Denial
-Refusing to believe or even perceive painful stimulus -Ex:Partner denies evidence of loved ones affair -Ex:Claiming you don't have an alcohol problem
Discuss the problems and criticisms of Freud's theories
-Research doesnt support his ideas that development is fixed in childhood -Concept of repression & his view of unconscious as a collection of repressed & unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings & memories have not been proved scientifically -He offered after-the fact explanations, which are hard to test scientifically & fails to predict behaviors & traits
List some of the aspects of Freud's theories that endure today***
-Researchers believe that repression, if ever occurs, is a rare mental response to terrible trauma -Todays psychologists view unconscious not as seething passions & repressive censoring, but as info-processing that occurs w/out our awareness
Ego -Function -Focus or principle -Ex
-Satisfies the ids desires in ways that will bring pleasure rather than pain -Reality principle -Angel on your shoulder telling you to not cheat -Ex:Even though he needed money, he decided not to steal it from the cash register because he would get in trouble
Rationalization
-Self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions -Ex:"A habitual drinker drinks w/her friends "just to be social" -Ex:Eating cake while on a diet
Displacement
-Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet -Ex:Kicking your dog after being sent to your room -Ex:Trashing your room after getting fired
Superego -Function -Focus or principle -Ex
-Strives for perfection, judging positive feelings of pride & negative feelings of guilt -Focuses on how we "ought" to behave -Someone who is virtuous & guilt ridden -Ex:When Tom was on a business trip, he had many chances to cheat on his wife, but he knew it would hurt his family so he turned all the women down
Id -Function -Focus or principle -Ex
-Strives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce & aggress(sexual & aggressive) -Pleasure principle -Devil on your shoulder telling you to cheat -Ex:Newborn crying out of satisfaction
In what ways has modern research challenged the idea of repression?
-Studies have not found a single convincing case of repression -Many Nazi survivors still retain unrepressed memories of the horror -Researchers believe that repression, if ever occurs, is a rare mental response to terrible trauma
Reaction Formation
-Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites -Ex:Regressing angry feelings, a person displays exaggerated friendliness
Sublimation
-Transferring unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives -Ex:A man w/aggressive urges becomes a surgeon -Ex:Taking a karate class to get anger out
How is personality defined?
An individual's characteristic style of behaving, thinking, & feeling
How might Freud explain an adult's exaggerated sarcasm?
An orally fixated adult may exhibit passive dependence by action through using sarcasm,
Anal(18-36 m)
Pleasure focus on bowel & bladder elimination; coping w/demands for control
Phallic(3-6 y)
Pleasure zone is genitals. Develop unconscious sexual desires for their mother & jealousy for their father
