Chapter 38 Q&A

How has modern research developed our understanding of the unconscious?

Current research confirms that we do not have full access to all that goes on in our mind, but the current view of the unconscious is that it is a separate and parallel track of information processing that occurs outside our awareness. This processing includes schemas that control our perceptions; priming; implicit memories of learned skills; instantly activated emotions; and stereotypes that filter our information processing of others' traits and characteristics.

How did Freud think people defended themselves against anxiety?

For Freud, anxiety was the product of tensions between the demands of the id and superego. The ego copes by using unconscious defense mechanisms, such as repression, which he viewed as the basic mechanism underlying and enabling all the others.

What was Freud's view of personality?

Freud believed that personality results from conflict arising from the interaction among the mind's three systems: the id (pleasure-seeking impulses), ego (reality-oriented executive), and superego (internalized set of ideals, or conscience).

What are three big ideas that have survived from Freud's work in psychoanalytic theory? What are three ways in which Freud's work has been criticized?

Freud is credited with first drawing attention to (1) the importance of childhood experiences, (2) the existence of the unconscious mind, and (3) our self-protective defense mechanisms. Freud's work has been criticized as (1) not scientifically testable and offering after-the-fact explanations, (2) focusing too much on sexual conflicts in childhood, and (3) based on the idea of repression, which has not been supported by modern research.

Which of Freud's ideas did his followers accept or reject?

Freud's early followers, the neo-Freudians, accepted many of his ideas. They differed in placing more emphasis on the conscious mind and in stressing social motives more than sex or aggression. Most contemporary psychodynamic theorists and therapists reject Freud's emphasis on sexual motivation. They stress, with support from modern research findings, the view that much of our mental life is unconscious, and they believe that our childhood experiences influence our adult personality and attachment patterns. Many also believe that our species' shared evolutionary history shaped some universal predispositions.

What developmental stages did Freud propose?

He believed children pass through five psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital). Unresolved conflicts at any stage can leave a person's pleasure-seeking impulses fixated (stalled) at that stage.

How have humanistic theories influenced psychology? What criticisms have they faced?

Humanistic psychology helped renew interest in the concept of self. Critics have said that humanistic psychology's concepts were vague and subjective, its values self-centered, and its assumptions naively optimistic.

How did Sigmund Freud's treatment of psychological disorders lead to his view of the unconscious mind?

In treating patients whose disorders had no clear physical explanation, Freud concluded that these problems reflected unacceptable thoughts and feelings, hidden away in the unconscious mind. To explore this hidden part of a patient's mind, Freud used free association and dream analysis.

What theories inform our understanding of personality?

Personality is an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Psychodynamic theories view personality from the perspective that behavior is a dynamic interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind. These theories trace their origin to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis. The humanistic approach focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment. Trait theories examine characteristic patterns of behavior (traits). Social-cognitive theories explore the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context.

What are projective tests, how are they used, and what are some criticisms of them?

Projective tests attempt to assess personality by showing people stimuli that are open to many possible interpretations and treating their answers as revelations of unconscious motives. One such test, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), asks people to make up stories about ambiguous pictures. In another, the Rorschach inkblot test, people examine a series of inkblots; this test has low reliability and validity except in a few areas, such as cognitive impairment and thought disorder.

How did humanistic psychologists assess a person's sense of self?

Some rejected any standardized assessments and relied on interviews and conversations. Rogers sometimes used questionnaires in which people described their ideal and actual selves, which he later used to judge progress during therapy.

How did humanistic psychologists view personality, and what was their goal in studying personality?

The humanistic psychologists' view of personality focused on the potential for healthy personal growth and people's striving for self-determination and self-realization. Abraham Maslow proposed that human motivations form a hierarchy of needs; if basic needs are fulfilled, people will strive toward self-actualization and self-transcendence. Carl Rogers believed that the ingredients of a growth-promoting environment are genuineness, acceptance (including unconditional positive regard), and empathy. Self-concept was a central feature of personality for both Maslow and Rogers.

How do contemporary psychologists view Freud's psychoanalysis?

They give Freud credit for drawing attention to the vast unconscious, to the struggle to cope with our sexuality, to the conflict between biological impulses and social restraints, and for some forms of defense mechanisms (false consensus effect/projection; reaction formation). But his concept of repression, and his view of the unconscious as a collection of repressed and unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories, cannot survive scientific scrutiny. Freud offered after-the-fact explanations, which are hard to test scientifically. Research does not support many of Freud's specific ideas, such as the view that development is fixed in childhood. (We now know it is lifelong.)

How did humanistic psychology provide a fresh perspective?

This movement sought to turn psychology's attention away from drives and conflicts and toward our growth potential. This focus on the way healthy people strive for self-determination and self-realization was in contrast to Freudian theory and strict behaviorism.

What does it mean to be empathic? How about self-actualized? Which humanistic psychologists used these terms?

To be empathic is to share and mirror another person's feelings. Carl Rogers believed that people nurture growth in others by being empathic. Abraham Maslow proposed that self-actualization is the motivation to fulfill one's potential, and one of the ultimate psychological needs (the other is self-transcendence).

Which elements of traditional psychoanalysis have modern-day psychodynamic theorists and therapists retained, and which elements have they mostly left behind?

Today's psychodynamic theorists and therapists still rely on the interviewing techniques that Freud used, and they still tend to focus on childhood experiences and attachments, unresolved conflicts, and unconscious influences. However, they are not likely to dwell on fixation at any psychosexual stage, or the idea that sexual issues are the basis of our personality.