Psych 201 - Quiz 4

What is free association?

You let your mind wander and say whatever comes to your mind. - Goals of psychoanalysis = enable patients to identify unconscious material that might be causing unwanted symptoms and help them cope with that material in an adult fashion. - Relaxing the censor that screens everyday thoughts may allow potentially important info into conscious awareness.

Talk about techniques for revealing the unconscious?

(Free association, dreams, projective techniques) The goal of psychoanalysis = make the unconscious conscious. - Mental illness or problems with living and unexplained physical symptoms can all be viewed as a result of unconscious conflicts. - Thoughts, feelings, urges or memories have been forced into the unconscious because of their disturbing or threatening nature. - Because the human mind is dynamic, these conflicts or restrained urges may slip out of the unconscious in ways that cause trouble. Way to help? 1) identify unconscious thoughts and feelings. 2) enable the person to deal with unconscious urges, memories, or thoughts realistically and maturely.

What are the psychosexual stages of personality development?

(includes oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage and latency stage) Freud believed that all persons passed through a set series of stages in personality development. - Each stage involves a conflict and how the person resolves conflict and gives rise to various aspects of her/his personality. - Individual differences = how the child resolves conflicts in each of the stages of development. - Fully formed personality = the end result after going through all the stages. "The child is the father to the man" - At each of the first three stages, young children must face and resolve specific conflicts. Conflicts revolved around ways of obtaining a type of sexual gratification.

Talk about denial and dreams?

- Denial often shows up in daydreams and fantasies. - Daydreams = deny the present situation by focusing on how things could have been otherwise.

Discuss energy usage and depletion in relationship to impulse control.

- Exercise impulse control = exercising impulse control becomes harder (so we use up psychic energy) - Bad decisions lead to worse decisions - Gets depleted everytime you exercise impulse control, but you have a greater ability to exercise impulse control everytime (reservoir). - Have to allow time for recovery - develops a rhythm in your life so you can get optimal results instead of tearing it down continually.

Talk about the phallic stage for girls.

- Freud argued that a little girl blames her mother for the fact that she lacks a penis. - This results in penis envy, which is the counterpart of castration anxiety. - Carl Jung came up with the Electra complex = little girl doesn't fear mom, so no reason for her to give up desire for dad. Freud said phallic stage drew out for girls and may never be fully resolved, as a result women are morally inferior to men (b/c resolution = development of the superego).

Evaluation of Freud's Contributions?

- Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Personality Psychology by Newman and Larsen. Discusses the controversy surrounding psychoanalysis.

What is insight?

- When repressed material is reintegrated into conscious awareness, and the person experienced the emotions associated with the previous repressed material then some level of insight has been achieved.

What are the "two parts" of the superego?

- ego ideal = all the shoulds, oughts, musts; where shoulds come from = parents. 2)

Why are Freud's ideas important? (cont.)

-Freud's ideas are important because he laid the foundation for many topics and questions that psychologists are still addressing. - He proposed developmental sequence in the growth of personality. - Devised a method to resolve internal conflicts. - Structure of basic elements of personality and described what he thought were the main dynamic relationships among these elements. - Mind has regions which it does not itself have awareness.

What is transference?

-Patient begins reacting to the analyst as if he or she were an important figure from the patient's own life. - Patient displaces past or present feelings towards someone from his or her own life onto the analyst (positive or negative) - In transference, interpersonal problems between a patient and the important people in his or her life will be reenacted in the therapy session with the analyst ("repetition compulsion") -The successfully analyzed patient then has available psychic energy that his or her ego has formerly been expending in repressing conflicts. This energy can be directed towards Freud's two hallmarks of adult personality development = love and to work.

Why is psychoanalysis important?

-Psychoanalytic ideas influence the practice of psychotherapy today. - American Psychological Assoc. =Division of Psychoanalysis is the second largest division. - Research psychologists are showing a revival of interest in the unconscious, psychic energy and defense mechanisms. - Popular culture = many Freud's ideas have been incorporated into everyday language and logic of understanding our own and others behavior.

According to Freud, the human mind consists of what 3 parts?

1) Conscious mind 2) Preconscious mind 3) Unconscious

What three functions does dreaming serve?

1) allows for wish fulfillment and the gratification of desires, even if only in symbolic form. 2) dreams provide a safety valve by allowing a person to release unconscious tension by expressing his or her deepest desires, although in disguised form. 3) dreams are guardians of sleep.

What are the 3 types of anxiety?

1) objective 2) neurotic and 3) moral

What is the associational areas system?

1) the ventral medial system = "What it is" system 2) the blindside system = "how do you interact with it"

What is the process of psychoanalysis?

1) with the help of free association, dream analysis, and projective techniques, the psychoanalyst gradually comes to understand the unconscious source of the patients problems. - Psychoanalyst offers the patient interpretations of the psychodynamic causes of problems. - Through many interpretations, the patient is led to understanding of the unconscious source of his or her problems.

What is psychoanalysis?

A method of psychotherapy and theory of personality. - A technique for helping people who are experiencing a mental disorder or even relatively minor problems with living. - Method for deliberately restructuring personality. - Principles of psychoanalytic therapy are based directly on psychoanalytic theory about structure and functioning of personality.

Talk about displacement?

A threatening or unacceptable impulse is channeled or redirected from its original source to a nonthreatening target. - Someone gets angry at a supervisor, but can't take our their anger on the supervisor because he/she is the boss, so ego keeps the person in check. However, then the person displaces her anger onto her husband by yelling and nagging at him. - can have a domino effect. - Displacement = defense mechanism involving redirection of aggressive instincts and can involve sexual urges that are redirected from a less acceptable to a more acceptable target - even fears.

What is Freud's psychosexual stage theory?

About personality development, both normal and abnormal. The theory states that we are all born with a drive for sexual pleasure (the id) but that the constraints of civilized society limit the ways we can satisfy the drive. - Go through the predictable conflict between our desire for pleasure and demands placed on us by our parents and society. - If person did not recieve enough gratification at the oral stage, may have inappropriate demands for oral gratification the rest of their lives (ie eating disorder or alcoholism). - Successive personality development = defined by the ability to be productive and maintain loving relationships.

What is sublimination?

According to Freud, this is the most adaptive defense mechanism. - Channeling of unacceptable sexual or aggressive instincts into socially desired activities. - Watching football = more desirable than beating someone up. - Positive feature = allows for some limited expression of id tendencies, so the ego does not have to invest energy in holding the id in check. - Freud = greatest achievement of civilization were due to effective sublimination of sexual and aggressive urges.

What is reaction formulation?

An attempt to stifle the expression of an unacceptable urge, a person may continually display a flurry of behavior that indicates the opposite impulse. - "Killing someone with kindness" - People may try to cover up their wishes and intention and yet unwittingly express them.

What is the 2nd stage of development?

Anal stage. It occurs between 18 months to three years of age. - Anal sphincter is the source of sexual pleasure. Child obtains pleasure from expelling feces, during toilet training, from retaining feces. - At first, the id desires immediate tension reduction whenever there is pressure in the rectum. So, defecate whenever and wherever the urge arises. - Some children have too little self-control and grow up sloppy and dirty. Others have too much self-control and begin to take pleasure in small acts of self-control (anal-retentive) - Adults that are compulsive, overly neat, rigid, never messy are fixated in the anal stage.

Talk about fixed psychic energy and "socially acceptable" thanatos?

Because a person possesses a fixed amount of psychic energy, the energy used to direct one type of behavior is not available to drive other types of behaviors. - So, if you direct your thanatos into "socially acceptable" things like sports, you aren't able to have much energy towards worse manifestations of it.

Why didn't Freud use anistetics?

Because his friend Flis had a nose problem and since Freud knew that cocaine (which he was the co-discover of) caused numbness, he told Flis to put the cocaine up his nose. Flis did, but he became addicted. Freud was riddled with guilt and never used any anistetic so he died in pain of cancer.

Talk about Freud's background.

Born in Freiberg, Moravia in 1856. His father marries a woman who is 20 years younger than him. - Moved to Vienna when he was 4 years old. - Obtained his medical degree from University of Vienna. - Started out as a researcher in neurology, but went into private practice treating "nervous disorders." - Germany invaded Austria in 1938 and the Nazis started their persecution of the Jews. - Nazis burned Freud's books and Freud and family left to London. - Freud died of jaw and throat cancer.

Explain the "talking cure" for hysteria?

Breur and Freud. Had women talk about their problems while they were under hypnosis. Talking about things helped. - For a psychological symptom to be cured, the unconscious cause of the symptom must 1st be discovered. - This process usually included discovering a hidden memory that was unsettling, disagreeable, or even repulsive that has been repressed or pushed to the unconscious. - Treatment for hysteria = help the person recall the memory of the incident that had originally led to the symptoms. - Once the person's memory is recalled, an emotional catharsis or release can happen by allowing the person to express any feelings assoc. with the memory.

What is the psychosexual stage theory?

Children seek sexual gratification by investing libidinal energy in a specific body part.

Explain moral anxiety.

Conflict between the ego and superego. - A person who suffers from chronic shame or feelings of guilt over not living up to "proper" standards. - People who punish themselves, have low self-esteem, or who feel worthless and ashamed most of the time = suffering from moral anxiety; overly powerful superego.

What about the unconscious?

Does vast majority of processing. - Important to survival. - Can switch attention to what is important right now. - Watson and Crick = DNA double helix discovery; apparently via a dream of a snake eating itself.

What is an example of libido and thanatos combining?

Eating. Eating serves the life instinct because we need nutrients to survive. It also involves acts of tearing, biting and chewing which could be aggressive.

What are defense mechanisms? (definition)?

Efforts to defend oneself from anxiety.

Talk about principles and the primary process thinking?

Even though it doesn't follow normal rules of reality, Freud believed that there were still principles at work in the primary process thought and that these principles should be discovered.

What is castration anxiety?

Freud argued that little boys came to believe that their fathers might make a preemptive strike by taking away the thing at the root of the conflict: the penis. This drives the little boy to give up sexual desire for mom. - Then, the kid imitates dad. Identification = marks the beginning of the resolution of the oedipal conflict and successful resolution of the phallic stage of psychosexual development for boys. - Resolution of oedipal conflict = beginning of superego and male gender role.

What is fixation?

If a child fails to fully resolve a conflict at a particular stage of development, he may get stuck in a stage. - If child is fixated at a stage, he/she exhibits a less mature approach to obtaining sexual gratification. - End stage of development = adults maintain pleasure from healthy, intimate relationships and work.

Explain instincts?

Freud believed that there were strong innate forces that provided all energy in the psychic system = instincts. - Influenced by Darwin and evolution. - Original formulation Freud has 2 categories of instincts = self-preservation and sexual instinct. - Later, he collapsed self-preservation and sex into one resulting in the life instinct. - Because of WWI, he developed the idea of a death instinct. He decided that humans had a fundamental instinct toward destruction and the manifestation of this was aggression.

What is psychic energy?

Freud proposed a source of energy within each person; psychic energy is this wellspring of motivation. - Freud's model of human nature relied on this notion - Believed psychic energy operated according to the law of conservation of energy: 1) the amount of psychic energy an individual possessed remained constant throughout his/her lifetime. 2) personality change was viewed as a redirection of a person's psychic energy.

Explain Freud's idea of "everything has a reason"?

Freud said nothing happened by accident. - There is a reason behind every act, thought, and feeling. - Everything is an expression of the mind - unconscious, preconscious, or conscious.

Explain the unconscious mind.

Freud said this was the largest part of the human mind. - Unacceptable information, hidden from conscious view so well that it cannot even be considered preconscious. - Memories, feelings, thoughts or urges that are so troubling or distasteful that being aware of them would make the person anxious. - Some examples = incest; hatred toward siblings, parents, or spouses; memories of childhood traumas.

What is rationalization?

Generating acceptable reasons for outcomes that might otherwise appear socially acceptable. - Goal = to reduce anxiety by coming up with an explanation for an event that is easier to accept than the real reason.

What did Freud's student Fenichel say about defense mechanisms?

He focused more on how these mechanisms function to protect self-esteem. - People have a certain view of themselves and will defend against unflattering changes to that. - Most psychologists believe people defend themselves against blows to self-esteem (failure, embarrassment, etc) - Contemporary self-esteem maintenance research = roots in defense mechanisms.

Explain the genital stage?

If Oedipus or Electra complex is resolved, person moves on to the genital stage. - Begins at puberty and goes into adulthood. - Libido = focused on genitals but not in self-manipulation associated with phallic stage. - Not accomplished by specific conflict.

What is wish fulfillment?

If an urge from the id requires an external object or person and it is not available, the id may create a mental image to satisfy its needs Mental energy is invested in the fantasy and the urge is temporarily satisfied. Basically, it is when something unavailable is conjured up in the mind and is temporarily satisfying.

What about defense mechanisms?

In all 3 anxieties, function of ego = cope with threats and to defend against the dangers they pose in order to lower anxiety. - Ego uses defense mechanisms to accomplish this (control anxiety) - Example = converse reaction (anxiety expressed in physical symptoms) some people may not even be anxious about symptoms because it helps them avoid anxiety. - Two main functions of defense mechanisms = 1) protect the ego 2) to minimize anxiety and distress

Explain the motivated unconscious?

In his book "The Psychopathy of Everyday Life" Freud says that "little accidents" of daily life are often expressions of the motivated unconscious. - An example of this is calling someone by the wrong name, missing an appt., breaking something that belongs to someone else. - According to Freud, most symptoms of mental illnesses are caused by unconscious motivations. - Case studies of 12 patients found support for his theory that psychological problems have to do with unconscious memories or desires.

What is labidinal cathexis?

Investment of libidinal energy. 1st or 2nd process, investing energy in thought of food.

What is the psychoanalytic personality theory?

It describes how people cope with their sexual and aggressive instincts w/in the constraints of a civilized society. - Sexual and aggressive instincts often lead to drives and urges that conflict with society and reality.

What is the superego?

It internalizes the values, morals and ideals of society. - Instilled into the child via societies various socializing agents, such as parents, schools and organized religion. - Freud = emphasized parents role in children's development of self-control and conscience. - Development of superego is closely linked with child's identification with his or her parents. - Superego makes us feel guilty, ashamed or embarrassed when we do something "wrong" and makes us feel pride when we do something "right." - Superego is not bound by reality - free to set standards for virtue and self-worth even if those standards are perfectionistic, unrealistic and harsh.

Talk about our personality being nurture vs. nature?

It is both. Genetic predispositions. - Genes to some extent determine your impulse control. - The environment can promote or interfere with wiring up. - Success? 1) genetic predisposition 2) environment 3) healthcare - people compromised from the get-go. Not just jeans, but from environment.

Explain objective anxiety.

It is fear. It occurs in response to a real, external threat to a person. - Control of the ego is being threatened by an external factor.

What is secondary process thinking?

It is the development of strategies for solving problems and obtaining satisfaction. - Involves taking into account the constraints of physical reality and when and how to express a desire or urge.

Explain the ego.

It is the part of the mind that constrains the id to reality. - It develops in the first two or three years of life. - Operates according to the reality principle. - Understands the urges of the id are often in conflict with social and physical reality. - Understands that certain actions can lead to problems and that direct expression of id impulses should be avoided, redirected or postponed. - Ego operates in secondary process thinking.

Explain Freud's theory of adult personality?

It is the result of how the person coped with his or her sexual and aggressive urges as a child.

What is the latency stage?

It occurs from around 6 to puberty. According to Freud, there is psychological development. - Child goes to school and learns skills, abilities necessary to take on the role of an adult. - Lack of specific sexual conflicts - Other psychoanalysts said that a lot happens during this stage: learning to make decisions for oneself, learning to interact with others, etc. - This stage ends with sexual awakening brought about by puberty.

What is the book "The Interpretation of Dreams" about?

It was written by Freud and published in 1900. - Described how the unconscious mind was expressed in dreams and how dreams contained clues to our innermost secrets, motives and desires. - Analysis of dreams became a cornerstone of his treatment.

Explain libido.

Libido is not just sexual; it is any need - satisfying, life-sustaining or pleasure-oriented urge.

What are libido and thanatos?

Libido is the life instinct and thanatos is the death instinct.

Which type of anxiety is impulsive?

Neurotic anxiety.

Explain neurotic anxiety.

Occurs when there is a direct conflict between the id and the ego. - Danger = ego may lose control over an unacceptable desire of the id. - Example = a man worries he will blurt out something inappropriate in public.

What is the 1st stage of psychosexual development?

Oral stage. Occurs in the first 18 months after birth. - Main sources of pleasure and tension reduction = the mouth, lips and tongue. - Main conflict = weaning; withdrawing from the breast or bottle (both psychological and biological). Psychologically = conflict is one of excessive pleasure vs. dependency w/fear of being left to fend for ones self. Biologically = id wants immediate gratification associated with taking in nourishment and obtaining conflict via the mouth. - Sometimes a child can have a painful/traumatic experience during this process = adults who still have obtain pleasure from "taking in" via the mouth must be fixated in the oral stage.

What is hysteria?

Part of your body doesn't work, but its not for a physical reason. Your memories are too painful for you to have in the conscious, so they go to the unconscious which causes the physical issue. - Symptoms didn't occur by chance. They were physical expressions of repressed traumatic experience. Treatment included "talking cure."

Explain the conscious mind.

Part that contains thoughts, feelings, and perceptions you are presently aware of.

What are some examples of oral fixation?

People who over-eat or smoke. Nail biting, thumb sucking, or pencil chewing. Drug addiction. - Psychological level = people who fixated at oral stage might be overly dependent (need to be nurtured and taken care of. Have others make decisions for them). - Another possible conflict of oral stage = associated with biting. Can occur after child grows teeth and finds he/she can obtain pleasure from biting and chewing. Parents discourage it, so conflict between the urge to bite and parental restrictions. - Fixation during this stage = adult personalities that are hostile, quarrelsome, or mocking.

What is the 3rd stage?

Phallic stage. Occurs between 3-5 years of age. - Child discovers that he has a penis (or if it is a girl that she does not). - Discovery of own genitals and realization that pleasure can be achieved by touching them. Awakening of sexual desire directed outward and first directed towards parent of the opposite sex.(odeipal conflict) = unconscious wish to have mother all to himself by eliminating dad. - Part of odeipal conflict = child loves, yet is competing with the parent of the same sex.

What is the projective technique?

Projective hypothesis = the idea that what a person sees in an ambigious figure, such as an inkblot, reflects his/her personality. - People thought to project their own personalities into what they report seeing in an ambiguous stimulus. - Also, can do by asking people to draw an image.

What about suppression?

Putting the anxiety, trauma, etc. in the preconscious. Decide not to think about it. Obsess about it once you decide you're not going to think about it.

Discuss rape in relationship to thanatos?

Rape = erotic sadism. Pain of the victim that gives the rapist the orgasm. Abnormal fusion of eros and thanatos.

What is repression?

Repression was used by Freud to refer to the process of preventing unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or urges from reaching conscious awareness. - Forerunner of defense mechanisms. - Person avoids the anxiety that would arise if the unacceptable material were made conscious. - Freud 1st developed the concept of repression as a global strategy that the ego used to maintain forbidden impulses of the unconscious.

Explain how we control urges (according to Freud)?

Society does not allow people to express freely all of their sexual and aggressive instincts. - Freud says one way to control urges = keep them from entering the conscious awareness in the 1st place. - Example = child gets angry w/parent has a fleeting wish that parents die. Obviously, this would be distressing to a child. Maybe it becomes so distressing that it is held back from conscious awareness and is banished to the unconscious. - Unacceptable sexual and aggressive urges, thoughts and feelings might accumulate in the unconscious throughout childhood.

What is projection (as a defense mech)?

Sometimes we see in others the traits and desires we find most upsetting in ourselves. - Project our unacceptable qualities on others so we can hate them instead of ourselves - We disparage the tendancies or characteristics in question without admitting we possess them. - What a person intensely dislikes or gets upset about with others is often revealing of his/her innermost insecurities and conflicts.

What is "real displacement"?

Takes place out of awareness. - Unconscious means of avoiding the recognition that one has certain inappropriate or unacceptable feelings toward a specific other person or a specific object. Feelings then displaced onto another person or object that is more appropriate or acceptable.

What is the false consensus effect?

Tendency many people have to assume that others are similar to them. - Argument that having a false consensus about one's unflattering effects could be ego defensive. - "Everyone else is doing it, but I'm not saying I don't"

Talk about the tension-reduction model?

Tension drives particular thoughts, impulses and behaviors. If behavior is effective, it reduces the tension. - "I seek not to make men happy, simply less miserable than their counterparts." - Downfall = doesn't include stimulation.

Explain thanatos?

Thanatos is not just death; any urge to destroy, harm, or aggression against others or self.

What is suicide?

Thanatos turned inside.

What is sadism?

Thanatos turned outside; masochism - thanatos directed inward.

What did Anna Freud say about defense mechanisms?

That the ego could muster creative and effective mechanisms to protect against blows to the self-esteem and threats to psychic existence.

What is manifest content?

The actual literal subject matter of the dream

Why does life suck for the ego?

The ego faces a difficult task trying to balance the impulses of the id, the demands of the superego and the realities of the world. - Sometimes conflict is expressed in a disguised way in various thoughts, feelings and behaviors. - Conflicts often expressed in dreams - Also elicited through hypnosis, free association and projective assessment instruments.

What is not working in psychosis ?

The ego. Reality testing. Prefrontal cortex. - Psychotic people don't have an ego strong enough to figure out another way to postpone the id.

Describe the id aka the "reservoir of psychic energy".

The id = the beginning; the primitive part of the human mind. - Something we are born with and source of all urges and drives, - Like a spoiled child - it is selfish, impulsive, and pleasure-loving. - Operates according to the pleasure principle = desire for immediate gratification. - During infancy, the id dominates. - The id does not listen to reason, does not follow logic, has no values or morals and very little patience. - It operates with primary process thinking = thinking without logical rules of conscious thought or an anchor in reality (ie dreams and fantasies).

What is resistance?

The patient typically feels threatened. The forces that have worked to repress the disturbing impulse now at work to resist the psychoanalytic process. - As patients defenses are threatened, the patient might unconsciously set up obstacles to success. - Resistance signifies that important unconscious material is coming to the fore. Resistance then becomes an integral part of interpretations the analyst offers to the patient.

What is the fundamental attribution error (denial)?

The tendency to blame events outside one's one control for failure but to accept responsibility for success. - Why the tendancy? To protect yourself. - Just using what information you have because you have more info about your situation than theirs.

Describe the interaction of the id, ego and superego? (anxiety)

They are in constant interaction. They have different goal, provoking internal conflicts within an individual. - Anxiety = acts as a signal that things are not right and that something must be done. Also, a signal that the control of the ego is being threatened by reality, by impulses from the id, or harsh controls exerted by the superego. - Anxiety can be presented in physical symptoms like rapid heart rate, sweaty palms, irregular breathing. May also feel on the verge of panic. - Well balanced mind, one free from anxiety, is achieved by having a strong ego. - The ego balances competing forces of the id and superego. If either of these overwhelm the ego = anxiety.

What about dreams?

Thought that dreams are messages from deep regions of the mind that are not accessible during waking life. - Freud = purpose of dreaming was to satisfy urges and to fulfill the unconscious wishes and desires all within the protection of sleep. - Dream analysis = a technique Freud taught for uncovering the unconscious material in a dream or interpreting a dreams content. - Ego is still somewhat at work during sleep, it succeeds in disguising the disturbing content of our unconscious. - Freud = dreams are "the royal road to the unconscious" - Psychoanalysts interprets the dreams by deciphering how the unconscious into symbols in the dream.

Explain the iceburg theory?

Used to describe the topography of the mind. - Part above water = conscious mind. - Part you can see just below the waters surface = preconscious - Part totally hidden = unconscious.

What is latent content?

What the elements of the dream represent.

Explain the preconscious mind.

What were you wearing yesterday? What is the earliest memory you have of your mother? - Any info that you are not presently thinking about, but that could be easily retrieved and made conscious if found in the preconscious mind.

What about denial as a defense mechanism?

When the reality of a situation is extremely anxiety provoking, a person may resort to the defense mechanism of denial. - In contrast to repression, which involved keeping an experience out of memory, a person in denial insists that things are not the way they seem. - Denial = refusing to see the facts. - Common form of denial is to dismiss unflattering feedback as wrong or irrelevant. - Example = when people are given a poor evaluation, some will reject the evaluation rather than change their view of themselves,