Psychoanalytic Perspective

Of Personality

Unconscious

Conscious

Preconscious

Unconscious

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Praises of Freud and Modern Approach to Psychoanlaytic Theory

- A TRUE Pioneer in his field - Freud did not have access to all that we have since learned about human development, thinking, and emotion and started the study into the unconscious.

- Iceberg view of the mind is still accepted in part:- (Especially in Cognitive Neuroscience Field - we indeed have

limited access to all that goes on in our minds. - NO longer view unconscious as dominated by sexual and aggressive

urges- unconscious involves = schemas that automatically control

our perceptions and interpretations, implicit memories, self-concept and stereotypes that automatically and unconsciously influence how we process information about ourselves and others, etc.

- Recent research has supported Freud’s idea that we DO defend ourselves against anxiety (not as much emphasis placed on sexual and aggressive urges though).

Freud's Early Exploration into the Unconscious

• Used hypnosis and free association (relax and say it all) to delve into unconscious.

• Mapped out the “mental dominoes” of the patients past in a process he called psychoanalysis.

Freud's Personality Structure

• Ego

• Superego

• Id

Freud & Personality StructureId - energy constantly striving to satisfy basic drives

Pleasure Principle

Ego - seeks to gratify the Id in realistic waysReality Principle

Super Ego- voice of consciencethat focuses on howwe ought to behave

Ego SuperEgo

Id

Id

• Unconscious energy that drives us to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives.

• Id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Superego

• Part of personality that represents our internalized ideals.

• Standards of judgment or our morals.

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Identification

Children cope with threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying

with the rival parent. Through this process of

identification, their superego gains strength that

incorporates their parents’ values.

From

the K. V

andervelde private collection

Ego

• The boss “executive” of the conscious.

• Its job is to mediate the desires of the Id and Superego.

• Called the “reality principle”.

Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development

• Freud believed that your personality developed in your childhood.

• Mostly from unresolved problems in the early childhood.

• Believed that children pass through a series of psychosexual stages.

• The id focuses it’s libido (sexual energy) on a different erogenous zone.

Oral Stage

• 0-18 months• Pleasure center

is on the mouth.• Sucking, biting

and chewing.

Anal Stage

• 18-36 months• Pleasure focuses

on bladder and bowel control.

• Controlling ones life and independence.

• Anal retentive

Phallic Stage

• 3-6 years• Pleasure zone is

the genitals.• Coping with

incestuous feelings.

• Oedipus and Electra complexes.

Latency Stage

• 6- puberty• Dormant

sexual feeling.• Cooties stage.

Genital Stage

• Puberty to death.

• Maturation of sexual interests.

Fixation

• A lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage.

• Where conflicts were unresolved.

Orally fixated people may need to chain smoke or chew gum.Or denying the dependence by acting tough or being very sarcastic.Anally fixated people can either be anal expulsive(Slobs) or anal retentive (Neat Freaks).

Defense Mechanisms• The ego’s protective methods of

reducing anxiety by distorting reality.• Never aware they are occurring.• Seven major types.

Repression

• The Mac Daddy defense mechanism.

• Push or banish anxiety driven thought deep into unconscious.

• Why we do not remember lusting after our parents.

Regression

• When faced with anxiety the person retreats to a more infantile stage.

• Thumb sucking on the first day of school.

Reaction Formation

• Ego switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

• Being mean to someone you have a crush on.

Projection

• Disguise your own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

• Thinking that your spouse wants to cheat on you when it is you that really want to cheat.

Rationalization

• Offers self-adjusting explanations in place of real, more threatening reasons for your actions.

• You don’t get into a college and say, “I really did not want to go there it was too far away!!”

Displacement

• Shifts the unacceptable impulses towards a safer outlet.

• Instead of yelling at a teacher, you will take anger out on a friend by peeing on his car).

Sublimation

• Re-channel their unacceptable impulses towards more acceptable or socially approved activities.

• Ex: Channel feelings of aggression into aggressive sports play that is socially approved: Football

H: 13-4-Defense Mechanisms Answer Key: pp.586-587

1. E

2. A

3. C

4. G

5. F

6. D

7. D

8. F

9. B

10. A

11. C

12. E

13. G

14. D

15. B

16. F 31. D

17. A 32. G

18. C 33. B

19. D 34. E

20. B 35. A

21. E

22. A

23. F

24. G

25. D

26. C

27. G

28. F

29. C

30. B

How do we assess the unconscious?

We can use hypnosis or free association.

But more often we use projective tests.

Projective Tests

• A personality test.• Provides an ambiguous stimuli

designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics.

Examples Are:

TAT

Thematic Apperception Test• A projective test which people

express their inner feelings through stories they make about ambiguous scenes

TAT

Rorschach Inkblot Test

• The most widely used projective test

•A set of ten inkblots designed to identify people’s feelings when they are asked to interpret what they see in the inkblots.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Neo-Freudians• Psychologists that took some premises

from Freud and built upon them. • Study these on OWN!

Alfred Adler Karen Horney Carl Jung

Alfred Adler

• Childhood is important to personality.

• But focus should be on social factors- not sexual ones.

• Our behavior is driven by our efforts to conquer inferiority and feel superior.

• Inferiority Complex

Karen Horney

• Childhood anxiety is caused by a dependent child’s feelings of helplessness.

• This triggers our desire for love and security.

• Fought against Freud’s “penis envy” concept.

Carl Jung

• Less emphasis on social factors.

• Focused on the unconscious.

• We all have a collective unconscious: a shared/inherited well of memory traces from our species history.