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Chapter 3

Chapter 3. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY . QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER. 1. How did historical and personal events shape the development of Freud’s theory of personality? 2. What are the key elements of the psychoanalytic model of the mind?

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Chapter 3

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  1. Chapter 3 FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY

  2. QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER 1. How did historical and personal events shape the development of Freud’s theory of personality? 2. What are the key elements of the psychoanalytic model of the mind? 3. How do people protect themselves against the experience of anxiety, and in what ways are these anxiety-reduction strategies a centerpiece of Freudian personality dynamics? 4. How important is childhood experience in personality development?

  3. FREUD’S VIEW OF THE PERSON THE MIND AS AN ENERGY SYSTEM • The mind is a system that contains and directs instinctual drives • The major scientific task is to explain how mental energy flows, is blocked, and gets redirected

  4. FREUD’S VIEW OF THE PERSON THE MIND AS AN ENERGY SYSTEM • Freud’s view of mental energy – 3 core ideas: • There is a limited amount of energy • Energy can be blocked, but does not dissipate; instead, it gets expressed in some alternative form by being channeled along a path of least resistance • The mind functions to maintain a state of energy equilibrium (homoestasis)

  5. FREUD’S VIEW OF THE PERSON THE MIND AS AN ENERGY SYSTEM • The case of Anna O. • Experienced bizarre symptoms whose biological causes could not be determined, including partial paralysis, blurred vision, persistent cough, and difficulty conversing • Hysteria = an emotional disorder that manifests in physical symptoms (currently known as somatization disorder)

  6. FREUD’S VIEW OF THE PERSON THE MIND AS AN ENERGY SYSTEM • Anna O. found relief from her symptoms if she could trace them to an event in her past • Catharsis = a release and freeing of emotions by talking about one’s problems • 2 implications of catharsis: • The mind is an energy system • The mind has more than one part • A region comprised of mental events about which people are aware: conscious • A less well-understood region of mental events that lies outside of awareness: unconscious

  7. FREUD’S VIEW OF THE PERSON THE INDIVIDUAL IN SOCIETY • The prevailing belief was that people are essentially good, but that society corrupts them • In psychoanalysis, sexual and aggressive drives are an inborn part of human nature • Individuals naturally seek the pleasurable gratification of instinctual drives • Society teaches the child that instinctual drives are socially unacceptable and maintains social norms and taboos that drive this lesson home

  8. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY • STRUCTURE • Two models of the mind • Levels of consciousness • Conscious • Preconscious • Unconscious • Functional systems in the mind • Id • Ego • Superego

  9. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Levels of Consciousness • The conscious includes mental events of which we are aware without effort • The preconscious contains mental events of which we easily can become aware if we concentrate on them • The unconscious consists of mental events of which we are unaware and cannot become aware except under special circumstances

  10. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Levels of Consciousness • Freud attempted to understand the properties of the unconscious by analyzing a variety of psychological phenomena • slips of the tongue • neuroses and psychoses • works of art • rituals • dreams

  11. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Levels of Consciousness • Dreams • Manifest content = the storyline of a dream • Latent content = unconscious thoughts and feelings as well as instinctual drives that underlie the manifest of the dream’s storyline

  12. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Levels of Consciousness • Latent content = unconscious wishes • Manifest content = wish fulfillment • Symbolically represents the fulfillment of unconscious wishes that may be impossible to fulfill in real life e.g., a person can satisfy a hostile or sexual wish in a disguised and thereby safe way • Each element of a dream is viewed as a clue to the underlying wish that the dream represents

  13. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • The Motivated Unconscious • Mental events enter the unconscious for reasons • The unconscious stores mental events that are so traumatic they would cause psychological pain • We are motivated to banish such events from awareness • Nonetheless, mental events in the unconscious influence ongoing conscious experience • Freud’s fundamental message: Our conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions are determined by mental events of which we are unaware

  14. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Psychoanalytic Research • Clinical observations suggested to Freud that the unconscious includes memories and wishes that are “buried” in our unconscious • People under hypnosis can recall things they otherwise could not • Freud often found that clients became aware of previously unrecognized memories and wishes via psychoanalysis

  15. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Psychoanalytic Research • In the 1960s and 1970s experimental research focused on perception without awareness (i.e., subliminal perception) • Eagle et al. (1966) • One group of participants was shown a picture with a duck image shaped by branches of a tree • Another group was shown a similar picture, but without the duck image • The picture was presented to both groups using a tachistoscope • Participants were then asked to close their eyes, imagine a nature scene, draw the scene, and label the parts

  16. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Psychoanalytic Research • Participants who viewed the “duck picture” had significantly more duck-related images in their drawings than did participants in the control group • However, these participants did not report seeing the duck during the experiment, and most had trouble seeing it even when asked to look for it • Although not consciously perceived, the stimuli influenced participants’ imagery and thoughts

  17. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Psychoanalytic Research • Subliminal psychodynamic activation = Researchers stimulate unconscious wishes without making them conscious by presenting material that is related either to threatening or anxiety-relieving unconscious wishes and then observing participants’ reactions • The material is shown long enough to activate the unconscious wish, but briefly enough that it is not recognized consciously

  18. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Psychoanalytic Research • Silverman et al. • Subliminally presented conflict-intensifying material (“Loving Daddy Is Wrong”) and conflict-reducing material (“Loving Daddy Is OK”) to female undergraduates • For participants prone to conflict over sexual urges, the conflict-intensifying material, presented outside of awareness, disrupted memory for passages presented after subliminal activation of the conflict • This effect was not found for the conflict-reducing material or for participants not prone to sexual conflict

  19. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Id, Ego, and Superego • Distinctions among conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels of the mind were inadequate because they ignored a psychological “agent” (the ego) that • Was unitary in functioning • Varied in its degree of consciousness • Freud developed an alternative model of the mind that distinguished among three functional systems

  20. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Id • Source of all instinctual drives - the “great reservoir” (Freud, 1923, p. 20) of mental energy • Operates according to the pleasure principle = pursue pleasure through the release of excitation and reduction of tension • Functions entirely out of awareness • Primary process thinking = language of the unconscious • Illogical and irrational • Reality and fantasy indistinguishable • Seeks satisfaction through action or by imagining that it has gotten what it wants • Does not • Devise plans and strategies for obtaining pleasure • Wait patiently for a potentially gratifying object to appear • Concern itself with social norms and rules

  21. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Superego • Functions involve moral aspects of social behavior • Contains ideals toward which we strive and standards that produce guilt if we violate them • Is an internal representation of the moral values embraced by society • Functions to keep behavior in line with these values, offering rewards (pride, self-love) for “good” behavior and punishments (guilt, feelings of inferiority) for “bad” behavior • Can be rigid and and relatively incapable of reality testing

  22. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE • Ego • Expresses and satisfies desires of the id in accordance with opportunities and constraints that exist in the real world and with the demands of the superego • Operates according to the reality principle = gratification of instincts is delayed until an appropriate time when one is likely to maximize pleasure while minimizing painful negative consequences • Can distinguish fantasy from reality • Secondary process thinking = language of consciousness • Logical and rational • Seeks and tests reality • Can tolerate tension and achieve compromise through the use of reason • Becomes more powerful over time, with more complex functions developing during childhood

  23. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Motivational dynamics which involve mental energy • The source of all psychic energy lies in states of excitation within the body that seek expression and tension reduction

  24. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Life and Death Instincts • Life instinct(Eros, libido) • Includes drives associated with the id (e.g., sexual) • Impels the person toward biological preservation and reproduction

  25. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Life and Death Instincts • Death instinct (thanatos) • Opposite of the life instinct • The aim is to die or return to inorganic state • A controversial and little accepted element of psychoanalytic theory • The death instinct is often directed toward others in acts of aggression, but can be turned against oneself (depression)

  26. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Dynamics of Functioning • Instincts can be • Blocked from expression • Expressed in a modified way • Sexual instinct  Affection • Aggressive instinct  Sarcasm • Expressed without modification • Displaced from one object to another • Love of one’s mother  Love of one’s wife, children, dog • Combined • Sexual and aggressive instincts  Football

  27. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Dynamics of Functioning • The interplay between the expression and inhibition of instincts is the dynamic foundation of psychoanalytic theory • Key concept: anxiety = a painful emotion that represents a threat or danger • Alerts the ego to danger so that it can respond • Usually related to an early childhood trauma • Can be associated with similar trauma in adulthood • Anxiety emerges from conflict between the push toward gratification by id and threat of punishment by the superego and real world

  28. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Anxiety, Defense Mechanisms, and Relevant Research • Individuals develop defense mechanisms to minimize anxiety • They develop ways to distort reality and exclude feelings from awareness • Defensive functions are carried out by the ego to cope with competing id impulses and superego imperatives

  29. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Denial • Block awareness of a traumatic event or socially unacceptable urge • Denial may be conscious, but Freud believed it is automatic and unconscious • Psychoanalysts doubt that distortions about oneself and the world can be adaptive • Some psychologists suggest that positive illusions and self-deceptions can be adaptive and, perhaps, essential for mental health • The answer depends on the degree of distortion, how pervasive it is, and the circumstances under which it occurs

  30. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Projection • Repressing awareness of one’s negative qualities and perceiving them in others • Social-cognitive analysis of projection • People tend to dwell on those features of themselves that they do not like • Whenever one dwells on a topic, it becomes chronically accessible • Whenever one interprets the actions of others, one does so by using concepts from one’s own mind • One ends up “projecting” chronically accessible negative features onto others

  31. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Projection • Newman et al. (1997) • Participants were exposed to bogus negative feedback about two traits • Asked to suppress thoughts about one of the two • Later viewed a videotape that depicted an anxious-looking individual • Asked to rate this person on a series of traits • Participants rated the target person high on the suppressed negative trait

  32. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Isolation and Undoing • Isolation • A thought or act is not denied access to consciousness, but is denied the accompanying emotion • Example: a woman may fantasize about drowning her child without experiencing anger or horror • The outcome of isolation is intellectualization • Undoing • An individual seeks to magically undo one act or wish with another • Seen in compulsions, religious rituals, and children’s sayings (“Step on the crack - break your mother’s back.”)

  33. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Rationalization • A “mature” defense (i.e., high level of awareness) • Behavior is reinterpreted so that it appears reasonable and acceptable • The ego constructs a logical motive to explain an repugnant action that is actually caused by the irrational impulses of the id • Example: some of the greatest atrocities of humankind have been committed in the name of love

  34. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Sublimation • Original object of instinctual gratification is replaced by a higher sociocultural goal that is far removed from the direct expression of the id • Id instinct is channeled toward an alternative, socially beneficial purpose • Freud interpreted DaVinci’s Madonna as a sublimation of his longing for his mother

  35. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Repression • The major defense mechanism in psychoanalytic theory • A thought, urge, or wish that is so traumatic and threatening it is buried in the unconscious • Viewed as having a role in all defense mechanisms • Requires constant expenditure of energy

  36. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Weinberger et al. (1979) solved two problems confronted by researchers of repression • How does one identify repressors? • How does one demonstrate that repressors actually experience emotions that they do not recognize as having? • Administered a social desirability scale and a self-report measure of anxiety

  37. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY PROCESS • Weinberger et al. (1979) • People who report low anxiety and high social desirability tend to repress their anxieties • Low anxious, high anxious, and repressors were invited to participate in the study • Asked to complete word phrases, some of which contained sexual or aggressive content • Anxiety was measured by physiological arousal • Repressors - who described themselves as low in anxiety - were actually high in arousal • Physiological measures indicated that repressors experience more anxiety than low and high anxious subjects

  38. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Freud proposed that all people develop through a series of stages • Events occurring at these stages are responsible for adult personality styles • The psychoanalytic position suggests that the most significant aspects of adult personality are established by the end of the first 5-6 years of childhood

  39. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Stages of Development • Freud: What forms do id instincts take at different stages of psychosexual development and how must they be managed to ensure adaptive outcomes? • Psychosexual development • Each stage is characterized by a bodily source of gratification = erogenous zone

  40. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Stages of Development • Oral stage (birth - 1) = gratification centers on the mouth • Oral gratification occurs in the feeding, thumb sucking, and other mouth movements of infants • Conflict between the individual and society reflects the infant’s wish for pleasure in feeding versus parental demands for delay • Early in the oral stage, the infant is passive and receptive, but later, with development of teeth, there can be a fusion of sexual and aggressive pleasure

  41. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Stages of Development • Anal stage (2 - 3) = excitation in the anus and movement of feces • The anal stage represents another conflict between the individual and society: conflict between the toddler’s wish for pleasure in evacuation and parental demands for delay • The child may associate bowel movements with losing something important, which leads to depression • The child may associate bowel movements with giving a prize or gift to others, which may create feelings of power and control

  42. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Stages of Development • Phallic stage (4 - 5) = excitation and tension focused on the genitals • Conflict between the individual and society reflects the child’s wish for pleasure in possessing the opposite-sex parent versus the external realities of adult love

  43. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Biological differentiation between the sexes leads to psychological differentiation • Increased interest in the genitals leads boys to realize that girls lacks a penis; castration anxiety • Oedipus complex = the fate of every boy is to kill his father and marry his mother • The father becomes a rival for the mother’s affections • A boy’s hostility toward his father causes increased castration anxiety and eventual abandonment of Oedipus complex

  44. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Silverman et al. (1978) • Subliminal stimuli presented after participants engaged in a dart-throwing competition • Beating Dad Is Wrong vs. Beating Dad Is OK vs. People Are Walking (neutral stimulus) • Participants tested again for dart-throwing performance following subliminal exposure • Beating Dad Is OK stimulus produced higher dart-throwing scores than the neutral stimulus • Beating Dad Is Wrong stimulus produced lower dart-throwing scores • Results were not obtained when stimuli were presented above threshold

  45. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Developmental crisis during the phallic stage differs for girls • Girls come to realize they lack a penis and blame their mother; penis envy • Electra complex = choose the father as the love object and imagine that the lost organ will be restored symbolically by having a child with the father • The girl resolves the Electra complex by keeping the father as a love object, but via identification with the mother

  46. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY • GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT • Importance of Early Experience • Lewis et al. (1984) • Assessed the relationship between early emotional relationships with the mother and later psychopathology • Observed attachment behavior of boys and girls at one year of age toward their mothers • Children assigned to the attachment categories of secure, avoidant, or ambivalent • For boys, attachment was significantly related to later pathology • For girls, no relationship was found between attachment and later pathology

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