Psych - Unit 8 - Freud & Psychodynamic Theory

1. Psych - Unit 8- Freud & Psychodynamic Theory

2. What do you need to know? • List and describe the 3 components into which Freud divided the personality & indicate how these are distributed across the 3 levels of awareness. • Explain the role of internal conflicts in Freud’s theory. • Describe the operation of defense mechanisms. • Outline Freud’s psychosexual stages of development and their theorized relations to adult personality.

3. Sigmund Freud (Psychodynamic) & B. F. Skinner (Behaviorism): Developed grand ideas with massive overall and overarching reach. Most psychological theories are very focused on singular points of reference. Freud & Skinner have “Big Picture” models. Sigmund Freud is one of the most famous scholars in world history. He is known today, but was VERY well known during his day. Probably would have won the Nobel Prize, if not for a letter written by a past Nobel winner Albert Einstein who argued, “He’s only a psychologist, how can you give the prize to him?”

4. If you asked a person today to name a “psychologist” they almost immediately think of Sigmund Freud. Freud left Europe to escape the Nazi’s in Germany. The Nazi leaders burned all of his books and research. Upon leaving he was asked by the Gestapo to sign a letter saying that the Nazi Gestapo had never harmed him. He signed it and also wrote at the bottom, “The Gestapo has never harmed me in any way. In fact, I can heartily recommend the Gestapo for everyone.” Freud is incredibly controversial. He has also been despised for some ridiculous theories - like penis envy. Or architectural phallic symbols. However, at the core of Freud’s explanations are a set of claims with immense importance. At the center is the idea of the unconscious and unconsciousmotivations & conflicts.

5. Psychodynamic Perspective Freud believed psychology influences caused disorders Wanted to see what these psychological influences were 1st comprehensive personality theory ever! Exploring the Unconscious Unconscious Mind: filled with unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. Free Association: Freud’s technique to untap the unconscious by having patients say whatever came to their mind. Free Association Technique provides access to the unconscious mind Psychoanalysis Treatment Process: Patients revealed painful, embarrassing thoughts in the unconscious through free association. Once these memories were retrieved and released... the patients then would feel better

6. YouTube: The Psychoanalysis of Sheldon - Big Bang Theory

7. This is just the Tip of the Iceberg! Parts of the Mind Analogy - the mind is like an iceberg Conscious - what you are currently aware of Preconscious - info not in conscious but is able to be retrieved when needed Unconscious - Massive amount hidden from view

8. This is just the Tip of the Iceberg! Parts of the Mind Analogy - the mind is like an iceberg Conscious - what you are currently aware of Preconscious - info not in conscious but is able to be retrieved when needed Unconscious - Massive amount hidden from view

9. Unconscious Influences: Latent content of dreams symbolic meaning of dream images, what your unconscious mind is thinking Freudian Slip: “Slip of the Tongue” not something you meant to say, but was brought out through your unconscious thought http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJhhFe9EqOo Ahhhhhh...

11. Personality Development The Pleasure Principle - Pure Id Freud believed that theIdwas basic & foundational. Present at birth, the ‘animal’ in you. The Id is entirely stupid. It wants. It wants it now. “Eat it! Get it! Go Now!” Polymorphous Perversity: The pure desire for pleasure Quite “unconscious” However, what you want isn’t always available, so humans developed ways to deal with the id. Either planning how to get what you want constructively, or suppressing them entirely. The conscious is the ego (self). Reality Principle: How to make your way in the world. How to satisfy your pleasures or how to give up on them entirely. 3rd component - the Super Ego(internalized rules of society & parents) The Super Ego is also terribly stupid, according to Freud. The Super Ego is screaming, “Stop! You are disgusting, you should be ashamed of yourself!” The Ego is between them. The self decides what to do. Freud Museum: Vienna, Swtiz.

12. PersonalityStructure Id, Ego, and Superego AngelDevil Person Ego SuperegoId

14. How does the ego negotiate between the id and the superego? These clashes are called intrapsychic or psychodynamic conflicts. This process can cause stress and anxiety. The ego tries to prevent anxiety, guilt and other unpleasantfeelings. Sometimes the ego helps us negotiate situations well and sometimes we use… Defense Mechanisms

16. Personality Development Freud believed that personalityformed during life’s first few years divided into: Psychosexual Stages During these stages stages the id’s(the devil) pleasure seeking energies focus on pleasure sensitive body areas called erogenous zones. The Stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency & Genital Freud Museum: Vienna, Swtiz.

17. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages 1. Oral (0-1): Obtain pleasure from the mouth via sucking, biting, swallowing. 2. Anal (1-3):Pleasure obtained by learning to control bodily wastes. 3.Phallic Stage (3-5): In Greek mythology - a phallic symbol is that of a male genital and deal with incestuous feelings. 4. Latency Stage (5-12) Suppress sexual interest - play mostly with same sex peers. (cooties!) 5. Genital Stage(adolescent & Up) Adult sexuality. Feeling more comfortable with the mature understanding of what sex means and what is about. Comfort and maturity in expressing with the sexual feelings towards others.

18. Psychosexual Stages Fixation - being stuck and struggling through a particular psychosexual stage. You move on in life, but may have ‘issues’ that arise from the struggles during that stage. If a traumatic event occurs... one can become “stuck.” Could become an “oral” fixation where one had trouble quitting cigarettes, overeats, nail biting or must constantly have something in their mouth.

19. "Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar" While the famous quote is often repeated and attributed to Freud, there is no evidence that he ever actually said it. Freud was a lifelong cigar smoker, smoking up to twenty a day according to his biographer Ernest Jones. As the story goes, someone once asked Freud what the cigar he so often smoked symbolized. The response is meant to suggest that even the famous psychoanalyst believed that not everything held an underlying, symbolic meaning. In reality, the quote is most likely the invention of a journalist that was later mistakenly identified as a quote by Freud. Psychosexual Stages Oral Fixation: Seek expressive oral contact through smoking, drinking, eating. Dependence, either passive or biting sarcasm/act tough. Anal Fixation or Anal retentive: controlled & orderly Anal expulsive: messy & disorganized

20. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages In classical psychoanalytic theory, the child's identification with the same-sex parent is the successful resolution of the Electra complex and of the Oedipus complex; his and her key psychological experience to developing a mature sexual role and identity. Fixation on this stage may lead to an unhealthy identification with the opposite-sex parent. Oedipus Complex - a boy would have unconscious desire for mom & jealous/hatred for dad. Fears punishment if dad found out (castration) if dad found out about his feelings. Electra Complex - the female version of the Oedipus Complex (added later by Karen Horney (Horn-nay) & Freud’s daughter, Anna)

21. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages Identification: End of the Phallic Stage Children cope with the threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with the rival parent. The“if you can’t beat them, join them” approach. Through this process of identification their superego gains strength incorporating parents’ values.

23. Defense Mechanisms

24. Defense Mechanisms Methods used by ego to unconsciously protect itself against anxiety caused by conflict between id’s demands and superego’s constraints. - only unhealthy when they cause self-defeating behavior & emotional problems {remember id=devil; super ego=angel}

25. Defense Mechanisms Repression - we avoid painful thoughts by forcing them into the back of our mind - underlies all other defense mech. - Example: witness a murder, don’t remember the details when asked by police. (unconscious) Regression - we retreat to behaving or thinking like a child in order to avoid adult issues. - throwing a temper tantrum. Example: Blaming referees when you failed on the field. Or soccer player pretending to be injured.

26. Defense Mechanisms Displacement - divert sexual or aggressive impulses to a more acceptable person or object. Displaced aggression is a common example of this defense mechanism. Rather than express our anger in ways that could lead to negative consequences (like arguing with our boss), we instead express our anger towards a person or object that poses no threat (such as our spouse, children or pets). Example: Angry at mom; take it out on the family dog. Or Angry at boyfriend; get in argument with your mom. Projection - disguise threatening impulses and attributing them to others. Involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. Projection works by allowing the expression of the desire or impulse, but in a way that the ego cannot recognize, therefore reducing anxiety. Example - Want to break up with bf or gf, accuse him/her of wanting to break up with you.

27. Defense Mechanisms Sublimation - we expend energy on prosocial activities in order to avoid undesired activities. Ex) you have anger issues. Instead of hitting people on the streets, you train as an MMA fighter. *sign of maturity that allows people to function normally in socially acceptable ways. Reaction formation - make unacceptable impulses into their opposite, acceptable form. Ex) you really dislike your Psych teacher, but tell everyone how much you LOVE them. Or you really like another person, but instead of telling them, you pretend to hate them. Why do people behave this way? According to Freud, they are using reaction formation as a defense mechanism to hide their true feelings by behaving in the exact opposite manner.

28. Defense Mechanisms Rationalization - we try to create logical explanations of our behavior in order to justify it. Ex) A person who is turned down for a date might rationalize the situation by saying they were not attracted to the other person anyway. Or a student might blame a poor exam score on the instructor rather than his or her lack of preparation. Rationalization not only preventsanxiety, it may also protectself-esteem and self-concept. When confronted by success or failure, people tend to attribute achievement to their own qualities and skills while failures are blamed on other people or outside forces.

29. Defense Mechanisms Denial - we refuse to perceive reality in order to protect ourselves from it. Often this is done in the face of obvious truth. Ex) You get a rejection letter from the school you always wanted to go to. You don’t tell people that you were rejected, but rather accepted. Denial functions to protect the ego from things that the individual cannot cope with. While this may save us from anxiety or pain, denial also requires a substantial investment of energy. Because of this, other defenses are also used to keep these unacceptable feelings from consciousness.

30. Defense Mechanisms (Unconscious) Repression Pushing unpleasant memories and urges out of conscious awareness Rationalization Coming up with false but reasonable excuses for actions or mistakes. Projection Putting your own unacceptable feelings onto other people. Reaction Formation Acting the opposite of how you feel Regression Falling back to an earlier more infantile stage of development Sublimation Converting unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable ones – art, sports, academics… Displacement Directing an impulse from an unacceptable target to a less threatening one, kicking the dog Denial Just saying it ain’t so. “No defense mechanism here…” Compensation Trying to make up for perceived deficits or fears

31. Evaluating the Psychodynamic Approach Freud - incredible contributions to Western thinking and psychology However, limited support for certain aspects of Freud’s theory Only based on a few case studies Weaknesses in Freud’s theory Limited social and cultural universality Does not take social interaction into account There are two ways you can reject a scientific theory: 1. It is wrong. It doesn’t work. 2. The theory is so vague and all-encompassing that it can’t be tested. “That guys work is crap, he’s not right. He’s not even wrong.” - Wolfgang Pauli, a physicist who was asked about the work of a colleague Astrology & Astrological predictions: It’s not that they are wrong. It’s that they can not be proven wrong. They are too vague. Freudian Theory is so vague that it can not be tested. Yet, Freudian defenders say that it is proven through psychoanalysis. However, how can that be tested?

32. Freud says to a patient, • “You hate your mother.” • The patient replies, “Wow, that makes sense!” Freud says, “I am right!” -OR- Freud says to a patient, “You hate your mother.” The patient replies, “No. I don’t. That’s disgusting! How dare you!” Freud says, “Your anger shows this idea is painful to you. You have repressed it from consciousness. I am right!” “You have deep psychological problems.”

33. However, Freud’s theory pins itself to the unconscious and there are MANY ways that the unconscious mind plays a pivotal role in human behavior. For example, Language Driving, chewing gum, shoelace tying -- all the places where you quickly and instinctively operate in the unconscious. Subliminal impressions through messaging. There is a LOT of empirical support for the power of the unconscious in the areas of social psychology, for example. One area is the terrible initiation of hazing. It is illegal, yet remarkably successful. The more you pay for something, the more you enjoy it. The more pain you go through, the more you like it.

34. The Neo-Freudians Like Freud, Alfred Adler believed in childhood tensions, however these tensions were social in nature & not sexual. A child struggles with inferiority complex during growth & strives for superiority & power. Founder of “Individual Psychology” (his term for personality). Studied ‘inferiority complex’ and is recognized for making major breakthrough in that area of Personality.

35. The Neo-Freudians Like many who held opposing views with Freud, Karen Horney(Horn-nay) felt that sex and aggression were not the primary constituents for determining personality. Horney (Horn-nay) believed in the social aspects of childhood growth and development. Children were trying to overcome a sense of helplessness. She countered Freud’s assumption that women have weak superegos and suffer from “penis-envy.” Freud believed that boys had the power and were given more opportunities. Freud believed that women envied those opportunities. Considered a founder of “Humanistic Psychoanalysis” & “Feminist Psychology”

36. The Neo-Freudians Carl Jung (Yung) collective unconscious which contained a common reservoir of images derived from our species’ past. A psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of the extraverted and the introvertedpersonality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields. Jung's primary disagreement with Freud stemmed from their differing concepts of the unconscious. Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as incomplete and unnecessarily negative. Archetypes - universal symbolic images that appear across cultures in myths, art, stories, & dreams Examples - Darth Vader vs. Superman Archetype of Evil & Goodness