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Overview/Introduction [p.55]
INTRODUCTION
The psychodynamic theories emphasize the movement of psychological energy within the person in terms of conflicts, motivations and attachments.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
There are five common characteristics of psychodynamic theories:
- Emphasis on intrapsychic dynamics.
- An assumption that adult behavior/problems are determined by early childhood
experiences.
- A belief that psychological development occurs in fixed stages, during which
predictable issues must be resolved.
- A focus on fantasies and symbolic meanings of events as the unconscious perceives
them (psychic reality) as the main motivators in personality.
- A reliance on subjective rather than objective methods of investigation of personality.
GLOSSARY
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psychoanalysis | |
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psychodynamic theories | |
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intrapsychic |
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Freud and Psychoanalysis [p.56]
INTRODUCTION
Adult personality reflects how well your ego handles conflicts arising from the id and superego; how you progressed through the psychosexual stages of development; and which defense mechanisms you use to reduce your anxiety.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
..Unconscious
Motivation
- Unconscious motives, conflicts, and yearnings have more power than conscious
motives.
- The unconscious is revealed in:
- Dreams
- Free association
- Saying anything that pops into your head
- Jokes
- Apparent accidents
- Slips of the tongue
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..The Structure of Personality [p.56]
Our behavior results from the integration of three major personality systems: the id, the ego, and the superego.
- Reservoir of unconscious energies and instincts.
- True psychic reality because it represents the inner world.
- Pleasure Principle - the id seeks to reduce tension and gain pleasure.
- Competing groups of instincts.
- Life/sexual instincts fueled a a psychic energy called libido.
- Death/aggression instincts.
- Process: Tension builds up in the id which may try to discharge the tension
by:
- Reflex actions
- Physical symptoms
- Mental images
- Example: An infant that has been left unfed for hours is becoming hungry. Hunger is an instinct and the tension rises. The pleasure principle means the id will try to reduce the tension --> wishful reflex action as it begins to suck on its own fist.
- Referee between the needs of instincts and the demands of society.
- Reality Principle - rational mediator seeking satisfaction for the id's
wants but waiting until the needs can be met in a suitable and socially appropriate
way.
- Operates consciously and unconsciously.
- Example: The ego gets the small child to take its fist out of its mouth and search for something that will really satisfy its needs -- the bottle of milk in the corner of the crib.
- Represents morality.
- Rules of parents and society as well as power of authority.
- Rules of parents and society as well as power of authority.
- Judges the wishes and activity of the id:
- Guilt/shame
- If you are breaking, or thinking about breaking, the rules.
- Conscience
- Pride/satisfaction
- If you are doing something well.
- Ego Ideal
- Guilt/shame
..The systems in action:
| ID | "I want it and I want it RIGHT NOW!" | |
| SuperEgo | "You can't have it, it's BAD FOR YOU." | |
| Ego | "Let's see if we can get the low fat version, or maybe we can take a very small helping." |
..
...The conscious/unconscious aspects of the three systems:
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| Click for a larger picture |
.Healthy Personality: The Three Systems
in Balance
- If the Id controls, then personality likely to be impulsive and driven by selfish
desires.
- If Superego controls, then likely to be rigid, moralistic and bossy.
- If the Ego is weak, the person is unable to balance the needs of the id with social duties and realistic limitations.
. GLOSSARY
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id | |
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libido | |
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ego | |
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superego |
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..Defense Mechanisms [p.57]
INTRODUCTION
The conflict between the Id's wishes and the Superego's societal rules can produce unpleasant anxiety. The Ego uses methods called defense mechanisms to relieve anxiety and tension.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
...
- Characteristics of defense mechanisms
- Deny and distort reality.
- Operate unconsciously
- Defense mechanisms can become unhealthy if they cause self-defeating behaviors
or emotional problems.
- Repression - A threatening idea, memory or emotion
is blocked from consciousness.
- Example: "Forgetting' you flunked chemistry 2 years ago, or that your high
school sweetheart dumped you that summer.
- Example: "Forgetting' you flunked chemistry 2 years ago, or that your high
school sweetheart dumped you that summer.
- Projection - Unacceptable or threatening feelings
repressed then attributed to someone else.
- Example: You hate your teacher but you believe that he hates you (and he doesn't
even know your name).
- Example: You hate your teacher but you believe that he hates you (and he doesn't
even know your name).
- Displacement - Emotions (especially anger)
are directed at people, animals or other things that are not the real object of your
feelings.
- Example: A child is angry at his parents for sending him to his room for misbehavior.
On the way, he punches his sister, kicks the dog, and breaks a favorite toy.
- Example: A child is angry at his parents for sending him to his room for misbehavior.
On the way, he punches his sister, kicks the dog, and breaks a favorite toy.
- Sublimation - If displacement serves a useful
purpose.
- Freud believed society helps people sublimate their unacceptable impulses for
the sake of the society.
- Example: An angry child who would like to stab people who make him mad, but is
terrified of being hurt himself lest he dies, displaces these emotions into a career
of a successful physician.
- Freud believed society helps people sublimate their unacceptable impulses for
the sake of the society.
- Reaction Formation - When threatening
unconscious anxiety is transformed into its opposite in consciousness.
- Example1: The fervent, zealous, antipornography crusader may be using this defense
mechanism to hide the fact from himself that pornography is quite stimulating for
him.
- Example2: A mother who is angry and resentful at the birth of an unexpected child
who has ruined her professional career, becomes an overly protective mother who is
always making sure that no harm will come to her child.
- Example1: The fervent, zealous, antipornography crusader may be using this defense
mechanism to hide the fact from himself that pornography is quite stimulating for
him.
- Regression - Person reverts back to a previous
phase of personality development -- that is, if an event overwhelms one's current
coping strategies, the person may revert to strategies that worked in earlier phases
of their life.
- Example: After major natural disasters, e.g. tornados or earthquakes, school-aged
children will suddenly begin to wet the bed, suck their thumbs, and want to sleep
with their parents for reassurance. These are behaviors characteristic of an earlier
age.
- Example: After major natural disasters, e.g. tornados or earthquakes, school-aged
children will suddenly begin to wet the bed, suck their thumbs, and want to sleep
with their parents for reassurance. These are behaviors characteristic of an earlier
age.
- Denial - The person does not even recognize that
something unpleasant is happening. ("Suppression" is when you know the
bad event is happening but you consciously decide to put it out of your mind).
- Example: You are aware that the relationship between a close friend and her boyfriend is on the rocks but your friend is not even aware that there is a problem in their relationship.
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..Development of Personality [p.57]
INTRODUCTION
At each stage of early childhood development, specific events produce frustration, conflict, and anxiety. How the person deals with these issues become the foundation for their adult personality.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
- Called Psychosexual stages because the life forces (sexual energy) expressed
themselves in different parts of the body at different stages. These define the particular
issue that needed to be resolved.
- Fixation - If the challenge is too great, the child may become partially stuck at that stage of development.
- Child is very dependent upon others for survival.
- Mouth is the focus of sensation.
- Challenge - weaning (from the bottle or breast).
- Possible Fixations in personality:
- Oral gratification - Smoking, drinking, overeating, chronic nail biting.
- Overly dependent or overly independent.
- Aware of "self" -- ego is rapidly developing.
- Self-control (societal regulation of bodily functions) imposed on the child.
- Challenge - toilet training (battle of the "wills".)
- Possible Fixations in personality:
- Anal expulsive - messy and disorganized personality ("I'll show them -- I will symbolically go in my pants forever!")
- Anal retentive - hold everything in, obsessive about neatness and cleanliness ("I will cooperate to the extreme.")
...Phallic Stage
(3-6 years old)
......Time for gender identification and development
of the superego.
......Genitals are the focus of sensations.
.....Boys: The Oedipus
Complex -- a journey in symbolism.
- Keenly aware of their penis and stimulated by life forces, the boy wants to possess
the parent of the opposite sex. This is an early model for the development of appropriate
adult relationships with the opposite sex and Mom is the only readily object when
you are 4 years old.
- They naturally see their fathers as a rival for the affection of their mother
and secretly would like to see "dad" out of the picture (this is where
Oedipus Rex comes in).
- Confused as to why girls don't have a penis, at this early age boys conclude
that it must have gotten cut off ....and that powerful father probably did it (a
little projection going on here as we speak).
- Fearful of losing his own penis (symbolic life force), the boy represses his
desire for Mommy and identifies with his father. That is, " I will be like Dad
so that when I grow up I can possess someone just like my Mom."
- Identification with the father also means he accepts his father's standards of conscience and morality -- the superego rapidly takes shape.
.....Girls
- Girls discover at some point that they must have had their penis removed.
- The only way they can get one back is to identify with Mom. They can grow up and symbolically get a penis by getting a man (just like dear old dad).
....Possible Fixations in personality:
- After the above discussion, you can see why the phallic stage will produce lots
of unconscious conflicts with parents, attitudes about sex and gender orientation
for the rest of their lives! It's a miracle that more people don't qualify for the
Jerry Springer show.
- Some of the more sensational and bizarre sexual crimes seem to be best described by a clear derailment of the personality during the phallic stage.
...Latency Stage
(end of phallic to puberty)
- Learning to live in society
- Intrapsychic conflicts are repressed -- a quiet stage of life.
- Social skills and social relationships refined.
...Genital Stage
(puberty strikes)
- Sexual energy reemerges in the genitals -- big time.
- Sexual interest directed toward adult/peer relationships and sexual intercourse.
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.Freud's Legacy [p.59]
There are widely differing opinions about Freud's legacy -- from a hero who bravely battled public pressure to seek the truth, to an arrogant bully whose patients would be suing him for malpractice if he were practicing today.
- Positive Interpretation
- Some of his ideas were faulty, but the overall framework of his theory is still
useful.
- Some of his ideas were faulty, but the overall framework of his theory is still
useful.
- Negative Interpretation
- Psychoanalytic theory has little empirical support. As a result, some/many scientific psychologists regard it as nonsense
LINKS About Freud and Psychoanalysis
- www link: The Freud Web: Biography, theory and techniques.
- www link: They think alot of Freud in Vienna.
- www link: Visit the Freud museum.
- www link: Freud Net.
- www link: Freud and Dora [takes a while to load].
- www link: Oedipus Rex from a drama perspective.
- www link: Everything you ever wanted to know about Oedipus and more.
- www link: The historical Oedipus page.
- www link: How Freud fits in modern European intellectual history.
- www link: A Psychoanalysis of Beavis and Butthead.
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Two Other Psychodynamic Approaches [p.60]
INTRODUCTION
Two other approaches went beyond Freud's emphasis on the personal unconscious, a harried ego, and a independent organism wracked by instinctive drives.
Jungian Theory [p.60]
INTRODUCTION
Jung differed from Freud on the nature of the unconscious and its influence, as well as the strength of the ego.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
- Collective Unconscious
Apart of the unconscious that contains the universal memories, symbols and images that shape the behavior of humankind.
- Archetypes
- Common themes about human existence that are universal
- Mandala "magic circle" symbolize the totality
of the self and the unity of life.
- Mythical figures that guide --- the Hero's quest, the Nurturing Mother, the Wicked
Witch.
- Persona - public personality
- Shadow archetype - the dark side of human
nature reflecting prehistoric fears (animals and evil).
- Darth Vader and Dracula -- welcome to your dark side.
- Darth Vader and Dracula -- welcome to your dark side.
- Anima/animus Male-female archetypes.
- Anima - feminine archetype in men.
- Animus - masculine archetype in women.
- Problems
- If you try to repress these archetypes
- If you expect your partner to behave like the ideal archetype.
- Anima - feminine archetype in men.
- Confidence in the Ego
- Ego has more influence on behavior than in Freud's theory.
- Future goals and desires to fulfill oneself are powerful motivators.
- Jung anticipated the humanistic movement
(fast forward to Humanistic School)
- Ego has more influence on behavior than in Freud's theory.
- Traits
- Jung developed the notion of introversion and extroversion (rewind to fuller discussion).
- Jung developed the notion of introversion and extroversion
. GLOSSARY
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collective unconscious | |
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archetypes |
LINKS About Jung
- www link: Jung biography.
- www link: Jung page.
- www link: C. G. Jung, Analytical Psychology, and Culture
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The Object-Relations School [p.61]
INTRODUCTION
The need for attachment in early life highlighted the social nature of human development.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
- First 2 years of life are critical for personality development.
- Child has need for a powerful mother.
- Basic human drive -- the need to be in relationships.
- "Object" - The child's perception of other people, most notably a representation
of its mother.
- Object-relations - The relationships between these representations unconsciously
affects personality, and influences how we relate to others -- trust or suspicion,
acceptance or criticism.
- Central tension - Efforts to balance between independence and connection to others.
How we react to separations can be traced to our experiences during the first few
years of life.
- Male-Female Development (Take old Oedipus and Stuff him!)
- All children identify first with the mother.
- Boys must break away from mother to establish a masculine identity.
- Male identity is less secure because it is based on NOT being like a woman.
- Men's ego boundaries are more rigid, women's boundaries are more permeable.
- All children identify first with the mother.
- Issues later in life based on this theory:
- Men: permitting close relationships.
- Women: increasing their individual autonomy.
- Men: permitting close relationships.
. GLOSSARY
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object-Relations school |
LINKS About Object-relations School
- www link: Karen Horney biography.
- www link: Elaboration of Horney's views.
- www link: John Bowlby biography.
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Evaluating Psychodynamic Theories [p.62]
INTRODUCTION
Psychodynamic ideas are better thought of as descriptive metaphors than scientific studies.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
- Violates Principle of Falsifiability
- Impossible to confirm or disconfirm
(rewind to fuller discussion in Chap 1).
- Impossible to confirm or disconfirm
- Drawing universal principles from the experiences of a few atypical patients
is risky.
- (rewind to fuller
discussion in Chap 1).
- Can easily overgeneralize and Freud did not confirm his ideas with larger samples
of people.
- Basing theories of development on retrospective accounts and fallible memories
of patients is also risky.
- Memory is often inaccurate. (fast forward
to fuller discussion in Chap 7).
- Retrospective accounts often create the illusion of causality.
- Memory is often inaccurate.
DD
LINKS About Cross-Cultural Travel Issues
- www link: Gestures around the world.
- www link: Cultural issues in communication in global work teams.
- www link: Sample culture quiz for people in business.
- www link: Time as a cultural concept.
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