210 Unit 7 and 8 Study Guide PDF

Preview

Summary

STUDY GUIDE...

Description

Unit 7 and 8 STUDY GUIDE Psycho Analytical Problems and Tests Problems and Prospects:  Controversial  Prominent sexual themes  Many determinants of behavior that are outside of awareness  Difficult to test empirically  Ambiguous terms or ill defined concepts  Heavy reliance on small number of potentially biased case studies  Confusion of fact with inference  Even so, Freud offers a significant and important contribution to the discussion of personality and human behavior Looking back at this theory about 70 years after Freud’s final publications, there are a number of issues that are worth identifying and considering for yourself.  The first controversy concerns the idea, that as adults, are primary motivation is about sex. Victorian era audiences HATED this idea. Modern audiences, maybe less so. Probably even more accepting of this idea.  The second controversy is this idea that most of the determinants of our thoughts and behavior are NONCONSIOUS and outside our awareness. Again, Victorian audiences HATED this idea. Man (again, man and woman) are placed on a pedestal as rational beings in the image of God. Modern audiences, and interestingly Modern Psychologists, are now very accepting of the degree to which are thoughts and actions are unconscious. This may be the greatest contribution that Freud made.  The problems that are more difficult to move past, even or maybe more so, as time passed are two-fold.  1st the fact that Freud’s concepts were so slippery that they didn’t lend themselves to making clear predictions that could be tested. The concepts were vague.  The second is that this theory is almost entirely based on introspections made by Freud, which we know can be biased, and on his observations of a small number of clients who came to him suffering from hysteria. So we’re left with a very interesting theory. One that has elements to it that are still being explored and validated today. But also many very idiosyncratic and specific elements, that have been shed for lack of empirical evidence. Personality tests based on Freudian Theories that analyze the unconscious mind (most of these are projective tests) Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)  Developed by Henry Murray, the TAT is a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.

Rorschach Inkblot Test  The most widely used projective test uses a set of 10 inkblots and was designed by Hermann Rorschach. It seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots. Projective Tests: Criticisms  Critics argue that projective tests lack both reliability (consistency of results) and validity (predicting what it is supposed to).  When evaluating the same patient, even trained raters come up with different interpretations (reliability).  Projective tests may misdiagnose a normal individual as pathological (validity). Dream Analysis: Another method to analyze the unconscious mind is through interpreting the manifest and latent contents of dreams.

An example of Freud’s self-analysis  Irma’s injection  Irma's injection is the name Sigmund Freud gave to a dream of his. It is the dream with which he opens his seminal work The Interpretation of Dreams, and which forms the linchpin of the analysis in that book.  Freud describes the dream, which he records as taking place on the night of July 23–24 1895, thus:  The setting: a vacation house, grand reception hall in which Freud's wife's (Martha's) birthday might be celebrated-i.e., the juxtaposition of the personal/family and the professional (patients and colleagues) aspects of Freud's life.  2. The initial mood: "reproach", initial mutual criticism between Freud and his female patient(s), later between Freud and his male colleagues.  3. The manifest cast of characters:  Irma, a "hysterical" widow (Anna Hammerschlag, daughter of Freud's Hebrew teacher);  Otto (Dr. Oscar Rie), Freud's friend (tarok partner), medical assistant, and pediatrician to his children;  M. (Dr. Josef Breuer), Freud's elder co-author of Studies on Hysteria (1895);  Leopold (Dr. Ludwig Rosenberg), pediatrician colleague and friend of Freud and Rie; and Freud himself.  the hall: Bellevue, Martha's birthday ...  Irma: Female hysterics, marriage, sexual abuse and frustration ...  "Irma's" pale and puffy face: Pregnancy, puffiness ...  Irma's throat: shortness of breath ...  Irma's "throat’s curly structures: Nasal neurosis, masturbation ...  M's beardless face and limp: Contempt ...

 Irma's percussed body: Eroticism, shame, Freud's own body ...  propyl ... trimethylamin: Sexual arousal, frustration ... Background:  That evening Dr. Rie (Otto) had come directly from Irma’s home. Freud asked him how Irma was and he replied, "she"s better but not quite well". Freud was annoyed by his reply as he fancied that he detected a reproof in it to the effect that he (Freud) had promised the patient too much. He gave no indication to Dr. Rie of his feelings but that night he worked late, writing out her case history to give to Dr M (subsequently identified as Dr Josef Breuer). Freud’s Interpretation of the dream:  This dream was a wish to exonerate himself from any blame for the lack of complete success in the treatment of Irma’s condition. This is achieved by  (a) blaming Irma herself for not accepting his solution  (b) pointing out that, because the pains were organic in nature, they were not treatable by psychological means  (c) implying that Otto had caused the pains by giving her an injection with a dirty needle.

Psychoanalytic History History and Context:  Traditional perspective threatened by:  Copernican theory—earth is not the center of the universe  Darwinian theory—human behavior is driven by instinct for survival and reproduction  Freudian theory—unconscious and uncontrollable animalistic forces influence human behavior  Tremendously broad influence  Psychology/Psychiatry  The Arts (e.g., film)  Sociology/Anthropology  Political Science  Everyday discourse—the “Freudian Slip” Another factor that contributed to the impact of Freud’s theory, involved the historical context from which it emerged.  Many scientific historians talk about great advances in science being defined by a major “paradigm shift”. That means understanding some basic principle in a new way.  Historians now understand that Freud’s ideas were part of a major shift in the way people at that time understood the human condition.

 And the prevailing understanding of that time was based largely on a religious metatheory. man (and by “man” I mean men and women) was understood to be created in God’s imagine. This played out in lots of ways.  People thought of mankind as very different from other animal species. We were ourselves as special. This was challenged first by Copernicus’s idea that the earth is not the center of the universe. Next Darwin argued that mankind should be understood as having evolved from other animals.  Finally, Freud came along as said that we are motivated by the same forces as animals. And that, even though we’d like to think of ourselves as having control, that much of our behavior is dictated by forces outside of our control. This was a big hit to our collective egos. Maybe we’re not so special after all. This really upset a lot of people. Sigmund Freud:  Trained as a physician  Began working with people (mostly women) suffering from hysteria  Used hypnosis to identify the cause  Later replaced hypnosis with free association  Theories are largely based on clinical sessions  Lived form 1856-1939  Believed that problems were due to things being stuffed into unconscious and coming up. Very interested in symbols. Sigmund Freud concentrated initially on biology, doing research in physiology for several years, specializing in neurology. He conducted research and published work on nerve cells in the spinal cords of a specific kind of fish. And developed an improved method for histological staining cells. A practice that was used for decades after. So it’s interesting to note that he started his training in physiology. He was trained in Vienna, and did a post doctorate in Paris. It was in Paris that he was exposed to a famous researcher working with hysteria. Hysteria being a condition that could not, at the time be explained medically. The terms have fallen out of favor now, because of its lack of precision. But at the time, hysteria could include as many of 70 or more different psychosomatic symptoms. such a fainting episodes, uncontrollable crying or fear. Things like that. In Paris, Freud worked with a very famous French neurologist named Jean-Martin Charcot, and was introduced to the practice of using hypnosis He later moved from hypnosis to using free association. Free association is instructing someone to say the very first thing that comes to mind, without judging whether that will be appropriate or inappropriate. His theories, which include a theory of personality, and theory of development, and a theory of clinical application, are all intertwined, and are all based on the observations Freud made, either through introspection or thru case studies in sessions with his clients. Even though Freud was well trained in designing tightly controlled lab experiments, his position was that this approach was inappropriate for the particular aspects of psychology that he wanted to study.

Freud’s theory of the mind - Topographical Model: The mind is organized into levels of functioning  Conscious Level =Common characterization  Preconscious Level  Unconscious Level Freud’s contribution This model starts with a 2-part model of the mind was actually already in existence at the time, and widely endorsed. That two-part model includes the Conscious and Preconscious Levels. Freud’s contribution was his description of an Unconscious Level. Which he not only said was something worth taking a look at, but actually the MOST important of the 3 in terms of understanding motivation and behavior. The Conscious Level:  Contains elements about which a person is currently aware (comparable to the idea of “working memory”)  Contents can be articulated verbally  Contents can be thought about in a rational/logical manner  The easiest aspect of the mind to understand is the conscious level.  This is the level that we have the best access to, and which contains ideas that we are actively aware of. The modern term used by cognitive psychologists for this idea is “working memory”. If we use a computer metaphor it is the RAM or random access memory. We can talk about things that are at the conscious level or held in working memory. Actually, we can only talk about things that have been brought into consciousness. We can also work with concepts at the conscious level in logical or rational ways. The theory suggests that problem solving is best done when information is being worked on at the conscious level (although this particular idea has been challenged very recently). Preconscious Level:  Represents elements in ordinary memory— those outside of current attention (comparable to the idea of “long term memory”)  Contents can be brought to our awareness either easily or with some difficulty.  Examples:  Your mother’s maiden name  Characteristics: These are ordinary memories that have been storied, but that with a little effort we can call back to consciousness.  We’re just not actively working with them at the moment.  Easy ideas to grasp. Both the ideas of a Conscious and Preconscious Level. As I said, the Unconscious is where things get more interesting. And where most of the action is according the Freud. Unconscious Level;

 Contains all drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our awareness, but that nevertheless motivate most of our words, feelings, and actions  actively kept from consciousness  The existence of the unconscious level can only be proven indirectly – dreams, slips of the tongue certain kinds of forgetting (repression)  Even though they are outside of awareness, the contents of the unconscious can have a dynamic influence on personality  This is where all the action happens according to Freud.  This is whether the intense emotions, both pleasurable and painful, wishes and urges are running around like mad.  And the mind is actively working to keep them down there. To the extent that material does ever make it up to the conscious level, it is always distorted and tempered down. So can have the sense that we know what’s in our unconscious, but according to Freud, you can never fully know. The organization of the topographical model:  Information passes easily between conscious and preconscious  Information can move into unconscious, but cannot be voluntarily brought back – distortion or transformation So information moves through these 3 levels in different ways. The first two levels have a porous gate, and information moves between them no problem at all. The gate between the preconscious and unconscious however is one way. Things can move into the unconscious just fine, but it’s much more difficult to get information from the unconscious out. That’s part of Freud’s explanation for why all these bright scientists before him weren’t able to discover it. The very existence of it is hard for us to conceive, because its contents are hidden from consciousness And the way to get access is to hire a psychoanalyst to help you with a variety of techniques. His early techniques included the use of hypnosis to help people let down their defenses. Later he used dream analysis. And also free association. So we might say a word and ask the person to say the first association that came to their mind. Freud’s theory of personality:  Complements the Topographical Model  Describes the three components of personality functioning  Id  Ego  Superego Topographical Model: Check  Next part of Freud’s theory is the complementary Structural Model. And this is the aspect of the theory that is most central to defining individual differences in Personality. The focus of this class, in case you forgot.

 This structural model also has three components, and they are called the ID (Latin for “it”) the ego (Latin for ‘I”) and the Super ego (Latin for “Over I”, as in “the overseer of I”) The ID:  Tied to biological functions  Is original part of personality; present at birth  Embodies inherited, instinctive, primitive aspects of personality  Operates entirely in the unconscious  Conforms to the “Pleasure Principle” This is the part of personality, that we all start with. This is the inherited set of primal instincts we have in us. Can anyone name their favorite primitive instinct?? The drives to eat, sleep, have sex. Punch people sometimes. These are the primitive, animal instincts that we share with many other less evolved species. And the Id is something that is entirely unconscious. Within the Id there is no distinction between fantasy and reality. And it conforms to a rule called the “Pleasure Principle”.

The pleasure principle:  Immediate satisfaction of all needs  unrealistic  Unmet needs result in a state of aversive tension  Discharging drive tension via the “primary process” The pleasure principle, is a concept that has been adopted by not just Freud, but by many theorists both before and after. The principle is that the point of life is to satisfy all needs as fast as possible, and to minimize discomfort. Drive states are uncomfortable (being hungry), so the pleasure principle dictates that we should try to immediately satisfy drives, as other animals tend to do. According to Freud this means ignoring possible risks, and long term consequences. When people are behaving in a way that is consistent with this pleasure principle we say they are discharging drive tension via the Primary process. Extensions in of the pleasure principle: immediate gratification instant vs. delayed gratification (impulse control, will power, self-control)  Stanford Marshmallow experiment (Mischel, 1972)  Followed up with the participating 4 year olds  Those who were able to wait 20 minutes were more dependable, better adjusted, and scored on average 210 points higher on achievement tests The Ego

   

develops when children start to differentiates themselves from the outside world Negotiates among the Id, the superego, and the external world. Operates according to the = “Reality Principle” No moral sense, simply wants to fulfill needs given the constraints of reality

As a result, during the process of normal development, a second aspect of personality evolves, which Freud called the Ego. Ego is Latin for “I”. It is the part of your personality that you can most easily recognize. And it feels like the active causal agent. Modern cognitive psychologists refer to this mental capacity as the “central executive” and try to localize or map it’s activity in the brain. Anyhow, from a psychodynamic perspective, this is operating mostly on a conscious and preconscious level, but also at the unconscious level. It gets a lot of room to operate. And its job is separate fantasy from reality, and take into consideration the reality of things like jail and punishments. So to keep us out of jail it funnels the id’s energy in the most efficient way possible. This is called the Reality principle, and I’ll say more about that in a moment. Now that also means that if no one is looking, the Ego is cool with letting the Id run wild. The reality

 Introduces a sense of rationality and logic into personality functioning  Idea that behavior is governed by external, objective world  Focus on effectively expressing Id impulses by taking into account the external world  If risk associated with need fulfilling behavior is too high:  Directs behavior to another way to meet need  Delays to later, safer or more sensible time  Mechanism for matching tension producing need to a real object/activity = “Secondary Process”  The reality principle basically states that the Id, on its own, wouldn’t make it in the real world because of its trouble differentiating fantasy from reality. And also because human beings have created complex systems of social rules, with consequences attached and those need to be taken into consideration.  One of the main jobs of the Id is to delay gratification until an appropriate time and place. So, an important aspect of the ego that will relate to individual differences has to do with the capacity your ego has developed for delaying gratification.  The process of finding that place or object to release drive tension on is called the secondary process.  The idea of a Secondary process is also commonly referred to as higher-order thought. It includes problem solving and planning, and Freud also referred to it as “reality testing”. Super Ego  Develops when children start to experience parental reward/punishment  A result of socialization  “Introjection”: the process of incorporating values from an external source (i.e., mostly parents)  Operates at all levels of consciousness The last aspect of personality is what gives us a sense of morality. Something Freud felt was NOT at all innate. This part of us only develops as a result of socialization. And interestingly, it’s not at all clear that Freud considered this a particularly healthy process. This develops as a result of conditional regard that child experience in their relationship with their parents. Children gradually learn that when they do things that their parents and society value, they get more love and affection (a kind of reward). You lose love when you do things that society disapproves of. So you begin to internalize your parents and societies values. But because they are not naturally a part of you, Freud uses this term “Introjection” to convey that there is a foreign substance being injected into your personality. Operates at all levels of consciousness. As a result, Freud observed that some people can experience feelings of guilt (for example) without having any idea why. Without having done anything wrong. The guilt is entirely generated from the superego and id going at it deep down at the unconscious level.

Goals of Super Ego...