Personality psychology chapter8 the psychoanoalitic

Basic Themes• Conflict between aspects of personality • Defense mechanisms to manage threat • Human experience suffused with lust, aggression, sexuality, and death • Perspective is highl

Chapter Eight

The Psychoanalytic Perspective

Basic Themes

• Conflict between aspects of personality

• Defense mechanisms to manage threat

• Human experience suffused with lust, aggression, sexuality, and death

• Perspective is highly metaphorical

Topographical Model of the Mind

The mind is organized into levels of

The Conscious Level

• Contains elements about which a person

is currently aware

• Contents can be articulated verbally

• Contents can be thought about in a

rational/logical manner

The Preconscious Level

• Represents elements in ordinary memory—

those outside of current attention

• Contents are easily brought to current

awareness

• Examples:

– What you had for dinner last night

– Your grandmother’s first name

The Unconscious Level

• Elements of the mind that are actively kept from

consciousness

• Generally, a repository for images, feelings and ideas associated with anxiety, fear, and pain

• Contents cannot be brought to consciousness

directly, but can only enter awareness in

distorted form

• Even though they are outside of awareness, the contents of the unconscious can have a dynamic influence on personality

The Structural Model

• Complements the Topographical Model

• Describes the three components of

personality functioning

– ID (Latin for “It”)

– Ego (Latin for “I”)

– Superego (Latin for “over I”)

• Tied to biological functions

• Operates entirely in the unconscious

• Functions as the engine of personality, through which all psychic energy comes

• Conforms to the “Pleasure Principle”

Pleasure Principle

• Asserts that the true purpose of life is the

immediate satisfaction of all needs

• Gives no consideration to risk, environment,

social constraints or problems in satisfying

Primary Process

• Primary way for id to satisfy needs

• Formation of mental image of desired object, activity that would meet need

• Act of forming such an image = “Wish Fulfillment”

– Examples

• Hunger Juicy cheeseburger, pizza

• Thirst Fresh lemonade, cool stream

• Lonely Friends from home

• Problems

– Can’t distinguish between objective and subjective states

– Doesn’t care how needs are met

– Can be irrational, reckless, immoral

The Ego

• Evolves out of the id because id functions

cannot deal effectively with objective reality

• Operates primarily at the conscious and

preconscious, but also at the unconscious

• Operates according to the = “Reality

Principle”

• No moral sense, simply wants to fulfill needs given the constraints of reality

– If risk is 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 and producing need

to a real object/activity = “Secondary Process”

Secondary Process

• Formally refers to process of finding a

match between image of needed

object/activity and actual object/activity

• Informally refers to processes of

higher-order thought (e.g., problem solving,

planning) called “reality testing”

• Problems

– Built-in opportunity for conflict between id and ego

• Embodiment of parental and societal values

• Arises from complex feeling resulting from relationship with parents

– Love and affection—obtained by doing what parents think is right

– Punishment and disapproval—obtained by avoiding what

parents think is wrong

• Introjection: the process of incorporating values from an external source (i.e., mostly parents, sometimes society)

• Operates at all levels of consciousness

– Interesting implication: Feelings of guilt for no apparent reason

Components of the Superego

Goals of Superego

• Inhibit any id impulse that would cause

disapproval from parents

• Force ego to act morally, rather than

Balancing the Forces

• Must find a way to release tension (id demand) immediately, in a way that is socially acceptable (superego demand) and realistic (external

The Drives of Personality

• Basic Assumptions:

– People are complex energy systems

– Energy used in psychological work is released through biological processes

– These processes, which operate through the

id = “drives”

• Two elements to drives

– Biological need state

– Psychological representation

Two Classes of Drives

• Life or sexual drives (Eros)

– Concerned with survival, reproduction, and pleasure – Examples: Hunger, pain avoidance, sex

– Energy resulting from Eros = “Libido”

• Death drives (Thanatos)

– The goal of all life is death

– Usually held back by Eros

– No label for energy resulting from Thanatos

– Physiological analog: Apoptosis (programmed cellular suicide)

– Redirected harm toward self onto others may

represent the foundation of aggression

• The release of the tension resulting from an unmet drive

• Implications for aggressive energy

– Overcontrolled aggression—exaggerated ego and superego processes in which there is a strong

inhibition against aggression (straw that broke the camel’s back syndrome)

– Mixed effects on the reduction of arousal following aggressive acts

– Mixed findings on the effects of future aggression

• Aversive inner motivation state

• Freud saw it as warning signal to the ego

Responses to Anxiety

• Increase rational problem-oriented coping

– Conscious activity to deal with the threat

– Works best with reality anxiety

• Activate defense mechanisms

– Tactics developed by ego to deal with anxiety – All defense mechanisms can operate

unconsciously

– All distort, transform, or falsify reality in some

• An unconscious act of forcing something

out of consciousness

• Conscious repression = Suppression

• Important in restraining id impulses

• Also applies to painful or upsetting

information, memories, or behaviors

• Not always an all-or-nothing act Can have partial repression

• Effective at keeping anxiety at bay, but

requires constant psychic energy

• Because of the energy cost of repression and denial, other strategies have

developed to free-up energy

• Ascription of unacceptable impulses,

desires, or qualities to someone else

• Serves to express the id’s desire, thus

releasing energy required to suppress it

• Masks the expression of an impulse in

such a way that it is not recognized by the ego or superego

• Finding a reason/excuse for a behavior

done for unacceptable reasons

• Rationalization after a failure maintains

self-esteem

• Common response to success and failure experiences (fundamental attribution error)

• Thinking in a cold, analytical, or detached

way about things that normally evoke

Displacement and Sublimation

• Considered less neurotic and more adaptive

than other defense mechanisms

• Displacement

– Shifts an impulse from one target to another

– New target is less threatening, thus anxiety is reduced

Psychosexual Development

• Sequential progression through stages

• Each stage is characterized by a crisis

• Adult personality is influenced by how crises are resolved during each stage

Oral Stage

• Birth–18 months

• Mouth is source of tension reduction

• Crisis = being weaned from mother

• Two phases:

– Oral incorporative—dependency, gullibility, jealousy – Oral sadistic—verbal aggressiveness

• Oral personalities

– Preoccupied with food and drink

– When stressed, reduce tension through oral activities (smoking, nail biting)

– When angry, engage in verbal aggression

Anal Stage

• 18 months–3 rd year

• Anus is the source of pleasure from stimulation that results from defecation

• Crisis = toilet training

• Two orientations to toilet training:

– Praise for successful elimination at desired time and place

• Result—value in producing things by whatever means possible

• Basis for adult productivity and creativity

– Punishment and ridicule for failures

• If child reacts with rebellion—anal expulsive traits result (messy,

cruel, destructive, hostile)

• If child reacts by withholding—anal retentive traits result (rigid,

obsessive, stingy, obstinacy, orderliness)

Phallic Stage

• 3 rd year-5th year

• Genitals become the source of pleasure

• Crisis = attraction toward opposite-sex parent

• Patterns somewhat different for boys and girls:

– Boys

• Attracted to mother wants to replace father (Oedipus complex)

• Fears retaliation on part of father (castration anxiety)

• Repress feelings toward mother, begins to identify with father

• Identification with father gives rise to super ego

– Girls

• Attracted to father abandons love for mother (Electra complex)

• Wants father because he possesses penis (penis envy)

• Repress feelings toward father, begins to identify with mother

Latency Period

• 6 years old–early teens

• Period of relative calm, no new

developmental conflicts

• Attention is focused on other pursuits (intellectual or social)

Genital Stage

• Late adolescence and adulthood

• Libidinal energy still organized around the

genitals

• Focus on mutual sexual gratification

• Develop the ability to share in warm and caring relationships and have concern for other’s

welfare

• Demonstrate greater control over impulses

• Represents an ideal, rather than an absolute,

Psychopathology of

Everyday Life

• Not random, but arises from impulses/urges

in the unconscious

• Error of memory, word mix-ups, and

accidents (parapraxes; from the German

“faulty achievement”) reflect our unconscious

– Forgetting = repression

– Slips of the tongue or pen = unsuccessful

repression

Projective Assessment Techniques

• Represent formal approaches to assessing

unconscious processes

• Projective hypothesis: Provide people with

ambiguous, unstructured stimuli and they will apply projection in their interpretations of what they see

Rorschach Inkblot Test

• Chosen for ability to evoke different responses from

different psychiatric patients

• 10 bilaterally symmetrical blots

– 5 all black

– 2 red and black

– 3 pastels

• Administration in predetermined order

• Administration in two stages

– Free response format—respondent indicates what she sees in the blots, or what they resemble or suggest

– Systematic questioning—reminded of previous responses and requested to indicate what about the blot made her say what she

Rorschach Scoring

• Based on three factors

– Location of response — part vs whole, commonly noted detail vs rarely noted detail, blot vs space surrounding

• Response based on whole blot indicative of conceptual thinking

– Determinants of response — form, shading, color, texture,

or perceived movement in location of response

• Response based on color indicative of emotionality

• Response based on human movement indicative of imagination

– Content of response — subject matter

• Conveys overt meaning and symbolic meaning

Problems and Behavior Change

• Problems arise from overuse of defenses

– Unresolved conflict resulting in fixation

– Broad libidinal repression of basic needs

– Repressed trauma

• Goal of therapy is to free-up energy by releasing need to repress through awareness and insight

– Consequences of therapy

• Resistance—actively fighting against awareness of

repressed conflicts and impulses

• Transference—displacements onto therapist

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 a 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