Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Approaches to Personality

= memories, all info pushed into the back of mind which you can’t recall

= info in memory that might shape behaviors, can recall

= small part of mind, the info you’re aware of and can act on

= immediate gratification

• pleasure principle

= balanced ID and Superego for safety and sanity

= The voice of society and the ego-ideal

= the psychic force that motivates people to seek immediate gratification of instinctual, or libidinal, impulses, such as sex, hunger, thirst, and elimination

the temptation, and resulting tendency, to forego a future benefit in order to obtain a less rewarding but more immediate benefit

the idea that when wishes can't or won't be fulfilled in our waking lives, they are carried out in dreams

the ego's control of the pleasure-seeking activity of the id in order to meet the demands of the external world

an unintentional error regarded as revealing subconscious feelings

a sensitive area on the body that causes sexual arousal when it is touched

the energy of the sexual drive as a component of the life instinct

Stage 1 of Psychosexual Development

= babies get sexual pleasure from chewing and sucking on things

Stage 2 of Psychosexual Development

= During this stage, Freud believed that the primary focus of the libido was on controlling bladder and bowel movements

• The major conflict at this stage is toilet training—the child has to learn to control their bodily needs. Developing this control leads to a sense of accomplishment and independence

Stage 3 of Psychosexual Development

= the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals.

several terms in this stage:

• Oedipus Complex in boys

  • Castration Anxiety

• Electra Complex in girls

  • Penis Envy

• feelings of wanting to possess the mother

• competition and jealousy towards the father

• occurs during the phallic stage of psychosexual development

a girl's sense of competition with her mother for the affections of her father.

• is comparable to the Oedipus complex in males

the fear that the father will retaliate against the child's hostile impulses by cutting off his penis.

supposed envy of the male's possession of a penis,

• postulated by Freud to account for some aspects of female behavior (notably the castration complex)

• controversial among modern theorists

Stage 4 of Psychosexual Development

Sexual Feelings Are Inactive

= During this stage, the superego continues to develop while the id's energies are suppressed. (sexual energy is repressed or dormant.)

• Children develop social skills, values, and relationships with peers and adults outside of the family.

• The development of the ego and superego contributes to this period of calm.

• The stage begins around the time that children enter school and become more concerned with peer relationships, hobbies, and other interests. \n

Stage 5 of Psychosexual Development

= onset of puberty causes the libido to become active once again

Age Range: Puberty to Death

• develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex

• Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest in the welfare of others grows during this stage.

• ego and superego were fully formed and functioning at this point \n

when you get stuck in a stage of psychosexual development

• the conflict with arise in your behavior

a type of defense mechanism

= people associate their negative thoughts with another person

ex. don’t get A’s → “oh, that teacher just doesn’t like me”

a type of defense mechanism

= individuals cope with stressors by acting in a childish, immature, or age-inappropriate manner

(go back in time)

ex. younger sibling starts crawling and gets a lot of attention, so older child (who already knows how to walk) starts crawling too

a type of defense mechanism

= people express the opposite of their true feelings, sometimes to an exaggerated extent

ex. man who feels insecure about his masculinity might act overly aggressive.

ex. an alcoholic may extol the virtues of abstinence

a type of defense mechanism

= making excuses

= reassuring but incorrect explanations for one’s own thoughts

ex. fox kept not being able to reach grapes, so it thinks: “they’re probably sour anyways”

a type of defense mechanism

= forgetting

= Subconsciously blocking impulses/memories that are undesirable,

• can’t recall when asked

ex. Jacob cannot remember certain painful memories as a child.

To protect himself, he unconsciously represses these memories from his consciousness. Instead, he displays anxious behaviors toward other items that he associates with these original painful memories

a type of defense mechanism

= kicking the dog

= transferring negative feelings from one person to another

a type of defense mechanism

= substitution

= redirects energy from an unacceptable impulse or emotion into a more socially acceptable one

• seen as a mature form of behavior and is used to cope with difficult situations

ex. you love hurting people (but that’s frowned upon) so you become a dentist (socially-acceptable, plus, you hurt people everyday! win-win)

a type of defense mechanism

= “no! that’s not true!”

= the refusal to acknowledge disturbing aspects of external reality

= feeling of inadequacy and insecurity

leads to → compensation

= a type of defense mechanism in which people overachieve in one area to compensate for failures in another

• caused by inferiority complex

everything subliminal, forgotten, and repressed in an individual's life

• basically same as ID

a form of the unconscious common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain

• (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware)

• reservoir for instinctive “memories” like a genetic code

= ancient images that reappear in art, folktales, literature universally

ex. animus and anima = the masculine and feminine sides of personality

ex. the shadow archetype = destructive and aggressive tendencies that we don’t want to acknowledge in our personalities

= system of related ideas / impulses that have a common emotional tone

• exert a strong but usually unconscious influence on the individual's attitudes and behavior

= a sense of uncertainty and isolation

• developed by Horney

= person who created the 8 stages of psychosocial development