Intrapsychic Domain Unconscious Mental Content and Process
Psychoanalytic Theory Multiple strands with common threads: –Unconscious (content and process) –Conflict –Importance of early relationships (internal representations)
Fundamental Propositions Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory Importance of instincts (only two): libido(life) and thanatos (death) Motivated Unconscious: No awareness of much mental life (both content and process) Energy Model: Humans as energy systems (transfored but not destroyed)
Psychoanalytic Sub-domain 1: Developent Psychodevelopment –Stages and complexes –Little support Contemporary –Object Relations Theory Importance of internal representations of early caregivers (e.g., Attachment Theory)
Psychoanalytic Sub-domain 2: Structure of Psyche Levels of Consciousness (model 1) Conscious - current awareness Preconscious - not aware of material but it’s retrievable (via ordinary retrieval) Unconscious - not aware of material but it’s not retrievable (via ordinary retrieval)
Issues Regarding the Unconscious How can the existence of the unconscious be demonstrated? Why do humans have an unconscious?
Psychoanalytic Sub-domain 2: Structure of Psyche Id, ego, and superego (model 2) Id: primitive, drives, pleasure principle, primary process thinking Ego: Mediator, secondary process thinking, reality principle Superego: Internalized morality. Primitive (black and white and not situation specific)
Two issues Individual Differences in components (e.g., 16pf) Subsequent greater emphasis on ego functions (ego psychology)
Psychoanalytic sub-domain 3: Dynamics Conflict model –Id vs. superego; Individual vs. society –Restrain expression of all drives –Surplus energy results in anxiety
Defense Mechanisms Unconscious psychological processes designed to avoid or reduce the conscious experience of anxiety
Repression Unconscious Motivated Forgetting –Issues with empirical demonstration E.g., recovered memory for trauma
Other defense mechanisms Review empirical literature on defense mechanisms –Baumeister et al.