Freaky Freud! Ms Rebecca Psychology

I. Psychoanalysis  Sigmund Freud

What IS the Psychoanalytic Theory?  Says we are influenced by forces beneath our conscious: (in our unconscious)

Beneath the surface!  Believed many of peoples’ deepest thoughts, fears and urges remain out of awareness in an unconscious part of the mind.

A. How do you explore the unconscious part of the mind?  Psychoanalysis: People are supposed to talk about anything that they think of so psychologists can analyze the deeper meaning.

a. Patients in a relaxed setting  Like a couch!

2. Dream analysis  Freud believed that people’s unconscious wishes may also appear in their dreams

So  Freud asked people to write their dreams down when they woke up and then he tried to figure out the hidden meaning

3. Hypnosis  Was another method Freud used to try to get to peoples’ unconscious thoughts.  Later abandoned

II. 3 Basic Psychological Structures  ID  EGO  SUPEREGO

A. ID  Basic drives like hunger are part of the ID.  1-present at birth  2-stereotypical 2 year old: “I want what I want, when I want it”  3-pays no attention to laws, customs, or the needs of others

B. EGO  1. Develops because a child’s demands for instant gratification cannot be met  We can’t always get what we want

Goal of the EGO  2. Satisfy the desires of the ID in a Realistic way. Example: Your ID says you are hungry and your EGO says you should cook a hamburger instead of eating it raw.

The Ego  3. Also provides a sense of self or a sense of what you should do to make yourself happy like study for a test.  4. AND the EGO is a censor that screens out the wild impulses of the ID

C. Superego  1-Develops throughout early childhood  2-Goal: moral principle: standards and values of parents and other members of the community give us our moral sense.

3. The conscience  The superego floods the ego with feelings of guilt or shame when we do something society defines as wrong.

Who has the toughest job?  The EGO!  Why? The Ego has to juggle the needs of the ID AND the SUPEREGO!

Example:  ID: “You want to go out with your friends! Don’t study!”  SUPEREGO: “You must study all night or you won’t pass the test!”  EGO: Balance! “Study now and after you do well on your test you can spend time with friends”

Psychosexual Stages of Development  Freud believed that a person’s personality developed through a series of 5 stages.

Why are the stages important?  ADULT psychological problems might come from unresolved childhood conflicts.  If you don’t resolve conflicts during your early life, you may become stuck in some of the traits of your childhood.

1. Oral Stage:

About the Oral Stage  When: First year of life  What is it?: Infants explore their mouths and put things into their mouths to learn about them. Main source of pleasure: food  Children depend on adults to feed them at this stage

What if there are problems in a child’s Oral stage?  According to Freud, If a child’s needs aren’t met during the oral stage they may get stuck in the oral stage later in life.  How? Continue to focus on pleasures of the mouth: Smoke, overeat, talk a lot, nail biting. ALSO might have clinging relationships as an adult.

2. Anal Stage

About the Anal Stage  When: ages of 1 &1/2 – 2 &1/2  What happens?: Children learn they can control bodily functions (when they poo poo and pee pee)  CONTROL becomes very important

What if there are problems during a child’s Anal stage?  Control issues!  People can become: 1. Anal retentive: they need to control everything. Ex: Perfectionist  Or people become 2. Anal Expulsive: careless and messy

3. Phallic Stage

About the phallic stage  When: Age 3  What happens: boys and girls notice they are different from each other. They may develop STRONG attachments to the parent of the opposite sex.

Oedipus Complex  When a son has sexual desire for his mother.  *Many people don’t think this exists!

Electra Complex  When a daughter has a sexual desire for her father.  *Many people don’t think this exists!

What if there are problems during the Phallic Stage?  Freud suggested that problems during this stage can lead to:  Depression  Excessive guilt  Anxiety

Latency Stage

About the Latency Stage  When: Age 5-just before puberty  What: Latent = hidden  Impulses and emotions remain hidden or unconscious

The Genital Stage

About the Genital Stage  When: Puberty  What: Kids become aware of their gender identity. Conflicts of early development stages resurface.

Review: Answer the following questions: What are 2 main ideas about where personality comes from according to the Psychoanalytic Theory? Who is Freud and what does he say are the 3 parts of personality? What does each part do?

Psychoanalytic theory  Says we are influenced by forces beneath our conscious: (in our unconscious)  We are only able to understand our true feelings when we free associate or dream or are hypnotized…

Stages of Personality  ID= Basic urges  EGO=regulates basic needs and conscience  SUPEREGO=moral sense, what SHOULD I do

Now  We are going to learn about another one of Freud’s ideas about personality: Defense Mechanisms

Defense Mechanisms  Are the methods the ego uses to avoid facing emotions or ideas that cause pain or stress. (Goal 4 of Psychology!)  Defense Mechanisms, like the id, ego and superego operates beneath our conscious.

What are they?  Repression  Rationalization  Displacement  Regression  Projection  Reaction Formation  Denial  Sublimation

1. Repression  Pushes painful or stressful ideas into the subconscious.  Like a tea-kettle holds in steam, people hold in their urges.

Problem with repression  When steam builds up, the tea-kettle pops it’s lid.

 When people let their emotions and urges build up inside of them they eventually explode through outbursts of anger and maybe developing other psychological and emotional problems.

2. Rationalization  Distorts unacceptable ideas and behaviors to justify them. Makes excuses to try to make it seem like unacceptable behavior is ok.

Example of Rationalization  A student who cheats on a test may say:  “I only cheated on a few questions, I knew most of the answers!”

3. Displacement  To transfer an impulse or idea from a threatening object to a LESS threatening object. Example: If you are yelled at by your boss you can’t yell back you’ll get fired!  So, you go home and yell at your loved ones!

So, you go home and yell at your loved ones!  Works for dad!

4. Regression  When someone is under a lot of stress, they return to behavior from an earlier stage of development.

Example of Regression  Someone who gets divorced may become clingy to parents again like they were as a child.

5. Projection  People deal with unacceptable impulses by acting as if OTHER people have them.  They see their own faults in other people.

6. Reaction Formation  People act the opposite of how they really feel.

Example of Reaction Formation  Acting like you hate someone you really have a crush on.

7. Denial  A person refuses to accept the reality of anything that is bad.

Example of Denial  People think that they won’t get sick and die from smoking because they are in denial.

8. Sublimation  When people channel impulses into socially acceptable behavior.  Example: Someone who is aggressive…

Can channel their aggression into playing sports

Effects of Defense Mechanisms  Using defense mechanisms can be normal to protect people from painful feelings. BUT…..

Defense Mechanisms can be unhealthy…  If the lead people to ignore the issues that cause feelings of pain.  According to Freud, If you have a healthy ego, you should be able to balance the ID and Superego without using defense mechanisms

Final thoughts about Freud  Today concepts like the ID and Oedipus Complex are considered unscientific but Freud’s work was very important to Psychology.

Why?  1. Freud helped to develop compassion for those with Psychological disorders.  In the past, people were just dismissed as being “crazy” but after Freud’s research more people realized that psychological problems weren’t just weaknesses.

2. Introduced idea that childhood influences adulthood  Importance of recognizing emotional needs of children.  This inspired others to continue the research Freud started.

Homework:  Defense Mechanism Packet  Read pp to help you understand the Psychodynamic perspective.