1. Quick Review - Freud What does Freud believe affects our personality?
What is the id, ego, and superego?
What is the unconscious?
What free association and what is the purpose of it?
What are the five stages of Freud’s psychosocial development?

2. Defense Mechanisms

3. Defense Mechanisms
Methods used by ego to unconsciously protect itself against anxiety caused by conflict between id’s demands and superego’s constraints.
- only unhealthy when they cause self-defeating behavior & emotional problems
{remember id=devil; super ego=angel}

4. Defense Mechanisms
Repression - we avoid painful thoughts by forcing them into the back of our mind
- underlies all other defense mech.
- Example: witness a murder, don’t remember the details when asked by police. (unconscious)
Regression - we retreat to behaving or thinking like a child in order to avoid adult issues.
- throwing a temper tantrum.
Example: Blaming referees when you failed on the field. Or soccer player pretending to be injured.

5. Defense Mechanisms
Displacement - divert sexual or aggressive impulses to a more acceptable person or object.
Displaced aggression is a common example of this defense mechanism. Rather than express our anger in ways that could lead to negative consequences (like arguing with our boss), we instead express our anger towards a person or object that poses no threat (such as our spouse, children or pets).
Example: Angry at mom; take it out on the family dog. Or Angry at boyfriend; get in argument with your mom.
Projection - disguise threatening impulses and attributing them to others.
Involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. Projection works by allowing the expression of the desire or impulse, but in a way that the ego cannot recognize, therefore reducing anxiety.
Example - Want to break up with bf or gf, accuse him/her of wanting to break up with you.

6. Defense Mechanisms
Reaction formation - make unacceptable impulses into their opposite, acceptable form.
Ex) you really dislike your Psych teacher, but tell everyone how much you LOVE them. Or you really like another person, but instead of telling them, you pretend to hate them.
Why do people behave this way?
According to Freud, they are using reaction formation as a defense mechanism to hide their true feelings by behaving in the exact opposite manner.

7. Defense Mechanisms
Rationalization - we try to create logical explanations of our behavior in order to justify it.
Ex) A person who is turned down for a date might rationalize the situation by saying they were not attracted to the other person anyway.
Or a student might blame a poor exam score on the instructor rather than his or her lack of preparation.
Rationalization not only prevents anxiety, it may also protect self-esteem and self-concept.
When confronted by success or failure, people tend to attribute achievement to their own qualities and skills while failures are blamed on other people or outside forces.

8. Defense Mechanisms
Denial - we refuse to perceive reality in order to protect ourselves from it. Often this is done in the face of obvious truth.
Ex) You get a rejection letter from the school you always wanted to go to. You don’t tell people that you were rejected, but rather accepted.
Denial functions to protect the ego from things that the individual cannot cope with.
While this may save us from anxiety or pain, denial also requires a substantial investment of energy.
Because of this, other defenses are also used to keep these unacceptable feelings from consciousness.

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnRBAU6Yg2 A

10. Projective Tests A personality test.
Provides an ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics.
Examples Are:

11. TAT Thematic Apperception Test
A projective test which people express their inner feelings through stories they make about ambiguous scenes

12. TAT

13. Rorschach Inkblot Test
The most widely used projective test
A set of ten inkblots designed to identify people’s feelings when they are asked to interpret what they see in the inkblots.

14. Rorschach Inkblot Test

15. Rorschach Inkblot Test

16. Rorschach Inkblot Test

17. Rorschach Inkblot Test

18. Evaluating the Psychodynamic Approach
Freud - incredible contributions to Western thinking and psychology
However, limited support for certain aspects of Freud’s theory
Only based on a few case studies
Weaknesses in Freud’s theory
Limited social and cultural universality
Does not take social interaction into account
There are two ways you can reject a scientific theory:
1. It is wrong. It doesn’t work.
2. The theory is so vague and all-encompassing that it can’t be tested.
“That guys work is crap, he’s not right. He’s not even wrong.”
- Wolfgang Pauli, a physicist who was asked about the work of a colleague
Astrology & Astrological predictions: It’s not that they are wrong. It’s that they can not be proven wrong. They are too vague.
Freudian Theory is so vague that it can not be tested.
Yet, Freudian defenders say that it is proven through psychoanalysis. However, how can that be tested?