1. The Psychoanalytic Perspective Unconscious & Personality
Adler
Is this Legit?
Horney
Neo-Freudians
Jung
We are here
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
(Mod 44)
Personality Tests
Freud
Unconscious & Personality
Projective Tests
Freud is SO famous! But is it warrented?
Defense Mechanisms
Structure
Rorschach
Inkblot
TAT
Development

2. Criticisms of Freud Culture-bound ideas
He really only studied wealthy women in Austria.
His results are not empirically verifiable.
No predictive power.
Said to have altered therapy session results so they fit his theory
Culture-bound ideas
Freud made no connection between women’s subordinate status in society and their sense of inferiority
Psychodymanic theories are largely untestable in any scientific way

3. Criticisms of the Psychoanalytic Perspective
Personality develops throughout life and is not fixed in childhood.
Freud underemphasized peer influence on the individual, which may be as powerful as parental influence
There may be other reasons for dreams besides wish fulfillment.
Verbal slips can be explained on the basis of cognitive processing of verbal choices.
If suppressed sexuality leads to psychological disorders. Sexual inhibition has decreased, but psychological disorders have not.
OBJECTIVE 9| Summarize psychology’s current assessment of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis.

4. Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Perspective
Freud's psychoanalytic theory rests on the repression of painful experiences into the unconscious mind.
The majority of children, death camp survivors, and battle-scarred veterans are unable to repress painful experiences into their unconscious mind.

5. Some Lasting Contributions…
Use of defense mechanisms
Idea that we often lack awareness of our true motivations
Research shows the existence of non-conscious information processing.
Schemas
Parallel processing
Implicit memory
Priming