Psychodynamic Approaches: Chapter 6

Psychodynamic Approaches

• Explores human psychology comprehensively
• Introduces pervasive ideas influencing contemporary psychology
• Continues to inspire psychological research
• Forms the basis of many modern psychological theories
• Investigates concepts challenging to measure empirically

Freud's Models of the Mind - Topographical Model

• Describes the conscious, unconscious and preconscious
• Conscious Mind: Operates on the reality principle, uses verbal and word presentations, and allows for the attachment of words to thoughts
• Unconscious Mind: Operates with the pleasure principle, uses nonverbal "thing presentations", contains deep wishes, desires, fantasies, and is motivated by sex and aggression
• Preconscious Mind: Censored, barely conscious, prevents unconscious thoughts from surfacing, tied to language development, and releases tension through symptoms from external/internal stimuli (e.g., hysteria, psychological disorders)

Freud's Models of the Mind - Structural Model

• Id: Primal, unconscious urges (sex, food, aggression), driven by the pleasure principle
• Ego: Rational decision-maker, operates on the reality principle, and balances the Id and Superego
• Superego: Moral conscience, imposes guilt, shame, and anxiety, and functions in the conscious and preconscious mind

Accessing the Unconscious - Dreams

• Unconscious wishes are expressed symbolically
• Some dream symbols are universal
• Freud's View: Dreams reveal unconscious desires, often sexual, free association helps interpret dream content, and people tend to forget dream content
• Modern Research: Dreams may help process information and consolidate memories, and is linked to cognitive development (dream content changes with age)
• Study findings include falling, facing animals/monsters, being chased as common
  • High agreeableness equals dreaming as a supportive character
  • High neuroticism equals frequent nightmares
  • High openness equals better dream recall

Defense Mechanisms

• Psychological processes that prevent conscious suffering
• Originally thought to protect against unconscious drives, but modern view: primarily protect self-esteem and regulate emotions
• Repression: Keeping distressing thoughts out of awareness
  • Repressive Coping: Consciously pushing away anxieties
  • The root of all defense mechanisms
• Humor: Releasing tension between unconscious and conscious
  • Jokes about sex express repressed desires
  • Modern: Humor protects self-esteem and reduces discomfort
• Defensive Pessimism: Setting low expectations to manage anxiety
  • Involves feeling anxious before a negative event and preparing accordingly
  • Is not Freud’s concept, and was introduced later
  • Traits linked to it are high neuroticism and high conscientiousness (planning, attention to detail)

Challenges to Freud: Modern Psychology

• Theories Difficult to Prove/Disprove;
  • Theories are highly interpretive, making them flexible and open to various explanations and hard to test or falsify
• Unconscious Mind Not So Primitive
  • Modern research shows the unconscious mind is not only primitive, but also contains thoughts, memories, action scripts, and mild emotions, and can be primed or activated
    • When participants see the word "doctor," they respond faster to "nurse" than to "mechanic" due to the association in the brain’s knowledge network
• Ideas Are Not Parsimonious
  • Are often seen as overly complex and not straightforward
  • In empirical research, parsimony is valued, and the simplest explanation, making the fewest assumptions, is preferred

Jung's Theories

• Libido: Refers to a general reservoir of psychic energy, channeled into different aspects of the personality, and expressed through cultural, spiritual, and personal values
• Personal Unconscious: Includes the id (primitive desires) and super-ego (moral conscience), made up of repressed or forgotten experiences and contains memories, feelings, and information that are personal to the individual
• Collective Unconscious: A deeper layer of the unconscious shared across all humanity, containing universal memories, instincts, and archetypes; these archetypes are symbolic and appear in various forms, such as myths, religions, and cultural practices across time and place, with Déjà vu as an example.

Jung's Archetypes

• Shadow: Represents the dark side of the ego, overlaps with the id (primitive desires), and can manifest as the opposite of one's usual behavior or personality
• Anima/Animus: Anima represents feminine energy in men, associated with compassion, nurturing, and emotional sensitivity, while Animus represents masculine energy in women, associated with strength, logic, and heroism as both archetypes can have a dark side, representing the unbalanced or suppressed aspects of these energies
• Self: The core of the psyche, representing the center of the collective unconscious and the unified whole, and the ego orbits around the self, which appears in various symbolic forms throughout an individual's life

Jung – The Ego, Its Attitudes, and Its Functions

• Describes how individuals direct their energy
• Extraverts gain energy from interacting with others and the external world
• Introverts feel drained by social interactions and prefer solitude for recharging
• Ego Functions:
  • Thinking vs. Feeling; Thinking involves decision-making based on logic and reasoning. Feeling involves decision-making based on emotions and values.
  • Intuition vs. Sensation; Intuition focuses on seeing patterns and future possibilities. Sensation focuses on perceiving concrete data and current realities.

Jung – The Process of Individuation

• Individuation: The Journey of Becoming Whole
  • Psychological development where the individual moves from the ego as the center of one's life to the Self, integrating both the personal unconscious and collective unconscious
  • This decent-return transformed hero's journey involves trials, growth, wisdom, and transformation
• Synchronicity: Meaningful Coincidences
  • Refers to events in life that seem too perfect to be mere coincidences, and can appear to be unrelated but carry significant personal or spiritual meaning such as Déjà vu.
• Becoming Your Authentic Self
  • Involves discovering and embracing your authentic self by exploring dreams, art, and cultural myths
  • Focuses on integrating unconscious elements into conscious awareness and where individuals realize their connection to the universe, history, and the collective unconscious
  • This process of individuation begins in childhood and continues throughout life.

Adler, Horney, and Object Relations Theory – Alfred Adler's Theories

• Drive for Power: Everyone has an innate drive for power and strives to overcome feelings of inferiority
  • Inferiority Complex: Feelings of being weaker or lower in status, and people can compensate psychologically for perceived inferiority, potentially developing a superiority complex
• Feelings of Inferiority: Stem from how we interpret life experiences and attitudes, and insecure people may react aggressively when challenged (aggression)
• Birth Order and Power Struggles: Firstborns score high on conscientiousness and neuroticism, and youngest children score higher on agreeableness

Karen Horney's Theories

• Coping with Anxiety: Model of personality focused on coping mechanisms to manage anxiety, with three main strategies
  • Moving Toward Others (approval by social norm), Moving Against Others (aggressive exploitation), Moving Away from Others (avoiding other people/situations)
• Neuroses and Coping Mechanisms: Neuroses result from an inability to adapt to life and a tendency to experience excessive anxiety, and the coping mechanisms are not inherently problematic unless they become extreme
• Cultural Influence on Neuroses: Cultural attitudes and social norms are central in shaping why individuals feel neurotic and what they feel anxious about

Object Relations Theory

• Focuses on how individuals think about and relate to other people—understanding the mind through relationships.
• Object: Refers to the internal psychological representations of others
• Object Integration: How well we can see others as complex, and early relationships have a long-term influence.
• Mental Representations of Others: Children's understanding of others (like parents) may be limited to their roles
• Influence on Later Relationships: Early interactions with caregivers provide mental blueprints for how we connect with others in the future
• Attachment Theory has its origins in object relations theory, emphasizing how early bonds shape later relationships
• Split object image occurs when an individuals cannot see others outside of specific roles