Lesson 4 Psychodynamic Theory PDF

lesson 4 GCPY 220 Psychodynamic Theory Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), a foremost pioneer and early founder of developmental psychology. Until the growth of behaviorism in the 1930s and beyond, His psychodynamic perspective of development and psychopathology dominated the field of psychiatry. ...

lesson 4 GCPY 220 Psychodynamic Theory Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), a foremost pioneer and early founder of developmental psychology. Until the growth of behaviorism in the 1930s and beyond, His psychodynamic perspective of development and psychopathology dominated the field of psychiatry. Freud believes that childhood experiences and unconscious desires influenced behavior.  Freud compared the mind to an iceberg;  Only about one-tenth of our mind is conscious, the rest of our mind is unconscious.  The unconscious mind refers to the mental activity we are unaware and are unable to access.  The information in our unconscious mind affects our behavior, even though we are unaware of it. Freud’s method  Hypnosis, free association (a quick spilling out of one’s thoughts),  Dream analysis, they give some indication of unconscious motives people repressed Freud believes that our personality develops from conflict between two forces: 1. The biological, aggressive instincts of pleasure-seeking (sexual) drives that must be served 2. The society which dictates that many of these drives must be restrained. Parental role Ways in which parents manage these sexual and aggressive drives in the first few years of a child’s life has a major role in shaping the child’s personality characteristics. Components of Personality Human personality consists of three main parts which develop and gradually became integrated in a series of five developmental psychosexual stages  The id,  The ego,  The superego. Id  The Id is the basic, primal part of a person’s personality. It is the part of self we are born with.  It consists of the biologically-driven self (our instincts and drives).  It is the part of us that wants immediate gratification.  It houses the deepest, but often unacceptable desires, such as sex and aggression drives in us. Id is that part of mind controlled by the pleasure principle and will  For, Id, the criteria for determining whether something is good or bad is whether it feels good or bad.  Id impulses always clash with a person’s need to adapt to society  An infant’s personality is all Id. Ego  The ego which develops from Id, ensures that impulses of the Id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world. The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.  Ego strives to satisfy Id's desires (impulses) in realistic and socially appropriate ways based on the reality principle  Reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses.  The ego is the part of the mind that acts as a mediator between an individual’s impulse and external reality  Without Ego, the Id may simply wander wherever it wishes and do whatever it pleases. Superego  The development of superego begins around age 5.  Superego holds the internalized moral standards and ideal behavior (sense of right and wrong) individuals acquired from parents and society  It provides guidelines for making judgments or decisions.  Part of the mind that helps children, adolescents and adults to develop a moral code and ideal behavior  The superego has two parts: the conscience and ego ideal The conscience holds Information about things that parents and society interpret as bad as well as behaviors which are often forbidden and can lead to bad consequences, punishments, feelings of guilt and remorse. Superego cont.. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for behaviors that ego aspires to.  The superego tries to perfect and civilize our behavior.  Its work is to suppress all unacceptable impulses of the id and to make the ego act upon ideal standards rather that upon realistic principles.  Like the Ego, Superego operates in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious states of our minds. Interaction between of the Id, Ego, and Superego  Id, ego, and superego are not three separate entities with clearly defined boundaries.  They always interact to influence an individual's overall personality and behavior with many competing forces.  The term ego strength refer to ego's ability to function despite the dueling forces.  A person who has good ego strength can effectively manage pressures, while a person with too much or too little ego strength can be unyielding or disruptive.  EFFECTS OF ID, EGO, SUPEREGO Imbalance The key to a healthy personality is a balance between id, ego, and superego. If ego is able to adequately moderate the reality demands between id and superego, a healthy and well-adjusted personality emerges. An imbalance between these elements would lead to a maladaptive personality. An individual with an overly dominant id might become impulsive, uncontrollable, or even criminal minded. Such an individual acts upon their most basic impulses and cravings with no concern for whether their behavior is appropriate, acceptable, or legal. An overly dominant superego might lead to a personality that is extremely moralistic and judgmental. A person ruled by the superego might not be able to accept anything or anyone that they perceive to be "bad" or "immoral." Defense mechanisms  Freud believed that anxiety result from ego’s inability to reconcile the conflict between Id and Superego.  When events, feelings, or desires cause anxiety, Ego’s responsibility will be to reduce that anxiety by restoring balance through various protective measures known as defense mechanisms.  We use defense mechanisms unconsciously, in various ways that distort reality. Assignment: identify various defense mechanisms and how they are applied in behavior  Stages of Psychosexual development  Human development goes through series of stages during childhood. The stages are called psychosexual stages of development driven by pleasure- seeking impulses from id.  If there is a slack in proper nurturing and parenting during a stage, the child will be stuck or fixated in that stage and carries that personality even as adult. Each psychosexual stage focuses on a different area of the body, called an erogenous zone. Psychosexual energy, or libido describes the driving force behind every behavior. Stages of Psychosexual Development Stage Age Erogenous Major Conflict Adult Fixation (years) Zone Example Oral 0–1 Mouth Weaning off Smoking, overeating breast of bottle Anal 1–3 Anus Toilet training Neatness, messiness Phallic 3–6 Genitals Oedipus/Electra Vanity, over-ambition complex Latency 6 – 12 None None None Genital 12 plus Genitals None None Oral Stage In the oral stage (birth to 1 year), the infant is all id. Immediate gratification of needs such as comfort, warmth, food, and stimulation is all they seek. Children explore the world through the mouth. Pleasure is focused on the mouth. A baby wishes to suck (nipples, pacifiers, and thumbs) or chew on any object that comes close to the mouth. At around 1 year of age, babies are weaned from the bottle or breast, and this process can create conflict if not handled properly by caregivers.  An adult who smokes, drinks, overeats, or bites his/her nails is fixated in the oral stage meaning he/she may have been weaned too early or too late, resulting in these fixation tendencies.  These actions ease anxiety and bring comfort, security when the person feels insecure, afraid, or bored. Anal Stage  The anal stage (1–3 years): ego is being developed at this stage. Children majorly experience pleasure in their bowel and bladder movements.  The conflict in this stage is toilet training. Success at the anal stage depends on how parents handled toilet training.  Parents or caregivers who offer praise and rewards encourage positive results and help children feel competent.  Parents who are harsh in toilet training cause a child to become fixated at the anal stage, leading to the development of an anal-retentive (fearful of letting go) personality. An anal-retentive personality is stingy and stubborn, might be (compulsive) extremely neat and clean, organized, reliable, and controlling of others and considered a perfectionist. If caregivers are too lenient or negligent in toilet training, the child might also become fixated and display an anal- expulsive personality. An anal-expulsive personality is messy, careless, disorganized, and prone to emotional outbursts. Phallic Stage The third stage: phallic stage (3–6 years), children now become aware of their bodies and recognize the differences between boys and girls. The erogenous zone in this stage is the genitals. A child experiences the Oedipus complex (unconscious sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent and hatred for the same-sex parent).  Boys experiencing Oedipus complex will unconsciously want to replace their father as a companion to their mother.  But when he realizes that the father is much more powerful and fears that if he pursues his mother, his father may castrate him, unconscious castration anxiety develops.  Risk of losing his penis forces him to gives up his affections for his mother leading him to learn how to become more like his father, imitating his actions and mannerisms, thereby learning the role of males in his society.  But failure to learn a sense of masculinity including what society thinks he should do makes him feel guilty.  If he does not resolve this successfully, He may become a “phallic male” an insecure man who constantly tries to prove his masculinity by seducing women and beating up men  Girls experience comparable conflict – Electra complex.  Carl Jung stated that a girl desires the attention of her father and wishes to take her mother’s place.  But if she realizes that she cannot compete with her mother, she gives up that affection and learns to become more like her mother.  The girl may feel inferior and angry with the mother for not providing her with a penis (penis envy).  If she does not resolve this conflict successfully, she may develop a weak sense of femininity and grows up to be a “castrating female” who tries to compete with men in the workplace or in other areas of life. Latency Period  The latency period (6 years to puberty).  This period is not considered a stage, because sexual feelings are dormant.  Children focus on other pursuits outside the family, such as school, friendships, hobbies, and sports.  Children generally engage in activities with peers of the same sex, which serves to consolidate a child’s gender-role identity.  If the child is able to make friends, they will gain a sense of confidence. If not, the child may continue to be a loner or shy away from others, even as an adult. Genital Stage  The genital stage: from adolescence throughout adulthood.  At this time, a person is preoccupied with sex and reproduction.  At this time rising hormone levels makes sex and hunger drives become very strong.  The adolescent typically will rely on ego to help think logically through these drives to avoid taking actions that might be damaging.  Quieting the id with the superego can lead to feeling overly self-conscious and guilty about these urges.  Individuals who successfully completed the previous stages, reaching the genital stage with no fixations, are said to be well-balanced, healthy adults.  Adolescents must learn to redirect sexual drives into a safer activity such as physical exercise. Criticisms of the Psychosexual Stages  His theories are difficult to test scientifically. Concepts such as the libido are impossible to measure, and therefore cannot be tested.  Predictions are too vague. How can we know that an adult behavior was caused specifically by a childhood experience? The length of time between the cause and effect is too long to assume a relationship between the two variables.  Freud's theory is based on case studies and not empirical research (on the recollections of his adult patients, not on actual observation and study of children).  His theory focuses primarily on heterosexual development, and largely ignores homosexual development. Freud's theory suggests that heterosexual preferences represent the "normal" outcome of development while homosexual preferences represented deviation of this process and not a pathology.  Food for thought Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Matthew 15: 18 & 19 “But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”