CHD2220 Exam 2 Chapter 2 Psychoanalytic Theory The oldest and most controversial of the theories of development which stems from the provocative ideas of its creator Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud He became interested in patients who were suffering from mental disorders where treatment at the time was a matter of forced confinement o Psychopathology explains how personalities get adjusted or distorted Freud hoped to identity brain abnormalities from his patients symptoms physical pain paralysis and loss of motor control and memory but there was no identifiable physiological base Using hypnosis he was able to cure some of his patients so he then realized that psychological processes rather than physiological were the cause of mental illness He also speculated that the basis of mental illness could be found in the early development of children particularly the first five years of life Lecture years old Baby can hear you a whole lot better than they can see you They have a 100 billion nerve cells at birth The brain NEEDS stimulation in order to grow it can cause bigger brains in babies at 1 3 o Stimulants come through the sensory organs and sensation is the passive o The brain is developed to seek a perceptual active seeking stimulation by reception of stimuli exploration scanning etc o If there is no stimulation there is nothing to receive and the people that believe as long as they re not crying they don t need to be touched or allowed to explore BAD By 7 or 8 months of pregnancy the auditory system of the baby is maturing rapidly where even a loud horn or noise outside can cause the baby to kick meaning the brain is already beginning to program Study done by Kessler called the Cat in the Hat study took 2 groups of women and had them read the book to their fetus where the book has a melody called proxidy to it that goes with the sounds of the human voice o After the babies were born and the book was read again they showed higher levels of alertness and recognition than the control group If you re fighting the baby will hear it and react to the hormones it can affect temperament and personality The Structure of Personality Consciousness what you are thinking about right now does not tell us about 1 st Level personality development so not very useful 2 nd Level Preconscious our accessible memory storage area of information that we can access but don t always store all memories so sometimes they are distorted forgotten or deleted o Ex may have a bad memory so it is systematically distorted to turn into a more pleasant memory even if it s not true Unconscious significant holds morality but you can t access it contradictive 3 rd Level because we believe we have access to our morals even though we violate them consciously when you do something and feel wrong about it but don t know why o Themes create uniqueness in your personality like the girl who was in 5 consistently abusive relationships Freud would say she did something to get herself into those relationships since behavior is irrational at the unconscious level she is bringing her vulnerability forth Unconsciously motivate everything humans think say or do throughout their Instincts lives and is present from birth they are biologically based and sexual and aggressive The form instincts take and is a form of energy which drives all thinking and behavior o Libido can be invested in reality or fantasy and is why dreams can be a source of Libido great pleasure Id A place in the mind that Freud called the reservoir of libido o May be thought of as a storage battery that has a relentless need to discharge its energy from the moment of birth where discharge takes the form of investments of libido in activities and objects that afford pleasure by reducing tension o All of the activities of the id are unconscious so we are all unaware of our instincts and their profound and irreversible effects on behavior o Cannot store all of the libido so you have to start investing it at birth Pleasure Principle An approach that demands instant gratification and libido is invested o Infants find this gratification in their mother s breast however mother s soon begin to socialize their infants to delay gratification tolerate frustration and seek pleasure in more socially competent ways Ego The component of personality that uses conscious perception and intelligence to find pleasure in a world where needs are not typically met on demand and pleasures can be found in love or hate o The conscious ego involves how well you understand the world and personality making friends lovers while the unconscious ego directs choices of objects and is where the themes are o Social cognition is the ability to work people socially and cognitively Doesn t change after 5 7 while the conscious ego will continue to grow Where the ego recognizes the frustration inherent in living in the real Reality Principle world morality has two distinct components Superego Emerges rather suddenly during the fifth or sixth year of life and is the seat of o Conscience The first component that is a collection of beliefs attitudes and rules for behavior that function as an internal standard for the appropriateness of behavior What is okay or not okay to do morally and there is the tendency to be irrational because some rules can be missing or have unconscious conflict give contradictory guidelines The second component that is an internalized image of distinctly human form that the child and later the adult unconsciously strives to become features may be positive or negative or both o Ego Ideal Features like physical appearance but also traits that make up a person like selfless selfish or narcissist o The superego is not taught to the child but rather is formed by identification a special form of learning in which the characteristics of significant persons like the parents are incorporated into the child s personality Psychodynamics The id ego and superego interact in a dynamic system where the ego attempts to satisfy the id s insatiable needs and it is destined to fail due to the difficulty of finding love and hate objects in civilized society the ego s ability to function The ego s failure from not finding enough pleasure undermines Unconscious Anxiety o Freud says you become stupid because it builds up failure rejection toxic personality and destroys functioning When the ego does its job too well and rules or ideals in the Unconscious Guilt superego are violated o Guilt like anxiety
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