Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik

Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

Module 19

Stillwater High School

Psychology Department
Fall 2006

Freudian & Humanistic Theories

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

FREUD’S PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY

• Definition
– Freud’s Psychodynamic
Theory of Personality
• emphasizes the
importance of early
childhood experiences,
unconscious or
repressed thoughts that
we cannot voluntarily
access, and the
conflicts between
conscious and
unconscious forces that
influence our feelings,
thoughts, and
behaviors
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

FREUD’S PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY (CONT.)

• Conscious Versus Unconscious
forces
– Conscious thought
• wishes, desires, or
thoughts that we are
aware of, or can recall, at
any given moment
– Unconscious forces
• wishes, desires, or
thoughts that, because of
their disturbing or
threatening content, we
automatically repress and
cannot voluntarily access
– Unconscious motivation
• Freudian concept that
refers to the influence of
repressed thoughts,
desires, or impulses on
our conscious thoughts
and behaviors
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

FREUD’S PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY (CONT.)

• Techniques to discover the
unconscious
– Free association
• technique in which clients
are encouraged to talk
about any thoughts or
images that enter their
head; the assumption is
that this kind of free-
flowing, uncensored
talking will provide clues to
unconscious material
– Dream interpretation
• technique of analyzing
dreams, is based on the
assumption that dreams
contain underlying, hidden
meanings and symbols
that provide clues to
unconscious thoughts and
desires
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

FREUD’S PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY (CONT.)

• Techniques to discover the

unconscious
– Freudian slips
• mistakes or slips of
the tongue that we
make in everyday
speech; such
mistakes, which are
often embarrassing,
are thought to reflect
unconscious
thoughts or wishes
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND

• Id, ego, and superego

– Freud divided the mind
into three separate
processes
– each has a different
function
– interactions among the
id, ego, and superego
result in conflicts
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

p436 ID EGO SUPEREGO

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND (CONT.)

• Id, ego, and superego

– Id: pleasure seeker
• first division of the mind to develop
• contains two biological drives: sex and
aggression
• id’s goal is to pursue pleasure and satisfy the
biological drives
– Pleasure principle
• id operates according to the pleasure principle
• satisfy drives and avoid pain, without concern
for moral restrictions or society’s regulations
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND (CONT.)

• Id, ego, and superego
– Ego: executive negotiator between id and
superego
• second division of the mind, develops from the
id during infancy
• ego’s goal is to find safe and socially
acceptable ways of satisfying the id’s desires
and to negotiate between the id’s wants and
the superego’s prohibitions
• large part of ego is conscious
• smaller part is unconscious
– Reality principle
• satisfying a wish or desire only if there is a
socially acceptable outlet available
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND (CONT.)

• Id, ego, and superego

– Superego: regulator
• third division of the mind
• develops from the ego during early childhood
• superego’s goal is to apply the moral values
and standards of one’s parents or caregivers
and society in satisfying one’s wishes
• moral standards of which we are conscious or
aware and moral standards that are
unconscious or outside our awareness
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND (CONT.)

• Anxiety
– uncomfortable feeling that results from inner
conflicts between the primitive desires of the id
and the moral goals of the superego
– id, superego conflict
– ego caught in the middle
– ego’s continuous negotiations to resolve conflict
causes anxious feelings
– ego uses defense mechanisms to reduce the
anxious feelings
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND (CONT.)

• Defense mechanisms
– Freudian processes that
operate at unconscious
levels and that use self-
deception or untrue
explanations to protect the
ego from being
overwhelmed by anxiety
– Two ways to reduce
anxiety:
• can take realistic steps
for reducing anxiety
• use defense
mechanisms to reduce
anxiety
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND (CONT.)

• Defense mechanisms
– Rationalization
• involves covering up the true reasons for
actions, thoughts, or feelings by making up
excuses and incorrect explanations
– Denial
• refusing to recognize some anxiety-provoking
event or piece of information that is clear to
others
– Repression
• involves blocking and pushing unacceptable or
threatening feelings, wishes, or experiences
into the unconscious
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND (CONT.)

• Defense mechanisms
– Projection
• falsely and unconsciously attributes your own
unacceptable feelings, traits, or thoughts to
individuals or objects
– Reaction formation
• involves substituting behaviors, thoughts, or
feelings that are the direct opposite of
unacceptable ones
– Displacement
• involves transferring feelings about, or
response to, an object that causes anxiety to
another person or object that is less
threatening
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DIVISIONS OF THE MIND (CONT.)

• Defense mechanisms
– Sublimation
• type of displacement, involves redirecting a
threatening or forbidden desire, usually sexual,
into a socially acceptable one
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

• Development: dealing with DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

conflict
– Psychosexual stages
• five developmental
periods-oral, anal,
phallic, latency, and
genital stages
• each marked by a
potential conflict
between parent and
child
• conflicts arise as a
child seeks pleasure
from different body
areas that are
associated with sexual
feelings
• erogenous zones
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES (CONT.)

• Fixation: potential personality problems

– occur during any of the first three stages
– Oral
– Anal
– Phallic
– refers to a Freudian process through which an
individual may be locked into a particular
psychosexual stage because his or her wishes
were either overgratified or undergratified
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES (CONT.)

• Five psychosexual stages

– Oral stage
• lasts for the first 18 months
• pleasure seeking activities include: sucking,
chewing, and biting
• Fixation
– adults who continue to engage in oral
activities, such as overeating, gum
chewing, or smoking; oral activities can be
symbolic as well, such as being overly
demanding or “mouthing off”
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES (CONT.)

• Five psychosexual stages

– Anal stage
• late infancy: one and a half to three years
• a time when the infant’s pleasure seeking is
centered on the anus and its functions of
elimination
• Fixation
• results in adults who continue to engage in
activities of retention or elimination
• retention: very neat, stingy, or behaviorally
rigid
• elimination: generous, messy, or behaving
very loose or carefree
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES (CONT.)

• Five psychosexual stages

– Phallic stage
• early childhood: 3 to 6 years
• infant’s pleasure seeking is centered on the
genitals
• Oedipus complex
– process in which a child competes with the
parent of the same sex for the affections
and pleasures of the parent of the opposite
sex
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES (CONT.)

• Oedipus complex: boys

– discovers that his penis
is a source of pleasure
– result: feels hatred,
jealousy, and
competition toward his
father and fears
castration
– resolves the complex by
by identifying with his
father
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES (CONT.)

• Oedipus complex: girls

– penis envy: girl discovers that she does not have
a penis and feels a loss
– loss makes her turn against her mother and
develop sexual desires for her father
– resolves fixation by identifying with her mother
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES (CONT.)

• Five psychosexual stages

– Latency stage
• middle to late childhood: 6 to puberty
• time when the child represses sexual thoughts
and engages in nonsexual activities, such as
developing social and intellectual skills
• puberty
• sexuality reappears
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES (CONT.)

• Five psychosexual stages

– Genital stage
• puberty through adulthood
• time when the individual has renewed sexual
desires that he or she seeks to fulfill through
relationships with other people
• conflict resolution depends on how conflicts in
the first three stages were resolved
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

FREUD’S FOLLOWERS & CRITICS

• Carl Jung
– Jung was a devoted follower
of Freud until about 1914
– split with Freud was that Jung
disagreed with Freud’s
emphasis on the sex drive
– believed the collective
unconscious and not sex to be
the basic force in the
development of personality
– Collective unconscious
• consists of ancient
memory traces and
symbols that are passed
on by birth and are shared
by all peoples in all
cultures
– Analytical Psychology
• Jung’s elaborate theory of
personality
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

FREUD’S FOLLOWERS & CRITICS (CONT.)

• Alfred Adler
– contemporary of Freud
– voiced disagreement with
Freud at one of the society’s
meetings
– Adler disagreed with Freud’s
theory that humans are
governed by biological and
sexual urges
– Adler proposed that humans
are motivated by social urges
– each person is a social being
with a unique personality
– Adler formed his own group
– philosophy became known as
“individual psychology”
– we are aware of our motives
and goals
– have the capacity to guide and
plan our futures
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

FREUD’S FOLLOWERS & CRITICS (CONT.)

• Karen Horney
– trained as a psychoanalyst
– her career peaked after
Freud’s death
– dean of the American
Institute of Psychoanalysis
in New York
– objected to Freud’s view of
women being dependent,
vain, and submissive
because of biological
forces and childhood
sexual experiences
– took issue with Freud’s
idea of penis envy
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

FREUD’S FOLLOWERS & CRITICS (CONT.)

Karen Horney
– personality development, (women or men) can be
found in child-parent social “interactions”
– Horney theorized that:
– child-parent conflicts are avoidable if the child is
raised in a loving, trusting, and secure
environment
– founded the psychology of women
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

• Three characteristics of
Humanistic theories
1. Phenomenological
perspective
• your perception or view
of the world, whether or
not it is accurate,
becomes your reality
2. Holistic view
• personality is more
than the sum of its
individual parts;
instead, the individual
parts form a unique
and total entity that
functions as a unit
3. Self-actualization
• refers to our inherent
HUMANISTIC tendency to develop
and reach our true
THEORIES potentials
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

HUMANISTIC THEORIES (CONT.)

• Maslow: need hierarchy and self-

actualization
– Hierarchy of Needs
• arranges needs in ascending
order
• biological needs at the bottom
and social and personal needs at
the top
– Maslow’s hierarchy:
• must satisfy biological safety
needs before using energy to
fulfill your personal and social
needs
• devote time and energy to reach
true potential, called self-
actualization
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

p443 MASLOW’S HIERARCHY NEEDS

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

HUMANISTIC THEORIES (CONT.)

• Maslow: need hierarchy and self-

actualization
– Self-actualization
• refers to the development
and fulfillment of one’s
unique human potential
– Characteristics of self-
actualized individuals
• perceive reality accurately
• independent and
autonomous
• prefer to have a deep,
loving relationship with
only a few people
• focus on accomplishing
their goals
• report peak experiences
(moments of great joy and
satisfaction)
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

HUMANISTIC THEORIES (CONT.)

• Rogers: self theory
– also called self-actualization
theory
– based on two major
assumptions:
– personality development is
guided by each person’s
unique self-actualization
tendency
– each of us has a personal
need for positive regard
• Roger’s self-actualization tendency
– refers to an inborn tendency
for us to develop all of our
capacities in ways that best
maintain and benefit our lives
– relates to biological functions
– meeting basic need for food,
water, and oxygen
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

HUMANISTIC THEORIES (CONT.)

• Rogers: self theory
– Psychological functions
• expanding our
experiences,
encouraging personal
growth, and becoming
self-sufficient
– Self or self-concept
• refers to how we see
our describe ourselves
• positive self-concepts
• tend to act, feel, and
think optimistically and
constructively
• negative self-concepts
• tend to act, feel, and
think pessimistically
and destructively
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

HUMANISTIC THEORIES (CONT.)

• Rogers: self theory

– Positive regard
• includes love, sympathy,
warmth, acceptance, and
respect, which we crave
from family, friends, and
people important to us
– Conditional and unconditional
positive regard
• Conditional positive regard
• refers to the positive
regard we receive if we
behave in certain
acceptable ways, such as
living up to or meeting the
standards of others
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

HUMANISTIC THEORIES (CONT.)

• Rogers: self theory
– Unconditional positive regard
• the warmth, acceptance,
and love that others show
you because you are
valued as a human being,
even though you may
disappoint people by
behaving in ways that are
different from their
standards or values or the
way they think
– Importance of self-
actualization
• Rogers recognized that:
– our tendency for
self-actualization
may be hindered,
tested, or blocked
by a variety of
situational hurdles or
personal difficulties
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 19: Freudian & Humanistic Theories

HUMANISTIC THEORIES (CONT.)

• Rogers: self theory

– Unconditional positive
regard
• we will experience
the greatest self-
actualization if we
work hard and
diligently to remove
situational problems,
resolve our personal
problems, and
hopefully, receive
tons of unconditional
positive regard