Personality (2) Flashcards
(33 cards)
Components of Freud’s Theory
Id, Ego, Superego
The Id
- The storehouse of the fundamental drives
- Operates irrationally
- Acts on impulse
- Driven by the pleasure principle
- Disregards reality, morality, social norms
- Seeks immediate gratification
The Superego
- The storehouse of the individual’s values & moral attitudes
- Same meaning as conscience
- The inner voice of oughts and should nots
- The ideal that the individual strives to become
The Ego
- The reality-based aspect of the self
- Operates on the reality principle
- Mediates conflict between the id and the superego
- Chooses actions that will gratify id impulses without undesirable consequences
The Ego Defence Mechanism
Mental strategies the ego uses to defend itself in the daily conflict between id impulses that seek expression and the superego’s demand to deny them
Ego Defence Mechanism Are…
unconscious ego processes that keep disturbing + unconscious thoughts from being expressed directly
Ego Defence Mechanism Used To
reduce anxiety (anxiety is the result of id impulse seeking expression)
Displacement
Discharging pent-up feelings, (usually hostility) on objects less dangerous that those that initially aroused the emotion
Identification Definition 1:
increasing feelings of worth by identifying self with another person or institution, often of illustrious standing
Identification Definition 2:
dealing with an intimidating or stressful situation by imitating the source of the threat
Projection
- Seeing one’s own thought/fault in others
- Seeing one’s own goal as the goals of others too
Reaction Formation
Preventing dangerous desires from being expressed by endorsing opposing attitudes and types of behaviors and using them as “barriers”
Denial
Protecting self from unpleasant reality by refusing to perceive it
Repression
- Pushing painful or dangerous thoughts out of consciousness, keeping them unconscious
- Form of selective forgetting
Rationalization
Attempting to prove that one’s behavior is “rational” and justifiable and thus worthy of the approval of self and others
Regression
Retreating to earlier development levels involving more childish responses and usually a lower level of aspiration
Sublimation
- Channeling of unacceptable and potential disruptive impulses, thoughts, or emotions into socially acceptable behaviors
- Positive expressions of negative thoughts + behaviors
- Expressing a painful experience in disguise
Evaluation of Ego Defence Mechanism
- Use of defence mechanism is part of normal personality functioning
- Some theorists believe the defence mechanisms are an adaptive feature of the human species
- Excessive use of defence mechanism is maladaptive + leads to psychological disorders
Psychic Determinism
the assumption that all mental and behavioral reactions (symptoms) are determined by earlier experiences
Symptoms Are…
not arbitrary; symptoms are related to earlier significant life events
Fixation
- an inability to progress normally to the next stage of development
- due to either too much gratification or too much frustration at one of the early stages of psychosexual development
Psychic Energy
a source of energy within each person that motivates the person to do one thing or another (or not another)
Psychic Energy Operates
according to the law of conservation of energy
The Amount of Psychic Energy…
an individual possesses remained constant throughout the person’s lifetime
