Psychology - Psychoanalysis and psychology.

Question 1

What is psychoanalysis?

Answer 1

Psychoanalysis, developed by Sigmund Freud, explores the unconscious mind to resolve emotional distress. It focuses on concepts like the unconscious, defense mechanisms, the mind’s structure, psychosexual development, and techniques such as free association and dream analysis. Transference and countertransference are also key. Its aim is to bring unconscious conflicts to light for insight and healing, impacting various forms of therapy.

Question 2

What are the three overarching features of psychoanalysis?

Answer 2

1. Theory - a body of knowledge about the human mind.
2. Research - a method of scientific investigation.
3. Practical application - A form of therapeutic treatment.

Question 3

Explain Sigmund Freud’s understanding of instincts.

Answer 3

-Definition: Innate, species-specific behavioral patterns.
-Origin: Genetically determined, not learned.
-Function: Serve survival and reproductive purposes.
-Examples: Suckling instinct in infants, fight-or-flight response.

Question 4

Explain Sigmund Freud’s understanding of Drives.

Answer 4

• Human beings are driven by internal forces i.e. sexuality, aggression, hunger, love and sensuality.
• Pressure people to behave in a particular way to satisfy an instinctual urge.
• Freudian psychology or psychoanalysis traces how drives are expressed and satisfied.

Question 5

Explain what the four components of “Drives” are.

Answer 5

1. Pressure - force
2. Aim - Satisfaction/release tension.
3. Object - the entity satisfies the tension.
4. Source - the biological origin of the drive.

Question 6

What was Freud’s main interest?

Answer 6

How people cope with drives and instincts.

Question 7

What is the topographical model of the human mind?

Answer 7

The topographical model of the human mind, proposed by Sigmund Freud, suggests that the mind is divided into three layers:
1. Conscious - full awareness of thoughts, feelings and desires.
2. Unconscious - thoughts, feelings and desires people repress, inaccessible to conscious awareness.
3. Preconscious - thoughts, feelings and desires are not conscious, but can become aware subject to thinking and remembering.

Question 8

What is the structural model?

Answer 8

The structural model, proposed by Sigmund Freud, is a fundamental concept in psychoanalytic theory that describes the organization of the human mind into three distinct components: the id, ego, and superego.

Question 9

What is the id?

Answer 9

• directly allied with the instincts.
• operates according to the pleasure principle = to avoid pain and maximize pleasure.
• a reservoir of human instincts, directly related to the satisfaction of bodily needs.
• Demands instant gratification; operates like a newborn baby.

Question 10

What is the ego?

Answer 10

• The rational part of the human mind.
• Helps to reduce the tension the id creates.
• Responsible for re-directing and controlling the id.
• Operates according to the reality principle = the laws, norms, values and beliefs put in place that govern reality.
• The mediater.

Question 11

What is the superego?

Answer 11

• The moralistic part of the human mind.
• Regulates our sense of right and wrong, through praise and punishment.
• Aspires towards and ego-ideal= seeks self-actualisation through good, correct behaviour.
• Does not postpone the pleasure-seeking id, as the ego does, but seeks to inhibit it completely.
• Strives for moral perfection, so it can be cruel.

Question 12

What is the ego responsible for?

Answer 12

• How the mind reconciles the demands of the external world with the internal world.

Question 13

What are defense mechanisms and who employs it?

Answer 13

A defense mechanism is a psychological strategy employed by the ego to protect itself from anxiety arising from conflicts between the demands of the id (primitive, instinctual desires) and the superego (internalized moral standards).

Question 14

Explain the defense mechanism: Repression.

Answer 14

Employed by the ego to keep disturbing or socially unacceptable thoughts/feelings/desires from becoming conscious.

Question 15

Explain the defense mechanism: Regression.

Answer 15

Returning to an earlier stage of development to cope with reality.

Question 16

Explain the defense mechanism: Reaction information.

Answer 16

When people overemphasize the opposite of an impulse, feeling or thought that is unsettling, threatening or dangerous to them.

Question 17

Explain the defense mechanism: denial.

Answer 17

Refusing to allow an idea into consciousness at all.

Question 18

Explain the defense mechanism: projection.

Answer 18

Attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts, feelings and motives onto another person.

Question 19

Explain the defense mechanism: Displacement.

Answer 19

When an impulse (usually aggressive) is redirected onto a powerless substitute target.

Question 20

Explain the defense mechanism: Splitting.

Answer 20

When external reality like people, events and objects are experienced as either good or bad.

Question 21

Explain the defense mechanism: Rationalisation.

Answer 21

Providing reasons/excuses to make an event/thought/feeling less threatening.

Question 22

Explain the defense mechanism: Intellectualisation.

Answer 22

Constantly relying on intellect to cope with uncomfortable feelings/thoughts/situations.

Question 23

Explain the defense mechanism: Sublimation.

Answer 23

Satisfying an impulsive, usually sexual or aggressive with a substitute socially acceptable practice (Creative, innovation and artistic).

Question 24

Explain the defense mechanism: Identification with the aggressor.

Answer 24

When someone who was subjected to aggression idealises their aggressor and becomes aggressive, in turn.

Question 25

What are the psychosexual stages of development?

Answer 25

• five psychosexual stages through which children navigate and negotiate.
• Each stage is defined by an erogenous zone of the body, from which id impulses arise that must be satisfied and/or resolved.
• Often children experience challenges transitioning from one stage to the next, because the conflict associated with that erogenous zone has not worked through enough, which Freud refers to fixation.

Question 26

Define each stage and the years when the development occurs.

Answer 26

1. The Oral Stage (birth to 1).
2. The Anal Stage (1 to 3).
3. The Phallic Stage (4 to 5).
4. Period of Latency (5 to puberty).
5. The Genital Stage (adolescence to adulthood).

Question 27

Explain: The Oral Stage.

Answer 27

• the mouth is the primary erogenous zone.
• pleasure is derived from sucking.
• the id dominates at this stage.
• the infant learns whether the world is good/bad, satisfying/frustrating, safe/perilous.

Question 28

Explain: The anal stage.

Answer 28

• The sphincter muscle (anus) is the primary erogenous zone.
• Pleasure derived from defecating but with the onset of toilet training; the child must learn to postpone or delay this pleasure.
• First time in the child’s life that demands are placed upon her/him.
• Child leans that they can have something of value that can be used against the parents, have control over their body, can either choose to comply or not with parental demands.
• Child learns about control, authority, obedience/defiance, submission/dominance.

Question 29

Explain: The phallic Stage.

Answer 29

• The genitals are the primary erogenous zone.
• Pleasure derived from exploring and manipulating the genitals.
• Curiosity as to why boys and girls have different genitals.
• Boys and girls develop a strong erotic-like bond with their parents - a conflict called the Oedipus complex, they must resolve.
• The conflict centers on the child’s unconscious desire to replace or destroy the object of the parent’s affection/attention/desire.

Question 30

Explain: Period of Latency.

Answer 30

• Not considered a psychosexual stage.
• Pleasure derived from erogenous zones are suspended; they become dormant.
• Instead, the child channels their instinctual urges into socially accepted activities such as schooling, learning, hobbies, sports and developing friendships with peer groups, especially members of the same sex.

Question 31

Explain: the genital stage.

Answer 31

• Genitally-led sex becomes the primary goal.
• The body becomes physiologically and sexually mature.
• Pressure to conform to societal sanctions and taboos that exists on sex and sexuality.
• Satisfaction found in love and work; the latter being an acceptable outlet for the sublimation and id impulses.