Psychosocial Theories

• Sigmund Freud - The father of psychoanalysis
• Psychoanalytic theory - supports the notion that all human behavior is caused and can be explained (deterministic theory)
• Psychoanalytic theory - believed that repressed (driven from conscious awareness) sexual impulses and desires motivate much human behavior
• Sigmund Freud - developed his initial ideas and explanations of human behavior from his experiences with a few clients, all of them women who displayed unusual ("hysterical" or neurotic) behaviors. These women repressed their unmet needs and sexual feelings as well as traumatic events. The "hysterical" or neurotic behaviors resulted from these unresolved conflicts
• Sigmund Freud - conceptualized personality structure as having 3 components: the id, ego and superego
• id - the part of one's nature that reflects basic innate desires (pleasure-seeking behavior, aggression, and sexual impulses)
• id - seeks instant gratification, causes impulsive unthinking behavior, and has no regard for rules or social convention
• superego - the part of a person's nature that reflects moral and ethtical concepts, values, and parental and social expectations; in direct opposition to the id
• ego - the balancing or mediating force between the id and the superego
• ego - represents that mature and adaptive behavior that allows a person to function successfully in the world
• Freud believed that anxiety resulted from the ego’s attempts to

  balance the impulsive instincts of the id with the stringent rules of

  the superego.
• Behavior Motivated by Subconscious Thoughts and Feelings. - Freud believed that the human personality functions at three

  levels of awareness: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious
• conscious - the perceptions, thoughts, and emotions that exist in

  the person’s awareness, such as being aware of happy feelings

  or thinking about a loved one
• preconscious - not currently in the person’s awareness, but he or

  she can recall them with some effort (e.g. an adult remembering

  what he or she did, thought, or felt as a child)
• unconscious - the realm of thoughts and feelings that motivates

  a person even though he or she is totally unaware of them. This

  realm includes most defense mechanisms
• According to Freud’s theories, the person represses the memory of

  traumatic events that are too painful to remember into the unconscious.

  Freud believed that much of what we do and say is motivated by our

  subconscious thoughts or feelings (those in the preconscious or

  unconscious level of awareness).
• Freud’s Dream Analysis - Freud believed that a person’s dreams reflect his or her subconscious and have significant meaning, though

  sometimes the meaning is hidden or symbolic
• dream analysis - involves discussing a client’s dreams to

  discover their true meaning and significance.

  For example, a client might report having recurrent frightening dreams about snakes chasing her. Freud’s interpretation might be that the woman fears intimacy with men; he would view the snake as a phallic symbol, representing the penis.
• Free association - the therapist tries to uncover the client’s true thoughts and feelings by saying a word and asking the client to respond quickly with the first thing that comes to mind Freud believed that such quick responses would be likely to uncover subconscious or repressed thoughts or feelings.
• Ego Defense Mechanisms - Freud believed that the self, or ego, uses ego defense mechanisms, which are methods of attempting to protect the self and cope with basic drives or emotionally painful thoughts, feelings, or events
• Ego Defense Mechanisms - Most defense mechanisms operate at the unconscious level of awareness, so people are not aware of what they are doing and often need help to see the reality.
• Ego defense mechanism:

  compensation - overachievement in one area to offset real or perceived deficiencies in another area
• Ego defense mechanism:

  compensation - napoleon complex: diminutive man becoming emperor
• Ego defense mechanism:

  compensation - nurse with low self-esteem working double shifts so that her supervisor will like her
• Ego defense mechanism:

  conversion - expression of an emotional conflict through the development of physical symptoms, usually sensorimotor in nature
• Ego defense mechanism:

  conversion - teenager forbidden to see x-rated movies is tempted to do so by friends and develops blindness, and the teenager is unconcerned about the loss of sight
• Ego defense mechanism:

  denial - failure to acknowledge an unbearable condition; faulure to admit the reality of a situation on how one enables the problem to continue
• Ego defense mechanism:

  denial - diabetic person eating chocolate candy
• Ego defense mechanism:

  denial - spending money freely when broke
• Ego defense mechanism:

  denial - waiting for 3 days to seek help for severe abdominal pain
• Ego defense mechanism:

  displacement - ventilation of intense feelings towards persons less threatening that the one who aroused those feelings
• Ego defense mechanism:

  displacement - person who is mad at the boss yells at his or her spouse
• Ego defense mechanism:

  displacement - child who is harassed by a bully at school mistreats a younger sibling
• Ego defense mechanism:

  dissociation - dealing with emotional conflict by a temporary alteration in consciousness or identity
• Ego defense mechanism:

  dissociation - amnesia that prevents recall of yesterday's auto accident
• Ego defense mechanism:

  dissociation - adult remembers nothing of childhood sexual abuse
• Ego defense mechanism:

  fixation - immobilization of a portion of the personality resulting from unsuccessful completion of tasks in a developmental stage
• Ego defense mechanism:

  fixation - never learning to delay gratification
• Ego defense mechanism:

  fixation - lack of a clear sense of identity as an adult
• Ego defense mechanism:

  identification - modeling actions and opinions of influential others while searching for identity, or aspiring to reach a personal, social, or occupational goal