Psychology

• Freud


  Believed that abnormal behaviour and all personality traits could be explained by analysing the motives and drives of the unconscious. The function of the unconscious was to keep unacceptable thoughts and desires repressed or hidden from the conscious mind.
• Psychoanalysis


  1. Freud suggested that our thoughts and behaviours as adults stem from unconscious forces as well as from our early childhood experiences

  2. Freud found that he could understand his patient's problems by tracing their symptoms back to traumatic or unresolved experiences in childhood

  3. Tap into the unconscious to understand a person's personality

  4. Free association
• Freud believed that forbidden or unacceptable wishes / fantasies of childhood was also driven out of the conscious and into the unconscious
• Freud said that the tip of the iceberg we see is the conscious mind and it hides a larger and more important part of the mind - the unconscious
• Basis for Freud's theory

  • He believed that all biological drives have a single goal – the survival and reproduction of the species
  • All biological drives must serve the fundamental sex drive
• ID

  • Original core out of which the rest of the personality emerges
  • Made up of primitive and untamed thoughts and desires
  • Part of the unconscious
  • It is formless and unorganised
  • Its goal – To reduce tension, increase pleasure, minimise discomfort
• Ego


  • Emerges from the ID
  • Part of the psyche that is in contact with the external world
  • In charge of voluntary movement, logical thought and problem solving
  • Its goal– To ensure the health, sanity and safety of the personality
• Superego


  • This develops from the ego
  • It maintains the moral code of an individual
  • It sets out a series of guidelines that define and limit the flexibility of the ego
  • It puts limitations on the ego's activities
  • It is the "judge" of your personality
• Personality development stages


  • Oral stage (birth – 18 months)
  • Anal stage (18 months – 3 years)
  • Phallic stage (3-6 years)
  • Latency stage (middle childhood)
  • Genital stage (puberty)
• Oral stage


  • The mouth is the focus of the drive for physical pleasure
  • It is the first part of the body the infant can control
  • Oral activities that the infant derives pleasure from include eating, sucking, biting
  • This stage is controlled by the id
• Anal stage


  • Infant learns to control its sphincter muscles and bladder
  • Control over bowel movements brings pleasure
  • Toilet training occurs at this stage– May lead to conflict with caregivers
  • The ego develops
• Phallic Stage

  • The focus of pleasure is on the genital area of the body
  • Oedipus complex – subconscious desire for his mother
  • Electra complex – subconscious desire for her father
  • Eventually both sexes pass though these complexes and begin to identify with the parent of their own sex
• Latency stage

  • Characterised by indifference to sexually related matters
  • Child develops the ideal culture and beliefs of its caregivers
  • The child seeks association or playmates of their own sex
  • Superego develops
• Genital stage


  • Longest stage
  • Lasts throughout puberty
  • Sexual energy returns
  • Both sexes are made aware of their separate sexual identities and look for ways to fulfil their erotic and interpersonal needs by forming relationships
• Ego Defence mechanisms


  Unconscious automatic mental processes that reduce anxiety by warding off unacceptable thoughts and feelings
• Ego Defence mechanisms


  • Repression
  • Denial
  • Projection
• Repression


  • Primary way the EGO keeps a lid on the ID's impulses
  • It is the EGO's way of keeping repressed thoughts and desires in the unconscious
• Denial


  • Ignoring or minimizing particular facts
  • A person refuses to acknowledge the anxiety in their environment
  • It may involve the emotions connected with the anxiety causing event or the event itself
• Projection

  • Attributing one's own feelings to someone else
  • I don't like Mary, but I may often say "Mary doesn't seem to like me"
  • Teacher thinking their students were not academic might be very incompetent themselves