Clinical psych finals

• Psychodynamic psychotherapists


  try to "read" their clients and hypothesize about their unconscious activity.
• Psychodynamic Psychotherapy


  Is to make unconscious conscious
• Psychodynamic psychotherapy


  It help client become aware of thoughts, feelings and other mental activities
• Insights


  used often by psychodynamic therapists and clients alike, captures this phenomenon—looking inside oneself and noticing something that had previously gone unseen
• Free Association


  technique in which psychodynamic psychotherapists simply ask clients to say whatever comes to mind without censoring themselves at all
• Freudian "Slips"


  Verbal or memory mistake linked to the unconscious mind.
• Dreams


  Process called dream work, uses symbols to express wishes

  When we sleep, our minds try to convert latent content to manifest content
• Latent content


  the raw thoughts and feelings of the unconscious
• Manifest content


  the actual plot of the dream as we remember it
• Dream work


  uses symbols to express wishes, which can result in unconscious wishes appearing in a very distorted or disguised form.
• Resistance


  clients make it clear that they "don't want to go there."
• Id


  Is the part of the mind that generates all the pleasure-seeking, selfish, indulgent, animalistic impulses.
• Id


  It seeks immediate satisfaction of its wishes, most of which are biological in nature, and is oblivious to any consequences.
• Superego


  is the part of the mind that establishes rules, restrictions, and prohibitions. It tells us what we "should" do, and it often uses guilt to discourage us from overindulging in immediate pleasure.
• Ego


  is a mediator, a compromise maker between the id and the superego.
• Ego


  It faces the challenge of partially satisfying both of these opposing forces while also meeting the demands of reality.
• Ego


  can be quite creative in the ways it handles id/superego conflict.
• Repression


  "sweep them under the rug"
• Repression


  unconscious blocking of unpleasant emotions, impulses, memories, and thoughts from your conscious mind.
• Repression


  Unwanted impulse or thoughts being unconsciously pushed out of your awareness
• Projection


  Project to people's around us
• Projection


  we try to convince ourselves that the unacceptable impulse belongs to someone else, not to ourselves.
• Reaction formation


  Do the exact opposite
• Displacement


  Rather than aiming the id's desired action at whom or what it wants, we redirect the impulse toward another person or object to minimize the repercussions
• Displacement


  "kicking the dog"
• Sublimation


  allows the id to do what it wants, and in the process, others are helped rather than harmed.
• Sublimation


  redirect in a way that benefit others
• Transference


  refers to clients' tendency to form relationships with therapists in which they unconsciously and unrealistically expect the therapist to behave like important people from the clients' pasts.
• Transference


  Most essential, most powerful tool
• Blank screen


  essential to the transference process.
• Fixation


  refers to the idea that as children move through the developmental stages

  they may become emotionally "stuck" at any one of them to some extent and may continue to struggle with issues related to that stage for many years, often well into adulthood.
• Fixation


  can happen for a variety of reasons, most often it occurs when parents do either "too much" or "too little" in response to the child's needs at a certain developmental point.
• Oral stage


  takes place during roughly the first year and a half of a child's life.
• Oral stage


  the child experiences all pleasurable sensations through the mouth, and feeding (breast or bottle) is the focal issue
• Oral stage


  kids whose parents mismanage this stage may display blatantly "oral" behaviors later in life: smoking, overeating, drinking, nail biting, and so on
• Anal stage


  occurring when the child is about 1.5 to 3 years old
• Anal stage


  Toilet training is a primary task of this stage
• Phallic stage


  taking place from about age 3 to about age 6,
• Phallic stage


  Oedipus and Electra complexes. Parental response powerfully shapes the children's view of themselves.
• Phallic stage


  Children at this age wish to have a special, close relationship with parents.