Lecture 2 - Psychotherapy

• What do all therapies assume?

  That people repress uncomfortable feelings where they remain in the unconscious mind
• What is the purpose of therapy?

  To bring difficult feelings back into consciousness
• What are some of Freud's famous ideas 


  unconscious motives; the id, ego, and superego; oral and anal stages of development; the Oedipus complex; defence and repression; Freudian slip
• What is Psychoanalysis? 


  Freud's idea that psychological problems are rooted into the unconscious mind
• What was Freud known as by his mother?

  'my golden sigi'
• Which child did Freud favour?

  Anna - later became a famous psychoanalyst
• What prize did Freud win in 1930?

  Goethe prize (later burnt by nazis)
• Who was Joseph Breuer? (nice man)

  • inventor of psychoanalysis
• What method/cure did Breuer to alleviate Bertha Pappenheim's distress?

  Cathartic method (talking cure) - recovered unconscious memories and stifled emotions, put experiences into words
• Freud disagreed with Breuer's ideas and minimised his role in developing psychoanalysis. (after writing a book together)

  CUT HIM OFF and ruthlessly built his reputation - always thought he was right "last and decisive word was always spoken by Freud himself"
• Who started the British Psychological Society?

  Ernest Jones
• Who did Ernest Jones expell?

  Any members that were not Freudian (eg Jungian)
• What 3 parts was the society later split up into?

  1. freudian
  2. Kleinian
  3. independent
• According to Freud, what are the three components of personality?

  1. Ego (executive functions, rational)
  2. Superego (Morals, Conscience)
  3. Id (unconscious, impulses)
• What did William & Nisbett (1978) find about unconscious rationalisations.


  No difference between experimental group (told that the shock won't do any damage) and control group in amount of shock they'd endure.

  Reassurance did increase willingness to accept shocks but they didn't actually take more!
• What did the electric shock experiment suggest about unconscious rationalisations?

  That people are often just guessing. Construct plausible but incorrect explanations for doing something. (eg. yeah reassurance led me to accept more shocks than if i hadn't had any)
• How does the Halo effect suggest unconscious rationalisations? 


  Specific judgements are often influenced by first impressions.

  when asked a question people unconsciously rationalise eg. did mannerisms influence your liking of the teacher? - will often mistakenly agree
• How can you minimise/remove HALO effect? How does this relate to therapy?

  • encourage people to think analytically
  • articulating thoufhts in therapy helps to rationalise thoughts
• What was a key defense mechanism proposed by Freud?

  Repression
• What task did Anderson and Green conduct?

  Think/no-think procedure
• Were they successful repressing words intentionally?

  Yes
• What were 2 interpretation issues that A&G identified?

  1. ppts may have used distraction eg. forming other associations
  2. diminished link between word pair and association

  Issue is that these are conscious suppressions
• What did adding an independent cue (untrained) support?

  freud's unconscious view of suppression as it still occured even with untrained tasks
• What did Lambert et al (2010) find when investigating negative cues.

  That we want to repress these negative thoughts - repression as a defense mechanism (freud)
• What 2 brain regions are associated with repressing memories?

  Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex & hippocampus