PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Psychodynamic Theory
Collective Unconscious
Epigenetic Theory
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
Psychodynamic Perspective: Creator: Sigmund Freud Defined: Much of behavior is motivated by inner
forces, memories, and conflicts of which a person has little awareness or control.
Major Principles:… Unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior.
… The unconscious is part of everyone’s personality.
… We are unaware of it though it strongly influences our behavior.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
Foundations of the Theory:
I. Psychological Determinism: Behaviors do not happen by chance
I. There are no accidents
II. Everything happens for a reason
III. Everything is determined by preceding events
IV. Psychodynamic theorists take the stance of “ultra determinism”.
V. There is almost never “the cause” there is usually multiple causes.
VI. Once we find a less threatening and simple explanation we stop, this is the wrong way.
II. Consciousness is Atypical: Most of behavior and experience is occurring below the conscious level.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
ID: Raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality:
Pleasure Principle: Continue producing behavior that gives positive stimulus and stop behavior that produces a negative stimulus and/or avoid negative stimuli
Primitive desires of hunger, sex, and aggression.
Satisfaction is ultimate goal
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
Ego: Rational and reasonable
Reality Principle: Instinctual energy (ID) is restrained in order to maintain the safety of the individual and keep him/her within societies norms
Superego: Sense of right and wrong
Conscience
Develops at age 5 or 6
Learned from others
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
According to Freud development consists of stages:
… Pleasure and gratification are focused on particular biological functions.
… If children are unable to gratify themselves sufficiently during a
particular stage or receive too much of it, fixation will occur.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY:STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY:DEFENSE MECHANISMSPeople may feel anxious or threatened when the
wishes of the id conflict with social rules.
Ego has weapons at its command to relieve the tension.
Defense Mechanism: Used by the ego to prevent unconscious anxiety or threatening thoughts from entering consciousness.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY:DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Repression: When the threatening idea, memory, or emotion is blocked from consciousness.
Something bad happens in childhood and you can’t remember it anymore.
Projection: A Person’s own unacceptable or threatening feelings are repressed and then attributed to someone else.
Being obsessed with something may make you project your guilt onto it.
Displacement: When people direct their emotions toward things, animals, or other people that are not the real object of their feelings.
You can’t express your anger toward a caregiver thus you take it out on other kids.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY:DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Reaction Formation: When a feeling that produces unconscious anxiety is transformed into its opposite in consciousness.
Someone that is scared to death of their spouse may intern believe that they are madly in love with them.
Denial: When people refuse to admit that something unpleasant is happening.
Protects a person’s self-image
Preserves the illusion of invulnerability
“It can’t happen to me”
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
Creator: Carl Jung
Modified Freud’s Original Theory:
In addition to the individual’s own unconscious we have:
Collective Unconscious-Contains universal memories, symbols, images, and themes
Developed Archtypes:
Representation of our collective unconscious
Can be a picture; such as a magic circle (Called a Mandala in Eastern religions)
Symbolizes the unity of life and the “Totality of the self.”
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Creator: Erik Erikson
AKA: Psychosocial Theory
Considered: Neo-Freudian
Focus of Theory: Ego development.
Main Topic: Identity
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Main Tenants:
Emphasized our social interaction with other people.
Society and culture both shape and challenge people.
His stage covered the entire life-span (8 stages).
Each stage represents a crisis that must be resolved.
Epigenetic: Non-genetic causes of a phenotype.
Change of a phenotype without change in a genotype.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Eight stages of development:
… Unique development task confronts individuals with crisis that must be resolved
… Each stage has both positive and negative poles
… Positive resolution builds foundation for healthy development
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 1 - Basic Trust vs. Mistrust
(0-1 ½ )
Developing trust is the first task of the ego. It is never complete.
The child will let mother out of sight without anxiety and rage when: She has become an inner certainty.
Outer predictability.
Quality of maternal relationship is everything.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
(1-2)If denied autonomy (ability to make
independent choices):Child will resist urges to manipulate and
discriminate.
Shame develops.
Left over doubt may become paranoia.
The sense of autonomy serves the preservation in economic and political life of a sense of justice.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt
(2-6)
Initiative adds to autonomy the quality of: (tasks for the sake of being active and on the move)
Undertaking
Planning
Attacking
The child feels guilt over the goals contemplated and the acts initiated in exuberant enjoyment of new loco motor and mental powers.
The castration complex:
Due to the child's erotic fantasies.
They will get in trouble for feeling that way.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt
(2-6)
A residual conflict over initiative may be expressed as:
Hysterical denial.
May cause the repression of the wish or destruction of the ego.
Results in paralysis and inhibition, or overcompensation and showing off.
The Oedipal stage:
Results in oppressive establishment of a moral sense
Sets the direction towards the possible and the tangible which permits dreams of early childhood to be attached to goals of an active adult life.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority
(7-12)
Bringing a productive situation to completion. Gradually supersedes the whims and wishes of play.
The fundamentals of technology are developed. To lose the hope of such "industrious" association may pull
the child back and cause them to become: More isolated
Less conscious
The child can become a conformist and thoughtless slave whom others exploit.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 5 - Identity vs. Role Confusion
(13-21)
AKA: Diffusion
The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others.
Ego identity:Accrued confidence that the inner sameness and continuity
prepared in the past are matched by the sameness and continuity of one's meaning for others.
Evidenced in the promise of a career.
The inability to settle on a school or occupational identity is disturbing.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation
(21-35)
Body and ego must be masters of organ modes. This is in order to face the fear of ego loss.
In situations which call for self-abandon.
The avoidance of these experiences leads to isolation and self-absorption.
The counterpart of intimacy is distantiation: Readiness to isolate and destroy forces and people whose essence
seems dangerous to one's own.
Now true genitality can fully develop. Danger:
Isolation which can lead to severe character problems.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation
(35-60)
Generativity is the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation.
Simply having or wanting children doesn't achieve generativity.
Socially-valued work and disciples are also expressions of generativity.
EPIGENETIC THEORY
Stage 8 - Ego Integrity vs. Despair
(60+)
Ego integrity is the ego's accumulated assurance of its capacity for order and meaning.
Despair is signified by a fear of one's own death, as well as the loss of self-sufficiency, and of loved partners and friends.
Healthy children won't fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.