Summary 1.2 Differences between people
Problem 1 – Freud
How does our unconsciousness affect our behavior?
• What seems like an accident, you’ve usually done on purpose, you just aren’t aware/ conscious
of the purpose
• Personality is a set of processes always in motion = psychodynamics. These several processes
compete over the control of the person’s behavior
• Continual defense to protect oneself from threats to one’s self-image (shameful desires, things
one regrets, feeling unworthy)
• Lust, aggression, sexuality and death
• Biological processes underlying mental processes, resemble metabolic functioning
• People’s acts are rarely what they seem to be, they rather symbolize other more hidden
qualities
The Topographical Model of the Mind
Conscious: part of the mind that holds what we are aware of
Preconscious: representing ordinary memory. Things can be brought to awareness easily e.g.
remembering the last movie you saw
Unconscious: part of the mind that is not directly accessible to awareness. It is the source of desires,
repository for urges, feelings, and ideas that are tied to anxiety, conflict, or pain. Yet, it keeps influencing
later actions and conscious experience.
- Defense mechanisms
- Aggression and sexual desires
How do internal factors influence decision making?
Motivation: The drive of personality
,Instinct and drive
• Biological need
• Psychological representation
Drive states build until an action causes their tension to be released
Trying to prevent drive from being expressed only creates more pressure towards its expression.
Life and Death instincts / psychic energy
• Eros: survival, reproduction, and pleasure (e.g. hunger avoidance, sex)
o Libido – collection of life instincts
• Thanatos: “the goal of life is death”
o The expression of death instinct is usually held back by the life instinct
o Biologically occurs e.g. apoptosis – important in development
Catharsis
• If tension of drive is not released the pressure is greater and can build up to a point when it
cannot be held any longer
• Catharsis: the release of emotional tension in such an experience
• Engaging in aggression should reduce tension. As the energy is released, the person should be
less likely to be aggressive again in the near future.
o Feelings build up until their restraints can no longer hold
o The final provocation is often trivial
o Once the episode is over (and tensions is released) people revert to their
overcontrolled, passive ways
• Aggression can help dissipate arousal
What does the Freudian model say about the mind?
Aspects of Personality: The Structural Model
ID – “engine of personality” (“it”)
• Present at birth
• Inherited, instinctive and most primitive – primal instincts
• Often socially unacceptable
• Functions entirely in the unconscious
• Closely tied to biological processes that underlie life
• Pleasure principle: all needs should be satisfied immediately
• Wish fulfillment: The ID satisfies them using primary processes (no rational thinking) = forming
an unconscious mental image of an object or event that would satisfy the need
EGO – (“I”)
• Evolves from the ID and harnesses part of ID’s energy for its own use
• Makes sure ID’s impulses are expressed effectively by considering the external world
• Mostly functions in the conscious and preconscious, but as it ties to ID in also functions in the
unconscious
, • Reality principle: considering external reality and internal needs or urges (weigh the risks of
actions before acting, if it is too high, another way needs to be meet the need)
• Ego’s goal is to delay the discharge of the ID’s tension until an appropriate object or context is
found (not to block the ID’s desires permanently) = satisfy ID’s urges at a time and way that is
safe
• Secondary process: matching the unconscious image of tension-reducing object to a real object
• Reality testing: the Ego checking to see whether plans will work before they are put into action
o Forming plans and testing them in mind if they would work
• Has no moral sense, only pragmatic
• Must deal with the desires of the ID, the moral dictates of the superego, and the constraints of
reality.
o With more Ego strength, person can manage the pressures better
SUPEREGO – (“over I”)
• Last to develop
• Feelings of guilt and embarrassment
• Moral goals
• Embodiment of parental and societal values
• Introjection: the process of incorporating the values of the parents and society
• 2 sub-systems
o Ego ideal: rules for good behavior or standards of excellence
▪ Things you strive for
o Conscience: rules about what behaviors the parents disapprove and punish
▪ Reflects the things to avoid
• Superego prevents (not just postpones) any ID impulse that is unacceptable
• It tries to force the Ego to act morally rather than rationally
• Can lead to setting unrealistic standards and reality
Freudian Slip
We all make mistakes. We forget things, get our words jumbled,
and have accidents. Freud referred to such events as the
psychopathology of everyday life.
• Not random
• Urges in the unconscious
• memory lapses, slips of speech, and accidents, collectively
termed parapraxes
• Freudian slip: an error in speech that seems to suggest an
unconscious feeling or desire
What does it take for someone to express emotions they usually suppress impulses?
Anxiety and mechanisms of defense
Anxiety: warning signal to the Ego that something bad is about to happen
, 1. Reality/Objective anxiety – arises from danger in the world
a. E.g. about to be bitten by a dog, crash your car, failing an exam
2. Neurotic anxiety – unconscious fear ID impulses will get out of control and make you do
something that will get you punished
a. E.g. saying aloud your thought about your boss being hot
3. Moral anxiety – the fear people have when they violated or are about to violate a moral code
a. it is not the threat of punishment by society, it’s the internal source in your conscience
• If Ego did its job perfectly, you would never feel anxiety
o External dangers would be avoided preventing reality anxiety
o Impulses would be released at appropriate times preventing neurotic anxiety
o You would never let yourself do anything that Superego prohibits, preventing moral
anxiety
• When anxiety arises, the Ego responds in 2 ways
o Increases problem-oriented coping efforts – the individual tries to deal with the source
of the stress
o Engages in defense mechanisms
▪ Can operate unconsciously
▪ Distort or transform reality
How do we deal with stress?
Defense mechanisms
Repression (defense) – used interchangeably by Freud
• A certain amount of energy is used to keep unacceptable impulses out of consciousness
o Conscious = suppression: person trying to force something out of their awareness
o Unconscious = repression: blocking from awareness
• Mostly information that is painful or upsetting
• Something you are ashamed of may be pushed into unconsciousness
• Threat can come from conflicts with your Superego’s standards e.g. doing nothing about the
people that are starving around the world
Partial repression
• Partly hiding a moderately distressing memory not to think about it often
• Simply avoiding retrieving it
• If reminded of, you are still aware it is there
Denial – refusal to believe an event took place or a condition exists
• e.g. a mother that refuses to accept that her son was killed in the combat
• denial prevents us form becoming aware of unpleasant things in our lives
• Difference between denial and repression:
o Repression – deals with a threat that originates within the dynamics of the mind
o Denial – deals with threats from other sources
o They save people from the pain and anxiety but create problems in the long run as they
take the energy that could be used in other ways
