Clinical Psychology
- the study, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological and behavioral disorders
Assumptions of Psychodynamic Therapies
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... [Show More] human behavior is motivated by unconscious processes
- early development has a profound effect on adult functioning
- universal principles explain personality development and behavior
- insight into unconscious processes is a key component of therapy
Freudian Psychoanalysis
- human beings are determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations, biological and instinctual needs and drives, and psychosexual events that occur during the first five years of life
Freud's Personality Theory
- composed of two theories: structural (drive) theory and developmental theory
Structural Theory
(Freud)
- the personality is composed of three structures: the id, ego, and superego
Id
- present at birth and consists of the person's life and death instincts
- operates on pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of its instinctual drives in order to avoid tension
Ego
- develops at six months of age
- operates ont eh reality principle that defers gratifcation until an appropriate object is available in reality and employs thinking
- mediates conflicting demands of pleasure and reality
Superego
- develops between four and five years
- represents an internalization of society's values and standards
- attempts to permanently block socially unacceptable drives
Developmental Theory
(Freud)
- emphasizes the sexual drives of the id and proposes that an individual's personality is formed during childhood as a result of certain experiences during psychosexual stages of development
- over or undergratification of a person's sexual needs during a stage is associated with different personality outcomes
Oral Stage
- Freud's first stage of personality development, from birth to about age 2, during which the instincts of infants are focused on the mouth as the primary pleasure center.
Anal Stage
- Freud's second stage of psychosexual development where the primary sexual focus is on the elimination or holding onto feces. The stage is often thought of as representing a child's ability to control his or her own world.
Phallic Stage
- Freud's third stage of personality development, from about age 4 through age 7, during which children obtain gratification primarily from the genitals.
Latency Stage
- Freud's fourth stage of psychosexual development where sexuality is repressed in the unconscious and children focus on identifying with their same sex parent and interact with same sex peers.
Genital Stage
- Freud's last stage of personality development, from the onset of puberty through adulthood, during which the sexual conflicts of childhood resurface (at puberty) and are often resolved during adolescence).
Defense Mechanisms
- occur when the ego is unable to ward off danger through rational, realistic means
- these operate on an unconscious level and deny or distort reality
(danger or anxiety helps alert the ego to impending threats, such as conflict between the id and the superego)
Repression
- defense mechanism in which id's drives are excluded from conscious awareness by maintaining them in the unconscious
Reaction Formation
- defense mechanism in which one avoids an anxiety evoking instict by doing the opposite
View of Psychopathology
(Freudian)
- maladaptive behavior results from an unconscious, unresolved conflict that occurred during childhood
Psychoanalytic Therapy
- goal is to reduce symptoms by bringing the unconscious into conscious awareness and integrating previously repressed material into the personality
- use free associations, dreams, resistances, and transferences to confront, clarify, interpret, and work through
Free Associations
- a method in psychotherapy where a patient is encouraged to sit back, relax, free his/her mind, refrain from trying to be logical, and report every image or idea that enters his/her awareness, usually in response to some word or picture that the therapist provides as an initial stimulus
Psychic Determinism
- belief that all behaviors are meaningful and serve some psychological function
- ex slips of tongue (parapraxes) are expressions of unconscious motives
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Confrontation
- making statements that help the client se [Show Less]