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    Module 19 - Freudian and Humanistic Theories

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    Adela Christina
    Freudian and humanistic theories of personality are discussed. Freud's psychodynamic theory emphasized early childhood experiences and unconscious forces that influence behavior. His concepts include the conscious/unconscious mind, defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages, and the id/ego/superego model. Humanistic theories view personality holistically and focus on self-actualization. Maslow's hierarchy of needs positions self-actualization at the top, achieved after basic needs are met. Both approaches were influential but also faced criticism from later theorists.

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    Module 19 - Freudian and Humanistic Theories

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    Adela Christina
    240 views7 pages
    Freudian and humanistic theories of personality are discussed. Freud's psychodynamic theory emphasized early childhood experiences and unconscious forces that influence behavior. His concepts include the conscious/unconscious mind, defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages, and the id/ego/superego model. Humanistic theories view personality holistically and focus on self-actualization. Maslow's hierarchy of needs positions self-actualization at the top, achieved after basic needs are met. Both approaches were influential but also faced criticism from later theorists.

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    Module 19_ Freudian and Humanistic Theories

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    Freudian and humanistic theories of personality are discussed. Freud's psychodynamic theory emphasized early childhood experiences and unconscious forces that influence behavior. His concepts include the conscious/unconscious mind, defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages, and the id/ego/superego model. Humanistic theories view personality holistically and focus on self-actualization. Maslow's hierarchy of needs positions self-actualization at the top, achieved after basic needs are met. Both approaches were influential but also faced criticism from later theorists.

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    240 views7 pages

    Module 19 - Freudian and Humanistic Theories

    Uploaded by

    Adela Christina
    Freudian and humanistic theories of personality are discussed. Freud's psychodynamic theory emphasized early childhood experiences and unconscious forces that influence behavior. His concepts include the conscious/unconscious mind, defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages, and the id/ego/superego model. Humanistic theories view personality holistically and focus on self-actualization. Maslow's hierarchy of needs positions self-actualization at the top, achieved after basic needs are met. Both approaches were influential but also faced criticism from later theorists.

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    UNIVERSITI TUN ABDUL RAZAK

    DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
    FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
    COURSE NOTES FOR COGNITIVE, PSYCHOLOGY AND OTHER RELATED
    SCIENCES IN EDUCATION/PPB2014
    Chapter 16 (Module 18 from text)

    Freudian and Humanistic Theories

    • Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory of Personality


    – emphasizes the importance of early childhood experiences, unconscious or
    repressed thoughts that we cannot voluntarily access, and the conflicts between
    conscious and unconscious forces that influence our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

    • Conscious Versus Unconscious forces


    – Conscious thought
    • wishes, desires, or thoughts that we are aware of, or can recall, at any given moment
    – Unconscious forces
    • wishes, desires, or thoughts that, because of their disturbing or threatening content,
    we automatically repress and cannot voluntarily access
    – Unconscious motivation
    • Freudian concept that refers to the influence of repressed thoughts, desires, or
    impulses on our conscious thoughts and behaviors.

    • Techniques to discover the unconscious


    – Free association
    • technique in which clients are encouraged to talk about any thoughts or images that
    enter their head; the assumption is that this kind of free-flowing, uncensored talking will
    provide clues to unconscious material
    – Dream interpretation
    • technique of analyzing dreams, is based on the assumption that dreams contain
    underlying, hidden meanings and symbols that provide clues to unconscious thoughts
    and desires.

    • Techniques to discover the unconscious


    – Freudian slips
    • mistakes or slips of the tongue that we make in everyday speech; such mistakes,
    which are often embarrassing, are thought to reflect unconscious thoughts or wishes.

    1
    DIVISIONS OF THE MIND

    • Id, ego, and superego


    – Freud divided the mind into three separate processes
    – each has a different function
    – interactions among the id, ego, and superego result in conflicts

    • Id: pleasure seeker


    – first division of the mind to develop
    – contains two biological drives: sex and
    aggression
    – id’s goal is to pursue pleasure and
    satisfy the biological
    drives
    • Pleasure principle
    – id operates according to the pleasure
    principle
    – satisfy drives and avoid pain, without
    concern for
    moral restrictions or society’s regulations

    • Ego: executive negotiator between id


    and superego
    – second division of the mind, develops
    from the id during infancy
    – ego’s goal is to find safe and socially acceptable ways of satisfying the id’s desires
    and to negotiate between the id’s wants and the superego’s prohibitions
    – large part of ego is conscious
    – smaller part is unconscious
    – Reality principle
    • satisfying a wish or desire only if there is a socially acceptable outlet available

    • Superego: regulator
    – third division of the mind, develops from the ego during early childhood
    – superego’s goal is to apply the moral values and standards of one’s parents or
    are givers and society in satisfying one’s wishes
    – Moral principle - moral standards of which we are conscious or aware and moral
    standards that are unconscious or outside our awareness.

    • Anxiety
    – uncomfortable feeling that results from inner conflicts between the primitive desires of
    the id and the moral goals of the superego
    – Id & superego conflict
    • ego caught in the middle
    • ego’s continuous negotiations to resolve conflict causes anxious feelings
    • ego uses defense mechanisms to reduce the anxious feelings.

    2
    • Defense mechanisms
    – Freudian processes that operate at unconscious levels and that use self-deception or
    untrue explanations to protect the ego from being overwhelmed by anxiety
    – Two ways to reduce anxiety:
    • can take realistic steps for reducing anxiety
    • use defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety

    • Defense mechanisms
    – Rationalization
    • involves covering up the true reasons for actions, thoughts, or feelings by making up
    excuses and incorrect explanations
    – Denial
    • refusing to recognize some anxiety-provoking event or piece of information that is
    clear to others
    – Repression
    • involves blocking and pushing unacceptable or threatening feelings, wishes, or
    experiences into the unconscious.

    • Defense mechanisms
    – Projection
    • falsely and unconsciously attributes your own unacceptable feelings, traits, or thoughts
    to individuals or objects
    – Reaction formation
    • involves substituting behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that are the direct opposite of
    unacceptable ones.
    – Displacement
    • involves transferring feelings about, or response to, an object that causes anxiety to
    another person or object that is less threatening.
    – Sublimation
    • type of displacement, involves redirecting a threatening or forbidden desire, usually
    sexual, into a socially acceptable one.

    DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

    • Development: dealing with conflict


    – Psychosexual stages
    • five developmental periods-oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages
    • each marked by a potential conflict between parent and child
    • conflicts arise as a child seeks pleasure from different body areas that are associated
    with sexual feelings or erogenous zones.

    3
    • Fixation: potential personality problems
    – occur during any of the first three stages
    • Oral
    • Anal
    • Phallic
    – refers to a Freudian process through which an individual may be locked into a
    particular psychosexual stage because his or her wishes were either overgratified or
    undergratified.
    • Five psychosexual stages
    – Oral stage
    • lasts for the first 18 months
    • pleasure seeking activities include: sucking, chewing, and biting
    • Fixation
    – adults who continue to engage in oral activities, such as overeating, gum
    chewing, or smoking; oral activities can be symbolic as well, such as being overly
    demanding or “mouthing off”.

    • Five psychosexual stages


    – Anal stage
    • late infancy: one and a half to three years
    • a time when the infant’s pleasure seeking is centered on the anus and its functions of
    elimination
    • Fixation
    – results in adults who continue to engage in activities of retention or elimination
    » retention: very neat, stingy, or behaviorally rigid
    » elimination: generous, messy, or behaving very loose or carefree

    • Five psychosexual stages


    – Phallic stage
    • early childhood: 3 to 6 years
    • infant’s pleasure seeking is centered on the genitals
    • Oedipus complex
    – process in which a child competes with the parent of the same sex for the affections
    and pleasures of the parent of the opposite sex.
    • Oedipus complex: boys
    – discovers that his penis is a source of pleasure
    – result: feels hatred, jealousy, and competition toward his father and fears castration
    – resolves the complex by by identifying with his father
    • Oedipus complex: girls
    – penis envy: girl discovers that she does not have a penis and feels a loss
    – loss makes her turn against her mother and develop sexual desires for her father
    – resolves fixation by identifying with her mother

    4
    • Five psychosexual stages
    – Latency stage
    • middle to late childhood: 6 to puberty
    • time when the child represses sexual thoughts and engages in nonsexual activities,
    such as developing social and intellectual skills
    • when puberty beings, sexuality reappears

    FREUD’S FOLLOWERS & CRITICS


    • Carl Jung
    – A devoted follower of Freud until about 1914
    – Disagreed with Freud’s emphasis on the sex drive
    – Believed the collective unconscious and not sex to be the basic force in the
    development of personality
    • Collective unconscious
    – consists of ancient memory traces and symbols that are passed on by birth and are
    shared by all peoples in all cultures
    – Analytical Psychology
    • Jung’s elaborate theory of personality

    • Alfred Adler
    – contemporary of Freud
    – Adler disagreed with Freud’s theory that humans are governed by biological and
    sexual urges
    – Adler proposed that humans are motivated by social urges
    – each person is a social being with a unique personality
    – Adler formed his own group, known as “individual psychology”
    • we are aware of our motives and goals
    • have the capacity to guide and plan our futures

    • Karen Horney
    – trained as a psychoanalyst, her career peaked after Freud’s death
    – dean of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis in New York
    – objected to Freud’s view of women being dependent, vain, and submissive because of
    biological forces and childhood sexual experiences
    – took issue with Freud’s idea of penis envy, proposed womb envy
    – personality development, (women or men) can be found in child-parent social
    “interactions”
    – Horney theorized that:
    • child-parent conflicts are avoidable if the child is raised in a loving, trusting, and secure
    environment.

    5
    HUMANISTIC THEORIES
    • Three characteristics of Humanistic theories
    1. Phenomenological perspective
    • your perception or view of the world, whether or not it is accurate, becomes your
    reality
    2. Holistic view
    • personality is more than the sum of its individual parts; instead, the individual parts
    form a unique and total entity that functions as a unit
    3. Self-actualization
    • refers to our inherent tendency to develop and reach our true potentials.

    • Maslow: need hierarchy and self-actualization


    – Hierarchy of Needs
    • arranges needs in ascending order
    • biological needs at the bottom and social and personal needs at the top
    – Maslow’s hierarchy:
    • must satisfy biological safety needs before using energy to fulfill your personal and
    social needs
    • devote time and energy to reach true potential, called self-actualization.
    • Maslow: need hierarchy and self-actualization
    – Self-actualization
    • refers to the development and fulfillment of one’s unique human potential
    – Characteristics of self-actualized individuals
    • perceive reality accurately
    • independent and autonomous
    • prefer to have a deep, loving relationship with only a few people
    • focus on accomplishing their goals
    • report peak experiences (moments of great joy and satisfaction)

    • Rogers: self theory


    – also called self-actualization theory
    – based on two major assumptions:
    • personality development is guided by each person’s unique self-actualization tendency
    • each of us has a personal need for positive regard
    – Roger’s self-actualization tendency
    • refers to an inborn tendency for us to develop all of our capacities in ways that best
    maintain and benefit our lives
    • relates to biological functions
    • meeting basic need for food, water, and oxygen

    – Psychological functions
    • expanding our experiences, encouraging personal growth, and becoming self-
    sufficient
    – Self or self-concept
    • refers to how we see our describe ourselves
    • positive self-concepts

    6
    – tend to act, feel, and think optimistically and constructively
    • negative self-concepts
    – tend to act, feel, and think pessimistically and destructively.
    – Positive regard
    • includes love, sympathy, warmth, acceptance, and respect, which we crave from
    family, friends, and people important to us
    – Conditional positive regard
    • refers to the positive regard we receive if we behave in certain acceptable ways, such
    as living up to or meeting the standards of others
    – Unconditional positive regard
    • the warmth, acceptance, and love that others show you because you are valued as a
    human being, even though you may disappoint people by behaving in ways that are
    different from their standards or values or the way they think.

    – Importance of self-actualization
    • Rogers recognized that:
    – our tendency for self-actualization may be hindered, tested, or blocked by a variety of
    situational hurdles or personal difficulties
    – Unconditional positive regard
    • we will experience the greatest self-actualization if we work hard and diligently to
    remove situational problems, resolve our personal problems, and hopefully, receive
    tons of unconditional positive regard.

    Discussion Question

    1. How does Id, ego and super ego function in a person when facing a certain
    situation. Give examples for this.

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