Psychoanalytic Perspective

1
Psychoanalytic Perspective

• ultimate cause of motivation behavior is
  derived from a core set of biological drives
• personality changes little after childhood
• pessimistic sex aggression are central themes
• involves dreams, hypnosis, inaccessible memories,
  fantasy

2
Freuds Perspective

• Drives fall into two categories
• instincts for life (Eros)
• instincts for death (Thanatos)
• Human Personality consists of three components
• conscious
• preconscious
• unconscious
• Contemporary Perspective
• wishes, not instinctual drives, regulate direct
  human behavior

3
Unconscious

• Freudian Unconscious
• Complex, dynamic
• Repository for unfulfilled wishes desires,
  childhood memories, repressed experiences
• Dreams function to relieve unconscious tension
• Non-Freudian Unconscious
• Simple, automatic, performs only routine
  functions
• Unconscious has little effect on motivation

4
Methods for Accessing Unconscious

• Hypnosis
• Free Association
• Dream Analysis
• Humor
• Projective Tests
• Errors and Slips of the Tongue
• Accidents

5
Psychodynamics

• 2 Personality Structures in conflict
• Id - obeys pleasure principle
• Ego - obeys reality principle
• Repression
• involves unconscious, unintentional, automatic
  process of forgetting information or experience
• Thought Suppression
• involves conscious, intentional, deliberate
  process of removing a thought

6
Criticisms of Psychoanalytic Approach

• Many concepts not scientifically testable.
• Based work on case studies of disturbed
  individuals.
• Failed to consider social cultural influences.
• Unscientific data collection.
• Psychoanalytic theory doesnt allow for
  prediction.

7
Ego Psychology

• Ego Development
• progresses through stages of independence that
  are increasingly complex
• Ego Strength
• Ego Defense - buffer against anxiety 14
  mechanisms
• Ego Effectance - competence in dealing with the
  environment
• Ego Identity - sense of being a distinct
  individual in a social framework