FREUDIAN S L I P S

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FREUDIAN S L I P S

• OOPS! I really didnt mean to say that.

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NY Times

• Apartment for rent. Appliances included.
• Located near downtown nice neighborhood. Weekly
  rats available.

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Oops!

• The president of the Austrian parliament opens a
  session by thundering, I declare this meeting
  closed!

4
Oops!

• In answering his phone, a preoccupied business
  executive picks up the receiver and bellows,
  Come in!

5
Oops!

• At a copying machine, a secretary counts copies
  eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, king

6
Oops!

• A jogger, just finishing her run, tosses her
  shirt into the toilet instead of the laundry
  hamper!

7
Oops!

• A student was writing his heading on his paper
  and, instead of writing Intro to Lit., he wrote
  Intro toilet.

8
Oops!

• A car salesman said to a prospective buyer Oh
  yes, this car gets great cash mileage, I mean gas
  mileage!

9
Oops!

• Hello, Mrs. Jones, I like your fat, I mean your
  hat!

10
Freudian Slips

• Freud believed that such slips were motivated by
  unconscious conflicts
• A hidden motive could presumably be found for
  even the most harmless mistake if it were
  investigated with psychoanalytic methods
• Such slips are an expression of unconscious
  motives or desires regarding the person or
  situation

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Freudian Slips Today

• Modern cognitive psychologists favor a more
  stringent definition
• Slips are a natural by-product of how our minds
  process information and direct action
• The single most common type of slip seems to
  involve the intrusion of a strong habit

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Freudian Slips Today

• An activity that is more familiar is more
  frequent, or has been recently performed
  interferes with the intended behavior (the
  secretary at the copier had been playing cards on
  her lunch break) this is called a capture error

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Capture Error

• Psychologist Donald Norman Pass too near a
  well-formed habit and it will capture your
  behavior.
• If the habit is strong enough, even cues that
  only partially match the situation in which it
  usually occurs are likely to activate it, like
  the absent minded person who went to the bedroom
  to dress for dinner but instead put on his
  pajamas and got into bed.

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Capture Error

• Most actions are carried out automatically by
  subconscious mechanisms
• The conscious level makes a general selection
  the actual execution of the intended act occurs
  without further thought or reflection
• Such mental laziness is typically beneficial,
  allowing for resources to be used for more
  important things. Occasionally, however, we may
  forget whether we have performed the action

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Preventing S L I P S

• The critical factor ATTENTION!!
• When attention lags, a competing response is more
  likely to replace the intended one
• We may decide not to take another bite of a
  delicious but calorie-laden cake but, after a
  brief lapse, the cake somehow is eaten anyway!