APPsych Mod 55

Unit X: Personality

Mr. Bruns

AP Psychology

Unit X: Personality

Module 55
Freud’s Psychoanalytic
Perspective

Freud’s View of the
Unconscious Mind
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Personality

An individual’s characteristic pattern of

thinking, feeling, and acting.

Each dwarf has a distinct personality.

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Psychoanalytic Perspective

• In his medical practice,

Sigmund Freud encountered
patients suffering from
nervous disorders.

• Their complaints could not be

explained in terms of purely
physical causes.

• In his quest for answers, he

“discovered” the unconscious.

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Exploring the Unconscious

• Freud said the unconscious mind is a reservoir of

mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and
memories.

• He used psychoanalysis to retrieve and release

painful, embarrassing
unconscious memories
through free association
and dream analysis.

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Multiple Choice

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting is his or her

• self-esteem.

• personality.

• reality principle.

• hierarchy of needs.

Multiple Choice

By professional training, Sigmund Freud was a

• philosopher.

• sociologist.

• physician.

• literary scholar.

Multiple Choice

Freud became interested in unconscious personality dynamics when he noticed that certain patients' symptoms

• reflected an internal locus of control.

• illustrated a reciprocal determinism.

• made no neurological sense.

• were passed down genetically.

Multiple Choice

Freud believed that certain troubling symptoms could be traced to painful unconscious memories. This led him to suspect that these symptoms resulted from

• an internal locus of control.

• psychological processes.

• an inferiority complex.

• genetic defects.

Multiple Choice

Prior to his use of free association, Freud had encouraged patients to retrieve their forgotten memories by means of

• hypnosis.

• projective tests.

• psychoactive drugs.

• fixation.

Personality Structure
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Freud’s Model of the Mind

•
The mind is like an iceberg.

•
It is mostly hidden, and below
the surface lies the
unconscious mind.

•
The preconscious stores
temporary memories.

Figure 55.1 p. 557

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Freud’s View of Personality

Personality develops as a result of our efforts to
resolve conflicts between our biological impulses
and social restraints.

Figure 55.1 p. 557

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Id, Ego and Superego

The id unconsciously strives to satisfy basic

sexual and aggressive drives, operating on the

pleasure principle, demanding immediate

gratification.

The ego functions as the “executive” and

mediates the demands of the id and superego.

The superego provides standards for judgment

(the conscience) and for future aspirations.

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Multiple Choice

A psychotherapist instructs Dane to relax, close his eyes, and state aloud whatever thoughts come to mind no matter how trivial or absurd. The therapist is using a technique known as

• fixation.

• free association.

• factor analysis.

• hypnosis.

Multiple Choice

According to Freud, the unconscious is

• the thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories of which we are largely unaware.

• a set of universal concepts acquired by all humans from our common past.

• a reservoir of deeply repressed memories that does not affect behavior.

• the personality structure that abides by the reality principle.

Multiple Choice

Forgotten memories that we can easily recall were said by Freud to be

• fixated.

• displaced.

• unconscious.

• preconscious.

Multiple Choice

Freud emphasized that the id operates on the ________ principle.

• pleasure

• identity

• ego

• collectivism

Multiple Choice

Freud suggested that in a healthy person the

• id is stronger than the ego and superego.

• ego is stronger than the id and superego.

• superego is stronger than the id and ego.

• id, ego, and superego are equally strong.

Multiple Choice

According to Freud, the part of personality that represents our sense of right and wrong and our ideal standards is the

• ego.

• id

• superego

• collective unconscious.

Personality Development
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Personality Development

• Freud believed that personality formed during

the first few years of life, which is divided into
psychosexual stages.

• During these stages the id’s

pleasure-seeking energies focus on
pleasure sensitive body areas called
erogenous zones.

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Psychosexual Stages

Freud divided the development of personality

into five psychosexual stages:

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Oedipus Complex

• A boy’s sexual desire for

his mother and feelings of
jealousy and hatred for
the rival father.

• A girl’s desire for her

father is called the Electra
complex.

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Identification

• According to Freud, children cope with

threatening feelings by repressing them and
by identifying with the rival parent.

• Through this process of

identification, their superego
gains strength that incorporates
their parents’ values.

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Multiple Choice

Freud suggested that pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones as we progress through various

• defense mechanisms.

• psychosexual stages.

• free associations.

• identifications.

Multiple Choice

Freud suggested that the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct pleasure-sensitive areas of the body known as

• psychosexual stages.

• the Big Five.

• erogenous zones.

• fixations.

Multiple Choice

According to Freud, the most important erogenous zone during earliest infancy consists of the

• eyes.

• mouth.

• bowels.

• urethra.

Multiple Choice

The Oedipus complex is the term used by Freud to describe

• the erogenous zones that are the focus of the latency stage.

• the passive dependence of someone who is orally fixated.

• children's efforts to overcome feelings of inferiority.

• boys' feelings of guilt and fear of punishment over their sexual desire for their mother.

Multiple Choice

Some psychoanalysts in Freud's era believed that girls experienced unconscious sexual desires for their father during the phallic stage. These feelings, they thought, reflected

• self-actualization.

• an Electra complex.

• the spotlight effect.

• unconditional positive regard.

Defense Mechanisms
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Defense Mechanisms
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Multiple Choice

Which theory would most likely predict that boys raised without a father figure will have difficulty developing a strongly masculine gender identity?

• Gordon Allport's trait theory

• Abraham Maslow's humanistic theory

• Albert Bandura's social-cognitive theory

• Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory

Multiple Choice

Psychoanalytic theory suggests that the ego disguises threatening impulses and reduces anxiety by means of

• free association.

• self-actualization.

• unconditional positive regard.

• defense mechanisms.

Multiple Choice

According to Freud, the defense mechanism that underlies all others is

• repression.

• displacement.

• projection.

• reaction formation.

Multiple Choice

The defense mechanism in which self-justifying explanations replace the real, unconscious reasons for actions is

• projection.

• reaction formation.

• rationalization.

• displacement.

Multiple Choice

Projection refers to the process by which people

• consciously express feelings that are the opposite of underlying unconscious impulses.

• disguise unacceptable, unconscious impulses by attributing them to others.

• retreat to behavior patterns characteristic of an earlier stage of development.

• repress unacceptable impulses into the unconscious mind.

Multiple Choice

Children who release unexpressed anger toward their parents by kicking the family pet illustrate the defense mechanism of

• projection.

• displacement.

• regression.

• reaction formation.

Multiple Choice

Frank refuses to believe that he is addicted to drugs despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He is most clearly demonstrating the defense mechanism of

• displacement.

• regression.

• projection.

• denial.

Multiple Choice

Parents who disguise hostility toward their children by becoming overly protective of them are very likely using the defense mechanism of

• reaction formation.

• rationalization.

• regression.

• projection.

Evaluating the

Psychoanalytic Perspective
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Modern Research & Freud’s Ideas

• Freud offered after-the-fact explanations, which cannot

be tested scientifically

• Many of his ideas have been disputed by modern

research:

 Development is not fixed in childhood

 Gender identity can develop without a same-sex

parent present

 Dreams do not exist to disguise wishes

 Suppressed sexuality does not lead to psychological

disorders

 Stressful situations lead to enhanced memories, not

repressed ones

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