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Topics for the Third Exam Theories of Personality -Freud -Adler -Perls -Existential Theories -Erickson -Family Therapy Sigmund Freud -Born in Czechoslovakia, moved to Austria as a child -Family encouraged education, was a very good student -Went to med school to be a Dr., then for Psychiatry to develop theories Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory *very complicated theory, people often misinterpret it due to lack of knowledge* -The project -the book Freud began to write which contained the theory of personality being based upon the nervous system -The book was never finished because he changed his beliefs on the subject, however it did help to improve later theories that he developed -contained the ideas of primary and secondary processes: Primary Processes: the tendency of the nervous system to be active Secondary Processes: when all the activity suddenly stops ex)when you are startled by something -these processes were central in Freud’s theory -the two opposite tendencies caused conflict within -Early studies on hysteria -Charcot was the famous psychologist at the time of Freud finishing school and Freud went to study with Charcot in Paris for a year -During this time Charcot and Bernheim were arguing about the nature of hypnosis -After he finished studying with Charcot he came back and opened his own private practice, he was considered to be an expert in hysteria and ended up working with a lot of people who had hysterical symptoms -Breuer and Anna O. -Freud developed a friendship with Breuer and collaborated with him on developing hysteria theories -Anna was a young woman who was experiencing a number of problems -Ill father, only one who took care of him so she wasn’t in school, had no friends, etc. She developed temporary neck paralysis, various phobias and the inability to speak in her native german -Breuer started treating her by hypnosis and she remembered that when she was younger she got very upset that she saw her dog drinking out of a regular glass (started yelling and crying) (had a phobia of drinking water at the time) -Breuer kept getting her to remember instances like such and she started to get better -Anna eventually fell in love with Breuer, and he rejected her which caused her to fall apart and have a hallucination of being in mid-labor with Breuer’s child. Breuer refused to treat her from then on. -Breuer went and talked to Freud about it and he believed that all the negative feelings she was building up from her life were causing her physical tension -Abreaction and catharsis (1st model of treatment) Abreaction​he expression & consequent release of a previously repressed emotion, achieved through reliving the experience that caused it (typically through hypnosis or suggestion). Catharsis: the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions -Seduction theory Freudbelieved provided the solution to the problem of the origins of hysteriand ​bsessionaneurosi​According to the theory,epressed memory​of an​arly childhoosexual abusor molestatioexperience was the essential precondition for hysterical symptoms. These people became scared of their own feelings and suppressed them in their memory. -Revision of the seduction theory -hysteria was very common at this time, especially among the “respectable” families -this caused lots of suspicion into those families, and caused criticism of his theory -revised the theory, and claimed that these memories were not of real events, but rather vague images of thoughts and fantasies that the person had as child that they weren’t aware of Theory of Consciousness Freud argued that deep down all humans are animals, sometimes even more aggressive than tigers. From this he developed the three levels of consciousness. The Conscious: anything that we are aware of at any given moment The Preconscious: things you aren’t aware of, but can become aware of ex)what you had for dinner yesterday The Unconscious: things we aren’t aware of and cannot become aware of In the Ego -the conscious and the preconscious -this part understands society and keeps the ID under control through repression of the thoughts that aren’t acceptable in society In the ID -needs, desires, and ideas that aren’t acceptable in society that are part of our animal nature -the unconscious Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory -Theory of Consciousness (continued) -Libido and repression of primitive desires Libido: energy that functions ID -Methods of studying the unconscious (can’t study directly) -process of repression relaxes during dreaming (why they are strange) -dreams: highly symbolic, thoughts that are usually kept in unconscious Manifest content: actual content Latent content: what the actual content symbolizes -therapists discuss their feelings and try to relate them to real life -free association: -ask them to report every single thought without holding back -helpful b/c people report seemingly unconnected things that are actually connected -Insight (2nd model of treatment) - Freud changed his theory to start trying to help people understand their feelings -thought that a healthy person has control over their unconscious and the way they express and relieve it, but you have to know yourself and have insight -Studies with normal people: all have primitive desires -at some point all reported similar memories to those who were considered and diagnosed to be hysterical -Need to explain individual differences -normal people have a better way of handling hysteria because they don’t bottle it up and repress it Stage Theory The Oral Stage -food most important -derives all satisfaction through eating and drinking -has no concept of self -develops this concept by learning that the mental image of food can’t satisfy them -fantasy vs. reality=environment vs. self -learns they aren’t helpless (can control the environment) Problems: -if you have an anxious mother who is always tending to their needs, that doesn’t allow the child the ability to learn between fantasy and reality and leads to the child becoming a very dependent person -also possible to have the opposite scenario with an uncaring mother which results in a child who has a lack of trust in people The Anal Stage -about controlling the self -toilet training time period -learns to physically control their body Problems: Strict parents→ child feels like they can’t do anything right Permissive parents→ child doesn’t learn right vs. wrong *results in the child being uptight, rigid, afraid of doing things wrong, don’t trust themselves Phallic Stage Oedipus Conflict -boys discover their bodies and masturbation -become very confused because they’re told it’s allowed, but not in certain instances -they develop the fear that the dad will get angry and he will get in trouble Resolution: -boy identifies with his father and adopts similar characteristics -he then internalizes them and they become the superego Electra Conflict -girls have two identifications -first they have anger towards the mother and identify with their father -this stage isn’t complete because of the difference in gender -the girl then resolves the anger with the mother and identifies with her -she then adopts similar characteristics and internalizes those to develop her superego Instinct theory –Civilization and sublimation Civilization developed because early human societies adopted a new system: instead of hierarchy based on strength they established certain social rules (economic system of exchange, family systems, religions). In order for this to work it was necessary for people to control their animal tendencies. The only way society could become civilized was to satisfy their animal urges in socially acceptable ways given that there was no way to make these urges go away (sublimation: satisfying a primal urge in a socially acceptable way). Ex) simulating competition in safer ways (sports, certain careers) st​ –1​ theory of instincts: sexual and ego instincts 1​theory of instincts: Freud argued that people have two instinctsà sexual instincts ego instincts Sexual: about any kind of pleasure or enjoyment (the desire to enjoy things) Ego: the need to protect one’s own self (self-preservation) –2 ​dtheory of instincts: sexual Freud changed his theory because he realized that those two instincts are somehow related to each other (always balance the other one out)à resulted in just sexual People can experience desire in two ways: in the environment (desire for pleasure) or they can direct that desire towards themselves (self-preservation) *followed during most of his life* rd​ –3 ​ theory of instincts: Eros and Thanatos Freud added to the second theory (two instincts: Eros and Thanatos) Eros: the need we experience as desire (external or self) Thanatos: the desire for self destruction, experience danger (don’t normally experience, not suicide related) If we only had the desire to feel good we’d never take any risks or put ourselves in danger (primitive times and hunting). Transference (3 ​dmodel of treatment) 1​abreaction (getting people to express feelings) nd​ 2​insight (getting people to understand their feelings) Involves experiencing feelings towards a person because that person reminds you of someone else (ex~ feeling angry towards your wife because she reminds you of your mother). More likely to happen if the two people resemble each other, or if the relationship you have with those two people is similar and in therapy with the person’s therapist. Less likely to happen if you can see differences between the two people. Freud thought that was important because: It allowed the therapist to help the client achieve insight by discussing feelings that the client had toward the therapist. (adv. Allowed discussion of feelings at that moment when the feelings occurred in the therapy room, which is much better than discussing feelings that happened a couple days ago {working with a memory of something}). Working in the here and now. Theory of Anxiety: argued that anxiety (fear) sometimes is a normal feeling, even useful. It is normal because it helps us avoid danger almost like an alarm (but only if there is a real danger). Realistic Anxiety: realistic only if there is something in the environment that is dangerous and is threatening the ego (origin is external). Neurotic Anxiety: things that make people scared that aren’t dangerous (ex. Fear of spiders). Anxiety has nothing to do with {the spider}, but something internal. Based on the ID threatening the ego. Free Floating: same as generalized, person feels anxious all the time Panic Attacks: occasional experiences of very intense fear, tend to be unpredictable, not triggered by anything specific. Many people who have these are afraid to do things in case of the embarrassment ​hobias: fear of something specific, people develop phobias in order to avoid having panic attacks (like a coping mechanism, “scheduled” experiences of fear) Moral Anxiety: people don’t experience it as fear, but rather have the feeling of guilt (not something they’ve done, but something they have the intention to do). Arises from the person having the intention to do something (in the ego) and the superego judges the person and that makes the person feel bad. Theory of Depression Mourning: depression is a normal feeling in most scenarios (realistic). Wouldn’t put themselves down, they would just be upset. Melancholia: people get depressed and have no good reason for it. Argued that the difference between normal and abnormal depression is that in the case of melancholia the person also has low self-esteem. **When all people lose something they experience contradictory feelings: love and anger. Love: desire for whatever it was they lost to come back. Anger: angry that what they lost is gone. Identification: when a person adopts characteristics of another person, how people try and resolve the loss, most times unconsciously. **Those who have a weak ego, when they identify with the person they lost they begin to direct all the feelings of anger towards that part of themselves that is the same as the other person Treatment: getting that person to express anger at something other than themselves (the therapist especially). This can be risky because the client could quit therapy out of anger. Alfred Adler -was a friend of Freud's, however they disagreed on theories and didn’t continue the friendship -mainly didn’t agree on the most important need that human beings have Freud: to experience pleasure and avoid pain Adler: to contribute in society, being useful in the group you belong to Social Interest -contributing in society -feeling fulfilled by being useful in your group -thought this was the most important need Problem: we see people who put in effort and try to be useful and help others, however we also see selfish people as well. Theory needs to account for selfishness, why do people become selfish Inferiority and Superiority Complex Inferiority:everyone experiences it from day one (during childhood years) with parents and older siblings with them being able to do more things than they can (maybe physical- overweight, being behind in typical growth and maturation) -If someone feels inferior then they feel that they don’t have what it takes to be helpful and contribute -Child soon develops a desire to compensate and prove themselves from their inferiority (proving superiority) Superiority: competitive, proving themselves: how they develop selfish-ness (nothing but an effort to prove superiority) -most people struggle with this -the healthy person is someone who is not competitive but knows how to cooperate with people and work together with others -if a person who experienced a relationship based on cooperation then they can overcome the inferiority and superiority complex In therapy he tried to develop a relationship with the client that stimulated a cooperative one so they could overcome whichever they felt -client comes in with a mindset of proving themselves and still become competitive with the therapist -focus is to establish the cooperative relationship to avoid the client becoming competitive **Adler’s most important psych contribution: his influence on the way we do therapy (once a week and 50 minutes longà didn’t want clients to experience feelings of inferiority or superiority based on how often/long their sessions were). Also thought that the therapist shouldn’t have a social relationship with the client. **Freud used to meet with client’s everyday of the week without a time limit and developed friendships with his clients. Fritz Perls: Gestalt Therapy Started as a Freudian, later changed his ideas. Did significant work on developing ideas on aggression based on Freud's theory. Decided to separate and develop his own theories. Disagreed on the nature of human needs. Freud thought it was to feel good and avoid pain, while Perl's argued that we have all kinds of needs and isn’t as important to specify which need is most important because they all change moment to moment. Figure and background -Figure: Thought there is one need at any given moment that is more important than others: the need to focus on what occupies our thoughts and what we think is urgent. What is figure can easily change. -Background: the thoughts that are behind the figure that aren’t as important in that moment Orientation -it isn’t possible to satisfy their need unless something is done with their environment (ex. Being hungry and getting food) -depending on the need the person either needs to get something from the environment or get away from the environment Positive and negative cathexis -positive: if the orientation involves approach we experience that as desire, and that feeling of desire is the positive cathexis -negativeà if the orientation involves getting away from something we experience those feelings as negative cathexis Hierarchy of needs -the needs are organized in an hierarchy of importance -after the figure is satisfied then the next most important need becomes figure Gregory Bateson Qualities of the person vs. relationships -claimed that in psych we make a big mistake of trying to explain things we want to explain by focusing on the individual person, and develop theories based on personality qualities, which is a mistake because the kinds of things we try to explain are not qualities of individuals but they are reactions -Leadership is really a relationship between one person who is leading and at least one other person who is following, and if you don’t have that relationship you don’t have leadership -we should be focusing on interactions and relationships rather than personalities Symmetrical and complementary relationships -symmetry: is one in which the two people are both doing the same type of things and behaviors (these interactions escalate) (nothing new happens, it becomes boring) -complementary: the two people are doing behaviors that are opposite, but the one completes the other (leader and follower, no tension because there is no disagreement) Double bind theory -double bind: a way of communicating, you need 2 people who have an important relationship and one must be more powerful than the other (mother and son for ex.), the more powerful gives 2 demands that contradict each other Contradictory statements and schizophrenia -families of schizophrenics use double binds when they talk to each other, and argued that by doing this is causes schizophrenia Criticism of double bind theory -quickly became known that the theory was incorrect because several studies showed that double binds are very common amongst all families, especially when people have close relationships Importance of double bind theory -the theory generated a strong interest in studying families and using their relationships as an explanation for psychological problems Murray Bowen Historical family therapy -psychological problems develop because of the way that family members interact across generations -you have to look at the behavior of various generations of the family -a healthy person is one that becomes independent from the family of origin (emotionally, financially, etc.) and argued that people have psychological problems because they have difficulty separating from the family of origin Triangles -why people have difficulty separating from family of origin -happens every time two people have a problem with each other and a third person gets involved -the third person makes things better temporarily, but in the long run nothing gets resolved and perpetuates the problem -has effect on the third person because they feel that they have an important role to play in the situation and feel responsible for stopping the argument, and because of this feeling they may have difficulty separating from the family of origin -you have to establish a boundary so this doesn’t happen (especially within families) Existential theories Existential theories differ in many ways, but they all emphasize that essence is more important than existence. Essence vs existence o Essence- the way we define something. o things can be the same but have separate existence/history. o Existence sometimes has sentimental value; ex: you have a favorite ring and lose it. It is replaced with another ring, that is the same essence but has a different existence. o Scientists would focus on essence so they can apply theories to the whole group. o Existentialists reject that theory and say that the individual (existence) is more important. Fyodor Dostoyevsky o Science cannot predict human behavior o If there was a theory about all human behavior, humans would change behavior because they see it is a threat to their freedom. People don’t want to feel predictable. o Because of the need to have freedom, there could never be a theory on how humans are going to be have. Jean-Paul Sartre o Did not like conventional ways of classroom teaching; would want to students in cafeteria and talk about everything besides school. o In-itself vs for-itself: in-itself entity doesn’t have ability to make choices for itself, for-itself does. Humans are for-itself. o Anything you do is a choice if you could have done something else; doesn’t matter if its conscious or not. o The only thing humans don’t have the choice in and the only limit on freedom is death. o Self deception: Usually we aren’t aware of the full extent of our freedom and we do things without questioning it. We deceive ourselves by thinking that we have to do the things we do. This reduces anxiety about making choices and weather or not we are making the right choices. According to Sartre, if a person is stressed they are more aware of what is going on and their choices. o Fear of Freedom: some people find freedom threatening because they are afraid of responsibility. If you are fully free you are the “author of your own life”. People don’t like this idea because they like to blame things other than themselves when they run into problems. o Responsibility: we are responsible for everything that happens to us. The way we experience things is the outcome of our actions which are the choices we made and we are responsible for those outcomes. § We are responsible for everything in the world because something could have been different if we chose to do something else. Things are the way they are because we made them that way and we are responsible. Irvin Yalom Denial of death: Yalom worked with terminally ill patients and thought they would be depressed and talked about death but found they talked about things they liked doing and wanted to make most of time they had left. o He argued that most people live in denial when it comes to death. We live under the illusion as if we’re going to live forever, this reduces anxiety about death. o By living like this, we lose sight of the important things and get hung up over meaningless stuff. o He argued that People have psychological problems because they take life for granted and don’t appreciate its importance. o In his therapy he tried to get people to focus on and do more meaningful things. Because we are in denial of our death, we never tell people things we really want to or do things we really want to do Unfinished business -the problem is that life doesn’t work that way and we leave needs unfinished -the unfinished business distracts us from what should be figure in that moment -ex) leaving in the middle of an argument to go to an important class and not being able to focus on the material in class, but rather you’re focusing on the argument still -this lack of resolve results in the accumulation of unfinished businesses that makes it almost impossible to satisfy any needs and the cycle continues on Conflicts -we are presented with situations that involve multiple needs at one time Thinking does not solve problems, it makes them worse -you can’t satisfy a need or solve a problem by thinking -the only way to solve anything is to do something in the environment -because of unfinished businesses people have a hard time resolving situations in that moment Here and now -you can only solve problems in the real situation, not by talking about it afterwards Empty chair -sometimes in therapy a client brings up a problem with somebody and that person isn’t there, the discussion of the problem only makes things worse -because of this Perls developed the empty chair technique -don’t discuss the fight, but rather take an empty chair and place it across from the client and ask them to tell that “person” anything they wanted to tell them -Perls would then say to go to the chair and pretend that you are the other person and answer yourself, and the cycle would continue -did this because he thought it was better to simulate the real situation rather than to talk about the problems **Perls also used to encourage/demand people to only talk about the present moment. He did therapy in groups and focused on one person at a time. He asked them to talk about what they are feeling right in that moment. **Gestalt Therapy: an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people Victor Frankl Logotherapy: -a type of therapy that focuses on meaning, the basic principle is that people have difficulties because of the kind of meaning that they attribute to things (either good or bad) and it is that attachment of meaning that creates problems and overcome problems in life -anxiety is one of the most common experiences that creates psychological problems for people -as the person begins to feel nervous, they attach a negative meaning to the experience -people then begin to be afraid of the nervous-ness (the fear of fearà anticipatory anxiety) -there is a difference between anxiety and the fear of the anxiety that comes from attaching a negative meaning to it -when we attach this negative meaning to anxiety we try and avoid it -people put an effort to overcome the anxiety by being calm and relaxed Hyperintention -causes the person to experience the opposite of what they want to experience -when a person tries to calm themselves and relax, they get more and more tense and anxious -as a result anxiety becomes a vicious circle (this cycle starts because the person attaches a negative meaning to the experience) -it’s possible that this can work not only when you try to experience something you want to experience, but also if you try to experience something negative (if you try to be nervous you can end up being relaxed) Paradoxical Intention -the therapeutic use of Hyperintention -trying deliberately to experience something negative, and end up overcoming that problem -very powerful treatment -depends on whether or not the person truly desires to experience the anxiety -frankl used humor to try and get people to experience the things as funny Milton Erickson Strategic Therapy -not based on a theory -consists of methods to help people change -developed a reputation of being a very good therapist -others have tried to analyze his methods and they have determined that there were certain types of techniques that he was using consistently Symptom Prescription (the same as paradoxical intention) -encourage them to experience the problem -used this method in strange ways -took a patient who fainted around women to a restaurant with him and his wife to try and get him to overcome his fainting, kept telling him when he should faint and the guy never ended up fainting -after that night the guy never had a problem with fainting when he went out on a date -many people thought the guy didn’t have a severe enough problem to begin with -a woman who couldn’t get a job came to Erickson, turned out at some point during the interviews she had the person would become very abrupt and ended the interview, this was because she talked about the little naked men that were dancing on her head - once they started talking about the men during therapy, she realized that the dancing women on Erickson’s head were looking at the men on her head, he played into the scenario and told her to come there before she has her next interview and put her men in the closet and keep them a secret (she ended up getting the job and gradually learned to live without the men on her head) Reframing -consists of doing something to change the meaning that the person attributes to the experiences they have -usually want to do this when a person has a negative meaning that should be positive and vice versa Metaphors -sometimes in therapy it becomes difficult for clients to talk about a certain situation/topic for various reasons (embarrassment, tension, etc.) -Erickson developed a technique to help clients discuss these difficult situations and topics more easilyà in metaphors -by using metaphors, it still allowed Erickson to show them the connection they needed to understand Inexperienced Therapists and Caution -you can do that same thing as previous therapists, but if you don’t understand the person well enough you won’t get the same result Hypnosis -formulated ideas that made hypnosis useful in therapy -very influential, one of the most effective -can’t use it for complex things -you can induce anesthesia through hypnosis (used by hospitals on people who are allergic to anesthesia) -Jefferson Hospital hypnotizes burn victims -has a bad reputation because people don’t think that it’s real and scientific -many think hypnosis is sleep, however the people are awake -people think hypnotized people will do whatever you want, this is only the case if the things you ask are things the person would do under the right circumstances -argued the hypnosis is a common day to day experience (2-3 times a day spontaneously without even realizing it) -it’s a special state of mind where you become open to ideas and info is communicated to you, you don’t realize that it came from someone else you think it’s your idea -the info we receive must correspond with our moral values, otherwise our guards go up