In order to learn about theories and related therapies one must be able to understand the various perspectives regarding personality development and behavioral responses and cognitive processes. These include the PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORIES.
Personality and the psychoanalytic revolutionPersonality- defintion: a set of relatively enduring behavioral characteristics (including thoughts and internal predisposition’s that describe how a person reacts to the environment.
THE PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH- Sigmund Freud- Austrian physician,used hypnosis-influenced by Mesmer
Three hypotheses.
- Every event is determined by something previously called psychic determinism- all feelings and behaviors are determined by some past action or experience.
- The present always stands in a meaningful relationship to the past.
- Unconscious desires, goals and internal states determine unconscious motivation- behavior.
Drive Theory from psychoanalytic approach- our behavior is energized by two basic instinct and or drives. - Life-death model.
SEXUAL OR LIFE- Eros, - life drive- sex and sexual energy- libidoDEATH- aggression - includes fantasy.
Drives are never completely pure and the instincts contain sexual and aggressive components.
-Difference between drives and instincts-Instincts- is automatic motor responsesDrives - is a state of central tension and excitation.
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES of personality development -the libido is seen in early infancy
ORAL- ANAL- PHALLIC -ORAL - (0 to 2 yrs) - instincts of infants are focused on the mouth- includes feeding thumb sucking, cooing. - E.g.Freud theory - adults who see world as bitter had trouble with this stageANAL - (2 - 3 yrs) - learn to control immediate gratification from defecation and become responsive to demands of society
- Urination and defecation are pleasurable and child must learn to delay.
- During this stage we develop personality traits related to control (neatness, orderliness etc., which is reflected in toilet training.
PHALLIC (4-7 yrs)- obtain gratification from genitals-become aware of sexuality and repress sexual urges.
- OEDIPUS COMPLEX AND ELECTRA COMPLEX occurs. -
- Oedipal- rivalry with same sex parent and love of opposite sex.
- Eventually accept close relationship between parents-learns to identify with same sex parent and model their behavior.
- Electra- penis envy-realization she has none as adults problems with this state involve sexuality (vanity, promiscuity, worry about chastity- Freud bias-women weaker sex, should be subservient to men.
LATER PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES- LATENCY AND GENITAL
LATENCY (7-puberty)
- Sexual states are inactive (latent)- repressed sexual urges, fears and frustrations.
- Energy is channeled into social and achievement related activities.
- -Some believes this stage has all but disappeared in modern society.
GENITAL- repressed feelings regarding sexuality are once again exhibited. Learn to decrease dependence on parents and focus on members of opposite sex
- Many unresolved conflicts and repressed urges affect behavior during this stage.
Psychoanalytic models
Of the PSYCHIC APPARATUS-
MIND- divided into three parts- conscious-preconscious-unconscious
- Conscious - currently in awareness Propper-
- Preconscious- not currently in awareness but easily retrieved.
- Unconscious- not remembered or repressed- brought to level of awareness with great difficulty-painful experiences and traumas.
Three Structures in the Apparatus- ID- EGO- SUPEREGO
THE ID-
- Comprises all the basic energy within the drives and desires. -Uncontrollable. Unconscious
- Provides the energy we call the libido
- Operates on the pleasure principle.
THE EGO- it seeks to satisfy the id and work s on a reality principle.
- Emerges from the Id and consists of those functions which have to do with the interrelatedness and the environment.
- Develops 6 to 8 months and differentiates itself from the Id.
THE SUPEREGO- moral aspect of mental functioning-conscience (ethics).
- moral precepts
- not found until the age of 5
- is the earliest form of consciousness
- Knowledge of rules of good or bad.
FUNCTIONS OF THE EGO-
- Ego functions during infancy.
- Motor control, sensory perception, thinking, and memory.
- Originally ego is a body ego
- External stimuli- light,sound,heat.
- Ego functions in adult
- Defenses - critical- designed to serve the ego and save it from pain and anxiety.- discussed later
- reality-testing- another critical function- discussed later
- judgment
- sense of reality and sense of self- tells us one’s sense of depersonalization or derealization, self-identity, and self-esteem, and clarity of boundaries between self and the world.
- regulation and control of drives
- object relations-degree to which others are perceived independently of oneself. Object constancy. Significant for pathological disorders in personality formation.
- thought process
- adaptation
- autonomous function- degree of freedom
- synthesizing and integrative function- reconciling of incongruities and active relating together of events
- Mastery and competence. - the capacity to do so in one’s Environment
Reality testing function- the ability to distinguish between realty and fantasy
1. This function is built in very early when the child’s frustration is allowed to exist (when one withholds something and creates tension) and then there is a distinction made between the self and the environment- which also helps build memory2. These delays or frustrations foster goal directed behavior- gives time to imagine and think, and therefore the id can differentiate from the ego.
Defensive Function- the Defenses- they are by and large unconscious ways of reducing anxiety by distorting our perceptions of reality-allows ego to deal with the feelings that the anxiety produces.
Anna Freud says the basic defense is Regression and all others play ancillary role with this defense.Early defenses 1st. year - Introjection, Denial, Fixation, and Regression.
Later defenses after 5th year- Reaction-formation, Isolation, Undoing, Sublimation, Displacement. Projection, Repression, identification. Intellectualization, Rationalization. See text p. 77.
NEO-FREUDIAN - AUTONOMOUS EGO-
Heinz Hartman- sees the ego as having an autonomous component, which has two functionsAnd is conflict free &emdash;very important.
- Executive function (is conflict free and serves as a cognitive function for problem solving- also involves perception, thought and intelligence.
- Synthesizing function- related to drives and mediation.
CONTEMPORARY PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES- theorists suggested revisions of Freud’s theories because he ignored the social and culture.
Erik Erickson- devised the psychosexual stages of development leading towards self-actualization.
- birth to death sequence
- Each stage involves resolution of conflicts in order to move to the next stage or fixations and regressions occur.
- Stages on p.78 figure 3.9 text.
Object &emdash;Relations theory - useful in looking at roles during early relationships in the self-development process. - Early relationships create images or representations of ourselves and others that we internalize or introject and project onto others as defensive maneuvers. - Mahler. Kernberg, Klien.
- The theory greatly applies to borderline personality theory and later family theory.
- Shows how children incorporate the images, memories, and sometimes the values of a person who was very important to them and they attached to emotionally.
- The Object is the important person and introjection is the process of incorporation.
- The object becomes incorporated into one’s ego which thus becomes incorporated into yourself
- When the person experiences a conflict it is because they cannot differentiate themselves from this object due to early developmental deficiencies and thus SPLITTING RESULTS.- i.e. they did not successfully progress through separation-individuation.
PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY &emdash; OR PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY.
Psychodynamic- refers to the interplay between the Id, Ego, and Superego- the role of psychoanalysis is to therapeutically render what is unconscious to the conscious level i.e. make bearable that which is unbearable.
- Many different techniques are used to reveal the nature of unconscious processes and conflicts- use catharsis and insight. - Catharsis is defined as an emotional purging.
- Pure psychoanalysis involves free-association and dream analysis- in free-association the patient is told to say whatever is on their mind without any possible socially required censoring. It usually brings out painful repressed material into consciousness. Dream analysis is intended to reveal Id thinking on a primary level symbolic of unconscious conflicts.
- Often problems such as Transference develop however the therapist uses the phenomena to treat the patient because it reveals unconscious conflicts with significant others.
- Modern therapists use PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY- because many patients are not candidates for the free-association, catharsis, or insight, and need brief therapy in the interpersonal and social world. - Role of psychodynamic psychotherapy is to demphasize the role of personality reconstruction and focus on relieving symptoms.
OTHER RELATED PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORIES AND TREATMENTS.
HUMANISTIC MODEL- includes existential theory
- Behavior is determined by the person’s perception
- Their perceptions allow emotionally effective living
- Their perceptions create excessive desires to meet other’s expectations.
- Rogers- Self theory &emdash; people have innate drive to self-actualize and all experiences are positive or negative from that outlook- Rogers developed Client-centered therapy i.e.- here therapist takes a passive role, making as few interpretations as possible. This will allow the patient to foster his or her own growth. The patient now feels total acceptance and unconditional regard for their own emotions and feelings.
- Interpersonal theories are humanistic- Sullivan- interaction styles of humans become so rigid they become maladaptive. Here relationships are viewed as being so disturbed, that interactions become impossible. Looks at the personality disorders specifically and may best be applied here.
BEHAVIORAL MODEL AND TREATMENTS
Also known as social or learning theories- some even incorporate cognitive theories here but will be treated separately.The theories proposed those specific behaviors; normal or abnormal are shaped by people’s experiences with the world. The behaviorists place special emphasis on how people learn to behave as a result of these experiences.
- Pavlov and Classic conditioning- 1849-1936
- Behavior is based on reflexes
- Unconditioned stimulus-food - tone
- Unconditioned response-salvation &emdash; tone
- Eventually conditioned stimulus;conditioned response
- also can eventually eliminate the conditioned response when you withhold the unconditioned stimulus- known as extinction.
- More recent behavioral theories from psychodynamic and Freudian influences led to operant conditioning theories.
- Operant conditioning- Skinner- 1930’s
- The environmental event (behavioral) that precedes and/or follows the behavior determines the individual’s way of behaving.
- Is a type of learning in which behavior changes as a function of what follows the behavior .i.e. That the behavior is not automatically elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.
- Behavior operates on their environment and changes it in some way .e.g. a boys behavior affects his parents behavior
When shouting at the top of his lungs in a store and probably affects the other customers in some way- therefore he changes the environment which in turn create a situation, which contains consequences. - This could be a reinforcement or reward.
- Reinforcement strengthens behavior &emdash; and can be used to manage behavior when positive not negative such as punishment
- Positive more effective than negative for change.
BEHAVIOR THERAPY 1920’3 to 1960’s
- Alternative to psychoanalytic psychotherapy
Because they believed that psychoanalytic interpretations of psychopathology were not certain- however fails short of explanations of the development of psychopathology
Treatments
- Primary treatment was most effective in treating phobias.
- Systematic desensitization- Joseph Wolpe a pioneering South African psychiatrist. - Individuals were gradually introduced to the objects or situations they feared so that their fear could be extinguished- i.e. they could test reality and see that nothing bad really happened in the presence of the phobic object or scene- reduces anxiety.
- Flooding- over stimulation to extinction
- Social skills training- teaching anxious or socially ineffective clients
- Aversive therapy- - use electric shock, nausea, or imaginary negative aversive events.
- Time out good for treating children- removing from a setting where the reinforcers exist.
COGNITIVE THEORIES - 1970’s
Theorists agreed that conditioning theories paid too little attention to what people THINK about the world and themselves. - I.e. that people actually learn through the way they process information- what they attend to, perceive, think about, and remember as well as conditioning.
Albert Bandura Observational learning. - By observing other people as models. Some premises-
- An individual’s conscious thinking determines their emotions, motives, and behavior.
- Behavior is determined by thinking or perceptions of the person( which can be a distortion of observation)
- Behavior is determined by our goals
- Believe our emotions are based on our perceptions and are not unconscious but based on our judgment.
- Cognition is socially oriented
- Cognitive Therapies- attempt to modify maladaptive behavior by encouraging clients to consider new information and change the way they think about themselves, other people, and the world in general.
- They assume that irrational or distorted thinking largely causes psychological problems. &emdash; What they think about success, or failure, or work etc. may be corrected as a misconception. - Beck- used for depressed patients concerning their pessimistic, self-deprecating, catastrophisizing beliefs.
OTHER THEORIES-
INTERPERSONAL - Sullivan 1950’sLooks at interactive styles of people’s behavior-, which can become so rigid and extreme, they become maladaptive.Thus the treatment would involve helping people to develop more flexible, less extreme ways of relating to others.