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Unconscious Motivation
What did Freud get right?
100 years of Freud
1856-1939 Interpretation of Dreams
published in 1900. Freud started gaining
recognition in 1908 at the first International Psychoanalytical Congress.
Psychology heavily influenced by Freud.
What do we still hold true?
Development of theories
Psychotherapy Current problems
rooted in childhood experiences.
Psychodynamic workings of personality.
Humans driven by animalistic passions.
Negative view of human nature.
Deterministic
Deterministic: ultimate cause of behavior comes from biology and acquired impulses.
These control our desires, thoughts and feelings whether we like it or not.
By puberty, the personality is formed and will change very little later in life.
Motivational impulses of adult can be traced in childhood events.
Motivation happens to us, we don’t choose.
Pessimistic
Spotlight on sexual and aggressive urges. Life is full of conflict, anxiety, repression Carry heavy emotional burdens. Personality on the verge of collapse. Freud viewed these as the reality of life. But must we accept this pessimistic view
as reality?
Psychoanalytic Therapy
Uncover hidden thoughts. Allow them to come to the
surface. Understand real conflicts. Childhood experiences. Psychosexual stages of
development. Some therapist still follow
Freud’s model.
Psychodynamic theory
While psychoanalytic refers to the therapy,
Psychodynamic refers to Freud’s theory about unconscious mental processes.
Unconscious motivation the topic of this presentation.
Why an iceberg?
Dual instinct theory
Motivated by two forces. Eros, life instincts. Maintains life of self and
species (biological drives). Primary emphasis to sex. Thanatos, death instincts. Rest, energy conversation,
total rest is death. Primary emphasis on
aggression.
Role of Aggression
If focused on self, lead to self-criticism, depression, addiction.
Depression is aggression turned inward.
If focused outward, lead to anger, prejudice, hate, revenge and war.
Hostile ethnic joke is an expression of Thanatos.
Modern Psychodynamic Theory
Most psychologists still hold four of Freud’s principles to be worthwhile:
1) Much of mental life is unconscious. 2) Mental processes can be in conflict. 3) The ego matures during development. 4) Childhood understanding of self and
others affect later social relationships. Relationships with childhood caregivers affect adult relationships.
Principle 1: Freudian Unconscious Conscious: all the
thoughts, feelings, memories you are aware of at any given time (this slide).
Preconscious: absent but can be quickly retrieved (your name).
Unconscious: storehouse of repressed memories and wishes (who knows?).
Road to the unconscious
Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.
Unconscious wishes come out in dream content.
Manifest content: Dream’s story line (I live in an unfinished house).
Latent content: underlying meaning, hidden desire that is symbolized in dream (incomplete aspects of my life or personality).
Functions of dreams
Dreaming occurs during REM sleep. REM important for brain stimulation,
particularly in infants. REM important for memory consolidation. Dreams may be brain’s attempt to make
sense of random activity of REM. Also reveal the workings of the
unconscious mind.
Principle 2: Psychodynamics
Mental processes can be in conflict. OCD: people repeat behaviors that they
would rather not (hand washing). Freud reasoned that motivation is complex. Conscious fighting with unconscious. Will Counterwill Ego Id
Role of repression
Freud viewed unconscious as crowded apartment.
Thoughts and feelings want to get out.
Conscious guards the door. May not want to let certain
“people” out in public. Repression keeps unwanted
thoughts out of the conscious. Selective forgetting.
Freud and phobias
Unconscious motivation. Dangerous thoughts just under the
surface (hate/love parent). Strong motivation to block thought. Keep it from public view. Cover dangerous thoughts by obsessing
about safer thought (germs).
Suppression
All thoughts cannot be stopped. Some will get by the door keeper into the
conscious and need to be removed. Suppression not very successful. Difficult not to think of something once it
registers in your conscious. Keep a secret about a friend (or enemy). Can lead to obsession.
Principle 3: Ego development
The EGO: Freud’s greatest idea. Ego means “I” in Latin. My Ego is who I am. My concept of self. Freud thought Ego developed out of
interplay between the ID and Superego. ID wants pleasure. Superego wants the idea.
EGO Develops out the battle. Balance ID and Superego. Impulse versus rules. EGO works through reality
principle. EGO wages an endless
struggle. Life is not easy for the EGO
Superego
Ego
ID
Defense mechanisms
EGO needs to be protected in daily struggles.
EGO develops defense mechanisms to buffer consciousness from anxiety.
Demands of the ID and superego. Impulses and conflicts of conscience. To name a few: projection, denial,
displacement, identification, humor,
rationalization, and sublimation.
Principle 4: Relations theory.
Development of mental representations of self through your relationships with others.
Who you are as an adult depends a great deal on your relationships with childhood caregivers.
Your adult self based on your interactions with the parents and other family members.
Can you trust other people? Do you have feelings of self worth?
Relatedness
Early positive models of self predicts
Self-reliance Social confidence Self-esteem Early abuse or neglect
has negative impact on the emerging self.
Many problems rooted in childhood.
Resilience
Do we have to accept Freud’s pessimistic view?
Studies on resilience show that many people overcome early problems.
May need assistance and encouragement.
Role model (friend, teacher) during difficult times.
Mentoring programs.
Humanistic Psychology
Abraham Maslow Positive instincts to fulfill human
potential. Strong motivating force to do
good. Human growth potential. Be the best that they could be. Self-actualization.
Positive Psychology
Martin Seligman Learned Optimism Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi Flow Humanistic Psychology
with empirical methods.