PCN-107 MIDTERM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
3 parts of Freud's topographic model - Answers - Conscious: thoughts you are currently
aware of
Preconscious: stored information that you can retrieve if desired
Unconscious: thoughts, feelings, and desires you cannot access under most
circumstances, although they may be accessed through specific techniques
3 parts of Freud's structural model - Answers - The Id: the raw, unorganized, inborn part
of the personality whose sole purpose is to reduce tension created by primitive drives
related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses. Apparent in infancy. Based
on the pleasure principle.
The Ego: the part of the personality that provides a buffer between the Id and the
outside world. Apparent at 2 years old. Based on the reality principle.
The Superego: demands and values of society. The final personality structure to
develop. Represents values of parents, educators, and society at large. Apparent at 5
years old. Absorbs the values of family and society. Primary tool is guilt.
Defense Mechanisms - Answers - unconscious strategies that people use to reduce
anxiety by concealing its source from themselves and others
Types of defense mechanisms - Answers - 1. Repression: pushing the undesirable
unconscious material out of the conscious thought
2. Sublimation: channeling threatening impulses into socially acceptable actions - can
be socially rewarding
3. Displacement: channeling impulses onto non-threatening objects
4. Denial: refusing to accept that certain facts exist
5. Reaction Formation: eliminating the unconscious conflicts by acting in opposition to
the unconscious desire
6. Intellectualization: handling threatening material by removing all of the emotional
content before it reaches the unconscious level
7. Projection: attributing unconscious impulses to other people rather than recognize
them in the self
4 stages of psychosexual development - Answers - oral, anal, phallic, and latency
stages
Oral stage - Answers - deals with the inability to trust oneself and others, resulting in the
fear of loving and forming close relationships and low self-esteem; oral fixations result
from deprivation of oral gratification in infancy
Anal stage - Answers - deals with the inability to recognize and express anger, leading
to the denial of one's own power as a person and the lack of a sense of autonomy;
parental discipline patterns and attitudes have significant consequences for child's later
personality development
, Phallic stage - Answers - deals with the inability to fully accept one's sexuality and
sexual feelings, and also to difficulty in accepting oneself as a man or woman; Oedipus
complex; how parents respond, verbally and non-verbally, to child's emerging sexuality
has an impact on sexual attitudes and feelings that child develops
Latency stage - Answers - sexual interests are replaced by interests in school,
playmates, sports, and a range of new activities. This is a time of socialization as child
turns outward and forms relationships with others.
Transference - Answers - the client's unconscious shifting to the analyst of feelings,
attitudes, and fantasies, both positive and negative, that are reactions to significant
others in the client's past
Countertransference - Answers - viewed as a phenomenon that occurs when there is
inappropriate affect, when therapists respond in irrational ways, or when they lose their
objectivity in a relationship because their own conflicts are triggered
Free Association - Answers - clients are encouraged to say whatever comes to mind,
regardless of how painful, silly, trivial, illogical, or irrelevant it may seem
Resistance - Answers - anything that works against the progress of therapy and
prevents the client from producing previously unconscious material, or the client's
reluctance to bring to the surface of awareness unconscious material that has been
repressed
Dream Analysis: Freud - Answers - Latent content: hidden, symbolic, and unconscious
motives, wishes, and fears
Manifest content: the dream as it appears to the dreamer
Parapraxes - Answers - exploration of jokes, errors of speech, slips of the tongue, or
other subtle behaviors that reveal unconscious content; "Freudian slips"
Primary differences between psychoanalytic, analytic and individual therapy - Answers -
all had a different theory of biological influences; Freud: biological and instinctual drives;
Jung: no biological influences, no blank slate, and not capable of free choice; Adler:
past events influence one's behavior.
Freud was the only one who focused on the psychosexual stages.
Psychodynamic strengths and weaknesses - Answers - strengths: focused on the
effects that childhood experiences have on the developing personality, takes both
nature and nurture into account
weaknesses: the assumptions can not be scientifically measured or proved wrong,
deterministic; suggests that behavior is predetermined and people do not have free will.
3 parts of Freud's topographic model - Answers - Conscious: thoughts you are currently
aware of
Preconscious: stored information that you can retrieve if desired
Unconscious: thoughts, feelings, and desires you cannot access under most
circumstances, although they may be accessed through specific techniques
3 parts of Freud's structural model - Answers - The Id: the raw, unorganized, inborn part
of the personality whose sole purpose is to reduce tension created by primitive drives
related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses. Apparent in infancy. Based
on the pleasure principle.
The Ego: the part of the personality that provides a buffer between the Id and the
outside world. Apparent at 2 years old. Based on the reality principle.
The Superego: demands and values of society. The final personality structure to
develop. Represents values of parents, educators, and society at large. Apparent at 5
years old. Absorbs the values of family and society. Primary tool is guilt.
Defense Mechanisms - Answers - unconscious strategies that people use to reduce
anxiety by concealing its source from themselves and others
Types of defense mechanisms - Answers - 1. Repression: pushing the undesirable
unconscious material out of the conscious thought
2. Sublimation: channeling threatening impulses into socially acceptable actions - can
be socially rewarding
3. Displacement: channeling impulses onto non-threatening objects
4. Denial: refusing to accept that certain facts exist
5. Reaction Formation: eliminating the unconscious conflicts by acting in opposition to
the unconscious desire
6. Intellectualization: handling threatening material by removing all of the emotional
content before it reaches the unconscious level
7. Projection: attributing unconscious impulses to other people rather than recognize
them in the self
4 stages of psychosexual development - Answers - oral, anal, phallic, and latency
stages
Oral stage - Answers - deals with the inability to trust oneself and others, resulting in the
fear of loving and forming close relationships and low self-esteem; oral fixations result
from deprivation of oral gratification in infancy
Anal stage - Answers - deals with the inability to recognize and express anger, leading
to the denial of one's own power as a person and the lack of a sense of autonomy;
parental discipline patterns and attitudes have significant consequences for child's later
personality development
, Phallic stage - Answers - deals with the inability to fully accept one's sexuality and
sexual feelings, and also to difficulty in accepting oneself as a man or woman; Oedipus
complex; how parents respond, verbally and non-verbally, to child's emerging sexuality
has an impact on sexual attitudes and feelings that child develops
Latency stage - Answers - sexual interests are replaced by interests in school,
playmates, sports, and a range of new activities. This is a time of socialization as child
turns outward and forms relationships with others.
Transference - Answers - the client's unconscious shifting to the analyst of feelings,
attitudes, and fantasies, both positive and negative, that are reactions to significant
others in the client's past
Countertransference - Answers - viewed as a phenomenon that occurs when there is
inappropriate affect, when therapists respond in irrational ways, or when they lose their
objectivity in a relationship because their own conflicts are triggered
Free Association - Answers - clients are encouraged to say whatever comes to mind,
regardless of how painful, silly, trivial, illogical, or irrelevant it may seem
Resistance - Answers - anything that works against the progress of therapy and
prevents the client from producing previously unconscious material, or the client's
reluctance to bring to the surface of awareness unconscious material that has been
repressed
Dream Analysis: Freud - Answers - Latent content: hidden, symbolic, and unconscious
motives, wishes, and fears
Manifest content: the dream as it appears to the dreamer
Parapraxes - Answers - exploration of jokes, errors of speech, slips of the tongue, or
other subtle behaviors that reveal unconscious content; "Freudian slips"
Primary differences between psychoanalytic, analytic and individual therapy - Answers -
all had a different theory of biological influences; Freud: biological and instinctual drives;
Jung: no biological influences, no blank slate, and not capable of free choice; Adler:
past events influence one's behavior.
Freud was the only one who focused on the psychosexual stages.
Psychodynamic strengths and weaknesses - Answers - strengths: focused on the
effects that childhood experiences have on the developing personality, takes both
nature and nurture into account
weaknesses: the assumptions can not be scientifically measured or proved wrong,
deterministic; suggests that behavior is predetermined and people do not have free will.
