Clinical Psychology (EPPP) Questions
and Answers.
Clinical Psychology -
\- the study, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological and behavioral disorders
Assumptions of Psychodynamic Therapies -
\- human behavior is motivated by unconscious processes
- early development has a profound effect on adult functioning
- universal principles explain personality development and behavior
- insight into unconscious processes is a key component of therapy
Freudian Psychoanalysis -
\- human beings are determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations, biological
and instinctual needs and drives, and psychosexual events that occur during the first
five years of life
Freud's Personality Theory -
\- composed of two theories: structural (drive) theory and developmental theory
Structural Theory
(Freud) -
\- the personality is composed of three structures: the id, ego, and superego
Id -
\- present at birth and consists of the person's life and death instincts
- operates on pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of its instinctual
drives in order to avoid tension
Ego -
\- develops at six months of age
- operates ont eh reality principle that defers gratifcation until an appropriate object is
available in reality and employs thinking
- mediates conflicting demands of pleasure and reality
Superego -
\- develops between four and five years
- represents an internalization of society's values and standards
- attempts to permanently block socially unacceptable drives
Developmental Theory
(Freud) -
,\- emphasizes the sexual drives of the id and proposes that an individual's personality is
formed during childhood as a result of certain experiences during psychosexual stages
of development
- over or undergratification of a person's sexual needs during a stage is associated with
different personality outcomes
Oral Stage -
\- Freud's first stage of personality development, from birth to about age 2, during which
the instincts of infants are focused on the mouth as the primary pleasure center.
Anal Stage -
\- Freud's second stage of psychosexual development where the primary sexual focus is
on the elimination or holding onto feces. The stage is often thought of as representing a
child's ability to control his or her own world.
Phallic Stage -
\- Freud's third stage of personality development, from about age 4 through age 7,
during which children obtain gratification primarily from the genitals.
Latency Stage -
\- Freud's fourth stage of psychosexual development where sexuality is repressed in the
unconscious and children focus on identifying with their same sex parent and interact
with same sex peers.
Genital Stage -
\- Freud's last stage of personality development, from the onset of puberty through
adulthood, during which the sexual conflicts of childhood resurface (at puberty) and are
often resolved during adolescence).
Defense Mechanisms -
\- occur when the ego is unable to ward off danger through rational, realistic means
- these operate on an unconscious level and deny or distort reality
(danger or anxiety helps alert the ego to impending threats, such as conflict between
the id and the superego)
Repression -
\- defense mechanism in which id's drives are excluded from conscious awareness by
maintaining them in the unconscious
Reaction Formation -
\- defense mechanism in which one avoids an anxiety evoking instict by doing the
opposite
View of Psychopathology
(Freudian) -
, \- maladaptive behavior results from an unconscious, unresolved conflict that occurred
during childhood
Psychoanalytic Therapy -
\- goal is to reduce symptoms by bringing the unconscious into conscious awareness
and integrating previously repressed material into the personality
- use free associations, dreams, resistances, and transferences to confront, clarify,
interpret, and work through
Free Associations -
\- a method in psychotherapy where a patient is encouraged to sit back, relax, free
his/her mind, refrain from trying to be logical, and report every image or idea that enters
his/her awareness, usually in response to some word or picture that the therapist
provides as an initial stimulus
Psychic Determinism -
\- belief that all behaviors are meaningful and serve some psychological function
- ex slips of tongue (parapraxes) are expressions of unconscious motives
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Confrontation -
\- making statements that help the client see her behavior in a new way
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Clarification -
\- restating the client's remarks and feelings in clearer terms
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Interpretation -
\- more explicitly connecting current behavior to unconscious processes
- more effective when they address motives and conflicts that are close to
consciousness
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Working Through -
\- following cathartic release of recalling unconscious materials that contribute to
behavior, client gradually assimilates new insights into his personality
- longest stage of therapy
Transference -
\- patient's response to the therapist's actual behavior and attempt to imbue that
behavior with personal meaning
Countertransference -
\- not just the therapist's distorted response to the patient, but a potential source of
information about the patient and contributor to the curative process
and Answers.
Clinical Psychology -
\- the study, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological and behavioral disorders
Assumptions of Psychodynamic Therapies -
\- human behavior is motivated by unconscious processes
- early development has a profound effect on adult functioning
- universal principles explain personality development and behavior
- insight into unconscious processes is a key component of therapy
Freudian Psychoanalysis -
\- human beings are determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations, biological
and instinctual needs and drives, and psychosexual events that occur during the first
five years of life
Freud's Personality Theory -
\- composed of two theories: structural (drive) theory and developmental theory
Structural Theory
(Freud) -
\- the personality is composed of three structures: the id, ego, and superego
Id -
\- present at birth and consists of the person's life and death instincts
- operates on pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of its instinctual
drives in order to avoid tension
Ego -
\- develops at six months of age
- operates ont eh reality principle that defers gratifcation until an appropriate object is
available in reality and employs thinking
- mediates conflicting demands of pleasure and reality
Superego -
\- develops between four and five years
- represents an internalization of society's values and standards
- attempts to permanently block socially unacceptable drives
Developmental Theory
(Freud) -
,\- emphasizes the sexual drives of the id and proposes that an individual's personality is
formed during childhood as a result of certain experiences during psychosexual stages
of development
- over or undergratification of a person's sexual needs during a stage is associated with
different personality outcomes
Oral Stage -
\- Freud's first stage of personality development, from birth to about age 2, during which
the instincts of infants are focused on the mouth as the primary pleasure center.
Anal Stage -
\- Freud's second stage of psychosexual development where the primary sexual focus is
on the elimination or holding onto feces. The stage is often thought of as representing a
child's ability to control his or her own world.
Phallic Stage -
\- Freud's third stage of personality development, from about age 4 through age 7,
during which children obtain gratification primarily from the genitals.
Latency Stage -
\- Freud's fourth stage of psychosexual development where sexuality is repressed in the
unconscious and children focus on identifying with their same sex parent and interact
with same sex peers.
Genital Stage -
\- Freud's last stage of personality development, from the onset of puberty through
adulthood, during which the sexual conflicts of childhood resurface (at puberty) and are
often resolved during adolescence).
Defense Mechanisms -
\- occur when the ego is unable to ward off danger through rational, realistic means
- these operate on an unconscious level and deny or distort reality
(danger or anxiety helps alert the ego to impending threats, such as conflict between
the id and the superego)
Repression -
\- defense mechanism in which id's drives are excluded from conscious awareness by
maintaining them in the unconscious
Reaction Formation -
\- defense mechanism in which one avoids an anxiety evoking instict by doing the
opposite
View of Psychopathology
(Freudian) -
, \- maladaptive behavior results from an unconscious, unresolved conflict that occurred
during childhood
Psychoanalytic Therapy -
\- goal is to reduce symptoms by bringing the unconscious into conscious awareness
and integrating previously repressed material into the personality
- use free associations, dreams, resistances, and transferences to confront, clarify,
interpret, and work through
Free Associations -
\- a method in psychotherapy where a patient is encouraged to sit back, relax, free
his/her mind, refrain from trying to be logical, and report every image or idea that enters
his/her awareness, usually in response to some word or picture that the therapist
provides as an initial stimulus
Psychic Determinism -
\- belief that all behaviors are meaningful and serve some psychological function
- ex slips of tongue (parapraxes) are expressions of unconscious motives
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Confrontation -
\- making statements that help the client see her behavior in a new way
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Clarification -
\- restating the client's remarks and feelings in clearer terms
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Interpretation -
\- more explicitly connecting current behavior to unconscious processes
- more effective when they address motives and conflicts that are close to
consciousness
Psychoanalytic Therapy:
Working Through -
\- following cathartic release of recalling unconscious materials that contribute to
behavior, client gradually assimilates new insights into his personality
- longest stage of therapy
Transference -
\- patient's response to the therapist's actual behavior and attempt to imbue that
behavior with personal meaning
Countertransference -
\- not just the therapist's distorted response to the patient, but a potential source of
information about the patient and contributor to the curative process
