Personality Psychology

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Psychoanalytic approaches to personality: Modern

Chapter Outline

Psychoanalytic Approaches: Contemporary Issues

Introduction

Although many of Freud's ideas have not stood the test of time, others have, and have been incorporated into the contemporary version of psychoanalysis
Today, psychoanalysis is best thought of as a theory containing ideas inspired by Freud, but modified and advanced by others
Psychoanalysts no longer write much about id, superego, or repressed sexuality, nor do they liken treatment to archaeological expedition in search of forgotten memories
Instead, psychoanalysts today focus on childhood relationships and adult conflicts with others
Contemporary psychoanalyst Drew Westen argues that contemporary psychoanalysis is based on five postulates

Unconscious plays a large role in life, but is not the ubiquitous influence Freud held it was
Behavior reflects compromises in conflict between mental processes
Childhood plays an important role in personality development, particularly in shaping adult relationship styles
Mental representations of self and others guide interactions with others
Personality development involves not just regulating sexual and aggressive feelings, but also moving from an immature socially dependent way of relating to others to a mature independent relationship style

Courts determined that the recovered memory of alleged sexual abuse was false, encouraged by therapist

Memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus argues that we should not conclude that all recovered memories are false, just because some are apparently false
Also, we should not assume that all recovered memories are true, just because some are true
Loftus argues that we must be aware of processes that contribute to the construction of false memories

Some therapists tell patients that getting better hinges on their ability to recover forgotten memory
Confirmatory bias: Tendency to look only for evidence that confirms belief, and not to look for evidence that disconfirms

Loftus notes that independent corroborating evidence should be sought to substantiate memories of trauma

Spreading activation model of memory: Mental elements are stored in memory along with associations to other elements in memory
Most modern cognitive psychologists believe that false memories can occur
Humans have a constructive memory—i.e., memory influences in various ways what is recalled
Research on mistakes of recognition on word lists help us understand dramatic false memories of, e.g., childhood abuse

Cognitive unconscious versus motivated unconscious
Subliminal perception
Priming
Research on subliminal perception indicates that unconscious information does not influence people's motivations

Ego Psychology

Ego involved in mastering the environment, achieving goals, establishing identity
Establishing secure identity (sense of self) is a primary function of ego
Difficulty establishing identity produces identity crisis

Revised theory of penis envy: Penis is a symbol of social power rather than an organ that women actually desire to have
Highlighted the influence of the culture on personality development
"Fear of success": Accounts for gender difference in response to competition and achievement situations

Ego psychology emphasizes the role of identity, which is experienced by a person as a sense of self
Narcissism: Inflated self-admiration and constant attempts to draw attention to self and keep others focused on self
Narcissistic paradox: Although the narcissist appears high in self-esteem, he or she has doubts about his or her worth as a person

Object Relations Theory

Internal wishes, desires, urges of child not as important as developing relationships with significant others, especially parents
Others, particularly the mother, become internalized by the child in the form of mental objects
First social attachments that infant develops form prototypes for all future meaningful relationships

Research by Harlow on infant monkeys
Attachment
Separation anxiety
Ainsworth: Strange situation procedure for studying attachment
Three attachment patterns in infants: Secure, avoidant, and ambivalent
Bowlby and others: Early attachment experiences and reactions of the infant to parents, especially the mother, form "working models" for later adult relationships
Working models are internalized in the form of unconscious expectations about relationships

Investigation of whether the attachment style developed in childhood is related to adult romantic relationship style
Hazan and Shaver (1987)—Three relationship styles

Object relations theory predicts that children of divorce will have difficulties forming their own intimate relationships later in life
Wallerstein and others argue that evidence supports the object relations theory prediction—children of divorce have trouble with adult romantic relationships
Others argue that the evidence is not clear

Summary and Evaluation

Material in chapter is designed to give a balanced approach to false memories—while repressed memories can occur, not all are truly cases of forgotten memories
Contemporary psychoanalysts focus on interpersonal patterns of behavior and accompanying emotions and motivations
Contemporary psychoanalysts view personality as the result of resolving a series of social crises and an ensuing movement toward more mature forms of relating to others

Contemporary psychoanalysis is connected to empirical studies

2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education

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