PSYC 1115 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sigmund Freud, Unconscious Cognition, Psychodynamics
2 Nov 2018
School
Department
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Professor
PSYC 102 7- Personality2 Jan 17, 18
Origins: Freud and Psychoanalysis
- Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist
- His psychodynamic theory was revolutionary and influential both within psychology and
beyond
- He never thought his theory was scientific
- He got more wrong than right; understanding his theory is important for many modern
theories
- Many aspects of our cognition are not conscious:
o Heart beat
o Visual system
o Riding a bike
o Having a morning routine
Unconscious cognition: aspects of our cognition that are automatic and that we have no
awareness of
o Having unconscious cognition is a good thing: it removes the need for us to think
about every aspect of our perceptions, actions etc.
Freud re-conceptualized and significantly extended the idea of unconscious cognition:
o It is richer than we think
o It drives all behaviour: according to Freud, most of what we are aware of is just a
by-product of what happens in our unconscious
o ^ these are radical ideas; imply that most of the time we have no idea why we
want/don’t want something, or why we act in one way or another
According to Freud, our mind is made up of three separate “systems” that work
independently and according to their own special set of rules:
o Id: the unconscious system present at birth that is the source of our bodily
needs, desires, and impulses (especially aggression and sex)
o Superego: the unconscious system that develops through punishment and
cultural experience and tells us what we cannot do, operating primarily through
guilt
o Ego: only system where we have any conscious access to- that is in contact with
the real world and tries to find a balance between the id’s wants and superego’s
rules
o ^ these are NOT rational processes
- Freud believed that the ego and superego slowly form over development from birth
until childhood
Psychosexual stages: developmental stages that from personality
o in each stage, the child experiences pleasure for specific body areas and
caregivers either provide/interfere with those pleasures
o every person goes through all the stages in the same order
