PSYCH101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 45: The Emotions, Oedipus Complex, Information Processing

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Richard Ennis

Document Summary

Free association: method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing. Psychoanalysis: freud"s theory of personality that attributes throughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts, seeking to expose and interpret conscious tensions. Unconscious: reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings and memories. Some of these thoughts we store in preconscious area which retrieve later into conscious awareness. Id: contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. Operates on the pleasure principle demanding immediate gratification. Ego: largely conscious executive part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id, superego and reality. Operates on reality principle satisfying the id"s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain. Superego: part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations (how we ought to behave)