PSYC 330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: John Bowlby, Karen Horney, Peer Pressure
28 Jun 2018
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Westen's Contemporary Psychoanalysis:
Unconscious still plays a big role but not as primary as for Freud
Behavior reflects compromises in conflicts among mental processes such as emotions,
motivations
Childhood plays an important role in shaping adult relationship styles
Mental representation of self guides interactions with others
Personality development is more than regulating sexual and aggressive feelings. Involves moving
from immature, dependence on others to independent lifestyle
Repressed Memory
Repressed memories can be true or false - we should concentrate on what processes contribute
towards false memories
Imagination inflation - memory is elaborated upon through imagination, lead the person to
confuse the imagined event with events that actually happened
Therapists engage in confirmatory bias - tendency to look for evidence that supports their claim
and disregard evidence that goes against it
Rind CSA effects on adults
Argues that child sexual abuse does not have much harmful effects on adult adjustment
Highly critiqued for going against psychoanalysis and for undermining the effects of CSA
Two issues:
oMethodological -
Only takes into account college students in sample. A lot of people with CSA
might not go to college or drop out
Included mild abuses such as verbal without any sexual contact in CSA definition
that might have reduced the effects of CSA
Included only retrospective self-report rather than observing them
longitudinally over years for their adjustment patterns
oInterpretational -
They said that poor family environment correlates with CSA, so CSA cannot be
the only reason for poor adjustment but they did not see if poor family environment is
caused by CSA
They said the correlation of CSA and adjustment is small but this small can have
major consequences for some people -- statistical significance does not convey clinical
significance
Because their results say that CSA is not harmful, they called CSA morally benign
- shows that for something to be wrong, it has to be harmful which isnt true
NEOANALYTICS:
Constructive Nature of Memory
Spreading activation: Framework of the organization of things. If you activate one thing, it will
activate other associated things
oList of 15 words related to ice cream but the list does not include ice cream. A lot of
people still include it because they associate it and leads to spreading activation
oConstructive memory - memory influences what is recalled
Memories "rebuilt"; vulnerable to distortion - how information is encoded in us and only the
most important is processed and then shifted to long term memory
Implications for repression
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
oLoftus: don't jump to conclusions about recovered memories
Subjects made to read words that are either related to politeness or rudeness and then made to go into
second room where they had to behave in either a rude or polite manner. Most subjects behaved in the
way consistent with the word they read
Unconscious can influence our behaviors
But don't agree with Freud that unconscious can have its own autonomous motivation
Freud: Motivated unconscious
Unconscious can motivate/cause behavior
o"Buy a coke" -> we go buy a coke
oThoughts are unconscious because they are not in our conscious awareness, not
because they are repressed or undesirable
oFreud's unconscious is fierce and has its own rules and impulses, contemporary
unconscious is more peaceful and governed by rules
Cognitive unconscious
Information can get into our memories without our ever being aware of it
oSubliminal perception - something is flashed on the screen so quickly that you cannot
recognize it
oPriming - It makes associated material more accessible to conscious awareness than
material that is not primed
o"Buy a coke" -> we won't always go and buy a coke just because an ad says it
Ego Psychology
Shift in focus away from id and a shift more towards the ego
oIdentity - constraining all sorts of things related to reality, how do we form a clear sense
of who we are as individuals
Identity crisis - desperation and confusion a person feels when he has not
developed a strong sense of identity
oMastery of our environments - physical and social
oSet, pursue, and attain our goals
Erikson's 8 Stages of Development
Big on psychosocial challenges
Personality develops throughout lifespan
Challenges at each stage = social - psychosocial conflicts
Ego plays an important role
Agreed with Freud:
oStage model of development - people go through stages in a certain order
oDevelopmental crisis - each stage represented a conflict that needed to be resolved
oFixation - if crisis not solved, personality development can be arrested
1. Trust vs Mistrust (< 2 years) - if I have needs and I voice them out, will someone help me
with them - mostly towards primary caregivers. If not, develop mistrust, suspiciousness, isolation
2. Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt (2-3 yrs) - learning to be an autonomous being. What can I
control in my environment. Learn to be independent but strict parents that do not give autonomy
can lead the child to feel shame and doubt
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Unconscious still plays a big role but not as primary as for freud. Behavior reflects compromises in conflicts among mental processes such as emotions, motivations. Childhood plays an important role in shaping adult relationship styles. Mental representation of self guides interactions with others. Personality development is more than regulating sexual and aggressive feelings. Involves moving from immature, dependence on others to independent lifestyle. Repressed memories can be true or false - we should concentrate on what processes contribute towards false memories. Imagination inflation - memory is elaborated upon through imagination, lead the person to confuse the imagined event with events that actually happened. Therapists engage in confirmatory bias - tendency to look for evidence that supports their claim and disregard evidence that goes against it. Argues that child sexual abuse does not have much harmful effects on adult adjustment. Highly critiqued for going against psychoanalysis and for undermining the effects of csa. Only takes into account college students in sample.
