PSYC 2450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Toilet Training, Phallic Stage, Dream Interpretation

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2450
• Professor: Carol Anne Hendry

Document Summary

Characteristics of a good theory parsimony: uses relatively few explanatory principles to explain a broad set of observations. Falsable: capable of making predictions about future events so that the theory can be supported or disconfirmed. Heuristic: builds on existing knowledge to stimulate new research and discoveries. 6 theoretical traditions that have had a major impact on the science of human. Freud(1856-1939)- proposes that we as humans are driven by motives and conflicts of which we are unaware and that personality is shaped by early experiences in childhood. Relied heavily on methods such as hypnosis and dream analysis because they gave indication of the repressing of unconscious motives by his patients. Once these motives of repression were analyzed freud was able to conclude that human development is a conflictual process. Humans have basic sexual and aggressive instincts but must restrain what is natural to us because society dictates that these traits to be undesirable.