PSYC 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Heredity, Incubation Period, Neuroticism

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Jill Bee Rich

Document Summary

Sigmund freud (1856-1939)emphasized that unseen, unconscious mental forces were the key to understanding human nature and behaviour. Both a theory of personality and therapy for the treatment of personality disorders. *the dominate part played by the unconscious in influencing and shaping our thoughts and behaviour. Freud"s theory assumes a psychic determinism: meaning the view that there is a cause for our every thought, idea, feeling, action, or behaviour. *nothing happens by chance or accident; everything we do and even what we forget to do has an underlining cause. He believed that we do not consciously control our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, but rather that these are determined by unconscious forces that we cannot see or control. He thought of human mental life as an iceberg; meaning the smallest visible part of the iceberg represents the conscious mental experience of the individual. But underwater, hidden from view, is a huge store of unconscious impulses, thoughts, wishes, and desires.