Chapter 4: p139

Focus Questions

What is classical conditioning and how did Pavlov study it?

Ivan Pavlov is the originator of what is now called classical conditioning, a form of learning base primarily on stimuli that causes reflexes, such as salvation in response to food.

What basic procedures are involved in classical conditioning?

In classical conditioning, the stimulus that naturally produces the reflex response is the unconditional stimulus (UCS), which is repeatedly paired with an initially neutral stimulus until the latter becomes the conditional stimulus (CS). What is learned in classical conditioning is a CS-UCS association; the original reflex response is the unconditional response (UCR), and the response produced by the CS is the conditional response (CR).

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an animal’s natural response to one object or sensory stimulus transfers to another stimulus. This illustration shows how a dog can learn to salivate to the sound of a tuning fork, an experiment first carried out in the early 1900s by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. For conditioning to occur, the pairing of the food with the tuning fork (step 3 in the illustration) must be repeated many times, so that the dog eventually learns to associate the two items.

Chapter 4: Classical Conditioning Phenomena and Applications: p142

Focus Questions

Why is timing of the CS and UCS important in classical conditioning?

Delayed conditioning is the most effective form of classical conditioning. Less effective are simultaneous conditioning and trace conditioning. After conditioning, extinction of the CR occurs when the UCS is discontinued. Allowing time to pass and returning the subject to the apparatus is typically accompanied by spontaneous recovery.

Why is it important for the CS to “predict” the UCS?

The crucial factor in classical conditioning is the consistency with which the CS predicts the occurrence of the UCS.

How do generalization and discrimination work?

Stimulus generalization occurs when a stimulus similar to the original CS also produces CR.

Stimulus discrimination, its complement, occurs when dissimilar stimuli produce lesser CR or none at all.

How does biological predisposition affect classical conditioning?

Biological predispositions are often apparent in classical conditioning. Because of pre-wiring, some CS-UCS associations can be established much more easily that others and some not at all.

Taste aversion experiments provide an example of how biological predispositions affect conditioning. The learning of taste aversion is easy for animals that naturally associate taste with food but difficult to impossible for animals that use other cues, such as visual ones for food.

Experiments:

In the modern view, conditioning can be best explained by the development of expectancies—that is, what animals and humans learn is the expectation that a particular conditioned stimulus (CS) will be followed by an unconditioned stimulus (UCS).

Classical conditioning by past events may account for many of the fears and preferences displayed by human adults—and also for physical symptoms such as unexplained headaches or nausea and the intense desire to return to drug use that is some times displayed by former drug addicts.

• In Watson and Rayner’s “Little Albert” experiment, the loud sound was the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the rat was the conditioned stimulus (CS), and a fear response was the (UCR), and the (CR).
  
• In the experiment on conditioned illness in rats, the insulin was the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the light and syringe were the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the coma was the unconditioned response (UCR), and conditioned response (CR).
  
• In the experiment on conditioning the immune system in rats, the drug was the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the novel taste was the conditioned stimulus (CS), and production of the antibodies was the unconditioned response (UCR), and conditioned response (CR).
  
• In the experiments on conditioning sexual behavior in rats, normal female odors were the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the lemon scent was the conditioned stimulus (CS), and sexual arousal was the unconditioned response (UCR), and conditioned response (CR).
  

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

September 26, 1849 - February 27, 1936

Classical Conditioning was advanced by a serendipitous finding of Ivan Pavlov. The word serendipitous means accidental discovery. Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, was studying digestion when he stumbled on the phenomenon that made him one of the most famous psychologists in the twentieth century. Subsequently, Classical Conditioning is sometimes called Pavlovian Conditioning because it was discovered by Ivan Pavlov.

As a physiologist, it was Pavlov’s ambition to discover the neural mechanisms that control glandular secretions during digestion. Pavlov used dogs as his subjects as he exposed the dogs’ salivary glands and measured the amount of salivation.

Pavlov’s Apparatus: Harness and fistula (mouth tube) help keep dog in a consistent position
and gather uncontaminated saliva samples. They do not cause the dog discomfort. (Carlson, 1997)

Pavlov’s strategy was to study salivary processes in individual dogs over many test sessions. During each session, he placed dry food powder inside the dog’s mouth and then collected the saliva. All went well until the dogs became experienced subjects. After several testing sessions, the dogs began salivating before being fed, usually as soon as they saw the laboratory assistant enter the room with the food powder. What Pavlov discovered was a form of learning in which one stimulus predicts the occurrence of another. In this case, the appearance of the laboratory assistant predicted the appearance of food (Carlson, 1997).

Pavlov designed experiments to discover exactly why the dogs were salivating before being given the opportunity to eat. He suspected that salivation might be triggered by stimuli that were initially unrelated to eating. Somehow, these previously neutral stimuli came to control what is normally a natural reflexive behavior. After all, dogs do not naturally salivate when they see laboratory assistants (Carlson, 1997).

In order to understand what was controlling this unexpected behavior of salivating when the laboratory assistants were seen, Pavlov placed an inexperienced (naive) dog in a harness and occasionally gave it small amounts of food powder. Just prior to placing the food powder in the dog’s mouth, Pavlov sounded a bell, a buzzer, or some other auditory stimulus (Carlson, 1997).

At first, the dog showed only a startle response to the sound. The dog salivated only when the food powder was placed in the dog’s mouth. After only a dozen or so pairings of the bell and food powder, the dog began to salivate when the bell rang (Carlson, 1997).

Placing the food powder in the dog’s mouth was no longer necessary to elicit salivation. When learning took place, the sound by itself was sufficient to elicit salivation. Pavlov, therefore, showed that a neutral stimulus (bell sound) can elicit a response similar to the original reflex (salivation) when the previously neutral stimulus (bell sound) predicts the occurrence of a significant stimulus (food powder) (Carlson, 1997).

Consequently, learning occurred in that there was a CHANGE in behavior due to an association between two stimuli – the Conditioned Stimulus and the Unconditioned Stimulus. This association between the Conditioned Stimulus and the Unconditioned Stimulus is why Classical Conditioning is also called Associative Learning.

Terms Specific to Classical Conditioning

1. Elicit
2. Unconditioned Stimulus
3. Unconditioned Response
4. Conditioned Stimulus
5. Conditioned Response

Elicit: Elicit means to produce, cause or evoke a response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): The prefix “un” means not; conditioned means learned; stimulus means person, place, object, event, or physical energy; therefore, an unconditioned stimulus is any stimulus which does not require learning in order to elicit or cause a behavior.

Unconditioned Response (UCR): An unconditioned response is the response that is automatically elicited, produced, caused or evoked by the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS). No learning takes place when the UCS is presented. The UCR may be a reflex produced by the UCS. Reflexes are simple, unlearned, involuntary responses.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A conditioned stimulus is initially neutral. Initially, the conditioned stimulus is not capable of eliciting, producing, causing, or evoking a conditioned response. After learning takes place, the CS elicits the conditioned response (CR).

Conditioned Response (CR): A conditioned response (CR) is a response that is learned. The learning takes place because the UCS and the CS are associated together. Later, the CS comes to take on a similar capability of eliciting the CR which is similar to the UCR.

Explaining the words “conditioned” and conditional” In the Russian language, Pavlov used the adjective “uslovna” which is more properly translated “conditional” and not “conditioned”. However, with the English translation, the use of the terms conditioned stimulus and conditioned response has become accepted.

Chapter 1 Review:

Introduction to Psychology:

Although the definition of psychology has changed over the years, first focusing on the study of the mental processes, then on the study of observable behavior, today Psychology is the scientific study of mental processes, behaviors and other unseen processes that go on inside the organism.

History of Psychology:

It is important that the history of psychology be reviewed, beginning with the founding of psychology as an independent “scientific discipline” (i.e. formal academic discipline).

1879: Wilhelm Wundt: the first Experimental Laboratory in Psychology (at Leipzig University in Leipzig Germany) and the first school of thought in psychology, Structuralism,

Structuralism: (1^st school of thought is psychology) an approach that emphasized breaking down consciousness and mental activity into structural components and analyzing them individually.

1889: William James established the first American school of psychology at Harvard University, call Functionalism.

Functionalism: an approach that stressed how modern human thought might result from progressive adaptations our ancestors experienced.

Then psychology was influenced by the foundation of Psychoanalysis, by Sigmund Freud
(Psychoanalytic theory 1^st force in Psychology).

Psychoanalysis: Analysis of the unconscious motives and conflicts of patients in an attempt to develop insight into their present mental or behavioral problems.

Then Max Wertheimer established the Gestalt school of thought in psychology.

Gestalt psychology: an approach that examines patterns of thought and behavior, emphasizing the situation or context in which they occur.

Followed by the “shift in focus” in American psychology to the study of observable behavior, resulting from John Watson’s establishment of Behaviorism, and subsequently drawing on the later work of B.F. Skinner.

Strict Behaviorism: (2^nd force of Psychology) an approach that considers only overt behavior to be appropriate subject matter for psychology.

Still later, Psychology was influenced by two of the most contemporary schools of thought in psychology with the emergence of the Humanistic (3^rd force of Psychology) school resulting from the work of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rodgers
(with its focus on the uniqueness of human beings, and the development of human potentialities);

Humanistic Psychology: (3^rd force of Psychology) an approach that emphasizes human values, goals, and desire for growth, fulfillment, and peace and happiness.

And the rise of the Cognitive school resulting from the original pioneering work of Jean Piaget

Cognitive approach: a contemporary trend, based largely on the information-processing model that emphasizes mental and intellectual processes such as learning, memory, and thought.

The Three Types of Research Methods:

The three types of research methods that make psychology a “scientific discipline” are:

1. Descriptive Methods:

   The descriptive methods include:

• Naturalistic and Controlled observation:
  

• The survey methods (3 types)
  

  Surveys are widely used, and typically require selection of a sample of participants (subjects) from a larger population of potential subjects. It is important to know how a sample can be selected so that it is representative (i.e. random selection) how questionnaires are use, and why structured interviews often have an advantage because of elaboration of details that is made possible when good “rapport” is established between the subject and the interviewer.

• Clinical/Case study method (the “hybrid” method)
  

1. Experimental method:

   The experimental method is the research method that meets the demand and conditions required to establish whether a cause and effect relationship exists between two (or more) variables.

• All experiments begin with a hypothesis to be tested, about the casual relationship between an independent variable and a dependant variable.
• If an experiment confirms the hypothesis, the next question that must be addressed is whether the same results apply in other situations.
• There are several problems that can occur in an experiment that can influence or bias the results.
  • These problems can include a bias because of how the experimental and control groups are chosen; experimental bias (i.e. the experimenters expectation influences the participant responses, or the study outcomes);
  • the placebo effect (i.e. the subjects behave according to their own expectations, or predispositions about the outcomes of the experiment).

It should also be noted that sometimes the “controls” used in an experiment make the setting or situation seem highly contrived and unnatural (adversely impacting the outcomes).

1. Correlational method:

   The correlational method is a research method used to analyze research data to determine the relationship between variables (other than cause and effect relationships).

• When a correlation is high, the presence (or absence) of one variable predicts the presence or absence of another variable.
• Psychological researchers have often used a wide variety of test to collect research data, and many tests are used in correlational research.

Research findings are verified by “replication” of psychological studies. If research findings (results) are valid, the replication of the study will yield the same, or very similar, results.

“Meta-analysis” is a method of combining and integrating the results of a number of research studies.

Applied Research:
Refers to scientific study and research that seeks to solve practical problems. Applied research is used to find solutions to everyday problems, cure illness, and develop innovative technologies. Psychologists working in human factors or industrial/organizational fields often do this type of research.

Basic Research: Refers to study and research on pure science that is meant to increase our scientific knowledge base. This type of research is often purely theoretical with the intent of increasing our understanding of certain phenomena or behavior but does not seek to solve or treat these problems.

Behavioral perspective: maintained that psychology should confine itself to the study of observable behavior, rather than explore a person’s unconscious feelings. The behavioral perspective explains mental illness, as well as all of human behavior, as a learned response to stimuli. In this view, rewards and punishments in a person’s environment shape that person’s behavior. For example, a person involved in a serious car accident may develop a phobia of cars or generalize the fear to all forms of transportation

Behaviorism: an approach to the study of psychology that concentrates exclusively on observing, measuring, and modifying behavior.

Biological perspective: Psychiatry has increasingly emphasized a biological basis for the causes of mental illness. Studies suggest a genetic influence in some mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, although the evidence is not conclusive.

Cognitive Psychology: the scientific study of cognition. Cognition refers to the process of knowing, and cognitive psychology is the study of all mental activities related to acquiring, storing, and using knowledge. The domain of cognitive psychology spans the entire spectrum of conscious and unconscious mental activities: sensation and perception, learning and memory, thinking and reasoning, attention and consciousness, imagining and dreaming, decision making, and problem solving. Other topics that fascinate cognitive psychologists include creativity, intelligence, and how people learn, understand, and use language.

Cognitive perspective: The cognitive perspective holds that mental illness results from problems in cognition—-that is, problems in how a person reasons, perceives events, and solves problems. American psychiatrist Aaron Beck proposed that some mental illnesses—such as depression, anxiety disorders, and personality disorders—result from a way of thinking learned in childhood that is not consistent with reality. For example, people with depression tend to see themselves in a negative light, exaggerate the importance of minor flaws or failures, and misinterpret the behavior of others in negative ways. It remains unclear, however, whether these kinds of cognitive problems actually cause mental illness or merely represent symptoms of the illnesses themselves.

Correlational method correlation is a statistical measurement of the relationship between two variables. Possible correlations range from +1 to –1. A zero correlation indicates that there is no relationship between the variables. A correlation of –1 indicates a perfect negative correlation, meaning that as one variable goes up, the other goes down. A correlation of +1 indicates a perfect positive correlation, meaning that both variables move in the same direction together.

Critical thinking: type of critical analysis: disciplined intellectual criticism that combines research, knowledge of historical context, and balanced judgment

Descriptive research:

Double Blind Study
In a blind trial, patients do not know whether they receive the new drug or a placebo. In a double-blind trial, neither patients nor physicians know who is receiving the new treatment. This secrecy is important because patients who know they are taking a powerful new drug may expect to feel better and report improvement to doctors. Researchers who know that a patient is receiving the test treatment may also see improvements that really do not exist.

Evolutionary perspective:

Experimental method:
The experimental method involves manipulating one variable to determine if changes in one variable cause changes in another variable. This method relies on controlled methods, random assignment, and the manipulation of variables to test a hypothesis.
- Control Group
- Experimental Group

Experimental bias

Humanistic Psychology Humanistic psychology was born out of a desire to understand the conscious mind, free will, human dignity, and the capacity for self-reflection and growth. An alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanistic psychology became known as “the third force.”

Humanistic perspective:
Both the humanistic and existential perspectives view abnormal behavior as resulting from a person’s failure to find meaning in life and fulfill his or her potential. The humanistic school of psychology, as represented in the work of American psychologist Carl Rogers, views mental health and personal growth as the natural conditions of human life. In Rogers’s view, every person possesses a drive toward self-actualization, the fulfillment of one’s greatest potential. Mental illness develops when circumstances in a person’s environment block this drive. The existential perspective sees emotional disturbances as the result of a person’s failure to act authentically—that is, to behave in accordance with one’s own goals and values, rather than the goals and values of others.

Hypothesis
a preliminary assumption or tentative explanation that accounts for a set of facts, taken to be true for the purpose of investigation and testing; a theory.

Independent variable the factor that an experimenter varies (the proposed cause) is known as the independent variable and the behavior being measured (the proposed effect) is called the dependent variable. In a test of the hypothesis that frustration triggers aggression, frustration would be the independent variable, and aggression the dependent variable.

Levels of analysis
- Micro
- Molecular
- Molar

Meta-analysis a method designed to increase the reliability of research by combining and analyzing the results of all known trials of the same product or experiments on the same subject

Naturalistic Observation Naturalistic observation is also common among developmental psychologists who study social play, parent-child attachments, and other aspects of child development. These researchers observe children at home, in school, on the playground, and in other settings.

Neuroscience
scientific study of nervous system: a scientific discipline that studies nerve cells or the nervous system, e.g. neuroanatomy or neurophysiology, or all such disciplines collectively 2. molecular and cellular neurology: the scientific study of the molecular and cellular levels of the nervous system, of systems within the brain such as vision and hearing, and of behavior produced by the brain

Predisposition factors
- Dispositional factors
- Situational factors

Placebo an inert substance, such as sugar, that is used in place of an active drug. In testing new drugs, placebos are used to avoid bias. That is, in a blind test, patients do not know if they have been given the active drug or the placebo; in a double-blind test, physicians observing the results also do not know. Placebos may be administered to some patients who have incurable illnesses in order to induce the so-called placebo effect: an improvement, at least temporarily, of the patient’s condition.

Placebo effect
Some researchers suggest that all therapies share certain qualities, and that these qualities account for the similar effectiveness of therapies despite quite different techniques. For instance, all therapies offer people hope for recovery. People who begin therapy often expect that therapy will help them, and this expectation alone may lead to some improvement (a phenomenon known as the placebo effect).

Population

Psychoanalysis a psychological theory and therapeutic method developed by Sigmund Freud, based on the ideas that mental life functions on both conscious and unconscious levels and that childhood events have a powerful psychological influence throughout life.
2. treatment by psychoanalysis: treatment by psychoanalysis, interpreting material presented by a patient in order to bring the processes of the unconscious into conscious awareness

Psychoanalytic perspective psychodynamic perspective views mental illness as caused by unconscious and unresolved conflicts in the mind. As stated by Freud, these conflicts arise in early childhood and may cause mental illness by impeding the balanced development of the three systems that constitute the human psyche: the id, which comprises innate sexual and aggressive drives; the ego, the conscious portion of the mind that mediates between the unconscious and reality; and the superego, which controls the primitive impulses of the id and represents moral ideals. In this view, generalized anxiety disorder stems from a signal of unconscious danger whose source can only be identified through a thorough analysis of the person’s personality and life experiences. Modern psychodynamic theorists tend to emphasize sexuality less than Freud did and focus more on problems in the individual’s relationships with others.

Psychology the scientific study of behavior and the mind. This definition contains three elements. The first is that psychology is a scientific enterprise that obtains knowledge through systematic and objective methods of observation and experimentation. Second is that psychologists study behavior, which refers to any action or reaction that can be measured or observed—such as the blink of an eye, an increase in heart rate, or the unruly violence that often erupts in a mob. Third is that psychologists study the mind, which refers to both conscious and unconscious mental states. These states cannot actually be seen, only inferred from observable behavior.

Random selection Random selection is how you draw the sample of people for your study from a population

Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure. A test is considered reliable if we get the same result repeatedly. For example, if a test is designed to measure a trait (such as introversion), then each time the test is administered to a subject, the results should be approximately the same. Unfortunately, it is impossible to calculate reliability exactly, but there several different ways to estimate reliability.

Replication the process of repeating, duplicating, or reproducing something

Representative sample

Sample

Selection bias

Socio-cultural perspective

Survey method

Structuralism

Functionalism

Gestalt

Psychodynamic

Theory

Validity

I – Sigmund Freud’s Major Hypotheses about Personality

1. Man’s Psychic system:
   

   Is a complex energy system and obeys the scientific law that energy cannot be lost or destroyed, but it can be transferred from one part of a system to another part, and it can be transformed.

2. “The Topography of the mind”
   

   There are three levels or types of mental (psychic) activity:

   1. Conscious:
   2. Preconscious:
   3. Unconscious:

3. “The Intrapsychic System”
   

   The personality structure consists of three subsystems:

   1. Id
   2. Ego
   3. Superego

4. The Psychosexual Stages of Development
   

   There are five major stages of biological-psychological development through which every person must progress if he is to become psychologically mature. Freud called these levels to become psychologically mature. Freud called these levels of development.

   Psychosexual Stages which include:

   1. Oral Stage (Birth – 18 months)
   2. Anal Stage (18 months – 3 years)
   3. Phallic Stage (3 years – 5 years)
   4. Latent State (6 years – Puberty)
   5. Genital Stage (Puberty - )

1. Personality Development
   

Personality develops in response to four major sources of tension. A person is forced to learn methods of reducing tension and this learning constitutes personality development (new modes of thought, feeling, and behavior).

1. Physiological growth processes
2. Frustration
3. Conflict
4. Threat

1. That ego develops methods for reducing tension and self protection:
   

   1. Identification and displacement are used to resolve conflicts and frustrations.
   2. Defense mechanisms are methods that deny or distort reality and that may impede the positive (or mature) development or personality or psychological functioning.

1. The early years of infancy and childhood are decisive in laying down the basic character structure and personality of each individual

II - Criticism of Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory

1. Does not consider the influences of culture and society on the acquisitions of modes of behavior and personality structure.
2. Too little emphasis on the significance of the process of learning.
3. Too much emphasis on the influence of instinct, heredity, biology, and physical maturation on the development of personality.
4. His scientific or empirical procedure for validating his hypotheses had grave shortcomings in it.
5. Psychoanalytic theory is extremely difficult to test through controlled scientific research (it does not lend itself to testing by the experimental method)
6. The theory is “culture bound” and largely a reflection of 19^th century scientific thinking.

I – Structural Elements

1. Topographic Model of the Mind:
   

   There are three levels or types of mental (psychic) activity:

   1. Conscious:
      

   2. Preconscious:
      

   3. Unconscious:

      

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2. The Intrapsychic (Personality) System
   

   The personality structure consists of three subsystems:

   1. Id
      

   2. Ego
      

   3. Superego
      

II – Motivational Elements

1. Theories of Instincts:
   

   There are three levels or types of mental (psychic) activity:

   1. Eros Instincts and Thanatos Instincts.
      

   2. Deprivation Theory of Motivation.
      

III – Developmental Elements

1. The Psychosexual Stages of Development:
   

   1. Oral stage
      

   2. Anal stage
      

   3. Phallic stage
      

   4. Latency stage
      

   5. Genital Stage
      

IV – Psychology of Adjustment and Psychopathology

1. Theory of Anxiety:
   

   1. Moral Anxiety
      

   2. Reality Anxiety
      

   3. Neurotic Anxiety
      

2. Fixation and Regression
   

   1. Deprivation
      

   2. Over satisfaction
      

   3. Trauma
      

V – The Ego Defense Mechanisms (12 of 25)

1. Repression
   

2. Introjection
   

3. Projection
   

4. Denial
   

5. Compensation
   

   1. Direct Compensation
      
   2. Overcompensation
      

6. Identification
   

7. Rationalization
   

8. Displacement
   

   1. Substitution
      
   2. Sublimination
      

9. Intellectualization
   

10. Reaction Formation
    

11. Fixation
    

12. Regression
    

Anal character: Overly concerned with cleanliness and meticulous orderly and concerned with minute detail

Anal stage: Associated with expelling things, toilet training, and pleasure from controlling the muscles for bodily elimination. The child typically learns distinctions between inside and outside, self and other, and is able to realize a sense of power and control through these distinctions (and also ways to deal with anger and aggression).

Anxiety: Psychiatry A state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from the anticipation of a realistic or fantasized threatening event or situation, often impairing physical and psychological functioning.

Castration complex: 1. In psychoanalytic theory, a child’s fear of injury to the genitals by the parent of the same sex as punishment for unconscious guilt over oedipal feelings. 2. An unconscious fear of injury from those in authority.

Cathexis: to be most aware of and attracted to certain objects in the environment; to invest psychic energy in those objects which correspond to the satisfaction of some need within an organism; the id cathects to any object that seems to gratify any need; the Ego invest energy only in real need satisfying objects; and the Superego invest energy in building standards or right-wrong, good-bad, and moral-immoral

Catharsis: A catharsis is an emotional release. According to psychodynamic theory, this emotional release is linked to a need to release unconscious conflicts. For example, experiencing stress over a work-related situation may cause feelings of frustration and tension. Rather than vent these feelings inappropriately, the individual may instead release these feelings in another way, such as through physical activity or another stress relieving activity.

Compensation: An unconscious psychological mechanism by which one tries to make up for imagined or real deficiencies in personality or physical ability.

Conscious: In psychoanalysis, the component of waking awareness perceptible by a person at any given instant.

Conversion hysteria: A disorder involving the loss or alteration of physical functioning, such as paralysis, voice loss, tunnel vision, or seizures, that is the result of a psychological involvement or need rather than a physical illness or disease. Also called conversion hysteria, conversion reaction.

Defense mechanisms The unconscious psychological process that people develop to relieved anxiety.

Ego: (Tharney) the second structure of the personality to develop; represents rational thought, memory, etc,: attempts to conform to the Id’s mental images into objective reality; operates on the basis of the Reality Principle by means of secondary process

Eros Life Instincts: (Eros) such needs as hunger, thirst, sex, all of which strive to preserve the individual and continue the species

Fixation: in human psychology refers to the state where an individual becomes obsessed with an attachment to another human, animal or inanimate object.

Free association: A psychoanalytic technique in which a patient verbalizes the passing contents of his or her mind without reservation. The verbalized conflicts that emerge constitute resistances that are the basis of the psychoanalyst’s interpretations.

Freudian slip: A verbal mistake that is thought to reveal an unconscious belief, thought, or emotion.

Genital character The un-neurotic character who does not suffer from sexual stasis and is therefore capable of natural self-regulation.

Genital stage he genital stage is the fifth and final stage of Freud’s stages of psychosexual development that begins during puberty. During this stage, the individual develops a strong interest in the opposite sex. If the other psychosexual stages have been successfully completed, the individual will develop into a well-balanced, warm, and caring adult.

Id: (Tharney) the oldest structure of the personality; innate and physiologically based; provides the psychic energy for all three parts of the system; knows only the inner world of subjective experiences; operates on the basis of the Pleasure Principle be means of reflex action and/or primary process

Instinct:
an inborn physiologically base need, the which to fulfill it, and the physic energy to do so; together all the instincts equal the personality’s total energy.

Life Instincts: (Eros) such needs as hunger, thirst, sex, all of which strive to preserve the individual and continue the species.

Death Instincts: (Thanatos) embody the organism’s destructive tendencies and potential for self destructive behavior; the aggressive drive is one’s destructive tendencies directed toward others.

Insight: Understanding, especially an understanding of the motives and reasons behind one’s actions.

Intrapsychic conflict A conflict Existing or taking place within the mind or psyche: intrapsychic conflict.

Introjection: The process of incorporating the characteristics of a person or object unconsciously into one’s psyche, often as a defense mechanism

Latent content The hidden meaning of a dream, fantasy, or thought that can be revealed through interpretation of its images or through free association in psychoanalysis.

Libido: A basic energy source in all humans that is directed at maximizing pleasure and surviving.

Manifest content The content of a dream, fantasy, or thought as it is remembered and reported in psychoanalysis.

Oedipus/Electra Complex: The conflict between mingled love and hate for the same-sex parent experienced by boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 6.

Oral character an oral character structure is characterized by traits like greed, dependency, impatience, restlessness and curiosity.

(psychology) A Freudian term applied to persons who have undergone an unusual degree of oral stimulation during the developmental period and are characterized by an attitude of carefree indifference and by dependence on a mother figure.

Oral stage: Associated with incorporation (taking things in), oral pleasure. The child typically knows no boundary between self and other (e.g., mother’s breast), inside and outside, and is defined by a close, dependent link to the mother and nourishment.

Parapraxis A minor error, such as a slip of the tongue, thought to reveal a repressed motive.

Personality Development: the acquisition of new modes of thinking, feeling, and behaving, as well as new modes of reducing tension.

Phallic character The phallic character traits seen in bipolar fashion include: gregariousness-isolation; courage-timidity; happiness-sadness; brashness-bashfulness; vanity-self contempt; pride-humility; stylishness-plain simplicity; flirtatiousness-heterosexual avoidance; chastity-promiscuity

Phallic stage (psychoanalysis) the third stage in a child’s development when awareness of and manipulation of the genitals is supposed to be a primary source of pleasure

Pleasure principle: The demand of the unconscious id for gratification of desires.

In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the pleasure principle is the driving force of the id that seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants, and urges. In other words, the pleasure principle strives to fulfill our most basic and primitive urges, including hunger, thirst, anger, and sex. When these needs are not met, the result is a state of anxiety or tension.

Preconscious The memories or feelings that are not part of one’s immediate awareness but that can be recalled through conscious effort

Primary process: In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the primary process works to resolve tension created by the pleasure principle. Rather than act on dangerous or unacceptable urges, the id forms a mental image of a desired object to substitute for an urge in order to diffuse tension and anxiety.

Psychoanalysis: is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud. As a technique of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis seeks to discover connections among the unconscious components of patients’ mental processes. The analyst’s goal is to help liberate the patient from unexamined or unconscious barriers of transference and resistance, that is, past patterns of relating that are no longer serviceable or that inhibit freedom.

Secondary process: in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the secondary process discharges the tension between the ego and the id that is caused by unmet urges or needs. The secondary process functions through the ego’s action of looking for an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id’s primary process.

Super Ego: (Tharney) the third structure of the pe