Applied Behavior Analysis 1: Principles, Assessment, and Analysis

Sigmund Freuds Life

Early Late
- He believed childhood experiences plays a big role - The idea that sexual seduction by parental figures
in ones personality. was a fantasy began to displace his theory that
- Transference, the patients displacement in to the actual seduction was a pivotal pathogenic factor in
analyst of early wishes and feelings. neuroses.
- Example, Patient A, grew up with strict and - Moreover, some of his patients reports of abuse
controlling parents and associate it with his sound so fantastic that it became difficult for him
psychiatrist thus, he is resistant to the physician. distinguish truth from fiction. (False Memory
- Through Sigmunds experiment using abreaction Syndrome)
and catharsis, he learned that his patients are False Memory Syndrome patients have vivid
unwilling to share their memories. memories of past occurrences which are
Abreaction expression and consequent actually false but they believe it to be true.
release of a previously repressed emotion, it is
achieved through reliving the experience that
caused it.
Catharsis emotions associated with
traumatic experience come to the surface.
- It is associated with the elimination of
negative emotions affect with
unacknowledged trauma.
- A process of venting aggression as a way to
get rid of emotions.
- According to him, the cause of resistance is by
largely unconscious active forces in the patients
mind. Sigmund described this active process as
repression.
Repression the processing of forcing thoughts
into the unconscious and preventing painful
thoughts from entering the consciousness.
- Because of resistance and repression of his
patients. Freud left his old methods and switched
to free association.
Free Association a technique to help patients
learn more about what theyre thinking and
feeling.
- Freuds treatment of patients convinced him that
childhood sexual seduction played a major role in
causing memories.
 Applied Behavior Analysis 1: Principles, Assessment, and Analysis

Freuds Personality Factors

Three Levels of Awareness:
Conscious: perceptions coming from the outside world or from
within the body or mind are brought into awareness. It is
where we are paying attention at the moment. Consciousness
used a form of neutralized energy attention cathexis.

Preconscious (subconscious): mental events, process and

contents that can be brought into conscious awareness by the
act of focusing attention. It also serves to maintain the
repressive barrier and to censor unacceptable wishes and
desires.

Unconscious: mental contents and processes are kept from conscious awareness through the
force of censorship or regression. It is characterized by primary process thinking, which aimed at
facilitating wish fulfillments and instinctual discharge. It is also characterized by extreme mobility
of drive cathexis.

ID, EGO and Super ego:

Id: it is a reservoir of unorganized instinctual drives.
It is the impulsive part of our psyche which
responds directly and immediately to the instincts.
Id demands IMMEDIATE satisfaction. Id operates
on the pleasure principle, which is the idea that
every wishful impulse should be satisfied quickly.

Ego: It spans all the 3 levels of awareness. Logical

and abstract thinking and verbal expression are
associated with conscious and preconscious
functions of ego. Ego is the executive organ of the
psyche, controls motility, perception, contact with
reality and the delay and modulation of drive expression. Ego develops in order to mediate
between Id and superego. If the ego fails in its attempt to use reality principle, and anxiety is
experienced, unconscious defense mechanisms are employed to ward off unpleasant feelings.

Super ego: Establishes and maintain an individuals moral conscience. Freud viewed this as the
heir of Oedipus Complex. It dictates what a person shouldnt do. The function of super ego is to
control ids impulses, especially those which is society forbids. The super ego is consisting of 2
systems: conscience, can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt and ideal self, an
imaginary picture of how you ought to be, such as how to treat others and how to behave as a
member of society.

Key term used:

Cathexis a conscious or unconscious investment of psychic energy as an idea, concept, or person. It is used to describe as
investment of libidinal energy in an object. According to Freud, this energy is released through biological means.
Applied Behavior Analysis 1: Principles, Assessment, and Analysis
Defense Mechanism
The effect when the ego had a difficult time making id and the super ego happy.
Defense can be grouped hierarchal relative degree of maturity associated with them.

NARCISSTIC DEFENSE:

Denial avoiding the awareness of some

painful aspect of reality.
Distortion grossly reshaping external
reality.
Projection perceiving and reacting to
unacceptable inner impulses. Attributing
uncomfortable feelings to others.

IMMATURE DEFENSE:
ACTING-OUT

Acting-out expressing an unconscious

SOMATIZATI
BLOCKING
impulse through action. ON

Blocking temporarily inhibiting thinking.

Hypochondriasis overemphasizing an illness
for the purpose of evasion and regression. SCHIZOID
IMMATURE HYPOCHONDI
FANTASY RASIS

Introjection/introjective identification
internalizing the qualities of an object.
Passive-aggressive behavior expressing
aggression toward others indirectly. REGRESSION
INTROJECTIO
N

Regression a movement back in PASSIVE-

AGGRESSIVE
psychological time when one is faced with
stress. (e.g. youre nervous on your first day of
school, you started to cry on the way to school)
Schizoid fantast/fantasy the person doesnt fully believe in the fantasies and
doesnt insist on acting them out.
Somatization converting psychological concerns or stress into bodily symptoms (e.g.
youre overwhelmed with your break-up you start to palpitate)
 NEUROTIC DEFENSE:

Controlling attempting to manage events in the environmental to minimize anxiety.

Displacement redirecting emotions to a substitute target.
Externalization the patient is viewing himself as blameless. He is blaming his
behavior on outside forces. (e.g. someone told you to be quiet and in reply you said I
am not the only one who is noisy here.)
Inhibition consciously limiting or renouncing some ego functions.
Intellectualization avoiding unacceptable emotions by focusing on the intellectual
factors.
Isolation to separate feelings from the rest of your thoughts.
Rationalization supplying a logical or rational reason as opposed to the real reason.
It is creating excuses for your action in rational terms.
Dissociation temporarily but drastically modifying a persons character to avoid
emotional distress. It tends to momentarily lose ones connection to the world
surrounding them.
Reaction formation transforming an unacceptable impulse into its opposite.
Repression expelling from consciousness an idea. Pulling into the unconscious.
Sexualization enduring an object with sexual significance.

ISOLATION
INTELLECTUALIZATION RATIONALIZATION

INHIBITION DISSOCIATION

REACTION
EXTERNALIZATION
FORMATION

DISPLACEMENT REPRESSION

CONTROLLING NEUROTIC SEXUALIZATION

MATURE DEFENSE: ALTRUISM

Altruism an act of goodwill towards

SUPRESION ANTICIPATION
another person.
Anticipation planning for future
inner discomfort. MATURE
Asceticism eliminating the
pleasurable effect of experiences. To
SUBLIMIATION ASCETICISM
defend oneself against the potential
for giving in to the pleasurable
activity. HUMOR

Humor using comedy to overtly

express feelings and thoughts without
personal discomfort.
Sublimation transforming socially unacceptable behavior to more socially
acceptable.
Suppression consciously delaying emotions back to subconscious and managing it
later.

IDENTIFICATION INTERNALIZATION INCORPORATION

- According to the - Subconscious mental
concept of Oedipus process where
Complex, a child may characteristics, belief,
experience feelings of feelings, and attitudes
resentment towards of other people are
their father. assimilated into your
Internalizing the own self.
qualities of the father - With the resolution of
so that I (ego) can the Oedipus complex,
keep him next to me the I (ego)
and not lose him. assimilates it to
- It is how people can itself rather than
relate to other repressing from the
people. complex and
confusing outer
world.
- It is derived from the
Latin word incorpare
which means to form
into a body.
- The most basic form
of taking the outside
world into the inner
world, being focused
on bodily sensation
and ingestion.
- Once incorporated it
cant be separated
from the person, but
the person can decide
what to do with it.
Applied Behavior Analysis 1: Principles, Assessment, and Analysis
NARCISSISM
Primary self-love
There are two different types of narcissism
Primary Narcissism Secondary Narcissism
- The early infantile
phase of object
relationship
development.
- The behavior reflects
a sense of the self as
powerful, able to
have an influence on
external reality.
- It is a defense
mechanism that is
used to protect the
child from psychic
damage during the
formation of the
individual self.
Key term used:
Megalomania obsession with the exercise of power especially in domination of
others.
- People who suffer
from this, display two
fundamental
characteristics:
megalomania and
diversion of their
interest from the
external world.
- It is the more
normal form where
people seek
gratification over the
achievement of social
goals and
conformance to social
values.
- It becomes
pathological if or
when a person lacks
empathy.
Applied Behavior Analysis 1: Principles, Assessment, and Analysis
Pain-Pleasure Principle versus Reality Principle

Pain-Pleasure Principle
Characterize the tendency of people to seek pleasure and avoid
pain.
- In psychoanalytic theory, id is the part of the unconscious
dedicated to pleasure and base drives.
- The influence of the ego and super ego can mitigate the
influence of the id, but this principle still remains as an
important part of the underlying personality.
- The main goal of this principle is to satisfy the primitive
urges. Although sometimes, you need to have pain in
order to have a long-term pleasure.
- Example, the woman in the picture is on a diet and she is
struggling whether to the cake or not. If she chooses not to eat the cake (pain), shell have
a long-term pleasure by being lean if thats her goal.

Reality Principle

- A result of the tension between a persons id and ego.

- It is a development of the ego that not all rewards occur
immediately.
- This principle begins to replace the pleasure principle. It
teachers one person what appropriate reward is needed
depends on the situation.
- The reality principle strives to satisfy ids desires in realistic
and socially appropriate ways.

Life and Death Instincts

Life Instincts It is also known It is concerned with the life of an individual and
(Eros) as sexual especially the preservation of species.
instincts.
Death Instincts Freud proposed He also believed that people hold an unconscious
(Thanatos) that the goal of desire to die, but Eros largely tamper this wish.
life is death.
Applied Behavior Analysis 1: Principles, Assessment, and Analysis
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Freud believed that each stage can affect ones personality. It can lead to healthy personality if
it was successfully completed and unhealthy if not, thus the child become fixated in that area
when he matures.

Oral Stage

Age: Birth to 18 months

Erogenous Zone: Mouth
Personality: Aggression, gullible, and dependent to others

Anal Stage

Age: 1 year old to 3 years old

Erogenous Zone: Anal
Personality: Perfectionist, Organized, Controlling and messy

Phallic Stage *

Age: 3 years old to 5 years old

Erogenous Zone: Genitals
Personality: Develops masculinity and feminine

Latency Stage

Age: 5 years old to puberty

Erogenous Zone: Sexual feelings are Inactive
Personality: Industry, role confusion

Genital Stage

Age: Puberty until death

Erogenous Zone: Maturing Sexual Interest
Personality: Self-actualization

Note:
Phallic Stage, in this stage arises Oedipus complex wherein the boy wanted to possess his own mother. The child
develops unconscious sexual desires for their mother. Similar to this is Electra Complex, is coined by Carl Jung and
is mainly to characterize girls who have sexual desires for their father and resentment to their mother.