Psychodynamic Tradition: Overview

• The Unconscious - Automaticity

• Id, Ego, Superego - Self-Other discrepancies

• Early parent-child interactions - Attachment

The Unconscious

According to Freud:

• Conscious, preconscious, and unconscious

• Unconscious causes determine behavior

• Unconscious conflicts (conflicting motives) and how we deal with them (again unconsciously) are what constitutes personality

Automaticity: Current research on the Unconscious

Hypothesis:

Most actions, motivations, judgements, and emotions are driven by mental processes that are put into action automatically by the environment

Refined hypotheses:

Three forms of automatic influences on behavior:

i) perception triggers stereotypes which guide behavior

ii) perception triggers goals which guide behavior

iii) perception triggers evaluations which guide behavior

Bargh, J. & Chartrand, T. (1999)

Perception >> stereotypes >> behavior

• participants take part in a “language” experiment where they see words related to rudeness or politeness

• those who saw “rude” words interrupted a conversation more often and more quickly than did those who saw “polite” words

Bargh, J. A., Chen, M. & Burrows, L. (1996)

Perception >> stereotypes >> behavior

• participants take part in a “language” experiment where they see words related or unrelated to elderly people

• those who saw “elderly” words walked more slowly down the hallway after the experiment

Bargh, J. A., Chen, M. & Burrows, L. (1996)

Perception >> stereotypes >> behavior

• participants are subliminally presented with images of either an African American or Caucasian young male face

• assumption is that hostility is part of the stereotype of African American males

• participants then play a frustrating game together

• those who saw African American faces were more hostile, and their partners in turn responded with more hostility

Chen, M. & Bargh, J. A. (1997)

Perception >> goals >> behavior

• participants take part in a “language” experiment where they see words related or unrelated to achievement

• participants primed with achievement later outperform the unprimed participants, persist longer at the task, and are more unhappy if they fail at it

Bargh, J. & Gollwitzer, P. (1994)

Perception >> evaluations >> behavior

• “Preferences need no inferences” Zajonc, R. (1980)

• Flexing arm makes us like (approach) a new object while extending arm makes us dislike (avoid) a new object.

Cacioppo, Priester, & Berntson (1993)

• Participants can push a lever faster if a word presented to them is negative and pull it quicker if the word is positive.

Chen, M. & Bargh, J. (1999)

Questions:

• Where is personality in all this??

• What happens to personal responsibility if we are automatically responding to the environment??

• What are the similarities and differences to Frued’s original ideas about the unconscious??

The Id, Ego, and Superego: Conflicting parts of the self

According to Freud:

• Id is driven by basic instincts and follows the pleasure principle

• Ego is concerned with survival and follows the reality principle

• Superego is concerned with societal values and seeks perfection

Self-Discrepancy Theory:Current research on conflicting “selves”

“The actual, the ideal, and the ought” Higgins, T. (1987)

• Actual - Attributes you believe you actually possess

• Ideal - Attributes you wish or hope to possess

• Ought - Attributes you believe you should possess

ScoringMatch: Same attribute is on both lists with same value (or

only 1 point difference)

Mismatch: An attribute on one list is not on the other. Go through actual list and count number not on the other list, then go through the other list and count the number not on the actual list. Add the two.

Antonymous mismatch: The opposite of an attribute on the actual list is on the other list.

Discrepancy =( Mismatches + 2* Antonymous mismatches) - Matches

Self-Discrepancy Theory/Results

• Expect actual-ideal discrepancies to signify a lack of positive outcomes, and this expected to be associated with sadness / depression

• Expect actual-ought discrepancies to signify a presence of negative outcomes, and this expected to be associated with fear / anxiety.

• Correlational and individual differences research supports these hypotheses

Higgins, T. (1987)

Early parent-child interactions

According to Freud:

•Psychosexual stages - Oedipus complex: Love of mother and resentment of father

• Identification - Girls become like mother by identifying with her. Boys switch to identifying with father.

Attachment - Theory Current research on parent-child interactions

• Young infants instinctively seek proximity to their primary caregiver due to the evolutionary advantage that this safety provides

• If older infants feel secure they will be willing to explore their environment and begin to separate from the mother

Attachment - Theory

• As infants mature they develop cognitive models of their relationships with their primary caregivers and these then guide behavior throughout life

• Attachment “styles” can be passed down through generations due to parenting behaviors that are guided by the attachment style

Attachment - History

John Bowlby

• came from psychoanalytic tradition - emphasized early infant-caregiver relationships as source of adult personality

• BUT - he felt that actual events, not fantasy, were crucial

Attachment - History

John Bowlby:

• adopted ethological theory and approach - the study of animals in their natural environment - based on evolution

• studied effects on infants of separation from their mother in hospitals and orphanages

Attachment - History

Mary Ainsworth - Extended Bowlby’s theory

• observed infant-mother pairs in Uganda - suggested the quality of an infant’s attachment is modulated by the sensitivity and responsiveness of the mother

• emphasized the interplay of safety and exploration

Attachment:The Strange Situation

Developed by Ainsworth

• Mother and child are left alone, and then later joined by a stranger.

• Mother leaves infant with stranger, then returns.

• Both mother and stranger leave infant alone.

• Mother and stranger return.

Attachment:The Strange Situation

Categorizing children based on the Strange Situation

• Insecure - avoidant

• Insecure - resistant

• Secure

Attachment -Adults

Adult Attachment Interview

• designed to predict a child’s attachment style based on parent’s conversational style

• assumption is that the parent’s attachment style is reflected in their conversation about attachment, and that will have been transmitted to their children

Attachment -AdultsAdult Attachment Interview continued:

3 attachment categories:

• Autonomous (secure) - discussion is clear, consistent, and succinct

• Dismissing - describe relationships as very positive, but provide contradictory evidence

• Preoccupied - disorganized, incoherent, or rambling descriptions

Attachment -AdultsBartholomew’s 4-Category model (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991)

Model of Self

Model of Other

Positive Negative

Negative

PositiveSecure Preoccupied

Dismissing Fearful

Attachment - A 2 dimensional model (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998)

Attachment: A few results

• parent-child attachment relates to child-peer aggression, sociability, social competence, and peer popularity

(Belsky & Cassidy, 1994)

• violent husbands, as opposed to non-violent ones, were more likely to be insecure in their attachment style. They showed more anxiety about abandonment and more discomfort with closeness. They also were more preoccupied with thoughts about their wife, were more jealous, and had less trust in their wife.

(Holtzworth-Munroe et al, 1997)