PSYC 310 Final Exam Dr. Shelby Curtis QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Intrapsychic - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Refers to factors within our mind - particularly those of which we
aren't consciously aware - that influence our behavior, thoughts, and feelings
Core assumption of intrapsychic domain - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The unconscious mind has a significant
influence of its own; much of who we are operates outside our conscious control, and most things that
happen psychologically don't occur by chance
Psychodynamics - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Broad focus on the unconscious mind and the way it
influences behavior, emphasizes interplay between unconscious motives, drives, and urges (wider field)
Psychoanalysis - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Specific subset of psychodynamic theories pioneered by Freud,
emphasizes the role of childhood experiences in shaping the psyche and the role of unconscious
conflicts in producing personality and psychopathology, tried to make theories to describe all people
Freud (1856-1939) - background - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria, which
was a very polite, repressed, Victorian society - much of his work was a rebellion against this. He was
influenced by the Mechanism movement, which claimed that the principles of science can fully explain
human behavior. He originally experimented with self-analysis, hypnosis, and hella cocaine for his own
relief and his patients' before settling on free association as his primary method
Major contributions of psychoanalytic approaches - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Acknowledged and
systematically explored the role of the unconscious mind, serving as a near-opposite to behaviorism
which led to cognitive psychology
- Demonstrated the power of psychological conflict in producing symptoms and suffering
- Addressed the force of social norms and culture in shaping the psyche
- Identified developmental milestones and changes across childhood
- Documented the existence and variety of defense mechanisms
- Generated significant interest in therapy and talking cures as a legitimate form of treatment
Major limitations of psychoanalysis - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Many psychoanalytic ideas were not
testable, tending to lack falsifiability
- Approach has been highly criticized as overtly sexual and misogynistic in its core assumptions
,- Treatment outcomes for classical psychoanalytic therapy have been very mixed
The mind as an energy system - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Freud viewed behavior and personality as the
result of psychic energy driven by instincts (heavily influenced by Darwin's evolutionary thinking). He
believed that people are born with innate sexual and aggressive drives and society must teach us what is
and isn't acceptable expression of those drives. This perspective led to methods such as free association
and projective assessments
Catharsis - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The release and freeing of pent-up emotions through talking about
one's problems. Freud believed that bringing repressed material into conscious awareness and
expressing it verbally could relieve psychological tension/symptoms
Core ideas about psychic energy - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- There's limited psychic energy, and the total
amount available is fixed
- If energy is blocked from one form of expression, it's redirected to another outlet along the path of
least resistance: personality change is a redirection of psychic energy
- The mind functions to achieve a state of quiescence (driven to reduce tension)
- The goal of all behavior is the pleasure that results from this tension reduction/release of energy
Conscious mind - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The level of the mind containing thoughts and mental contents
of which we are currently aware
Preconscious mind - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Level of mind containing mental contents that we're not
currently aware of but could bring to awareness if we directed our attention to them
ex: name of your best friend in first grade - not thinking about it right now, but can retrieve it easily
Unconscious mind - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The level of mind containing mental contents of which we're
unaware and cannot become aware under ordinary circumstances. According to Freud, these contents
are kept from awareness because they're anxiety-provoking. However, modern cognitive psychology
states that many unconscious processes are automatic and efficient, simply meant to save conscious
resources
,Psychoanalytic view of the unconscious - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Emphasizes illogical/irrational thought
processes, motives, and wishes (motivated aspects of unconscious functioning). The unconscious
actively works to keep threatening material hidden from awareness
Cognitive psychology view of the unconscious - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅There is no fundamental
difference between conscious and unconscious processes; emphasizes thoughts rather than motives.
Unconscious processes are unmotivated, they're simply automatic and efficient
The motivated unconscious - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Freud proposed that we're motivated to banish
ideas and events that are too traumatic for conscious awareness, and that these unconscious thoughts
fundamentally determine our conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions
Freudian slips - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Errors in speech, memory, or action that Freud believed revealed
underlying unconscious wishes or conflicts
Dream analysis - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Involves interpreting manifest content - the storyline, images,
and surface narrative of the dream as the dreamer experiences it - to uncover latent content - the
hidden, unconscious wishes and conflicts expressed symbolically
Eagle, Wolitzky, and Klein (1996) - Subliminal perception study - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Participants that
received the subliminal duck image drew significantly more ducks in their scenes than control
participants - demonstrated perception without awareness, as the image influenced behavior without
reaching consciousness
Perceptual defense - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Unconscious defensive process that prevents threatening
stimuli from reaching conscious awareness
Subliminal psychodynamic activation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Experimental procedure used to stimulate
unconscious thoughts and wishes without bringing them to conscious awareness by presenting stimuli
below the threshold of perception - served as a precursor to priming research in experimental
psychology
Id - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The most primitive part of the psyche, kept entirely in the unconscious.
Present from birth and operates according to the pleasure principle - seek immediate gratification of
, drives and release of tension without regard for reality or morality. Freud described it as a "cauldrom of
seething expectations"
Ego - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Rational, reality-oriented part of the psyche that mediates between the
demands of id, constraints of the superego, and requirements of external reality. Operates according to
the reality principle - seeks realistic ways to satisfy the id's demands without violating the superego's
rules
Superego - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Represents internalized moral standards and rules, derived largely
from parental and cultural authority. Seeks morality and judges the ego's choices, producing guild when
standards are violated and pride when they are met
Eros instinct/life instinct/libido - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Encompasses drives toward gratification of all
types (ex: self-preservation, reproduction, pleasure, connection). Libido is the psychic energy associated
with Eros, which Freud saw as the fundamental creative force in the psyche
Thanatos/death instinct - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Drive toward self-destruction, aggression, and a
"return to an inorganic state" - considered by Freud one of his most controversial and least accepted
ideas
Anxiety in psychoanalytic theory - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅A painful emotional experience representing a
threat or danger to the ego that develops out of conflict between the push of the id and the threat of
punishment by the superego
Objective anxiety - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Realistic fear of actual external threat
Neurotic anxiety - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Conflict between id and ego - person knows they shouldn't act
on an impulse but they feel pulled toward it ("i know i shouldn't but i wanna")
Moral anxiety - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Conflict between superego and ego - guilt and shame arising
from actual or imagined violations of one's internalized moral standards (compare to Higgins's self
discrepency theory)
Intrapsychic - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Refers to factors within our mind - particularly those of which we
aren't consciously aware - that influence our behavior, thoughts, and feelings
Core assumption of intrapsychic domain - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The unconscious mind has a significant
influence of its own; much of who we are operates outside our conscious control, and most things that
happen psychologically don't occur by chance
Psychodynamics - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Broad focus on the unconscious mind and the way it
influences behavior, emphasizes interplay between unconscious motives, drives, and urges (wider field)
Psychoanalysis - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Specific subset of psychodynamic theories pioneered by Freud,
emphasizes the role of childhood experiences in shaping the psyche and the role of unconscious
conflicts in producing personality and psychopathology, tried to make theories to describe all people
Freud (1856-1939) - background - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria, which
was a very polite, repressed, Victorian society - much of his work was a rebellion against this. He was
influenced by the Mechanism movement, which claimed that the principles of science can fully explain
human behavior. He originally experimented with self-analysis, hypnosis, and hella cocaine for his own
relief and his patients' before settling on free association as his primary method
Major contributions of psychoanalytic approaches - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Acknowledged and
systematically explored the role of the unconscious mind, serving as a near-opposite to behaviorism
which led to cognitive psychology
- Demonstrated the power of psychological conflict in producing symptoms and suffering
- Addressed the force of social norms and culture in shaping the psyche
- Identified developmental milestones and changes across childhood
- Documented the existence and variety of defense mechanisms
- Generated significant interest in therapy and talking cures as a legitimate form of treatment
Major limitations of psychoanalysis - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- Many psychoanalytic ideas were not
testable, tending to lack falsifiability
- Approach has been highly criticized as overtly sexual and misogynistic in its core assumptions
,- Treatment outcomes for classical psychoanalytic therapy have been very mixed
The mind as an energy system - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Freud viewed behavior and personality as the
result of psychic energy driven by instincts (heavily influenced by Darwin's evolutionary thinking). He
believed that people are born with innate sexual and aggressive drives and society must teach us what is
and isn't acceptable expression of those drives. This perspective led to methods such as free association
and projective assessments
Catharsis - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The release and freeing of pent-up emotions through talking about
one's problems. Freud believed that bringing repressed material into conscious awareness and
expressing it verbally could relieve psychological tension/symptoms
Core ideas about psychic energy - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅- There's limited psychic energy, and the total
amount available is fixed
- If energy is blocked from one form of expression, it's redirected to another outlet along the path of
least resistance: personality change is a redirection of psychic energy
- The mind functions to achieve a state of quiescence (driven to reduce tension)
- The goal of all behavior is the pleasure that results from this tension reduction/release of energy
Conscious mind - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The level of the mind containing thoughts and mental contents
of which we are currently aware
Preconscious mind - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Level of mind containing mental contents that we're not
currently aware of but could bring to awareness if we directed our attention to them
ex: name of your best friend in first grade - not thinking about it right now, but can retrieve it easily
Unconscious mind - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The level of mind containing mental contents of which we're
unaware and cannot become aware under ordinary circumstances. According to Freud, these contents
are kept from awareness because they're anxiety-provoking. However, modern cognitive psychology
states that many unconscious processes are automatic and efficient, simply meant to save conscious
resources
,Psychoanalytic view of the unconscious - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Emphasizes illogical/irrational thought
processes, motives, and wishes (motivated aspects of unconscious functioning). The unconscious
actively works to keep threatening material hidden from awareness
Cognitive psychology view of the unconscious - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅There is no fundamental
difference between conscious and unconscious processes; emphasizes thoughts rather than motives.
Unconscious processes are unmotivated, they're simply automatic and efficient
The motivated unconscious - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Freud proposed that we're motivated to banish
ideas and events that are too traumatic for conscious awareness, and that these unconscious thoughts
fundamentally determine our conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions
Freudian slips - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Errors in speech, memory, or action that Freud believed revealed
underlying unconscious wishes or conflicts
Dream analysis - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Involves interpreting manifest content - the storyline, images,
and surface narrative of the dream as the dreamer experiences it - to uncover latent content - the
hidden, unconscious wishes and conflicts expressed symbolically
Eagle, Wolitzky, and Klein (1996) - Subliminal perception study - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Participants that
received the subliminal duck image drew significantly more ducks in their scenes than control
participants - demonstrated perception without awareness, as the image influenced behavior without
reaching consciousness
Perceptual defense - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Unconscious defensive process that prevents threatening
stimuli from reaching conscious awareness
Subliminal psychodynamic activation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Experimental procedure used to stimulate
unconscious thoughts and wishes without bringing them to conscious awareness by presenting stimuli
below the threshold of perception - served as a precursor to priming research in experimental
psychology
Id - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The most primitive part of the psyche, kept entirely in the unconscious.
Present from birth and operates according to the pleasure principle - seek immediate gratification of
, drives and release of tension without regard for reality or morality. Freud described it as a "cauldrom of
seething expectations"
Ego - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Rational, reality-oriented part of the psyche that mediates between the
demands of id, constraints of the superego, and requirements of external reality. Operates according to
the reality principle - seeks realistic ways to satisfy the id's demands without violating the superego's
rules
Superego - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Represents internalized moral standards and rules, derived largely
from parental and cultural authority. Seeks morality and judges the ego's choices, producing guild when
standards are violated and pride when they are met
Eros instinct/life instinct/libido - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Encompasses drives toward gratification of all
types (ex: self-preservation, reproduction, pleasure, connection). Libido is the psychic energy associated
with Eros, which Freud saw as the fundamental creative force in the psyche
Thanatos/death instinct - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Drive toward self-destruction, aggression, and a
"return to an inorganic state" - considered by Freud one of his most controversial and least accepted
ideas
Anxiety in psychoanalytic theory - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅A painful emotional experience representing a
threat or danger to the ego that develops out of conflict between the push of the id and the threat of
punishment by the superego
Objective anxiety - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Realistic fear of actual external threat
Neurotic anxiety - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Conflict between id and ego - person knows they shouldn't act
on an impulse but they feel pulled toward it ("i know i shouldn't but i wanna")
Moral anxiety - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Conflict between superego and ego - guilt and shame arising
from actual or imagined violations of one's internalized moral standards (compare to Higgins's self
discrepency theory)
