What's the big deal about Freud???

1. What's the big deal about Freud???

2. Term Test 4 • mean = 73.6 • SD = 12.6 • range = 39-100 • one Q discarded • optional exam viewing to follow once everyone has written test Final exam • Thurs April 15, 2 pm • Winter semester only • 30% of course grade, mult choice, up to 100 Qs • 60% last third, 20% middle third, 20% first third • optional review session, last day of classes

3. Three Minute Review SOCIAL INFLUENCE: OBEDIENCE • Why do people obey to an extreme degree? • Cult followers • Jonestown, Waco • bureaucrats in genocides • Nazi Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, etc. • Milgram’s Obedience Experiments • The majority of people will follow orders to an extreme degree • Results surprised many people, esp. psychologists • Affected by proximity to victim, proximity to authority, and reactions of others in same situation • Not affected by personality traits • Stanford Prison Experiment • Ordinary people get caught up in roles

4. Banality of evil (Hannah Arendt) • Perhaps Adolf Eichmann was no different than the rest of us • Psychology of genocide • difficult living conditions, fierce competition for resources • strong in- vs. out-groups • violence, blaming the victim • violence justifies itself • can’t stop because of cognitive dissonance

5. Take a Personality Test • Take the test • Put your ID but NOT your name • Check the web site for results • Read instructions on the web carefully

6. It’s a Small World After All • Stanley Milgram also did other cool, more optimistic experiments • Milgram (1967) -- If you pick any two people at random, how many intermediate acquaintances does it take to establish a link between them? Timothy Kuhn Boston, Mass. Joe Smith Omaha, Neb.

7. Six Degrees of Separation Stanley Milgram (1967) • sent 300 letters to randomly-selected people in Omaha Nebraska • asked them to have the letters relayed to a specific person in Boston whose name, age, location (but not their specific address) and occupation was specified • the original person was asked to send the letter to someone they thought would be closer to the target and then to get that someone to follow the same instructions • “If you do not know the target-person on a first-name basis, then pass the document folder on to one friend that you feel is most likely to know the target. That friend must be someone you know on a first-name basis."

8. Six Degrees of Separation Milgram followed the sequence of transmissions • On average, it took 5.5 (rounded up to 6) intermediate people • Conclusion: Any two people are connected by “six degrees of separation”

9. Six Degrees of Separation • But… • Milgram recruited only “particularly sociable” people • only 30% of the letters arrived • success rate was much lower for low income participants • sociologists suggest than, on average, most people know about 300 people on a first-name basis, but there is likely wide variability in this number • some argue that Milgram’s number was too large because there were probably other shorter routes unknown to the participants

10. Links

11. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon In Hollywood, there are ~3 degrees

12. Hubs

13. Hubs 10 most connected actors in Hollywood

14. Hubs Internet nodes in 1998: 800 million Average degrees of separation: 19

15. Sex Degrees of Copulation Matthew Perry • HIV/AIDS hub • “Patient Zero”: Gaetan Dugas • Canadian flight attendant • 250 partners/year • 40 of 248 people diagnosed with AIDS in 1982 had had sex with him or someone who had

16. 9-11 Terrorist Links

17. Brain Connections • amygdala appears to be a hub

18. Looking back at Freud: Genius or BS? Sigmund Freud 1896 - 1939

19. Freud and Pop Culture • Freud is the name most associated with Psychology • Freud has had the greatest impact on literature and pop culture of any psychologist • psychoanalysis • anal retentive • id, ego, superego • penis envy • Freudian slip

20. Three Revolutions in Human Thought(… according to Freud himself) Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) • the earth is not the centre of the universe Charles Darwin (1809-1882) • humans are not special, they are just a species like any other animals Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) • humans are not motivated only by their conscious thoughts but largely by unconscious (and often unpleasant) motives

21. The Essence of Freud “Every man has reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone but only to his friends. He has other matters in his mind which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But there are other things, which a man is afraid to yell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.” Fyodor Dostoevsky Notes from the Underground

22. Freud’s Insights • Much of human thought is unconscious • Humans can have conflicting motivations • Bridging of thoughts and urges • Early developmental events can have a large effect on adult behavior

23. Historical Context • Victorian era • 19th century • Freud spent most of his life in Vienna, Austria • trained as a physiologist and neurologist • interesting to see how ideas are framed by historical context

24. Hysteria • psychogenic: due to an unknown psychological cause rather than a physiological cause • originally thought to be only females (hystera = womb) • symptoms • paralysis of some body part or loss of one of the senses with no apparent physiological cause • could be treated with hypnosis • suggests psychological cause • Freud and Josef Breuer studied hysteria and wrote Studies of Hysteria together • now known as conversion disorder glove anesthesia

25. Hysteria Treatment • they thought it came from repressed memories (usually of sexual abuse) • repression: unacceptable thoughts are pushed out of memory • and that it could be cured through catharsis • catharsis: explosive release of dammed up emotions • hypnosis • free association • psychoanalysis • “talking cure”

26. Case Study: Anna O.(In case you’re ever a contestant on Jeopardy… her real name was Bertha Pappenheim) • many symptoms • loss of speech • disturbances in vision • headaches • paralysis and loss of feeling in right arm • she said symptoms started when she was unable to express a strong emotion • under hypnosis, she experienced emotions and gained relief from hysterical symptoms (catharsis) • supposedly cured

27. Desires not Memories the idea that hysteria was caused by repressed sexual memories was very unpopular! Freud also realized that many of his patients’ seduction experiences had never occurred …so Freud changed his theory The Interpretation of Dreams • remember manifest content and latent content? • hysteria caused not by repressed memories but by repressed sexual desires

28. Structures of the Mind • conscious • preconscious • unconscious

29. Id • source of psychic energy • fully unconscious • contains the libido • libido: sexual drive • pleasure principle: obtain immediate gratification of desires • ignores reality • “the dark, inaccessible part of our personality… We approach the id with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations…. It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle” -- Sigmund Freud, 1933

30. Superego • conscience • internalization of rules and restrictions of society • makes us feel guilty for doing or thinking the wrong things • ego-ideal • internalization of what a person would like to be • makes us feel good for doing or thinking the right things

31. Ego • gets energy from the id • thinking, planning, protective self • reality principle: tendency to satisfy the id’s demands realistically by compromising between the demands of the id and superego • these compromises can have psychological effects

32. Could there be a brain-based interpretation? • hierarchical functions

33. Defense Mechanisms 1 • mental systems that become active when id and superego conflict • denial • unacceptable thoughts are ignored • e.g., alcoholics ignore their problems • repression • unacceptable thoughts are kept away from consciousness • e.g., forgetting an upsetting childhood event such as a death • reaction formation • behaving in the opposite way to how you really feel because the true feelings produce anxiety • e.g., pretending you like somebody that you can’t stand • projection • denying your faults but finding them in others • e.g., an unemployed father yells at his son for being lazy

34. Defense Mechanisms 2 • displacement • redirection of an impulse away from the person who caused it and towards another • e.g., a boy who is angry with his father beats on his little brother • sublimation • channeling psychic energy from an unacceptable drive to an acceptable outlet • e.g., directing one’s sex drive into creative efforts • rationalization • creating an acceptable justification for an unacceptable behavior • e.g., a gambler says he lost a lot of money because he was trying to win some for his family • conversion • manifestation of a psychic conflict as a physical symptom • e.g., hysteria, Anna O.

35. Windows to the Unconscious • The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901) • Freudian slips • suppressed intentions • dreams • manifest and latent content • release of suppressed wishes • BUT “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”

36. Psychosexual Stages of Development • psycho: the mind • sexual: physical pleasure more generally • five stages of development • oral stage • anal stage • phallic stage • latent stage • genital stage • people may become fixated at a particular stage of development

37. Oral Stage • first two years • baby must get food by suckling • toddlers learn to chew and bite • oral fixation • can occur with improper weaning • can lead to excessive mouth behaviors • e.g., chewing on pens, smoking, overeating

38. Anal Stage • ages 2-4 • anal expressive stage • child enjoys expelling feces • fixation • messy, wasteful • anal retentive stage • child enjoys retaining feces • fixation • obsessively clean and organized, stingy • You might be anal retentive if… • you eat the M&Ms in color order. • you fold your dirty clothes before putting them in the hamper. • all your books, CDs, and movies have to be alphabetical order. • you alphabetize your spices. • you organize your closet by color, season, and fabric. • you remove the tires to wash inside the wheel-wells of your vehicle. • you wonder if “anal retentive has a hyphen”

39. Phallic Stage: Males • ages 4-6 • Oedipus complex • Greek myth of Oedipus • little boy’s attachment to his mother • usually repressed around age 5 but can affect personality throughout life • unconscious wish to take father’s place • worry of punishment by father (castration anxiety) • fixation  preoccupation with manhood, acting macho

40. Phallic Stage: Females • Electra complex • Greek myth of Electra • little girl’s attachment to her father • fewer conflicts than boys have • penis envy • girls realize boys have something they don’t • girls see this as a weakness • girls gravitate toward their fathers • fixation  feelings of inferiority to men, flirting, seeking father figures to overpower • if you can’t have a penis, have a baby

41. Latent and Genital Stages • latent stage • middle childhood • sexual instincts are submerged • genital stage • adolescence through adulthood • adult sexual attachments

42. Carl Jung • one of several neo-Freudians • Swiss psychiatrist • initially Freud called Jung his adopted eldest son, his crown prince and successor • Jung challenged Freud’s ideas • Freud got peeved and they never talked again after 1913 • collective unconscious: memories and ideas inherited from our ancestors • archetypes: universal thought forms and patterns that reside in the collective unconscious • e.g., archetype of “the hero” Carl Jung (1875-1961)

43. Psychoanalytic (Over-)Interpretations

44. Criticisms of Freudian theory • experimenters cannot be objective • confirmation bias • Freud only took notes after the interview • no verification of accuracy of patients’ reports • case studies may not be representative • anxious, wealthy Austrians • psychoanalytic theory is not a theory • concepts are too vague • does not allow prediction • What will happen to a boy with a harsh, rejecting mother and a weak, alcoholic father? • developmental theories were based on studying adults not children • experiments do not support theories • no evidence for developmental fixations • no correlation between toilet training and personality • dream theory doesn’t hold up well • thirsty people don’t dream of drinking • some say Freud was male-centred or even misogynistic