Psychology: Schools, Theories, and Defense Mechanisms
Current Methods in Psychology
Several schools of thought have shaped the field of psychology:
- Functionalism: Focuses on states of consciousness and introspection.
- Behaviorism: Emphasizes observable behavior and extrospection.
- Psychometrics: Deals with the quantification of psychic phenomena, often using tests.
- Gestalt Psychology: Considers the person-world relationship from a holistic perspective.
- Psychoanalysis: Investigates the unconscious mind, using psychoanalytic techniques.
Freudian Theory of Personality
Freud’s theory can be viewed from different perspectives:
- Dynamic: Energy source.
- Economic: The amounts of energy.
- Topographic: Study of the psychic apparatus, stimuli, and drives.
Unconscious System
Acts through visual traces (images) that are represented by drives. It includes:
- Primary Unconscious: Everything that is in our unconscious and unknown.
- Secondary Unconscious: Unconscious images that have accessed consciousness in the form of disturbances.
Operates on the pleasure principle, seeking instant gratification through the primary process.
Preconscious System (PCS)
Acts through memory traces associated with words. The Perception-Consciousness System is ruled by the reality principle. Its function is to perceive information from both the internal state and the external world.
Behaviorism and Learning
Behaviorism focuses on the observation of behavior and the psychology of learning. Behavior is defined as the set of observable responses that organisms give to environmental stimuli, which are also observable. Learning is any relatively stable change in behavior caused by experience, distinguishing it from maturation, which involves biological changes.
Classical Conditioning
Reinforcement is independent of behavior. Stimuli can be:
- Appetitive: Always causes pleasure or satisfies a need (primary or secondary).
- Aversive: Causes pain and discomfort (primary or secondary).
- Types: Semantic and interoceptive.
Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement depends on behavior. It is the learning that occurs when a behavior is followed by a reinforcer. Types include:
- Appetitive
- Punishment
- Omission
- Escape
- Avoidance
Frustration
Frustration occurs when a motivated organism is unable to achieve its objective. Key concepts:
- Motivation: Internal factors that lead the organism to act.
- Incentive: Stimulus that appeals to a body.
The more intense the motivation, the greater the frustration if the incentive is not obtained. Types of frustration:
- Primary: Occurs when the incentive is absent.
- Secondary: Occurs when an obstacle is interposed between the organism and the incentive. Obstacles can be:
- Passive external
- Internal active
- External active
Learned Helplessness
After repeated exposure to uncontrollable events (when reinforcement is independent of a subject’s voluntary behavior), Seligman identified triggers for depression, such as the death of a loved one or illness. This exposure leads to a negative cognitive disposition, making the subject believe in the ineffectiveness of their responses. This is known as learned helplessness, and it manifests at different levels: behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physiological.
Defense Mechanisms
Regression
A counter-cathexis may prevent a cathexis of the id, ego, or superego from reaching consciousness, producing anxiety. This is called cancellation or repression of a cathexis by counter-cathexis.
Projection
When a person experiences anxiety or pressure from the superego on the ego, they may try to alleviate their distress by attributing its cause to the outside world.
Rationalization
The process by which a subject attempts to give a logically coherent or morally acceptable explanation for an attitude, act, idea, feeling, etc., whose true motives are not perceived.
Introjection
A defense against the dissatisfaction caused by the lack of an object.
Reaction Formation
Instincts and their derivatives can be distributed in pairs of opposites, such as life and death.