Personality, 9e
Jerry M. Burger
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The Freudian Approach:
Relevant Research
Chapter 4
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Chapter Outlines
 Dream interpretation
 Defense mechanisms
 Humor
 Hypnosis
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Dream Interpretation
 Notion that dreams contain hidden
psychological meaning
 Individual’s dreams provide clues about what’s
in individual’s unconscious
 Used by therapists from different
perspectives as a therapeutic tool
 Questions addressed in the research
 What do people dream about?
 Why do people dream?
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Dream Interpretation
 Dream contains images or evokes emotions
that people feel must mean something
 Traditional Freudian therapist suggests that
objects and people in a dream are symbols
 Sexual symbols
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Dream Interpretation
 Recurrent dream
 Occurs because conflict expressed in the dream
is important yet remains unresolved
 Occurs due to the anxiety people experience
during the day
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Function of Dreams
 Allow the symbolic expression of
unconscious impulses
 Provide a safe and healthy outlet for
expressing unconscious conflicts
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REM Sleep
 Refers to rapid eye movement
 Called paradoxical sleep
 Muscles are relaxed but brain activity will
be similar to that of waking state
 Filled with dreams
 Research indicates that People deprived of
REM sleep one night respond by increasing
their amount of REM sleep the next night
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Interpreting the Evidence
 Researchers produced a number of findings
consistent with Freud’s speculations
 Content of our dreams is not random
 Dreaming serves positive psychological
functions
 Researchers uncovered the results that are
difficult to explain within Freudian theory
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Defense Mechanisms
 Unconscious efforts to conceal painful
thoughts
 Repression - Cornerstone of psychoanalysis
 Based on psychoanalytic approach:
 Ego consists of tools to fend off anxiety and
guilt
 Regularly employed in life without
awareness
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Identifying and Measuring
Defense Mechanisms
 Done by investigators through:
 Interpreting responses to Rorschach inkblots or
to stories
 Using responses to Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT) picture cards
 Researchers developed coding systems to
convert responses into scores indicating:
 Extent to which test takers use various defense
mechanisms
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Figure 4.1 - Men’s Use of Identification
as a Function of Feedback
Source: Adapted from Cramer (1998b).
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Developmental Differences
 Research indicates that young children rely
on denial
 Denial - Consists of disavowing certain facts,
from failure to see reality to distorting one’s
memory
 Reduces anxiety associated with a traumatic event
 Mature children find denial of facts and
feelings to be ineffective
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Developmental Differences
 Older children turn to projection to
alleviate their anxieties and inward fears
 Projection - Protects from threatening anxiety
by attributing unacceptable thoughts and
feelings to others
 Use of defense mechanisms other than
denial and projection indicates emotional
maturity
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Defensive Style
 Individual patterns
 Relying on some defense mechanisms more
than others
 Rationalizing away the misdeeds and mistakes
 Displacing anger and projecting own suspicions
and fears onto others
 Tells about a person’s general well-being
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Defensive Style
 Defense mechanism being adaptive or
maladaptive depends on a function of:
 How often the person relies on it
 How old that person is
 Anna Freud suggested that defense
mechanisms are maladaptive when used past
an appropriate age
 Explains how people react to common
sources of stress
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Freud’s Theory of Humor
 Concerned with tendentious jokes
 Provide insight into the unconscious of the joke
teller and the person who laughs
 Identified jokes dealing with hostility and sex
 Aggressive jokes allow the expression of
impulses ordinarily held in check
 Laughter after a hostile or sexual joke is
rarely justified by the humor content of the
joke
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Freud’s Theory of Humor
 Catharsis: Reduction of pent up tension by
reaction of any means
 Is a reason for laughter on jokes
 People derive pleasure from many jokes
because they reduce tension and anxiety
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Research on Freud’s Theory
of Humor
 Research suggests that people find
aggressive and sexual themes funny
 Participants rate cartoons containing aggression
or sex as funnier than other cartoons
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Research on Freud’s Theory
of Humor
 Hypotheses derived from Freud’s theory of
humor have been supported in empirical
studies
 Men and women in a study were presented with
a series of hostile jokes and cartoons
 Consistent with Freud’s observations, both enjoyed
humor aimed at the opposite sex
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Reducing Aggression With
Hostile Humor
 Hostile humor has tension reducing
capabilities
 Caution should be exercised on using
appropriate kind of humor when dealing with
angry audience
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Level of Tension and
Funniness
 More tension people experience before a
punch line, the funnier they’ll find the joke
 Pleasure derived from the release of tension
leads to the enjoyment of the joke
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Figure 4.3 - Perceived Funniness as
a Function of Tension
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Interpreting the Findings on
Freud’s Theory of Humor
 People find jokes and cartoons funnier when
they contain sexual and aggressive themes
 People appear to enjoy hostile humor more
when it is aimed at someone they dislike
 Hostile humor may reduce tension
 Jokes are funnier when the listener’s tension
level is built up before the punch line
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Interpreting the Findings on
Freud’s Theory of Humor
 Research indicates that laughter is an
effective means to combat daily tension and
stressful events
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Hypnosis
 Induction procedure in which people are
told about being hypnotized and are
suggested to perform certain tasks
 Tasks range from simple ones used in hypnosis
research to entertaining performances of stage
hypnosis
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Applications of Hypnosis
Performing dental work without the aid of painkillers
Used by police investigators to help witnesses remember
crime details
Psychotherapists use it for dealing with a wide variety of
client problems
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Different Views on Hypnosis
Psychoanalytic Theorists
Cognitive and Social Theorists
 Hypnosis taps an aspect of
 Reject the notion that
the human mind that is
otherwise difficult to reach
 Participants experience an
altered state of
consciousness, like sleeping
hypnotized people operate
under an altered state of
awareness
 Assert that things people
do under hypnosis can be
explained in terms of basic
psychological processes
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Neodissociation Theory
 Psychoanalytic view on hypnosis
 Deeply hypnotized people experience a
division of their conscious mind
 Hypnotized part enters a type of altered state
 Another part remains aware of what is going on
during the hypnotic session
 Acts as a hidden observer
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Sociocognitive Theories of
Hypnosis
 Challenged the notion that hypnosis
involved a state of consciousness different
than being awake
 Concepts of expectancy, motivation, and
concentration are used to account for
hypnotic phenomena
 Sociocognitive theorists:
 Criticized hidden observer demonstrations
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Sociocognitive Theories of
Hypnosis
 Argued that the psychoanalytic position
sometimes becomes circular
 Countered unusual behavior under hypnosis
with demonstrations of the same phenomena
without hypnosis
 Challenged the accuracy of the participants’
descriptions
 Were skeptical of participants’ reports
concerning posthypnotic amnesia
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Hypnotic Responsiveness
 Varies amongst indiviudals
 Achieved by:
 Defining the situation as hypnosis
 Securing cooperation and establishing trust
before beginning
 Freud observed that:
 Hypnotizing neurotics is difficult
 Insane are completely resistant to hypnosis
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Hypnotic Responsiveness
 Predicted by an individual’s ability to
become immersed in a role
 Absorption
 Personality trait that predicts hypnotic
responsiveness
 High scores indicate ability to become:
 Highly involved in sensory and imaginative
experiences
 More responsive to hypnotic suggestions
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Hypnotic Responsiveness
 Important variables affecting hypnotic
responsiveness
 Attitude
 Motivation
 Expectancy
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