Terminology Service: SST: theoretical perspective: psychoanalytic

social science subjects > psychology > psychological assessment > theory and methodology > theoretical perspective: psychoanalytic

theoretical perspective: psychoanalytic

Introduction Psychoanalytic theories of behaviour embrace a diversity of views that can be grouped into four main lines of thought: drive theory, which focuses primarily on basic needs of the individual and how these needs are channelled and expressed; ego theory, which stresses the nature and adequacy of the coping resources that people bring to bear in dealing with life situations; object relations theory, which emphasizes the representations people form in their minds of the characteristics of other people; and self-psychology, which attends to how people differentiate themselves from others and develop a sense of agency, authenticity, and self-esteem (see Pine, 1990). Despite many differences among them, these threads of psychoanalytic thought share three common premises, each of which has been confirmed by empirical research findings (see Masling, 1983, 1984; Westen & Gabbard, 1999): (a) unconscious mental processes, including thoughts, feelings, and motivations that exist outside of conscious awareness and influence an individual's personality characteristics and action tendencies; (b) a dynamic interplay between conflicting attitudes that generate anxiety leads in all people to defensive manoeuvres intended to reduce this anxiety; and (c) developmental experiences play an important role in shaping abiding personality characteristics and patterns of interpersonal relatedness. [Source: Encyclopedia of Psychological Assessment; Theoretical Perspective: Psychoanalytic]

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/theoretical_perspective:_psychoanalytic

RDF/XML TURTLE JSON-LD

Terminology Service