Term paper assignment

· What is Self-Control?

· The Egotistical Ego

· The Role of Feedback

· Nonconscious Control, I: Mental Dissociation

· Nonconscious Control, II: Defense Mechanisms

· What is Self-Control?

· Self-control dynamics can be conscious (ego-controlled) or nonconscious.

· Self-control is goal-directed; aimed at our physical, intrapersonal, and social needs.

E.g., relationships, self-esteem, career, fun…

· The Egotistical Ego

· Greenwald (1980)—problem of the “totalitarian ego”:

The ego is like a dictator, and behaves in three ways similar to dictators:

Egocentrism

Beneffectance

Confirmation bias

· Egocentrism: The person is at the center of all they know.

· Beneffectance: taking credit for good outcomes while avoiding responsibility for bad ones.

· Confirmation Bias—seeking and acknowledging only evidence that confirms what we already believe.

· Examples:

Police interrogations

Paranormal beliefs

Religious beliefs

Political debates

· The Role of Feedback

· “Feedback” can come from outside the person; resultant self-control is usually goal-oriented.

· Negative feedback loops eliminate (negate) discrepancies in seeking control.

· Standard Control vs. Dissociation

· Mental Dissociation

· “Classic suggestion” effect:

Participants instructed to imagine a movement or idea.

Some will then actually make the movement or imagine the idea vividly.

Experience may be felt as being outside of their control.

· Although this is not hypnosis, it moderately predicts susceptibility for hypnotism (Hilgard).

· Characteristics of hypnotic trance:

Suppression of planning

Redistribution of attention

Increased availability of memories

Reduction in reality testing

Increased suggestibility

Enhanced role behavior

Spontaneous amnesia

· Mental Defense

· Defense mechanisms: unconscious mental operations that deny or distort reality in order to preserve the ego.

Original descriptions by Sigmund Freud

Systematized by Anna Freud

· Protect the conscious executive (ego) from mental pain, e.g., humiliation, shame, fear…

“Primitive” Defenses

· Denial: outright rejection of something that is clearly true.

Least mature of all defenses.

E.g., Bornstein (1999).

Common (and normal) among children.

· “Primitive” Defenses

· Suppression: conscious blocking of unpleasant thoughts.

E.g. , Wegner (1989): “Don’t think about… a white bear.”

Best suppressors actually thought more about the bear later on.

· Repression: “motivated forgetting” of threatening or unpleasant material.

Ex.: Forgetting an important appointment with a loan officer.

· E.g., Sparks et al. (1999)

· Repression: Collins, McLeod, & Jacoby (1992)

· “Specific” Defenses

· Projection: attributing one’s own unpleasant, anxiety-inducing thoughts to someone else.

Ex.: “I’m not angry, you’re angry.”

· Reaction formation: overemphasizing the opposite of an unwanted behavior or characteristic.

Ex.: Homophobia? (e.g., Adams et al., 1996)

· Regression: reverting back to an earlier, more immature stage of life.

· Intellectualization: distracting one’s self from an anxiety-provoking situation by studying it.

· Rationalization: coming up with plausible (but spurious) reasons for own actions.

“I don’t drink every day…I don’t have a problem…”

“I don’t drink half of what my father does…”

“If you had the same problems I have, you would drink this much too.”

“Things will get better soon—then I’ll cut down.”

· Identification: trying to imitate, or connect with an unpleasant stimulus.

· “Healthy Defenses”

· Displacement: shifting an unpleasant feeling to a non-threatening, neutral object.

Ex.: kicking the dog.

· Sublimation: transformation of unpleasant urges into productive and socially-approved actions.

Ex.: an aggressive person becoming a butcher or a football coach.

· Dollinger & Cramer (1987): Development and Defense Mechanisms

· TAT stories of 320 children analyzed for themes.

· Use of denial decreased with age

· Use of identification increased with age

· Use of projection remained somewhat constant.