psychoanalytic

Meaning: Psychoanalytic theory, developed by Sigmund Freud, holds that much of behavior comes from unconscious wishes and conflicts, many formed in early childhood. Personality has three parts. The id holds instinctual urges and follows the pleasure principle. The superego holds internalized moral standards. The ego follows the reality principle and mediates between them. Anxiety from this conflict is managed by defense mechanisms such as repression, denial, projection, displacement, reaction formation, sublimation, rationalization and regression. Freud's psychosexual stages are oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Unresolved conflict at a stage can lead to fixation.

On the MCAT: A vignette describes a person's behavior, and you name the defense mechanism, the dominant part of personality (impulsive and self-indulgent suggests id; intense guilt suggests superego) or the stage involved. Questions may also ask why the theory is criticized: its claims about the unconscious are hard to test or falsify.

Common confusion: Displacement redirects an impulse onto a safer target (anger at a boss, taken out on a pet). Projection attributes your own unacceptable feelings to someone else. Also, Freud's psychosexual stages are not Erikson's psychosocial stages. Psychodynamic is the broader term and includes later theorists who revised Freud, such as Jung and Adler.