Westen, 1998 Reading/Discussion Guide

Everyone should read pp. 333 – 336 carefully. Everyone should skim pp. 336 – 356.

Individual students will be or have been assigned to carefully read & be prepared to discuss one of the following subsections (see below). Note your reading guide questions for the subsections.
 

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Amy Adler, Steve Bigelow, Sam Borah, Mairin Breault

pp. 336 – 339

1.  What evidence is there for the existence of unconscious thoughts or memories?  Choose one study as the "best" example of this type of evidence.

2.  What is the most convincing piece of neurological evidence that we feel emotions without knowing we are feeling them?

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Alyssa D'Addio, Samantha Fleischman, Josh Glueck

pp. 336 – 339

3.  What is the most convincing piece of evidence that we feel emotions without knowing we are feeling them?

4.  What is the most convincing piece of evidence that we act on unconscious emotions?

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Eric Gonzalez, Christina Honeysett, Phylicia Lee

pp. 339 - 342

5.  Is there any evidence for the existence and use of defense mechanisms?

6.  What is the most convincing piece of evidence that the unconscious protects us from unpleasant affect?

7.  Define "dynamically unconscious processes."

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Janelle Mentrikowski, Andrew Miller, Katherine Nicol, Greg Zaccheo

 pp. 342-349

8.  Can a motive/desire/goal become unconscious?  How?  What is the most convincing study supporting your answer?

9. Explain the hypothesis that "multiple psychological processes can proceed in parallel."  Why is this hypothesis a necessary assumption for other aspects of psychodynamic reasoning? 

10.  What is the most convincing piece of empirical evidence provided which supports the existence of parallel processing?

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Jennifer Pilchman, Hannah Poles, Patti Rabinowitz

pp. 347 - 350

11. What evidence is there that personality remains stable from childhood into adulthood?
 

12. Explain Westen’s 3 caveats with respect to interpreting evidence of a genetic contribution to personality.

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Julianne Roscioli, Gwen Silverman, Ethan Simon

pp. 350 - 352

13. What are some of the difficulties in establishing the role of childhood experiences in adult personality?
 

14. What is the most convincing piece of evidence you found that supported the idea that childhood experiences shape adult personality? (for e.g., check out the studies on page 351)
 

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Laura Sukonick, Jenna VanWaalwijk, Dahlia Walton, Amy Wortzel

pp. 352 – 355

15. Is there any evidence for the psychodynamic phenomenon called “transference” and, if so, how does that evidence highlight the relevance of mental representations?

16. How do more modern psychodynamic theorists view Freud’s psychosexual development theory?