Alzheimer’s Delirium and Dementia Q 49
A nurse who explains that a client’s psychotic behavior is unconsciously motivated understands that the client’s disordered behavior arises from which of the following?
A. Abnormal thinking
B. Altered neurotransmitters
C. Internal needs
D. Response to stimuli
Correct Answer: C. Internal needs
The concept that behavior is motivated and has meaning comes from the psychodynamic framework. According to this perspective, behavior arises from internal wishes or needs. Much of what motivates behavior comes from the unconscious. The psychodynamic approach includes all the theories in psychology that see human functioning based upon the interaction of drives and forces within the person, particularly unconscious, and between the different structures of the personality.
Option A: According to Freud (1915), the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behavior. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see. Our feelings, motives, and decisions are actually powerfully influenced by our past experiences and stored in the unconscious.
Option B: Psychodynamic theory states that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality. Events that occur in childhood can remain in the unconscious, and cause problems as adults. Personality is shaped as the drives are modified by different conflicts at different times in childhood (during psychosexual development).
Option D: The remaining responses do not address the internal forces thought to motivate behavior. Psychodynamic theory is strongly determinist as it views our behavior as caused entirely by unconscious factors over which we have no control. Unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind in the form of parapraxes, popularly known as Freudian slips or slips of the tongue. We reveal what is really on our minds by saying something we didn’t mean to.