psychoanalytic theory

According to premises, researchers found one connection to anxiety but other connections are not part of the premises.. What if the other connection(s) decreased the anxiety of the patient; the researchers will conclude that patient became more aware; Hence, not accurate.

Ankitaverma wrote: According to psychoanalytic theory, people have unconscious beliefs that are kept from becoming conscious by a psychological mechanism termed “repression.” Researchers investigating the nature of this mechanism observed occasions on which a patient undergoing therapy became aware of and expressed a previously unconscious belief. They found that such occasions were marked by an unusual decrease in the patient’s level of anxiety.

If the information above is true, and if the researchers’ investigation was properly conducted, then which of the following must also be true?

Unconcious Belief <--------> Repression <--------> Conscious

Research is made on the nature of this mechanism of Repression.

Unconcious Belief ======awareness======> Conscious---------- Decrease in anxiety level when the Unconcious belief is expressed.


(A) Changes in the patient’s anxiety level during therapy can generally be used as an accurate measure of the extent to which the patient is becoming conscious of previously repressed beliefs.

The passage talks about a decrease in anxiety level , but the red highlighted part above talks about a change ( Which can be an increase as well as decrease in anxiety level).

(B) Even when one of a patient’s unconscious beliefs remains unconscious, researchers are sometimes able to discover this belief.

Nothing mentioned if researchers can discover under such circumstances.

(C) If psychoanalytic theory is correct, then most conscious beliefs originate as unconscious beliefs.

Might be true , we can't comment in particular , conscious beliefs can be acquired from past experiences or learnt as well.

(D) Researchers were able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed.

Break down the sentence for simplicity -

Researchers were able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from ........

Unconscious Belief ======expressed======> Conscious Beliefs / Expressed Beliefs.

Once the Unconscious belief is expressed it becomes a part of the conscious belief and once can distinguish it.


Next part-

....those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed.

Thus expression of Unconscious belief is all that matters , conscious beliefs are all that matters.

(E) Although the beliefs on which the mechanism of repression works are all unconscious, the operation of the mechanism itself is something of which patients are consciously aware

Unconcious Belief <--------> Repression <--------> Conscious

Repression separated Conscious beliefs from Unconscious beliefs and it is neither a part of Conscious belief / Unconscious belief it's just a Psychological mechanism...