11. The Psychodynamic Approach AO1

Question 1

What does the psychodynamic approach suggest?

Answer 1

The unconscious mind has an important influence on behaviour

Question 2

What is an example of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 2

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

Question 3

What did Freud suggest the mind was made up of?

Answer 3

1. Conscious
2. Pre-conscious
3. Unconscious

Question 4

What is the conscious?

Answer 4

What we are aware of

Question 5

What is the pre-conscious?

Answer 5

Memories and thoughts we are not currently aware of but can be accessed

Question 6

What is the unconscious?

Answer 6

We are unaware of the contents in the unconscious , it is a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that influence our behaviour

Question 7

What three parts did Freud see personality as having?

Answer 7

1. Id
2. Ego
3. Superego

Question 8

What is the Id?

Answer 8

Primitive part of the personality operates on the pleasure principle, demands instant gratification

Question 9

What is the Ego?

Answer 9

Works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the aid and Superego

Question 10

What is the Superego?

Answer 10

Internalised sense of right and wrong, based on the morality principle, pushes ego through guilt

Question 11

What did Freud say about the three parts of personality?

Answer 11

Dynamic interaction between three parts determines behaviour

Question 12

What are there five of?

Answer 12

Psychosexual stages that determine adult personality

Question 13

Outline the psychosexual stages

Answer 13

Each stage is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve to move on to the next

Question 14

What does unresolved conflict lead to?

Answer 14

Fixation where the child becomes stuck and carries behaviours associated with that stage through to adult life

Question 15

What are the stages of the sequence and what ages do they occur?

Answer 15

1. Oral = 0-1 years
2. Anal = 1-3 years
3. Phallic = 3-5 years
4. Latency
5. Genital = puberty

Question 16

What is the oral stage?

Answer 16

Pleasure focus - mouth, the mothers breast is object of desire

Question 17

What is the anal stage?

Answer 17

Pleasure focus - anus, the child gains pleasure from withholding and eliminating faeces

Question 18

What is the phallic stage?

Answer 18

Pleasure focus - genital area

Question 19

What is the latency stage?

Answer 19

Earlier conflicts are repressed

Question 20

What is the genital stage?

Answer 20

Sexual desires become conscious

Question 21

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 21

An important psychosexual conflict occurring at the phallic stage

Question 22

Explain the Oedipus complex

Answer 22

In phallic stage, little boys develop incestuous feelings towards mothers and murderous hatred for their father

Later they repress feelings for mother and identify with father taking in his gender role and moral values

Question 23

What do girls at the phallic stage experience?

Answer 23

Penis envy

Question 24

What keeps the Id in check?

Answer 24

Defence mechanisms are used by the ego to keep the Id in check and reduce anxiety

Question 25

What are the unconscious strategies used but the ego?

Answer 25

1. Repression
2. Denial
3. Displacement

Question 26

What is the oral repression?

Answer 26

Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind

Question 27

What is the oral denial?

Answer 27

Refusing to acknowledge reality

Question 28

What is the oral displacement?

Answer 28

Transferring feelings from their true source onto a substitute target

Question 29

Who developed the psychosexual stages?

Answer 29

Freud

Question 30

What else did Freud develop?

Answer 30

The iceberg theory of the psyche containing the Id, ego and Superego

Question 31

Outline which part of the mind the Id, Ego and Superego occur in

Answer 31

1. Id & Superego - unconscious

2. Ego - conscious