4.2.1 The Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

Who developed the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

Sigmund Freud, a qualified medical doctor

Question 2

What else did Freud develop?

Answer 2

Psychoanalysis, a therapy to help people come to terms with their inner conflict (many of which originated in early childhood).

Question 3

What are the key assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 3

The human mind is separated into layers, some of which we are aware of, and some that we are unaware of.
The unconscious part of the mind drives much of our behaviour.
A person’s early childhood experiences also play a role in their behaviour and emotional state later in life.
Personality is also believed to have a structure: ID, ego and superego.
The development of personality is determined by the passage through psychosexual stages of development, which everyone must go through.
Unconscious conflicts must be overcome by defence mechanisms.\they study with a focus on in-depth individual people through case studies and qualitative methods, rather than attempting to create large-scale causal laws through quantitative methods.

Question 4

How is the mind divided according to Freud?

Answer 4

Freud suggested that there are distinct divisions to the mind which operate at three different levels of consciousness: the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind.

Question 5

What is the role of the conscious mind?

Answer 5

The part of the mind that the individual is aware of, which is used to form conscious thoughts

Question 6

What is the role of the preconscious mind?

Answer 6

The part of the mind which contains things we could be aware of if we wanted to

Question 7

What is the unconscious mind?

Answer 7

It contains things we are unaware of and cannot become aware of.
A large part of our mental life operates at an unconscious level, meaning we have thoughts and ideas that we are not directly aware of.
The unconscious mind was seen as dynamic, an active force motivating much of our behaviour.
The material in the unconscious mind is there because it is too painful or disturbing to deal with consciously.

Question 8

Summarise the role of the unconscious mind?

Answer 8

To drive most of our behaviour and personality
To protect the conscious self from trauma or anxiety
To store harmful memories that have been repressed
To employ defence mechanisms to reduce anxiety

Question 9

What is the tripartite theory of personality?

Answer 9

Freud believed that the structure of the mind consisted of three parts: the ID, ego and superego.

Question 10

Describe the ID?

Answer 10

It is present at birth.
It controls out basic drives and instincts, operating according to the pleasure principle to seek immediate gratification.
It is contained within the unconscious mind.

Question 11

Describe the superego?

Answer 11

It develops between the age of three to six, after successful resolution of the Oedipus and electra complexes.
It is the child’s conscience, operating on the morality principle consisting of the values and morals of the child.
It is contained within the unconscious mind.

Question 12

Describe the ego?

Answer 12

It develops between the age of 18 months and three years.
Children learn that immediate gratification is not always possible, so operates on the reality principle to make rational decisions.
Balances demands of the ID and superego using defence mechanisms.
Operates in the conscious mind

Question 13

What are defence mechanisms?

Answer 13

Tools used by the ego in order to protect the conscious mind from distress and the conflicting demands of the ID and superego, by distorting reality to provide compromise solutions to deal with unresolveable conflict.

Question 14

What is repression?

Answer 14

Occurs when a traumatic or distressing memory is forced out of conscious awareness and into the unconscious mind.

Question 15

What is denial?

Answer 15

Involves a refusal to accept the truth or reality of a situation, acting as though nothing distressing has happened.

Question 16

What is displacement?

Answer 16

When the feelings towards a target individual or situation cannot be expressed directly, and so they are transferred onto someone or something else.

Question 17

Briefly evaluate defence mechanisms

Answer 17

They lack testability and falsifiability as they are unconscious and cannot be studied directly.
They can only be inferred from behaviour, or reported thoughts and experiences.
However, they have an intuitive appeal as most people appreciate how they operate in everyday life.

Question 18

What are psychosexual stages of development?

Answer 18

Children pass through psychosexual stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital.
The child must resolve an internal conflict at each stage in order to progress to the next stage.
If a child fails to resolve the conflict, they may develop a fixation where they display certain behaviours in later life.

Question 19

Describe the oral stage?

Answer 19

Occurs age 0-1 years
The focus of pleasure is the mouth
Pleasure is experienced through sucking and biting of the mothers breast during breastfeeding
Unresolved conflict leads to oral fixations: smoking and nail biting.

Question 20

Describe the anal stage?

Answer 20

Occurs age 1-3 years
The focus of pleasure is the anus
Pleasure is experienced through withholding and expelling faeces
Unresolved conflict leads to anal fixation, either anally retentive or exclusive: retentive would be obsessively perfect, and expulsion would be messy and thoughtless.

Question 21

Describe the phallic stage?

Answer 21

Occurs age 3-5 years
The focus of pleasure is the genitals
This stage involves overcoming the Oedipus and electra complex
Unresolved conflict leads to a phallic personality: reckless and narcissistic behaviour

Question 22

Describe the latency stage?

Answer 22

Occurs age 6-12 years
The individual focuses on the world around them and forms friendships
Previous conflicts are resolved or repressed and the early years are largely forgotten

Question 23

Describe the genital stage?

Answer 23

Occurs age 12+
The focus of pleasure is formation of heterosexual relationships
Sexual desires become conscious and energy is directed towards the formation of adult relationships
Unresolved conflict may lead to difficulty forming heterosexual relationships

Question 24

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 24

The Oedipus complex is when a young boy develops unconscious sexual feelings towards his mother, so becomes envious of his father.
He fantasises getting rid of his father to be with his mother.
This leads to anxiety that the father will retaliate by castrating his son, so he uses ego defence mechanisms.
He identifies with his father so introjects his morals and values.

Question 25

What is the electra complex?

Answer 25

Girls experience the Electra complex upon realising that she does not have a penis, so develops penis envy.
She blames her mother for this so transfers her love to her father.
She realises she cannot possess her father, so identifies with her mother and introjects her morals and values.
This is known as anaclitic identification.

Question 26

Describe and explain the little Hans case study

Answer 26

Freud supported his concept of the Oedipus complex with the case study of Little Hans.
Hans was a 5 year old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street.
Freud suggested that Hans’ phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred onto horses.
Horses were a symbolic representation of Hans’ real unconscious fear of castration.

Question 27

What are the weaknesses of the little Hans case study?

Answer 27

This case study has the weakness of not being generalisable, and also subjective.
This case study cannot be used to establish cause and effect and there could be many other factors involved in explaining Hans’ behaviour.

Question 28

What is psychoanalysis?

Answer 28

Psychoanalysis is a treatment for mental disorders developed by Freud from his psychodynamic theory.

Question 29

What is the aim of psychoanalysis?

Answer 29

The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, by making the unconscious, conscious.

Question 30

What is the process of psychoanalysis?

Answer 30

Freud had the patients lie on a couch and would sit behind them taking notes while they told him about their dreams and childhood memories.
Paraphrases, free association and interpretation are techniques used for the client to develop insights into their behaviour and symptoms.

Question 31

What is dream analysis?

Answer 31

Freud believed that unconscious drives are expressed and uncensored in dreams, but they are disguised in symbolic form.
The analyst interprets the significance of the client’s dream
This helps to identify unconscious events causing mental disorders.

Question 32

What is free association?

Answer 32

The client says the feelings, thoughts or images that come to mind without censorship.
Associations that arise reflect internal dynamic conflicts.