Approaches Flashcards
Outline the content of the psychodynamic approach
The role of the unconscious The structure of personality The defence mechanisms Psychosexual stages Evaluation
Outline the role of the unconscious
Conscious - know about and aware of
Preconscious- thoughts and ideas which we may become aware of during dreams through ‘slips of the tongue’ (parapraxes)
Unconscious- a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influences on our behaviour and personality.
(Also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed or locked away and forgotten )
Outline the structure of personality
Personality=tripartite
The ID - the primitive part,
Operates on the pleasure principle (gets what it wants)
It is a seething mass of unconscious drives and instincts. Only part which is present at birth. Completely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs
The ego - works on the reality principle and it’s the mediator between the other two parts of the personality. The ego develops around the age of two years and it’s role is to reduce the conflict between the demands of the ID and the SUPEREGO-it does this by employing defence mechanisms.
The superego- is formed at the end of the phallic stage, around the age of 5. It is our internalised sense of right and wrong. Based on the morality principle it represents the moral standards of the child’s same-sex parent and punishes the ego for wrongdoing.(through guilt)
Outline the defence mechanisms
Repression-forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
Denial-refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
Displacement-transferring feeling from true source of distressing emotion into a substitute target.
what are the psychosexual stages ?
Oral 0-1yrs Anal 1-3yrs Phallic 3-5yrs Latency Genital
What is the Oedipus complex
Little boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother and a murderous hatred for their father.
Later, boys repress their feelings of their mother and identify with their father, taking on his gender role and moral values
Outline the Electra complex
Girls of the same age experience penis envy
Evaluate the psychodynamic approach
+Explanatory power ~ the theory may be controversial and occasionally bizarre, but it has had a huge influence on psychology and western contemporary thought. Has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including personality development, abnormal behaviour, moral development and gender.
+practical application ~ psychoanalysis. Techniques designed to access the unconscious, such as hypnosis and dream analysis. Many patients suffering from mild neuroses have claimed success but those who suffer from more serious mental disorders it is inappropriate and harmful to them.
> led to other psychoanalysts developing their own theories and therapies such as ERIKSSON ADLER- inferiority complexes and ANNA FREUD- play therapy
- case study method ~ not possible to make such universal claims about human nature based on studies of such a smack number of individuals who were psychologically abnormal.
- highly subjective ~ LITTLE HANS
- untestable concepts ~ KARL POPPER argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification. ( not open to empirical testing ) - unconscious level is impossible to test.
Outline little Hans
5 year old boy who developed a phobia of horses, after seeing one collapse in the street- form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was displaced onto horses
Outline play therapy
Play with puppets and one of the puppets is represented as a family member etc, anger can be displaced when playing
Describe the psychosexual stages
Oral - focus of pleasure in the mouth, the mothers breast is the object of desire
Anal - focus of pleasure in the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces.
Phallic- focus of pleasure in the genital area. Child experiences the Oedipus or Electra complex
Latency- earlier conflicts are repressed
Genital- sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty
What are the consequences of unresolved conflict in the psychosexual stages
Oral- oral fixation- smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical
Anal- anal retentive- perfectionist, obsessive anal expulsive- thoughtless, messy
Phallic- phallic personality- narcissistic, reckless, possible homosexual
Latency -n/a
Genital- difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
Outline the content of the humanistic approach
Free will Self- actualisation The self, congruence, and conditions of worth Maslows hierarchy of needs Evaluation
Outline free will
Humans are essentially self-determining and have free will. Not meaning that people aren’t affected by external or internal influences but we are active agents who have the ability to determine our own development. Rogers and Maslow reject scientific models that attempt to establish general principles.
Outline self-actualisation
Every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential to become the best they can possibly be
Represents the upper most level of maslows hierarchy of needs (a “growth need”) other levels (“deficiency needs”)
Personal growth is an essential part of what it is to be human> concerned with developing and changing as a person to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal- orientated. Not everyone will manage this and there are important psychological barriers that may prevent a person from reaching their potential.
Outline the belief behind psychosexual stages
Freud claimed that child development occurred in five stages. Each stage ( apart from latency) is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve in order to progress successfully to the next stage. Any psychosexual conflict that is unresolved leads to fixation where the child becomes ‘stuck’ and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life.
Outline the self, congruence and conditions of worth
Rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of self (way they see themselves) must be broadly equivalent to, or have congruence with, their ideal self (person they want to be). If too big a gap exists between the two “selves” the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self-worth that arise from incongruence.
In order to reduce the gap between the self concept and the ideal self, Rogers claimed that many of the issues we experience as adults, such as worthlessness and low self-esteem have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents.
A parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child(conditions of worth) by claiming “I will only love you if..” is storing up psychological problems for that child in the future. This, Rogers saw one of his roles as an effective therapist as being able to provide his clients with the unconditional positive regard that they had failed to receive as children.
Outline Maslows Hierarchy of needs
Main interest was in what motivates people. In order to achieve our primary goal of self-actualisation, a number of other deficiency needs must first be met. The first of these is physiological.
Moving up the hierarchy, the next deficiency need is safety and security followed by love and belongingness and then self-esteem. A person is only able to progress through the hierarchy once the current need in the sequence has been met.
Maslow characterised life as a series of peak experiences: moments of great achievement, ecstasy or elation when all deficiency needs are satisfied. He also identified and researched a number of self-actualisers: people who, for whatever reason, were fulfilled in life and had used their abilities to the fullest.
- self actualisation
- esteem needs
- belongingness and love needs
- safety needs
- physiological needs
Outline the stages in maslows hierarchy of needs
Self-actualisation:
Achieving ones full potiental, including creative activities
Esteem needs:
Prestige and feeling of accomplishment
Belongingness and love needs:
Intimate relationships, friends
Safety needs:
Security, safety
Physiological needs:
Food, water, warmth, rest
Evaluation of humanistic approach
+non reductionist> humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components. Compared to behaviourists explain human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus-response connections.- humanists advocate holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person. This approach may have more validity than it’s alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real life context.
+positive approach>humanistic psychologists have been praised for ‘bringing the person back into psychology’ and promoting a positive image of the human condition. Freud saw human beings as slaves to their past and claimed all of us existed somewhere between ‘common unhappiness and absolute despair.’ Humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative; it sees all people as basically good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives.
- limited application>humanistic psychology has relatively little real-life application. It is true that Rogerian therapy has revolutionised counselling techniques and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation, particularly in the work place. However, it remains the case that the approach has had limited impact within the discipline of psychology as a whole. This may in part be due to humanistic psychology lacking a sound evidence-base and also due to the fact that the approach has been described, not as a comprehensive theory but as a loose set of rather abstract concepts.
- untestable concepts>humanistic psychology does include a number of vague ideas that are abstract and difficult to test. Concepts such as ‘self-actualisation’ and ‘congruence’ may be useful therapeutic tools but would prove problematic to assess under experimental conditions. Rogers did attempt to introduce more rigour into his work by developing the Q-sort- an objective measure of progress in therapy. Expected of an approach that describes itself as anti-scientific- short on empirical evidence to support its claims.
- cultural bias> many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be much more readily associated with individualist cultures in the western world such as the United States. Collectivist cultures emphasise The needs of the group, community and interdependence- doesn’t identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology.
