Approaches

Question 1

Correct arrangement of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs from bottom to top

Answer 1

Physiological, Safety, Love and belonging, Esteem, Self Actualisation

Question 2

Correct order of the psychosexual stages of development

Answer 2

Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital

Question 3

Describe the role of defence mechanisms according to the psychodynamic approach

Answer 3

Defence mechanisms help the ego manage the conflict between the id and superego.
Denial, for example includes blocking external events from awareness.
This provides a compromise to deal with the unresolved conflict.
Another example is displacement, which is satisfying an impulse such as aggression onto a neutral object.
This provides a strategy to reduce anxiety which weakens the ego’s influence.

Question 4

Explain one strength and one limitation of the psychodynamic approach

Answer 4

+ve: Focuses on the effects of childhood experiences on the developing personality. This is a strength because Freud was the first psychologist to realise the importance of childhood and led to more theories to be developed. For example the little Hans study where Hans developed a fear of castration which led to a phobia of horses.

-ve: The approach is unscientific in its analysis of human behaviour. Many of Freud’s theories are subjective and therefore are difficult to test scientifically. For example his theories of the unconscious mind and the tripartite personality are impossible to study scientifically. This shows the psychodynamic approach is unfalsifiable as its theories cannot be tested empirically.