Approaches in Psychology: Psychodynamic Flashcards
The Psychodynamic Perspective
The Psychodynamic Perspective is synonymous with the work of Sigmund Freud.
Key assumptions:
- All human behaviour can be explained in terms of inner conflicts of mind.
- The structure of the mind made up of the conscious and unconscious.
THE Id
- With us from birth.
- Its energy Is called the libido.
- It constitutes all our basic drives and instincts.
- UNCONSCIOUS
The Super-ego
- Develops as we get older.
- It is the internalization of rules passed down from our parents.
- It is the ‘ideal’ force, the civilized, socially acceptable figure, the person we should strive to be.
- UNCONSCIOUS
The Ego
- It must balance the drives from the Id and the control from the super-ego.
- CONSCIOUS
The Psychodynamic Approach
- There is a balancing act between the forces of the id and the super-ego.
- The strength of each force is a factor in our personality.
- If a person’s Id is too strong, they are seen as delinquent, anti-social or self-centered.
- If a person’s super-ego is too strong, they are seen as rigid, pompous, or self-righteous.
Defence Mechanisms
- Denial: Blocking that something is a problem.
- Repression: burying of the problem into our unconscious.
- Projection: we project our own problem behaviour onto someone else.
- Displacement: our problems get channeled onto something.
- Sublimation: putting effort in to one activity because another can’t be pursued.
- Rationalization: giving an alternative interpretation to something.
- Regression: we go back several stages in our development.
what are the stages
oral
anal
phallic
latency
genital
what is the age erogenous zone and conflicts and consequences of fixation for oral
0-1 years
mouth
Smoking, biting nails, sarcasm, critical.
what is the age erogenous zone and conflicts and consequences of fixation for anal
2-3 years
anus
Anal Retentive: perfectionist, obsessive.
Anal expulsive: thoughtless, messy.
what is the age erogenous zone and conflicts and consequences of fixation for phallic
4-6 years
genetalia
Narcissistic, reckless.
what is the age erogenous zone and conflicts and consequences of fixation for latency
7-10 years until puberty
Previous issues are repressed.
what is the age erogenous zone and conflicts and consequences of fixation for genital
11+ years (Puberty and beyond)
Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.
Stage 1 – Oral Stage
- Mouth (sucking) is the source of pleasure.
- The ID is in control.
- Fixation caused by:
- Overindulgence:
- Symptoms include selfishness, dependency, compulsive talking.
- Frustration
- Nail biting, sarcasm, critical etc.
Stage 2 – the ANAL stage
- Elimination of faeces is the source of pleasure.
- The EGO (reality principle) develops.
Stage 3: the PHALLIC stage
- The Superego develops.
- Driven by the anxiety principle.
- The Oedipus conflict (boys).
- The Electra conflict (girls).
- Fixation caused by failure to resolve the Oedipus/Electra conflict.
- Symptoms include homosexuality, curiosity, exhibitionism.
Stage 4: Latency Stage
- Nothing much goes on in this stage.
- Sexual energy is put to one side whilst other important physical and intellectual development takes place.
- This explains why at around the age of 6 children no longer choose to interact with opposite sex children.
Stage 5: Genital stage
- This is the final stage and marks the transition into adult sexuality.
- Freud was a product of his time and thought the only acceptable type of sexuality was heterosexuality.
Evaluation
pratical valuve
Practical value as a therapy
- Allows a person to explore the causes of an issue rather than the symptoms (other aim to remove the symptoms).
- Used for a lot of therapy/counselling
evaluation
reduction
Reductionist
- It says all problems are due to fixations in the psychosexual stages but surely, we are more complex than that.
Evaluation
good power
Good explanatory power
- Good at explaining the root causes of behaviour.
- Well suited to explaining real-life situations and thus applicable to all our lives.
- Other approaches are difficult to apply to everyday life.
evaluation objective
Lack of objectivity – hugely objective
- Hugely subjective.
evaluation
conclusions
Unfalsifiable conclusions
- How can his conclusions/interpretations be verified?
- Theories are near impossible to test objectively and repeatedly.
what is the Oedipus complex
little boys develop incestous feelings towards their mother and a murderous hatred for their rival in love their father
what is the electra complex
girls desire their father as the penis is the primary love object and hate their mother
what is the support for the Oedipus complex
little Hans was a case study
5 year old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street
frued suggested that Hans phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred onto horses.
Thus horses were merely a symbolic representation of Hans real unconscious fear
the fear of castration experienced during the Oedipus complex
