Approaches in Psychology - Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
What are the key assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?
- The unconscious mind has an important influence on behaviour.
- Tripartite structure of personality. Dynamic interaction between the three parts determines behaviour.
- Five psychosexual stages that determine adult personality.
- The sequence of stages is fixed.
- The Oedipus complex is an important psychosexual conflict occurring at the phallic stage.
- Defence mechanisms are used by the ego to keep the id ‘in check’ and reduce anxiety.
What is Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?
Is an example of the psychodynamic approach. He suggested that the mind is made up of:
- Conscious: what we are aware of.
- Pre-conscious: memories and thoughts we are not currently aware of but can be accessed.
- Unconscious: we are unaware of the contents of the unconscious. It is a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that influence our behaviour.
What is the tripartite structure of personality?
Freud saw personality as having three parts:
- (0-1.5 ORAL) Id: primitive part of the personality operates on the pleasure principle, demands instant gratification (eros - sex, thanatos - death).
- (1.5 - 3 ANAL) Ego: works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the id and superego.
- (3-5 PHALLIC) Superego: internalised sense of right and wrong, based on the morality principle. Punishes the ego through guilt.
- (5-12 LATENCY)
- (puberty GENITAL)
How do the psychosexual stages determine adult personality?
Each stage is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve to move on to the next.
Any conflict that is unresolved leads to fixation where the child becomes ‘stuck’ and carries behaviours associated with that stage through to adult life.
What are the fixed five psychosexual stages?
Oral (0-1 years) - pleasure focus = mouth, the mother’s breast is the object of desire.
Anal (1-3 years) - pleasure focus = anus, the child gains pleasure from withholding and eliminating faeces.
Phallic (3-5 years) - pleasure focus = genital area. Develop gender.
Latency - earlier conflicts are repressed. Same sex friendships.
Genital (puberty) - sexual desires become conscious. Focus on heterosexual relationships.
What is the Oedipus complex?
In the phallic stage, little boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother and a murderous hatred for their father.
Later, boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father, taking on his gender role and moral values.
Girls of the same age experience penis envy.
What are the defence mechanisms used by the ego to keep the id in check and reduce anxiety?
Unconscious strategies used by the ego, for example:
- repression: forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
- denial: refusing to acknowledge reality
- displacement: transferring feelings from their true source onto a substitute target when the original target would be dangerous or unacceptable
What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?
- has explanatory power
- has practical application to the real world
What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach?
- case study method that Freud relies on has been criticised
- includes lots of untestable concepts
- based on psychic determinism
How does the psychodynamic approach have explanatory power?
Although Freud’s theory is controversial and often bizarre, it has had huge influence on Western contemporary thought.
It has been used to explain a wide range of behaviours (moral, mental disorders) and drew attention to the influence of childhood on adult personality.
Alongside behaviourism, it was the dominant approach in psychology for the first half of the twentieth century.
What practical application in the real world does the psychodynamic approach have?
Freud introduced a new form of therapy: psychoanalysis. The therapy is designed to access the unconscious mind using a range of techniques such as dream analysis.
Psychoanalysis is most suitable for individuals suffering from mild neuroses but has been criticised as inappropriate for people with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia.
That said, psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern-day psychotherapies and ‘talking cures’ that have since been established.
How has the case study method that Freud relied on been criticised?
Freud’s ideas were developed using a small number of case studies, e.g. Little Hans, Dora and the Rat Man. Critics have suggested that it is not possible to make universal claims about human nature based on such a limited sample.
Although Freud’s observations were detailed and carefully recorded, his interpretations were highly subjective and it is unlikely that any other researcher would have drawn the same conclusions.
In comparison with other approaches, Freud’s methods lacked scientific rigour.
What untestable concepts does the psychodynamic approach include?
Karl Popper (philosopher of science) argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification, in the sense that it cannot be proved or disproved.
Many of Freud’s concepts, such as the id or the Oedipus complex, occur at an unconscious level making them difficult, if not impossible, to test.
This affords psychodynamic theory the status of pseudoscience (‘fake’ science) rather than real science.
How is the psychodynamic approach based on psychic determinism?
The psychodynamic approach explains all behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts that are rooted in childhood.
Even something as apparently random as a ‘slip of the tongue’ is driven by unconscious forces and has deep symbolic meaning.
This is an extreme determinist stance and suggests that free will may have no influence on behaviour.
What is psychoanalysis?
A means of accessing the unconscious via:
- dream analysis
- humour analysis
- free association
- analysis of Freudian slips
