Approaches, Psychodynamic

Question 1

Key assumption of the psychodynamic approach

Answer 1

-Freud, the unconscious mind is a vast storehouse that impacts behaviour
- behaviour driven by psychological forces

Question 2

What is the structure of the personality?

Answer 2

• Id (pleasure principle)
• Ego (reality principle)
• Superego (morality principle)

Question 3

What are defense mechanisms?

Answer 3

They are methods used by the ego to balance conflicting demands of the Id & Superego

Question 4

What are the three defence mechanisms

Answer 4

• Denial: refusal to accept the reality of an unpleasant situation
• Displacement: focus of a strong emotion expressed onto person/object
• Repression: unpleasant memories pushed down into unconscious

Question 5

What are the psychosexual stages in order?

Answer 5

• Oral
• Anal
• Phallic: identifying with key role models, Oedipus/Electra complex
• Latent: no focus, conflicts repressed
• Genital: establishing intimate relationships

Question 6

Outline the Oedipus complex

Answer 6

• boys desire closeness with their mother whilst same-sex parent is a rival
• experience castration anxiety toward their father & to reduce this they use defence mechanisms & identify with father

Question 7

Outline the Electra complex

Answer 7

• girls desire closeness with their mother but have no fear of mother
• experience penis-envy & fear losing mother’s love so identify with mother to reduce this anxiety

Question 8

What are the pros of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 8

• Real-world application: approach is influential, helped with the development of other approaches & therapies, psychoanalysis therapy that aims to bring unconscious thoughts to the conscious mind

Question 9

What are the cons of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 9

• Psychic determinism: hard determinism, socially sensitive, no agency, absolves responsibility, alibi
• Androcentric: alpha bias, exaggerates the difference between males & females, ‘penis-envy’, suggests femininity is a failed version of masculinity & women are inferior to men, also used a sample of 72 boys aged 10-16 to base his universal theory
• Cultural bias: beta bias, western psychology applied universally, ignores differences between cultures
• Lacks scientific merit: unfalsifiable with unobservable, immeasurable phenomena e.g. ego defences cannot be scientifically measured/proven wrong, also reliance on case-study research like Little Hans & Anna O, case-studies are unscientific, more qualitative approach favoured by humanistic psychologists