Approaches: Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

What are the 3 assumptions of this approach?

Answer 1

1. The role of the unconscious
2. The structure of personality
3. Psychosexual stages

Question 2

How did Sigmund Freud use the metaphor of the iceberg?

Answer 2

• top - the conscious - the small amount of mental activity we know about (e.g. thoughts)
• middle - the preconscious - things we could be aware of if we wanted or tried (e.g. memories)
• the bottom - the unconscious - things we are unaware of and can’t become aware of (e.g. instincts and deeply buried memories)

Question 3

What is the importance of the unconscious mind?

Answer 3

Freud suggested it makes up most of our mind and influences our behaviour.
- the conscious mind is unaware of what thoughts and emotions occur in the unconscious, however they can have an effect on the conscious mind.
This is known as psychic determinism

Question 4

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 4

Unconscious forces and drives are inborn and control or determine behaviour - all we say and do has a cause. (E.g. a slip of the tongue)

Question 5

How can we access the unconscious mind?

Answer 5

• dreams
• free association
• ‘slips of the tongue’ (which Freud referred to as parapraxes)

Question 6

How does dream analysis access the unconscious mind?

Answer 6

Repressed ideas in the unconscious are more likely to appear in dreams than when awake - Freund referred to these ideas as the latent content of dreams.
—> dream symbols that are used to disguise unacceptable ideas
- therapist interprets the dreams in order to provide insight about what the dream really represents

Question 7

What is free association?

Answer 7

• individual is encouraged to relax and say anything that comes to their mind, no matter how absurd
• the idea is that the ego will be unable to carry out its normal role of keeping check of threatening unconscious impulses, and the conflict can be brought into consciousness
• therapist can then interpret and explain

Question 8

Freud describe personality as tripartite. What are the 3 components of personality?

Answer 8

1. The Id
2. The Ego
3. The Superego

Question 9

What is the Id?

Answer 9

The ‘selfish beast’ part of the personality
- contained in the unconscious part of the mind
- it uses the primary process to satisfy needs and operates according to the ‘pleasure principle’
- springs from 2 instinctive drives that all human possess - Eros, which is fuelled by psychic energy called libido, and Thanatos which is the death instinct

Question 10

What is the ego?

Answer 10

The executive of the personality
- uses its cognitive abilities to manage and control the Id and balance its desires against the restrictions of reality and the superego
- operates according to the ‘reality principle’
- defends itself from the Id - superego struggles via various defence mechanisms (unconscious strategies)

Question 11

What is the Superego?

Answer 11

the conscience and ego ideal
- a ‘relentless policeman’ and continues to insist we do the ‘right thing’
- opposes the desires of the Id and enforces moral restrictions and battles against the Id impulses.
- developed later in childhood through identification with one or other parent, at which point, the child internalises the moral rules and social normalities of society

Question 12

How is repression a defence mechanism?

Answer 12

• it is forcing a distressing memory from the conscious mind (unconscious forgetting)
  —> e.g. someone forgetting the trauma of their favourite pet dying

Question 13

How is denial a defence mechanism?

Answer 13

It is refusing to believe something because it is too painful to acknowledge the reality
—> continuing to turn up from work even though you have been fired

Question 14

How is displacement a defence mechanism?

Answer 14

It is transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
—> e.g. slamming the door after having an argument with your family

Question 15

How are early childhood experiences important?

Answer 15

Our events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality
- events that occur in childhood can remain in the unconscious and cause problems as adults
- Freud proposed that all children go through the same 5 stages of development

Question 16

What is psychosexual development?

Answer 16

• children pass through a series of age-dependent stages during development
• each stage has a designated ‘pleasure zone’ and ‘primary activity’
• each stage requires resolution of a particular conflict/task
• failure to successfully navigate a stage’s particular conflict/task is known as a fixation

Question 17

What is a fixation?

Answer 17

• getting stuck at one of the stages determines out adult character, personality and behavioural traits.
• if this happens, traces of that stage will remain in their behaviour as an adult
• fixation may occur due to trauma, pleasant or unpleasant experiences, change in environment,etc.

Question 18

What is the Oral stage?

Answer 18

0-1 years
- focus of pleasure is the mouth, mothers breast is object of desire - explore with their mouths.

Question 19

What’s the consequence of the oral stage being unresolved?

Answer 19

Oral fixation - smoking, biting nails, sucking thumb, sarcastic and critical

Question 20

What is the Anal stage?

Answer 20

1-3 years
- focus of pleasure is the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces. When potty training takes place. Ego develops as parents impose restrictions - first time the child experiences any sort of control

Question 21

What’s a consequence of the anal stage if unresolved?

Answer 21

• anal retentative - perfectionist, obsessive
• anal expulsive - thoughtless, messy

Question 22

What is the Phallic Stage?

Answer 22

3-5 years
- focus of pleasure in the genital area. Child experiences the Oedipus or Electra complex

Question 23

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 23

1. Boy starts to have sexual desire for his mother
2. He sees his father as a rival
3. Yet fears that his father finds out about his feelings for his mother and that he will castrate him (castration anxiety)
4. Boy is in a state of conflict and resolves this by internalising and identifying with his father
5. This leads to the development of the superego, the boy substitutes his desire for his mother for other women

Question 24

What is the Electra complex?

Answer 24

1. Girl develops penis envy, she blames her mother for removing her penis
2. She starts to sexually desire her father, who has a penis
3. The girl sees her mother as a sexual rival for her father
4. Identifies with her mother so that she can have her father
5. The superego develops (but not as much as boys as penis envy isn’t as fearful as castration) and as does gender identity. She replaces penis envy with desire for a baby.

Question 25

What’s a consequence of the phallic stage is unresolved?

Answer 25

Phallic personality - narcissistic, reckless, possibly homosexual

Question 26

What is the Latency stage?

Answer 26

Earlier conflicts are repressed

Question 27

What is the genital stage?

Answer 27

Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty

Question 28

What’s a consequence of the genital stage if unresolved?

Answer 28

Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships

Question 29

What’s some evidence to support this theory of psychosexual development?

Answer 29

• Freud conducted a case study on ‘Little Hans’
• Hans had a phobia of horses
• through psychoanalysis Hans spoke to Freud and commented ‘Father don’t trot away from me’
• Freud analyses this to be, the fear of horses was really a fear of his father and castration anxiety. His father wore glasses like the blinker of the horse. The Freudian slip of don’t ‘trot’ away showed his true fear

Question 30

What are some strengths of Freuds approach?

Answer 30

+ emphasises the importance of unconscious factors in determining behaviour
+ draws attention to the importance of childhood experiences on later behaviour
+ provided unique insight into human behaviour - the idea of the unconscious motivation has gained widespread support
+ useful applications, especially in therapy

Question 31

How has therapy been a practical application from this Freuds study?

Answer 31

• therapy benefits through release of pent-up tensions
• some inherent value in the ‘talking cure’ - being able to unload or get stuff off your mind

Question 32

What are some limitations to Freuds approach?

Answer 32

• largely derived from the study of adults with emotional disorders - extremely unrepresentative sample
• based on case studied - techniques are subjective and open to bias (idiographic approach)
• unscientific, as the ideas cannot be refuted - unfalsifiable
• over-emphasises the role of instincts in human behaviour
• psychoanalytic therapy is difficult to evaluate - extremely long term and it is possible that an individual may recover on their own accord during this time.
• deterministic and pessimistic