Approaches: Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
Assumptions of the psychodynamic approach
- early chilhood experienves play a key role in determining an individuals’s mental/emotional state and outcomes later in life
- another assumption is that there are parts of the mind that are inaccessible to conscous awareness.
psychic determinism= the idea that all behaviour is caused by unconscious internal conflicts over which we have no control or access too
the role of the unconscious
our conscious mind is only the tip of the iceberg.
- most of our mind is made up of the unconscious
- this is a vast sore house of biological drives that have a significant influence on our behaviour and personality.
- it also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed, or locked away and forgotten
freudian slips
just under our conscious mind there is the preconscious
- this include thoughts and ideas which we may become aware of during dreams or through slips of the tongue (freudian slips)
the structure of personality
“the tripartite system”
the ID: the innate part of our personality
- operates on the pleasure principle
- unconscious drives and instincts
- only this is present at birth
- throughout life it is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs
the ego: the mediator of the two parts of our personality
- works on the mediator principle
- develops at 2 yo
- role is to reduce conflict between the demands of the ID and the super ego
- uses defence mechanisms
the superego : internalised sense of right and wrong (age 5)
- works off the morality principle
- formed at the end of the phallic stage
- represents the moral standards of the child’s same-sex parent and punishes the ego for wrong doing (guilt)
- constant conflict with the ID
defence mechanisms
unconscious and ensure that the ego is able to prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas
however they often involve some distortion of reality and as a long-term solution they are regarded as psychologically unhealthy and undesirable
denial : the blocking of external events from awareness. If the situation is too much to handle, the person will just refuse to experience it
- (rejecting facts)
displacement : satisfying an impulse with a substitute object
- (redirecting emotions from a source of distress to an easier target)
repression unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from being conscious
- (unconscious blocking of thoughts)
Psychosexual stages general points
- children go through 5 psychosexual stages
- they must go through all 5 stages to become well-adjusted adults
- during each stage the child fixates on a different part of the body
- during these stages the child goes through a conflict which they must resolve to move through the stage successfully
- if they do not resolve the conflict at each stage, the child becomes ‘stuck’ and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life (becomes an adult fixation)
old aged pensioners like grapes
ORAL: 0-1 years
ANAL: 1-3 years
PHALLIC: 3-6 years
LATENCY: 6-12 years
GENITAL: 12+
1st stage of the psychosexual stages
ORAL 0-1 years
description
- the mouth is the focus of pleasure
- conflict arises when weaning off a bottle or breast
Consequences
- oral fixations: smoking, overeating, biting nails, critical and sarcastic verbalisation and thumb sucking
2st stage of the psychosexual stages
ANAL 1-3 years
description
- the anus is the focus of pleasure
- conflict arises when toilet training
consequences
- anal retentive: neatness and perfectionism
- anal expulsive: messiness, insensitivity
3st stage of the psychosexual stages
PHALLIC 3-6 years
Description
- the genital area is the focus of pleasure
- conflict can arise and cause the OEDIPUS or ELECTRA COMPLEX
during this stage the SUPEREGO is developed
consequences
- vanity, overambition, narcissism, impulsivity, overly dependant on parents, and a change in gender identity
4st stage of the psychosexual stages
LATENCY 6-12 years
description
- all earlier conflicts become repressed
Consequnce
- if this is not achieved the child may obtain a sense of immaturity
5th stage of the Psychosexual stages
Genital 12+
description
- the genitals are the focus of pleasure
- sexual desires become conscious with the onset of puberty
consequences
- there may be a difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
Oedipus complex
- boys have desires for their mum’s love and care
- boys fear that their father with castrate them (castration anxiety)
- to reduce anxiety, boys use defense mechanisms and try to identify with their father
- this reduces the threat and the boy internalizes male characteristics and comes out of the Oedipus complex
Electra Complex
- girls desire closeness with the opposite sex parent (i.e the father)
- girls do not fear their same-sex parents (the mother) as they believe that they have already been castrated;
- is tread they experience penis-envy
- girl fear losing their mothers’ love
- to reduce anxiety girls identify with their mother
- this reduces the threat and girls internalize female characteristics and comes out of the Electra complex.
girls want a penis so they resonate with their mother, as they both dont have one
(The desire for wanting a penis turns into a desire for wanting a baby)
Positive evaluations of the psychodynamic approach
-
Case study of little Hans supports the Oedipus Complex
- Hans was a 5 year old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse one the street.
- Freud suggested that Hans’ phobia was a form a displacement in which he repressed his fear of his father was transferred (Displaced) onto horses.
- thus Horses were merely a symbolic representation of Hans’ real unconscious fear: the fear of castration experienced during the Oedipus complex -
Impact and explanatory power
- has had a huge influence on psychology and Western contemporary thought
- alongside behaviourism, psychodynamic approach has remained a dominant force in psychology for the first half of the 20th century.
- used to explained a range of phenomena including personality development and abnormal behaviour, moral development and gender.
- also is significant in drawing the connection between experiences in childhood, such as our relationship with out parents and later development.
- thus is may be praised for both its impact and explanationary power
3.practical application
- alongside this approach, Freud brought psychoanalysis as a new form of therapy
- it employs a range of techniques designed to access the unconscious, such as hypnosis and dream analysis, psychoanalysis
- which now are the forerunner to many modern-day psychotherapies
(-) though despite Freudian therapists claiming success with many patients suffering with mild neurosis and psychoanalysis
- it is classified as inappropriate and even harmful, for people suffering more serious mental disorders like (schizophrenia)
Negative evaluations of the psychodynamic approach
-
the use of case studies
- many (notably the Oedipus and Electra Complexes) were based on date from individual case studies
- participants selected for these case studies are often of some kind of special psychological interest, so cannot represent the experiences of the general population.
- lack ecological validity
- Qualitative data is collected
- this means the researcher draws their own subjective conclusions
- this is the particularly the case if the researcher knows what they are looking for/ aims of the study, so the chance of researcher bias affecting the results are high
Limited applications and generalizability.
-
untestable concepts
- the philosopher of science, Karl Popper
- he says the this approach does not meet the scientific createria of falsification: not open to empirical testing ( and the possibility of being disproved)
- many of Frued’s concepts, Oedipus and id, it are said to occur at an * unconscious level*
- ^ makes it impossible to test.
A pseudoscience rather than a real science. -
Psychic determinism
- Freud believed that there was no such thing as an accident in relation to human behaviour
- the psychodynamic approach explains all behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts that are rooted in childhood.
- so any free will we have is an illusion
Approach may be considered reductionist
