Approaches - Psychodynamic/Humanistic Flashcards
1
Q
What is the role of the unconscious?
A
- 3 levels to the mind
- conscious = thoughts, feelings, memories currently aware of
- preconscious mind = thoughts, feelings memories which can be accessed if you want to
- unconscious mind = inaccessible, most of our everyday actions are a product of this (e.g. Freudian slips)
2
Q
What is the structure of the personality?
A
- tripartite structure
- id
- ego
- superego
3
Q
What is the id?
A
- formed between birth and 18 months of age
- unconscious mind
- focuses on self and is irrational/emotional
- operates on the pleasure principle
4
Q
What is the ego?
A
- formed from 18 months of age to 3 years
- conscious mind
- rational and obtains balance between id/superego
- operates on reality principle
5
Q
What is the superego?
A
- formed between 3 and 6 years of age
- unconscious mind
- acts as a conscience/moral guide based on parental/societal values
- operates on morality principle
6
Q
What are defence mechanisms?
A
- stop an individual from becoming consciously aware of any unpleasant thoughts, feelings, memories
- repression = unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts
- denial = refusal to accept reality to avoid having to deal with any painful feelings
- displacement = occurs when focus of strong emotion is expressed on an alternate person or object
7
Q
What are the psychosexual stages?
A
- Freud believed that personality developed through these 5 stages
- oral = trust/affection (resolved), oral fixation (unresolved)
- anal = deal with authority figures (resolved), retentive/perfectionist or expulsive/messy (unresolved)
- phallic = adopts traits of same sex (resolved), narcissistic/maybe homosexual (unresolved)
- latent = focus is on mastery of world/social relationships
- genital = well-adjusted adult (resolved), difficult forming heterosexual relationships
- if a child experiences too much or too little gratification at these stages, fixation may occur
8
Q
What is the oedipus/electra complex?
A
- oedipus:
- during phallic stage, boys develop incestous feelings towards their mother and hatred for their father
- fear father with castrate them
- internalise gender role/moral values
- electra:
- during phallic stage, girls experience penis envy and desire their father
- they believe they have been castrated and blame their mother
- replace desire for father with desire for baby and start to identify with their mother (internalise her gender role)
9
Q
What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?
A
- led to development of psychoanalysis (treatment of anxiety disorders)
- case study of Little Hans supports Oedipus complex
- research supports the effectiveness of psychotherapy
- De Maat examined effectiveness of long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for those with a range of DSM diagnoses
- found that symptoms improved due to psychotherapy
- research by Caspi supports Freud’s work
- role of childhood personality has an impact later in life
- e.g. inhibited personality at 3 may lead to depression in the future
- psychodynamic model has received praise in psychology
- first systematic model that focused on psychological factors and treatments
10
Q
What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach?
A
- unconscious mind and defence mechanisms lack falsifiability (cannot be proved false) as they are difficult to test (not scientific)
- psychodynamic model can be criticised as it only focuses on childhood problems and not the problems the patient may currently be facing
11
Q
What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
A
- person’s most basic physiological needs are represented at the bottom of the pyramid
- most advanced needs are at the top
12
Q
What is self actualisation?
A
- occurs when a person reaches their full potential and is the best version of themselves
- psychological growth, fulfilment, satisfaction in life
13
Q
What is Roger’s focus on self concept?
A
- claims that people have two basic needs = positive regard and feelings of self-worth
- self-worth = develops in childhood as a result of interactions with parents
- positive regard given by other people may be unconditional (accepted for who they are) or conditional
- conditional = develop conditions of worth, which they believe they need to meet to be accepted by others
- this is how an individual will experience a sense of self-acceptance
14
Q
What is congruence/incongruence?
A
- congruence = similarity between a person’s perceived self and ideal self
- incongruence = difference between perceived self and ideal self
- leads to negative feelings of self-worth
- rare for complete state of congruence to exist
15
Q
What is Roger’s (1959) counselling psychology?
A
- Rogers claimed that an individual’s psychological problems were a direct result of conditional positive regard
- humanistic psychologists regard themselves as guides to help people understand themselves to enable self-actualisation
- they provide unconditional positive regard to help dissolve client’s conditions of worth
- results in client moving towards being true to their self
