Approaches - The psychodynamic approach

Question 1

What is an outline of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

• The psychodynamic approach focused on studying how unconscious psychological processes shape human behaviour
• These processes are thought to form during early childhood experience
• The approach was founded by Sigmund Freud who also based psychoanalytical therapy on these ideas

Question 2

What is the unconscious?

Answer 2

• One of the three aspects of the mind, also including the conscious (the awareness) and the preconscious (thoughts and memories that can be recalled but not currently in conscious awareness)
• The unconscious is not open to awareness, containing socially unacceptable thoughts, painful emotions, drives/instincts and memories that are repressed

Question 3

What is the structure of personality?

Answer 3

-Formed of the:
-ID (the pleasure principle) present from birth, focused on satisfying its own needs/desires
-Ego (the reality principle) develops from 2 years, focused on balancing other two aspects with rational
thought
-Superego (The morality principle) develops from 3-5 years, focused on obeying learnt rules of society and uses guilt

Question 4

What are defence mechanisms?

Answer 4

• Unconscious processes that reduce anxiety felt by the Ego by distorting reality
• This includes repression (making a memory inaccessible to consciousness), denial (refusing to accept the reality of a situation) and displacement (moving emotions from the source to an alternative)

Question 5

What are the psychosexual stages?

Answer 5

• Phases of development that children pass through
• Fixation can occur at any stage resulting to psychological disorders
• The stages are named after where the child derives pleasure, the stages include the:
• Oral stage (0-18 months)
• Anal stage (18 months-3 years)
• Phallic stage (3-6 years)
• Latent (6-puberty)
• Genital (puberty-adult)

Question 6

What is a strength of the psychodynamic approach?

Practical application and validity

Answer 6

-Freud’s ideas have strongly influenced the
development of Bowlby’s attachment theories that suggest periods of maternal deprivation in childhood can have long lasting negative psychological effects on adults
-This is widely accepted and has revolutionised child welfare

Question 7

What is a weakness of the psychodynamic approach?

Psychic determinism

Answer 7

• Mental processing and behaviour that appear freely chosen under conscious control are said to be actually caused by powerful unconscious systems set in childhood
• This is an example of psychic determinism and it goes against how most people view their decision making as it disregards free will and conscious decision making

Question 8

What is a weakness of the psychodynamic approach?

Biased theories

Answer 8

• Freud’s theories developed from his own interpretation of case studies, such as little Hans’s fear of horses which Freud explained to be as a result from a fear of his father (Oedipus complex)
• This methodology is highly susceptible to bias

Question 9

What is a weakness of the psychodynamic approach?

The unconscious is unfalsifiable

Answer 9

-Concepts such as the unconscious being inaccessible mean it cannot be tested in a scientific experiment
-This means that it can’t be shown to exist or not exist
(Therefore theories such as the unconscious is unfalsifiable)
-Popper argues that psychodynamic ideas are not
scientific

Question 10

What is a weakness of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 10

• The effectiveness of psychotherapy is limited
• A metanalysis by Eysenck demonstrated that 66% of people with neurotic disorders treated recovered, however 70% recovered without any treatment at all
• This casts a doubt on the theory behind psychotherapy

Question 11

What are the assumptions made in the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 11

• Unconscious activity is the key determinate of how we behave
• We possess innate ‘drives’ (‘Instincts’) that ‘energize’ our minds to motivate behaviour as we develop through our lives
• Our personality (The psyche) is split into three parts comprised of the: ID, ego and superego
• Childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when we reach adulthood.

Question 12

What is repression?

Answer 12

Repression is burying an unpleasant thought or desire in the unconscious

Question 13

What is displacement?

Answer 13

Displacement is when a persons emotions are directed away from their source or target, towards other things

Question 14

What is denial?

Answer 14

Denial is when a threatening thought is ignored or treated as if it were not true

Question 15

What is the aim of psychotherapy?

Answer 15

-To bring unconscious mental activity to the conscious to release anxiety