Approaches- The Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
What does the psychodynamic approach emphasise?
The active nature of mental processes and their role in shaping personality and behaviour
Who developed the psychodynamic approach?
Freud
What are the 3 assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?
- Human behaviour has unconscious causes
- Humans have a need to fulfil basic biological motivations from birth
- Childhood experiences are important influences on the development of adult personality and psychological disorders
What is the conscious?
What we are aware of at any given time
What is the preconscious?
Made up of memories that we can recall when we want to
What is the unconscious?
Made up of memories, desires and fears which cause us extreme anxiety and have therefore been repressed or forced out of conscious awareness, however still influences behaviour
What are the three parts of the personality?
The id, the ego and the superego
What is the id?
The basic animal part of the personality that contains our innate, aggressive and sexual instincts
Wants to be satisfied by whatever means possible
Obeys the pleasure principle
Accounts for unreasonable behaviour and is present from birth
What is the ego?
Exists in both the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind
Acts on the reality principle which is the rational part of the mind
Develops within the first 3 years after birth
Balances the id and the superego
What is the superego?
In both the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind
Takes our morals into consideration and is involved in making us feel guilty
Develops at around 4 to 5 years of age
Includes ideas about how to behave that we adopt from our parents
What are the 5 psychosexual stages in order?
Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
What are the 3 conflicts?
Repression, denial, displacement
What does repression involve?
The ego stopping unwanted and possibly painful thoughts from becoming conscious
What is denial?
Where a threatening event or an unwanted reality is simply ignored and blocked from conscious awareness
What is displacement?
When a negative impulse is redirected onto something else
What age does the oral stage occur?
0-18 months
What are the characteristics of the oral stage?
Sucking behaviour
What age does the anal stage occur?
18 months-3.5 years
What are the characteristics of the anal stage?
Keeping or discarding faeces
What age does the phallic stage occur?
3.5-6 years
What are the characteristics of the phallic stage?
Genital fixation- Oedipus and Electra complex
What age does the latency stage occur?
6 years-puberty
What are the characteristics of the latency stage?
Repressed sexual urges
What age does the genital stage occur?
Puberty-adult
What are the characteristics of the genital stage?
Awakened sexual urges
What are 4 strengths of the psychodynamic approach?
- First approach to focus on psychological causes rather than physical causes or the possession by evil spirits
- First approach to suggest mental health disorders may be linked to unresolved conflicts
- Offers methods of therapy which may uncover unconscious conflicts
- Places emphasis on how childhood experiences can affect later development
What are 6 weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach?
- Unreliable and open to bias
- Unfalsifiable
- May take a long time and be very expensive
- Focuses on past, not present
- Findings can’t be generalised
- Not possible to establish cause and effect
