Approaches- The Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

Who established the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

Sigmund Freud

Question 2

What is the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 2

All psyched dynamic theories emphasise the importance of unconscious motives and desires and the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping personality.

Question 3

What is the tripartite theory of personality?

Answer 3

The ID, the super ego and the ego

Question 4

What is the ID?

Answer 4

Present from birth
contains innate the drive
Operated solely in the uncocious
Ru;es by the pleasure principle - an innate drive to seek immediate satisfaction.
It is the irrational, primitive part of personality contains the libido.

Question 5

What is the superego?

Answer 5

This part is the internalisation of societal rules.
Develops around age 5
It determines which behaviours are acceptable and causes feelings of guilt when rules are broken-governed by the morality principle.
The ego-ideal is what a person strives towards m and is most probably determines by parental standards of good behaviour.

Question 6

What is the ego?

Answer 6

Origins ion consciousness(the self)>
Governed by the reality principle- the ego mediate between impulsive demands of the ID the super ego and the reality of the external world

Question 7

What is a short way to describe the ID?

Answer 7

The pleasure principle

Question 8

What is a short way to describe the ego?

Answer 8

Reality principal

Question 9

What is a short way to describe the super ego?

Answer 9

The morality principle

Question 10

What are defence mechanisms?

Answer 10

Defence mechanisms are unconscious strategies used by the ego to manage the anxiety caused by the conflict of the ID and the super ego.

Question 11

What are the three defence mechanisms?

Answer 11

Repression.
Denial
And displacement

Question 12

What is meant by repression?

Answer 12

Unconscious blocking of an acceptable thought impulses and memories.

Question 13

What is denial?

Answer 13

Refusing to believe reality

Question 14

What is displacement?

Answer 14

Transferring feelings of the source to somebody else

Question 15

What can excessive use of defence mechanisms result in?

Answer 15

This will result in the ego becoming increasingly detached from reality and can cause psychological disorder.

Question 16

What does psychoanalysis involve?

Answer 16

Effort to understand defences and unconscious motives driving self-destructive behaviours.

Question 17

What is meant by the psychosexual stages of development?

Answer 17

The importance of early childhood experiences.

Psychodynamic theory states that 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 five stages of development.
Each stage requires resolution of a particular conflict.
Failure to successfully navigate a stages particular conflict is known as fixation.
This can determine our adult character personality and behaviour traits as traces of that stage will remain in their behaviour as an adult.

Question 18

The first stage is oral explain this stage.

Answer 18

Occurs from 0 to 1 years and focus of pleasure in the mouth, mother’s breast is the object of desire.

Question 19

The second stage is anal explain this stage.

Answer 19

Occurs from 1 to 3 years and there is focus of pleasure in anus child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces.

Question 20

The phallic stage is the third stage explain what it is.

Answer 20

From 3 to 5 years, focus of pleasure is in the genital area.
Child experiences oedipus or electra complex.

Question 21

Latency is the fourth stage what is it?

Answer 21

Earlier conflict are repressed.

Question 22

The genital stage of the fifth stage explain what it is.

Answer 22

Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty.

Question 23

What is the consequence of unresolved conflict in the oral stage?

Answer 23

Oral fixation – smoking biting nails, sarcastic and critical.

Question 24

What is the consequence of unresolved conflict in anal stage?

Answer 24

Anal-retentive – perfectionist and obsessive.
Anal explosive – thoughtless and messy.

Question 25

What is the consequence of unresolved conflict in the phallic stage?

Answer 25

Phallic personality – narcissistic reckless and possibly homosexual.

Question 26

What is the consequence of unresolved conflict in the genital stage?

Answer 26

Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.

Question 27

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 27

The driver of the phallic phase is the Oedipus complex in which boys have an unconscious desire for their mother therefore they have hostility towards their father and worry therefore will castrate them castration anxiety.
To resolve the conflict, they then identify with their father and internalise his identity.
This process is traumatic and cannot be confronted directly and so the ego establishes defence mechanism such as repression and denial to mediate the psychological terrors it generates.

Question 28

What is the electra complex?

Answer 28

Girls age between three and five become subconsciously sexually attracted to her father and increasing a hostile towards hemother.
They get penis envy as they realise that they have not got a penis and this leads them to want a baby as a substitute.
To resolve the conflicts they then identify with their mother and internalise how identity.

Question 29

[AO3 PEEL]
What is a strength of the psychodynamic theory in a peel structure?

Answer 29

P: a strength of the psychodynamic theory is that it has great explanatory powers even in today’s society.
E: although Freud theory is controversial in many ways it has had a huge influence on psychology and western contemporary thought.
E: alongside behaviourism the psychodynamic approach has remained a dominant force in psychology for the first half of the 20th century and has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including personality development and abnormal behaviour.
L: the approach is also significant and drawing attention to the connection between experiences in childhood such as parental relationships and development which is still used today in ACEs research.

Question 30

[AO3 PEEL] what is one limitation of the psyched dynamic theory in a peal structure?

Answer 30

P: major limitation of the psychodynamic theory is that it has been heavily criticised for being unscientific and untestable.
E: for example, the human mind cannot be dissected to reveal the ID, ego and super ego and therefore it is not empirically testable.
E: according to Popper as the theory is not testable and not falsifiable it is not scientific. It relies solely on the subjective interpretation of the analyst.
L: therefore Floyd is not studied in much detail in many modern undergraduate psychology courses despite being hugely influential.

Question 31

[AO3 PEEL]
What is a limitation of Freud’s theory in a peel structure?

Answer 31

P: A limitation of Freud’s Siri is that it may be argued to be two deterministic.
E: Freud believe that all behaviour is driven by unconscious forces and this is outside of a persons awareness therefore they have no free well over their choices.
E: in addition to psychosexual stages suggest that behaviour is a result of the success or failure of working through the psychosexual stages.
L: this means the psychodynamic approach suggest human behaviour can be explained from psychic deterministic and does not consider free well which is a limiting view of human behaviour.

Question 32

[AO3 PEEL]
What is another limitation of Freud theory in a peel structure?

Answer 32

P: a limitation of Freud’s theory is that it demonstrates significant gender bias as his theories were androcentric.
E: for example, his obsession with the Oedipus complex is intensively androcentric and many would came at this makes them irrelevant to an understanding of women. He also claims women have penis envy suggesting they are inferior to men.
E: however despite this female psychoanalysts Such as Melanie Klein have shown Freud’s series can be adapted to provide useful insight into female behaviour.
L: therefore while Freud’s original ideas demonstrate a significant gender bias his work has been used to develop important and influential theories that apply to women.