Approaches Year 13 Flashcards
The psychodynamic approach
- What does the psychodynamic approach suggest?
A perspective that describes different forces (dynamics), most of which that are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behv and experience
The role of the unconscious
- C|PC|UC
- What did Freud suggest?
- What are the three types of conscious according to Freud?
- Describe each
- Freud suggested that the conscious mind is the “tip of the ice berg”, most of mind made up of the unconscious (storehouse off bio drives and instincts that have significant influence on our behv and personality)
- Unconscious contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed (locked away and forgotten)
- Can be accessed in dreams of “slip of tongues” (Freud referred to this as parapraxes), example, calling female teacher mum instead of miss
- Preconscious contain thoughts and memories which are not currently in conscious awareness but can be accessed if desired
The structure of personality
- I|E|S
- How did Freud describe personality?
- What are the three parts that personality is composed of?
- What does each part operate on?
- When does each part form?
- What is the role of each part?
- Describe each part
- Freud described personality as “tripartite” composed off three parts
- Id, primitive part, operates on pleasure principle (gets what it wants), mass of unconscious drives and instincts, present at birth (F described baby as bundle of Id)
- Id is selfish, demands instant gratification of its needs
- Ego, operates on reality principle, mediator between Id and Superego, develops around age 2,
- Role is to reduce conflict between demands of Id and Superego, manages this by employing defence mechanisms
- Superego, operates on morality principle, formed at end of phallic stage around age 5, it is our internalised sense of right and wrong, represents moral standards of child’s same sex parent
- Punishes Ego for wrongdoing through guilt
Psychosexual stages
- O|A|P|L|G
- What did Freud suggest about child development?
- What are these five stages?
- Describe each and fill in the image
- What happens if a stage is resolved?
- What happens if a stage is left unresolved?
- Freud claimed child development occurs in five stages
- Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital stage
- Each stage (except latency) marked by different conflict child must resolve to progress successfully to the next stage
- Unresolved stages leads to fixation where child become “stuck”, carries certain behvs and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life
Defence mechanisms
- R|D|D
- What part of the personality employs defence mechanisms?
- What are the three defence mechanisms?
- Describe each defence mechanism
- Ego employs defence mechanisms in order to balance the conflicting demand of the Id and Superego
- DM are unconscious, ensure Ego is able to prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas
- Often involve some form of distortion of reality, psychologically unhealthy and undesirable as the long-term solution to a problem
- There are three defence mechanisms we look at, Repression, Denial and Displacement
- Repression, forcing a distressing memory out of conscious mind (resides in unconscious)
- Denial, refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality (death of a family member, failure etc)
- Displacement, transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target (Lose in a game, punch the table)
Evaluation for the psychodynamic approach
- RWA|CP|EP|UC/NF|PD
- Real-world application
- Counterpoint (Not always good)
- Explanatory power
- Untestable concepts
- Psychic determinism
Real-world application
- Strength, introduced idea of psychotherapy as opposed to physical treatments
- F brought a new form of therapy, psychoanalysis, first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
- Range of techniques designed to access unconscious such as dream analysis, claims to help clients bring their repressed emotions into their conscious mind so they can be dealt with
- Psychoanalysis is the forerunner for many modern-day “talking therapies” like counselling
- Shows the value of the psychodynamic approach in creating a new approach to treatment
Counterpoint (Not always good)
- Freudian therapists claim success for clients with neuroses, psychoanalysis regarded as inappropriate and even harmful for people experiencing more serious mental disorders (Sz)
- Sz symptoms like paranoia and delusional thinking mean ppl with Sz have lost grip on reality, cannot articulate their thoughts in the way required by psychoanalysis
- Suggests Freudian therapy and theory may not apply to all mental disorders
Explanatory power
- Strength, theory’s ability to explain human behv
- F’s theory may be controversial, but it had a huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought
- Remained a key force of psychology during first half of 20th century, used to explain wide range of phenomena including personality development, origins of mental disorder, moral development and gender identity
- Approach also significant in drawing attention between experience in childhood (parental relationships for example) and our later development
- Suggests that overall, this approach has had a positive impact on psychology and also on literature, art and other human endeavours
Untestable concepts
- Limitation of the approach, much of it is untestable
- Popper argued that this approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification
- Not open to empirical testing, many of F’s concepts like the Id and Oedipus complex said to occur at unconscious level, makes it difficult if not impossible to test
- F’s ideas based on subjective study of single individual like Little Hans, difficult to make universal claims about human behv
- Suggests that F’s theory was pseudoscientific (not a real science) rather than established fact
Psychic determinism
- This approach advocates “psychic determinism”, in F’s eyes, we are slaves to our past in the sense that our future behv and personality is largely “mapped out” as a result of psychic conflicts in early childhood
- F also regards free will as an “illusion”, calls the very idea of human agency into doubt
- Few psychologists accept this, it’s too much of an extreme view, most do acknowledge the influence of early childhood on behv
- This is a key idea in many theories of child development, counselling and social work
- The idea that we are entirely determined by conflicts of the past is too extreme, leaves no room for free will beyond early childhood
- Suggests that F’s assertion that there is no such thing as an accident is too far-fetched and undermines a key part of his theory
Humanistic Approach Free Will
Approach claims that human beings are self-determining and have free will
Still affected external, internal influences, have ability determine own development
Rogers / Maslow reject scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behaviour
Approach suggests all unique, person-centred approach focusing on subjective experience
Rogers emphasises ability of people to reflect feelings experiences initiate personal change growth in themselves their lives
Rogers found people have desire and ability make changes themselves their lives
Self-actualisation & Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
Hierarchy ranges between basic needs higher level psychological and actualisation needs, 4 Levels must be met before individual work towards self-actualisation
Basic- Physiological (Required human survival, food, water, sleep fundamental)
Second Level- Safety needs (Physical safety from environment as well as psychological safety)
Third level- Love and Belonginess (Acceptance from family friends or partners)
Fourth level- Esteem (Feel good about oneself establish competence and achievement)
Bottom 4 levels referred as “Deficiency needs”, if not met Maslow believed you would experience something missing in your life
Top level referred to as “Being” need, Maslow believed people have desire for personal fulfilment (Self actualisation)
Fundamental human nature desire to grow and develop achieve full potential (self-actualisation)
Maslow believed humans motivated by needs beyond basic biological survival
Focus on self-congruence, the role of conditions of worth
Rogers argues for personal growth to be achieved, individuals’ self-concept must be congruent with ideal self
If too big a gap exists between two selves person experience incongruence (low self-esteem) and self-actualisation not possible
To reduce gap, Rogers developed client centred therapy, claimed problems as adult such as low self esteem have roots in childhood and can be explained by lack of unconditional positive regard (Unconditional love) from parents
Conditions of worth- Parent puts limit on love of child “Only love u if”
Parent who sets boundaries on love for child, condition of worth, storing up psych problems for child in future
Therapy provides unconditional positive regard that was not received as a child
The influence on counselling Psychology
Roger’s client centred therapy important form of modern-day psychotherapy, clients rather than patients, saw individual expert own condition
Therapy non directive, client encouraged discovery own solutions within therapeutic atmosphere warm
Effective therapist provides client genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard, aim increase persons self-worth reduce level incongruence between two selves help person become more fully functioning person
In UK, US similar counselling to Rogers practiced in clinical settings, education, health, social work and industry
Client centred therapy praised forward looking effective approach focuses present problems instead dwelling past, best applied mild psych conditions (anxiety, low self-worth)
