EVAL OF PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH Flashcards
what are 3 evaluation points for the psychodynamic approach?
good explanatory power
case study method
untestable concepts
how does psychodynamic approach have good explanatory power?
has had a huge influence on psychology and western contemporary thought
what wide range of phenomena has been explained by the psychodynamic approach?
personality development, abnormal behaviour, moral development and gender
what has the psychodynamic explained in later development?
draws attention to the connection between experiences in childhood e.g. relationship with our parents and later development into the effects of early attachment patterns on childhood and adolescence
a limitation of the psychodynamic approach is that it uses the…
case study method
what was Freud’s theory based on?
intensive study of single individuals who were often in therapy
what have critics suggested about Freud’s case study method?
it is not possible to make such universal claims about human nature on a group of individuals who were psychologically abnormal
the case study method lacks….
scientific rigour which decreases it’s validity as all patients that the psychodynamic approach is based on was studied by the same man
how does Freud’s theory have untestable concepts?
Popper says that it doesn’t meet the scientific criteria of falsification
what is falsification?
instead of having a lot of research to support something as scientific, there must be a method to disprove the theory
what are freud’s concepts which means it cannot go through falsification?
concepts such as the Oedipus complex and the Id are unconscious level making them difficult/impossible to disprove
what does Popper suggest psychodynamic approach is rather than a science?
is a pseudoscience rather than a real science, which decreases validity of Freud’s concepts because they cannot be proven
