explanations and treatments PSYCHODYNAMIC

Question 1

what are the 3 basic assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

• all behaviour is caused by unconscious underlying forces
• childhood is a critical period in development
• mental disorders arise from unresolved, unconscious conflicts from childhood

Question 2

Freud’s model of personality suggests that how much is unconscious?

Answer 2

90%

Question 3

the unconscious personality is made up of 3 areas, what are they?

Answer 3

Id
ego
superego

Question 4

If one of the areas become stronger, it can lead to an overpowering caused by something happening in the childhood.

Answer 4

:)

Question 5

the constant disagreement between the id, the ego and the superego can lead to a lot of what?

Answer 5

anxiety

Question 6

the mind develops a series of defence mechanisms so that it can defend itself from unwanted feelings, name these 6 defence mechanisms

Answer 6

repression
projection
denial
displacement
regression
sublimation

Question 7

describe what projection is

Answer 7

putting the blame onto someone else

Question 8

describe what repression means

Answer 8

the action of suppressing a thought so that it remains unconscious

Question 9

describe the study of Little Hans

Answer 9

he was afraid of horses pulling a laden cart as once he heard someone say “the horse will bite you if you put your hand near it” Freud suggested this was because of unconscious anxiety’s. He also asked his mother if she would like to touch his penis, so he projected one source of anxiety onto another because he was really afraid she would leave him. Hans saw a horse with a laden cart fall, the horse symbolized his wish that his father would die and the laden cart was his mother giving birth to his sister. Both events fill Hans with anxiety.

Question 10

what is one weakness of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 10

It is mostly retrospective data, it comes from case studies so is not representable and doesn’t have population validity. Because the approach says everything happens in your childhood, memories are often faded or wrong so when explaining what happened to e.g.e a therapist. The information is wrong so the treatment is wrong.

Question 11

what is one strength to the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 11

It is influential. Talking therapy is an acceptable from of treatment and recovery. It influences how we look at illnesses and how we treat them.

Question 12

Another weakness is that the id, ego and superego are difficult to define and research

Answer 12

actions motivated by them are done so at an unconscious level so there is no way of knowing they occur. So this approach has received a lack of hard evidence and research support

Question 13

is the psychodynamic theory deterministic or free will?

Answer 13

deterministic because it states that behaviour is controlled by the unconscious mind.

Question 14

TREATMENTS

what is the aim of the psychodynamic treatments?

Answer 14

to bring unconscious conflicts into the conscious mind where they can be dealt with

Question 15

TREATMENTS

what are the 2 techniques of psychoanalysis (the treatment)

Answer 15

dream analysis

free association

Question 16

TREATMENTS

what is dream analysis

Answer 16

analysing the patients dream and bringing it into the conscious mind. the therapist is trying to uncover the latent content of the patients mind by helping them to analyse the representations and symbols. This brings the unconscious wishes into the conscious mind and helps relieve the patients of any distress.

Question 17

TREATMENTS

what is free association?

Answer 17

the individual describes their thoughts exactly as they occur. Freud believed that the person is making associations as they express themselves and they are determined by the unconscious factors that the therapist is aiming to uncover. This aims to reveal areas of conflict and being repressed memories unto the conscious mind.

Question 18

TREATMENTS EVALUATION

the effectiveness is questioned with psychoanalysis, explain why?

Answer 18

it has limited use, there is no way you can prove that you’ve found the problem to the illness. It is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness.

Question 19

TREATMENTS EVALUATION

It limits the appropriateness of psychoanalysis, explain

Answer 19

it is expensive and time consuming and can be said to have ethical issues as the power is with the therapist and this can mean the whole therapeutic relationship is one of power and money.

Question 20

TREATMENTS EVALUATION

There are some strengths though, it can be said to be effective in fact, explain

Answer 20

it addresses the cause not just the symptoms so the illness wont manifest in another illness because it will have been fixed.

Question 21

TREATMENTS EVALUATION

There are no side effects

Answer 21

:)