Freud's Psychodynamic explanation of aggression Flashcards
What are the three parts of the psychodynamic explanation that we study to explain aggression?
The unconscious
Personality
Catharsis
What is the unconscious?
Thoughts, memories and desires of which we are unaware.
According to Freud, where does aggression originate from?
The redirection of self-destructive death instincts away from the self and towards others.
What is Freud’s personality theory made up of?
ID
Ego
Superego
What is the ID known as?
The pleasure principle.
Innate from birth it is the energy that motivates all our behaviour (inluding aggression).
Obeys the pleasure principlewith no consideration of other factors such as social reality, making aggression unavoidable.
What is the Ego known as?
The reality principle
It satisfies the ID by fulfilling its urges indirectly and symbolically (e.g. by fantasising about violence).
What does the Superego do?
It fulfills the moral role and represents a sense of right and wrong.
Opposes the id’s destructive aggressive drive through guilt.
What is Catharsis?
Expressing aggression satisfies an instinctive drive.
E.g. venting anger is cathartic because it releases psychic energy, reduces the aggressive drive and makes further aggression less likely (letting off steam).
What is a strength of Freud’s theory?
It can explain different types of aggression.
Hot blooded aggression is impulsive (domain of the ID)
Cold blooded aggression is deliberate and rational (the outcome of the ego’s successful control of the ID)
This matches the reality of aggressive behaviour and gives us confidence in the validity of the theory.
What is a weakness of the theory of Catharsis?
Bushman (2002) angered students by getting a confederate to criticise the students’ essay.
One group then vented their anger by hitting a punchbag while thinking about the confederate.
These students blasted the confederate the loudest which is the opposite of the finding predicted by Freud’s theory.
Who else provides evidence for expressing anger but suggests ranting is better than venting?
Graham et al (2008)
How does our knowledge of catharsis help with everyday life (application)?
It can feature in therapy e.g. in psychoanalysis it can be achieved by bringing unconscious and ‘forgotten’ memories into the conscious mind.
Using harmless ways to prevent a build up of aggression, e.g. hitting an object rather than a person.
