KA - 6 Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
what are the 3 parts of the personality
id, ego, superego
characteristics of the id
- emerges at birth
- it controls unconscious instinct
- links to selfish behaviour and demands instant gratification of its needs
- operates on pleasure principle
characteristics of the ego
- emerges at around 2 years of age
- reduces the conflict between the demands of the id and the superego
- it employs defence mechanisms
- operates on the reality principle
characteristics of the superego
- emerges at the end of the phallic stage at the age of 5/6
- controls our internalised sense of right and wrong
- links to behaviours of guilt
- operates on the morality principle
what are the 3 levels of the mind
conscious, pre-conscious and unconscious
what are defence mechanisms
unconscious strategies that the Ego uses to manage the conflict between the Id and the Superego - designed to protect the ego
what are the 3 defence mechanisms
denial, displacement, repression
what is denial
refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
what is displacement
transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion onto substitute/safer target
what is repression
forcing a distressing memory out of the mind
what is in your conscious mind
the things you are aware of
what is in the preconscious mind
things you are slightly aware of or worrying about like dreams
what is in the unconscious mind
‘seething mass of trauma’, thoughts we don’t want in our everyday life
what are the five psychosexual stages
- oral
- anal
- phallic
- latency
- genital
features of the oral stage
- ages 0-1 years
- focus of pleasure is of the mouth, objects like mother’s breast and dummies
- smoking, nail biting, sarcasm and criticism are behaviours of fixation
features of the anal stage
- 1-3 years of age
- focus of pleasure is the anus, child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces (control over when they go)
- anal retentive/expulsive are behaviours of fixation
features of the phallic stage
- 3-6 years of age
- focus of pleasure is genital area not for a sexual purpose
- boys experience oedipus complex
- behaviour of fixation is being overly vain and sexually aggressive
what is the Oedipus complex
boys internalising and identifying with their fathers gender from castration anxiety - leads to gender identities
what is a pre-phallic child
bisexual - does not have a gender identity
features of latency stage
- 6-13 years of age
- don’t have a focus of pleasure, focus more on friendships
- dormant stage
- “calm before the storm of puberty”
features of the genital stage
- 13-onwards age
- genital focus of pleasure for a sexual purpose
- behaviour of fixation is difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
what happens if you get fixated in a stage
it will show in your adult personality
+ benefits of practical application
- uses psychotherapy like counselling as he believes talking can unlock the unconscious mind
- this allows for treating the cause and not just the symptom
+ benefits of emphasis on importance of the mind
- saying you can be physically healthy but mentally unhealthy
- potentially could have been ahead of his time
+ benefit of acknowledgment
- he acknowledges that childhood experience can shape your later behaviours - nature vs. nurture
- limitations of it being unscientific
- information from a single case study of Little Hans which was subjective interpretation
- limitations of gender bias
- only considers boys in his research so it only applies to half the population
- he has no explanation of women in phallic stage, saw femininity as failed masculinity, penis = power
- limitations of it being unobservable/unfalsifiable
- cannot prove it is right or wrong but science wants falsification
- Karl Popper argued that the approach does not meet the scientific criteria of falsification - more of a Pseudoscience
- limitations of it not considering biology
- ages come with stages, people develop at different times - individual differences can create panic within parents
other limitations
- sexualisies children
- psychoanalysis can be inappropriate for people with more serious disorders like schizophrenia
