PAPER 2 - APPROACHES - the psychodynamic approach

Question 1

what is the id?

Answer 1

• innate
• known as the pleasure principle
• is selfish and contains basic instincts
• impulsive

Question 2

what is the ego?

Answer 2

• mediates demands of the id and superego
• compromises between impulsive and selfish demands of id and moral conscious of superego

Question 3

what is the superego?

Answer 3

• our moral guide
• tells us what’s right and wrong
• gives us feelings of guilt and a conscious
• develops through socialisation and parental guide

Question 4

what is the fundamental belief of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 4

all behaviour is a result of unconscious drives and motivations

Question 5

what did freud assume?

Answer 5

assumed that we were born with basic instincts & needs mostly controlled by unconscious drives

Question 6

what is the largest part of the brain?

Answer 6

the unconscious part

Question 7

what is the role of the unconscious?

Answer 7

• freud believed that a minimal amount of material in out minds was available to conscious awareness
• believed most our mind was unconscious which drives our behaviour
• painful memories may be repressed to prevent them from entering conscious awareness

Question 8

what are the 3 defence mechanisms?

Answer 8

• denial
• repression
• displacement

Question 9

what is repression?

Answer 9

unconscious mechanism caused by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening throughs becoming conscious

Question 10

what is denial?

Answer 10

blocking external events from awareness, refuses to experience it if it is too much to handle

Question 11

what is displacement?

Answer 11

satisfying an impulse with a substitute object

Question 12

what are the 5 psychosexual stages of development?

Answer 12

oral (birth - 18mths)
anal (1-3yrs)
phallic (3-5 yrs)
latency (5/6 yrs to puberty)
genital (puberty onwards)

Question 13

what happens if there is a problem/ trauma within one of the psychosexual stages of development?

Answer 13

we can become ‘fixated’ at the particular stage and be unable to resolve it and move to the next
- as adults we show traits that are associated with that stage

Question 14

what is psychoanalysis?

Answer 14

method of treating mental disorders, shaped by psychoanalytic theory, which emphasises unconscious mental processes

Question 15

what are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 15

• psychoanalysis is a pioneering approach
• some scientific support for the approach
• psychoanalysis considered a comprehensive theory

Question 16

how is the fact that psychoanalysis is a pioneering approach a strength?

Answer 16

• its the first of its kind to the understanding of human behaviour, started a change in psychological thinking
• case studies were a new way to gather evidence instead of introspection
• psychoanalysis has shown to give long term relief to psychological disorders

Question 17

how is the fact that there is some scientific support for this approach a strength?

Answer 17

• many claims of psychoanalysis have been subsequently tested scientifically e.g.
• Fisher & Greenberg summarised 2500 studies nd concluded that studies of major areas in psychology ‘compare well’ with experimental studies of psychoanalysis - finding evidence for unconscious motivation in behaviour and defense mechanisms