Psycho-dynamic approach Flashcards
What does psychodynamic approach assume?
Behaviour is motivated by unconscious forces and has its origin unresolved, unconscious conflicts in early childhood
What did Sigmund Freud belive?
That childhood was extremely important and most behavior rooted from early experiences
Suggest people born with basic instincts and drives and behaviour is controlled by the unconscious mind
Components of the unconscious mind
- Conscious
- Sub-conscious
- Unconscious
What is conscious?
Small amount of mental activity we are aware of about
Examples of conscious
- Thoughts
- Perceptions
What is sub-conscious?
Memories we could be aware or if we tried
access memories
Examples of subconscious
Memories
Stored knowledge
What is unconscious?
Memories we are not aware of
May be due to unresolved issue
Examples of unconscious
- Fears
- Unacceptable sexual desires
- Violent motives
- Irrational wishes
- Immortal urges
- Selfish needs
- Shameful experiences
- Traumatic experiences
Explain the role of the unconscious mind
Freud used to explain the role of the unconscious mind by using an iceberg
- Concious - tip of iceberg
- Sub-conscious - middle of iceberg (underwater)
- Unconscious (end of iceberg)
He believed that everyday actions and behaviors are not controlled consciously but only from the parts of the unconscious mind
Believed that the mind prevents traumatic from reaching conscious awareness as it causes anxiety so mind uses defense mechanism to prevent this
What is the psyche made up of?
- Ego
- Id
- Superego
What does Freud proposal comprising of id, ego and supergo?
Conflict in psyche could result in abnormal behaviour
e.g overdeveloped superego - create feelings of guilt resulting in anxiety disorders
What is ego?
- Reality
- Mediates between impulsive demands of the id and reality of external world/reality principle
- e.g delay gratification of id until there is appropriate opportunity to satisfy demands
- Comprise impulsive demands of id and moralistic demands of supergo
What is id?
- Instics
- Operates solely in the unconscious
- Created libido - biological energy created by reproductive instincts
- Operates on the pleasure principle
- e.g immediate gratification is in demand if someone is hungry
- If this is overdeveloped then leads to psychotic psyche e.g psychopaths
What is supergo?
- Morality
- This is divided into conscience and ego-ideal
- Conscience is internalization of social rules which determine the behaviour are permissible and cause feeling of guilt and rules broken down
- Strive towards by parental standards of good behaviour
If this is overdeveloped lead to neurotic psyche e.g anxiety
What are the three ego defence mechanisms?
- Repression
- Denial
- Displacement
What is the description of repression?
Following a traumatic event the person’s mind tries to protect ego and pushes memory into the unconscious so that it is forgotten
Repressed memories cause abnormal thinking
Example of repression
- Child abuse
- Car crash
- Army (PTSD)
- Depression
- Anxiety
What is denial?
Refusal to accept reality so avoid having to deal with painful feeling associated with event
Example of denial
Alcoholic denies having a drinking problem after being arrested several times for being drunk and disorderly
What is displacement?
This is re-directing thoughts or feelings
In this situations people are unable to express them in presence of people should be directed towards
Instead take hostile feelings to innocent person/object
Example of displacement
- Abuse
- Mother telling you off in arguement and you slam the door
Why is psychosexual stages of development important for child?
Helps for personality progresses in those 5 stages
and fixation in three main stages could lead to adult abnormality to due under gratification
What happens at oral? ID
Infants explore the world using their mouths and putting objects into it
Feeds with love
e.g deprivation and forceful feeding can lead to a problem
What is the consequence of the unresolved conflict in the oral? (ID)
Pleasure gained from oral activites, such as sucking , biting and eating
e.g smoking, chewing pens
What happens at anal? (1-3 years) EGO
Anus. Pleasure gained from defecation (passing of faeces)
This is when a child is learning to control its impluses
What is the consequence of unresolved conflict at anal?
Anal retentive
Anal expulsive
What is phallic? (3-5 years)? SUPEREGO
Genitals.
Children become aware of gender differences
Oedipus/Electra complex
Consequence of unresolved conflict of phallic stage?
Narcissism
Feeling of penis envy -men having a higher status then women
What are the three main stages?
- Oral (ID) (0-1 years)
- Anal (EGO) (1-3 years)
- Phallic stage (SUPEREGO) (3-5 years)
What is latent stage? (5-11 years-PUBERTY)
Mastery of child’s world
Focuses on adjusting to its envnirnoment and acquring knowledge and skills needed as an adult
Sexual desires + past is repressed
What is consequence of unresolved conflict of latent?
Fixation does not happen
What happens at the genital stage? (PUBERTY -onwards)
Genitals
Adult derives pleasure from masturbation and sexual intercourse
At puberty, sexual drive from ID re-awakens and remainder of adult life dedicated to the pursuit of sex and sexual relationships
What is the consequence of unresolved conflict of genital stage?
Fixation does not happen
Indicate well-adjusted adult
Structure of outlining approach
- Approach assumes
- Model based on Freud - e.g overdeveloped superego
- Childhood ego is not developed and unable to manage conflicting demands of id and superego, defence mechanisms
- Development of the five psychosexual stages -personality progress
- e.g eating disorder such as anorexia could be result being orally fixated in first stage
Strength: Practical applications to the world
- Freud introduced a new form of therapy called psychoanalysis. Designed to access the unconscious mind using a range of techniques such as hypnosis and dream analysis
- Most suitable for individuals suffering from mild neuroses but criticized as inappropriate for people with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia
- Psychoanalysis is the forerunner of many modern day psychotherapies and ‘talking cures’ that have since been established.
Limitation based on psychic determinism
- Explains all behavior as determined by unconscious conflict rooted in childhood
- Even something as apparently random as ‘slip of tongue’ is driven by unconscious forces and has deep symbolic meaning
- Extreme determinist stance and suggests free will may have no influence on behaviour
Strength approach has explanatory power
- Although Freud’s theory is controversial and often bizarre and has a huge influence on Western contemporary thought
- Used to explain a wide range of behaviors (moral mental disorders) and drew attention to the influence of childhood on adult personality
- Alongside behaviourism, it was the dominant approach in psychology for the first half of the twentieh century.
Limitation of approach - includes lots of untestable concepts
- Karl Popper (philosopher of science) argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet scientific criteria of falsification in the sense it cannot be proved or disproved
- Many of Freud’s concepts such as Id, or Oedipus complex occur at unconscious level making it difficult if not impossible to test
- Affords psychodynamic theory status of pseduo science than real science
What is Oedipus complex?
Phallic stage
Little boys develop incestuos feelings towards mother and muderous hatred for father
Later boys repress their feelings for mother and identify with father, taking on his gender and moral values
Girls of same age experience penis envy
