Psycho dynamic theory Flashcards
Who is the main figure of the approach?
Sigmund Freud
What is psychic determinism?
claims that human behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drives
What is the preconcious?
Things we could be aware of if we tried or wanted to e.g memories
What are the 5 stages of development and what is the acronym?
- oral
- anal
- phallic
- latent
- genital
- Old Age Pensioners Love Guinness
What are the three parts of personality?
- id
- ego
- superego
What is the id?
- selfish beast
- contained in the unconscious
- operates according to the ‘pleasure principle’
- comes from 2 instinctive drives, eros and thanatos
What is the superego?
- ‘relentless policeman’
- opposes the id
- develops later in childhood
- internalises moral rules
What is the ego?
- uses it’s cognitive abilities to balance the id and the superego
What is free association?
what is the idea?
- the patient is asked to relax and say anything that comes to mind, no matter how absurd
- that the ego will be unable to keep the id in check and the unconscious thoughts can be brought to the conscious
In dreams, what is the latent content?
The repressed ideas in the unconscious that appear in dreams
In dreams, what is the manifest content?
How the dreams appear to the dreamer
What are the three types of defence mechanisms?
- repression
- displacement
- denial
What is the libido?
Life instinct that manifests itself as sexual motives
What is thanatos?
Death instinct/wish which manifests itself in aggression &
destructive life instincts.
What is fixation?
instead of moving on to the next psycho sexual stage, a psychosexual stage is not fully resolved; the libido becomes focused – or fixated – on the object of the previous stage,
What are defence mechanisms?
Methods of protecting the ego when there is conflict between the id and the superego. We use them to protect ourselves painful, frightening or guilty feelings
What is catharsis?
This is the safe release of mental energy, venting mental
pressure in a safe way, e.g., when angry doing lots of exercise
to release anger.
What is The Hydraulic Model?
That emotions can get built up, leading to a build up of psychic energy. If this isn’t released it can cause mental health problems
What is The Oedipus Complex?
Refers to the way gender identity occurs for boys
- awareness of the penis
- ‘sexual’ feeling for mother
- competes with father over mother’s attention
- fears the father as rival
What is The Electra Complex?
Refers to the way gender identity occurs for girls
- notices she has no penis (penis envy)
- blames mother for having no penis, fears her
- attaches feelings to the father
- substitutes desire for penis for desire for baby
