Psychochnamic approach assumptions

Question 1

Assumptions

Answer 1

-Influence of Childhood Experiences
- The Unconscious Mind
-Tripartite Personality

Question 2

Influence of childhood experiences

Answer 2

• experiences shape our adult personality.
  -Development in childhood takes place in a series of key developmental stages.
  -Problems at any stage can result in fixation, having long-lasting effect on personality.

Question 3

Psychosexual stages

Answer 3

-Each stage represents the fixation of libido on a different area of the body.

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

• fixation occurs through, Frustration or Overindulgence

Question 4

Conscious mind

Answer 4

logical

Question 5

Unconscious mind

Answer 5

-not logical
-ruled by pleasure seeking
-expresses itself through dreams, appear in disguised forms, symbols.
-determines much of our behaviour
- we are motivated by unconscious emotional drives
-contains unresolved conflicts that has a powerful effect on our behaviour and experience

Question 6

Ego defence mechanisms

Answer 6

Ego protects itself with mechanisms:
-Displacement
-Projection
-Repression

Defences can be the cause of disturbed behaviour if overused.

Question 7

Id

Answer 7

-Impulsive, unconscious
-present at birth
- demands immediate satisfaction
- pleasure principle
- main aim: gain pleasure

Question 8

Ego

Answer 8

-Conscious, rational part
-develops at age 2
- function: balancing the demands of the id in a socially acceptable way, resolve conflict between id + superego
- reality principle

Question 9

Superego

Answer 9

-last part to develop
-sense of right and wrong
- seeks to perfect and civilise our behaviour, learned through identification with parents

Question 10

Explanation for relationship formation - childhood experiences

Answer 10

• psychosexual stages and childhood experiences can explain the nature of relationships
  -over-indulgence during oral stage –> unhealthy dependency on others, ‘needy’
• frustration in anal stage —> stubborn, possesive
• fixation in phallic stage (superego + conscious developing) —>adult not capable of loving others
  Oedipus complex needs to be reolved to have a well developed personality with no complications in forming relationships.