psychodynamic

Question 1

id

Answer 1

primitive part of personality operates on pleasure principle, demands instant gratification

Question 2

ego

Answer 2

works on reality principle, mediator between id and superego

Question 3

superego

Answer 3

internalised sense of right and wrong, based on morality principle, punishes ego through guilt

Question 4

5 psychosexual stages

Answer 4

each marked by different conflict that child must resolve to move onto the next, if not, leads to fixation:
1. oral - pleasure focus = mouth, mother’s breast if object of desire
2. anal - pleasure focus = anus, child gains pleasure from withholding & eliminating faeces
3. phallic - pleasure focus = genital area
4. latency - earlier conflicts repressed
5. genital (puberty) - sexual desires become conscious

Question 5

defence mechanisms used by Ego to reduce anxiety

Answer 5

1. repression - forcing distressed memory out of conscious mind
2. denial - refusing to acknowledge reality
3. displacement - transferring feelings from true source onto substitute target

Question 6

strengths

Answer 6

• introduced psychotherapy & psychoanalysis
• explanatory power - huge influence on contemporary thought, used to explain wide range of behaviours

Question 7

weaknesses

Answer 7

• psychoanalysis can be harmful for more serious mental disorders
• untestable concepts - does not meet scientific criterion of falsification - cannot be disproved (occur at unconscious level)