Psychodynamic

Question 1

main assumptions - what does the psychodynamic approach state?

Answer 1

unconscious forces in our mind, determine our thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

Question 2

main assumptions - what influences behaviour?

Answer 2

our behaviour as adults is strongly influenced by our childhood experiences.

Question 3

main assumptions - why does abnormal behaviour occur?

Answer 3

abnormal behaviour is the result of mental conflict between different personalities within us.

Question 4

main assumptions - how can the mind be divided?

Answer 4

into three levels of consciousness, which can be illustrated by the iceberg analogy. the unconscious mind, which is hidden below the surface, has the most influence on our personality.

Question 5

main assumptions - what is the approaches preferred method?

Answer 5

case studies - to understand individuals as holistically as possible.

Question 6

what are the 3 elements of the psyche?

Answer 6

ID
Ego
Superego

Question 7

what is the ID?

Answer 7

ID – driving us to satisfy selfish urges (i.e. acts according to the ‘pleasure principle’) (exists from birth).

Question 8

what is the ego?

Answer 8

Ego - acts rationally, balancing the ID and the superego (i.e. acts according to the ‘reality principle’) (develops years 2-4).

Question 9

what is the superego?

Answer 9

Superego – concerned with keeping to moral norms (i.e. acts according to the ‘morality principle’), and attempts to control a powerful ID with feelings of guilt (develops years 4-5)

Question 10

what are the psychosexual stages?

Answer 10

• Freud - humans progress through 5 stages during the development of the psyche.
• To be psychologically healthy, we must successfully complete each stage.

Question 11

what are the names of the 5 stages?

Answer 11

Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency
Genital

Question 12

what is the oral stage, when and what fixation can it lead to?

Answer 12

sucking behaviour (0-18 months) -smoker as they gain pleasure through the mouth

Question 13

what is the anal stage, when and what fixation can it lead to?

Answer 13

holding or discarding faeces (18 months – 3.5 years) - an excessive tidy and obsessive person

Question 14

what is the phallic stage, when and what fixation can it lead to?

Answer 14

fixation on genitals (3.5 – 6 years) - people fixated with their vanity and be seen as an exhibitionist.

Question 15

what is the latency stage, when and what fixation can it lead to?

Answer 15

repressed sexual urges (6 years - puberty) - sexual aggression

Question 16

what is the genital stage, when and what fixation can it lead to?

Answer 16

awakened sexual urges (puberty onwards) - fixated with sex.

Question 17

what is the oedipus complex?

Answer 17

• occurs during phallic stage
• boy, aged between 3 and 6, becoming unconsciously sexually attached to his mother, and hostile towards his father (who he views as a rival).
• these feelings for the mother/rivalry toward the father lead to fantasies of getting rid of his father and taking his place with the mother.
• hostile feelings towards the father lead to castration anxiety, an irrational fear that the father will castrate him as punishment.
• the resolution typically occurs through identification with the same-sex parent.

Question 18

what is the electra complex?

Answer 18

• girl 3-6, becomes unconsciously sexually attached to her father and increasingly hostile toward her mother.
• begins with the belief that she’s already been castrated. She blames her mother for this and experiences penis envy.
• for girls to develop their superego and female sex role, they need to identify with the mother
• girls’ identification with their mothers is less complete than boys’ with their fathers
• female superego weaker

Question 19

what are defence mechanisms?

Answer 19

In areas of significant conflict between the ID and superego, the ego can redirect psychic energy using ‘defense mechanisms’

Question 20

what are the 3 defence mechanisms?

Answer 20

• Denial: You completely reject the thought or feeling and completely refuse to acknowledge some aspect of reality
• Repression: Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
• Displacement: you transfer feelings from true sources of distressing emotion onto a substitute target.

Question 21

little hans

Answer 21

• Little Hans was a 5-year-old boy with a phobia of horses
• From around 3, little Hans showed an interest in ‘widdlers’, both his own penis and those of other males, including animals. His mother threatens to cut off his widdler unless he stops playing with it.
• Hans’s fear of horses worsened- freud linked this fear to the horse’s large penis.
• Freud linked Hans’s fear to the Oedipus complex, the horses unconsciously representing his fear of his father.
• He resolved this conflict by fantasizing about himself with a big penis and marrying his mother which allowed him to overcome his castration anxiety and identify with his father.