psychodynamic Flashcards
Outline the psychodynamic approach
- mind is divided into 3 parts:
o conscious mind is what we are aware of at any time
o preconscious mind is made up of thoughts just below the surface that we become aware of during dreams or ‘Freudian slips’ of the tongue.
o unconscious is the largest part of the mind, made up of threatening repressed emotions and memories that have been forced out of conscious awareness. It is the primary motivator of human behaviour.
THE PERSONALITY IS ALSO 3-PARTS:
o id, ego and superego.
o id is the hedonistic, primitive part of our personality that exists from birth. It is a mass of selfish drives in the unconscious, acting according to the ‘pleasure principle’.
o Superego is the ‘morality principle’ acting as our conscience based on parental and societal values. It forms in the phallic stage and is unconscious, controlling id with feelings of guilt.
o ego is the rational, conscious part of the mind, acts according to the ‘reality principle’, balancing conflict between the id and superego by redirecting psychological energy with defence mechanisms to protect itself
- Repression - burying unpleasant thoughts in unconscious
- Displacement - emotions directed away from source towards something else.
- Denial - thoughts ignored (refused) or treated as untrue.
CHILDHOOD INFLUENCES LATER PSYCHOLOGICAL/ BEHAVIOURAL DEVELOPMENT:
- Humans progress through 5 biologically determined ‘psychosexual stages’ of development, each focusing on obtaining pleasure through a particular body-part.
If full development at a stage is prevented, the child cannot progress, leading to fixation in later life.
1. Oral - focus on mouth. If disrupted, later fixation is oral
2. Anal - focus on the anus
3. Phallic - fixation on genitals, Oedipus/Electra complex wherein children recognize differences between genders. Disruption results in homosexuality.
4. Latency - repressed sexual urges (6 years - puberty)
5. Genital - awakened sexual urges during puberty for heterosexual mate to spread genes.
Specific symptoms of fixation are repressed in the unconscious and lead to later disorders.
PSYCHOANALYSIS RELEASES REPRESSED MEMORIES TO RELIEVE SYMPTOMS.
TECHNIQUES INCLUDE:
- Free association of unconscious thoughts as they happen
- Dream interpretation of the latent and manifest content
Evaluate the psychodynamic approach.
+ focus on psychological causes of disorders, rather than physical ‘evil spirits’, which has had a positive real-life application to the first “talking therapy” of psychoanalysis, which many psychological therapies are now based.
- However, interpretation of dreams is biased and subjective as dreams are private experiences recalled retrospectively upon waking.
- Retrospective data may be unreliable due to memory distortions, so there are problems with replicability as people cannot force themselves to have the same dream again.
- key concepts like the unconscious are not directly observable, so there is little objective evidence that can be used to support the approach.
- Coupled with weak methodology, it is not scientifically credible as it is untestable and not falsifiable. The approach only collects qualitative data, which has implications for biased statistical analysis. Freud’s theories are subjective, and as such, difficult to test scientifically.
- humanistic approach criticises the psychodynamic perspective as too deterministic. It adopts a pessimistic view of development, believing that unconscious mind determines behaviour and that traumatic childhood experiences are doomed to prevent healthy development in the future.
- psychic determinism, ignoring the influence of free-will and mediational ‘thinking’ processes on behaviour.
- Freud’s use of case studies as the main body of evidence for his theories is subjective.
- Re-examination of the Little Hans case study has suggested that he distorted the case history to ‘fit’ with his theory, reducing the validity of the findings as they are susceptible to researcher bias.
- These case studies are based on one person, so generalization of the Oedipus complex to the wider population (every child) may be invalid.
Negatives of the psychodynamic approach?
- interpretation of dreams is biased and subjective as dreams are private experiences recalled retrospectively upon waking.
- Retrospective data may be unreliable due to memory distortions, so there are problems with replicability as people cannot force themselves to have the same dream again.
- key concepts like the unconscious are not directly observable, so there is little objective evidence that can be used to support the approach.
- Coupled with weak methodology, it is not scientifically credible as it is untestable and not falsifiable. The approach only collects qualitative data, which has implications for biased statistical analysis. Freud’s theories are subjective, and as such, difficult to test scientifically.
- humanistic approach criticises the psychodynamic perspective as too deterministic. It adopts a pessimistic view of development, believing that unconscious mind determines behaviour and that traumatic childhood experiences are doomed to prevent healthy development in the future.
- psychic determinism, ignoring the influence of free-will and mediational ‘thinking’ processes on behaviour.
- Freud’s use of case studies as the main body of evidence for his theories is subjective.
- Re-examination of the Little Hans case study has suggested that he distorted the case history to ‘fit’ with his theory, reducing the validity of the findings as they are susceptible to researcher bias.
- These case studies are based on one person, so generalization of the Oedipus complex to the wider population (every child) may be invalid.
Positive of the psychodynamic approach?
+ focus on psychological causes of disorders, rather than physical ‘evil spirits’, which has had a positive real-life application to the first “talking therapy” of psychoanalysis, which many psychological therapies are now based.
Structure of the mind?
- mind is divided into 3 parts:
o conscious mind is what we are aware of at any time
o preconscious mind is made up of thoughts just below the surface that we become aware of during dreams or ‘Freudian slips’ of the tongue.
o unconscious is the largest part of the mind, made up of threatening repressed emotions and memories that have been forced out of conscious awareness. It is the primary motivator of human behaviour.
Structure of the personality?
THE PERSONALITY IS ALSO 3-PARTS:
o id, ego and superego.
o id is the hedonistic, primitive part of our personality that exists from birth. It is a mass of selfish drives in the unconscious, acting according to the ‘pleasure principle’.
o Superego is the ‘morality principle’ acting as our conscience based on parental and societal values. It forms in the phallic stage and is unconscious, controlling id with feelings of guilt.
o ego is the rational, conscious part of the mind, acts according to the ‘reality principle’, balancing conflict between the id and superego by redirecting psychological energy with defence mechanisms to protect itself
- Repression - burying unpleasant thoughts in unconscious
- Displacement - emotions directed away from source towards something else.
- Denial - thoughts ignored (refused) or treated as untrue.
Defence mechanisms?
- Repression - burying unpleasant thoughts in unconscious
- Displacement - emotions directed away from source towards something else.
- Denial - thoughts ignored (refused) or treated as untrue.
HOW DOES CHILDHOOD INFLUENCE LATER PSYCHOLOGICAL/ BEHAVIOURAL DEVELOPMENT?
- Humans progress through 5 biologically determined ‘psychosexual stages’ of development, each focusing on obtaining pleasure through a particular body-part.
If full development at a stage is prevented, the child cannot progress, leading to fixation in later life.
1. Oral - focus on mouth. If disrupted, later fixation is oral
2. Anal - focus on the anus
3. Phallic - fixation on genitals, Oedipus/Electra complex wherein children recognize differences between genders. Disruption results in homosexuality.
4. Latency - repressed sexual urges (6 years - puberty)
5. Genital - awakened sexual urges during puberty for heterosexual mate to spread genes.
Specific symptoms of fixation are repressed in the unconscious and lead to later disorders.
What are the biologically determined ‘psychosexual stages’ of development?
. Oral - focus on mouth. If disrupted, later fixation is oral
2. Anal - focus on the anus
3. Phallic - fixation on genitals, Oedipus/Electra complex wherein children recognize differences between genders. Disruption results in homosexuality.
4. Latency - repressed sexual urges (6 years - puberty)
5. Genital - awakened sexual urges during puberty for heterosexual mate to spread genes.
Specific symptoms of fixation are repressed in the unconscious and lead to later disorders.
What is psychoanalysis?
PSYCHOANALYSIS RELEASES REPRESSED MEMORIES TO RELIEVE SYMPTOMS.
- Free association of unconscious thoughts as they happen
- Dream interpretation of the latent and manifest content
