psychodynamic approach

Question 1

what is the background of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

this approach focuses on the role of the unconscious and structure of the personality
Sigmund freud is the “father” of this approach
it is a perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience

Question 2

what is basic assumption 1 of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 2

unconscious mind - the driving force behind our behaviour is the unconscious mind. It therefore assumes that if we have problematic behaviour we must access the unconscious mind to sort it out

Question 3

what is basic assumption 2 of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 3

instincts/ drives motivate our behaviour
eros - life instinct, helps individual to survive; it directs life-sustaining activities, such as respiration, eating and sex (pleasure and production of offspring). The energy created by the life instincts is known as libido.
thanatos - death instinct, a set of destructive forces present in all human beings (e.g. aggression and violence). Freud believed that eros is stronger than thanatos, thus enabling people to survive rather than self-destruct

this approach also believes we have a sexual instinct from birth and as we develop we go through we go through a series of 5 stages in our psychosexual development.

Question 4

what is basic assumption 3 of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 4

early childhood experiences are believed to be pivotal in making us the person we are

Question 5

explain the unconscious mind

Answer 5

most of our mind is made up of the unconscious mind. A vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has significant influence on our behaviour and personality. We cannot access these and bring them to our conscious. Also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed

Question 6

explain the preconscious mind

Answer 6

the preconscious is “just below the surface” and is made up of thoughts that could surface at any time into the conscious. Many memories reside here, as they are accessible, but not at the forefront of our minds. (we may also become aware of these thoughts through dreams and freudian slips)

Question 7

explain the conscious mind

Answer 7

the part of the mind we can access and that is visible to all. Thoughts that are currently the focus of your attention

Question 8

explain the Id

Answer 8

0-18 months
A seething mass of unconscious drives and instincts. Follows the pleasure principle - you do things that produce pleasure or gratification. It is the childlike, selfish and hedonistic part of your personality

Question 9

explain the ego

Answer 9

18 months - 3 years
The conscious, rational mind. works on the reality principle - to accomodate the demands of the environment. Keeps a balance between the id and the superego as if either becomes dominant it will adversely affect the mental health of an individual

Question 10

explain the superego

Answer 10

Develops 3-6 years and embodies the sense of right and wrong. morality principle - it feels guilt and holds someone back from behaving a certain way if it is thought to be wrong. Helps you form a moral conscience, it is formed when the child adopts many of the values of the same-sexed parent (through identification), these values are then internalised.

Question 11

what are defence mechanisms (ego defence mechanisms)?

Answer 11

methods we use unconsciously to reduce anxiety
according to freud, anxiety weakens the influence of the ego, which must be strong in order to mediate between id and superego.

Question 12

explain displacement as a defence mechanism

Answer 12

discharging pent-up feelings onto a neutral person or object. This reduces anxiety by allowing expression of that emotion
effect on behaviour: someone may exhibit very strong emotion but focus it onto an uninvolved person/object

Question 13

explain repression as a defence mechanism

Answer 13

an unpleasant memory is pushed into the unconscious mind where it is not accessible to the conscious mind and therefore cannot cause anxiety. It does however still affect behaviour in the unconscious mind.
effect on behaviour: no recall of event/situation

Question 14

explain denial as a defence mechanism

Answer 14

refusal to accept the reality of an unpleasant situation which reduces anxiety caused by that situation.
effect on behaviour: someone may believe that situation is not negative and that therefore it should not cause anxiety. This is not positive thinking, merely a resistance to accept reality.

Question 15

extra defence mechanisms:

explain projection and intellectualisation as defence mechanisms

Answer 15

projection: when an individual may attribute their undesirable characteristics onto others e.g. someone who is unfriendly may accuse other people of being unfriendly
effect on behaviour: the individual is able to distance themselves from said attributes/behaviours

intellectualisation: thinking about threatening events in ways that removes the emotion from them e..g responding to a car ferry disaster
effect on behaviour: you can think clearly and deal with the situation at hand

Question 16

explain the psychosexual stages of development

Answer 16

they are a series of stages every individual progresses through from birth to becoming an adult
psychodynamic model argues that we have drives in our unconscious mind that dictate the experiences at varying points in our development (experiences in our childhood have a huge influence on how/who we are as an adult)
underlying unconscious drive is sexual
each stage is characterised by a focus on a different region of the body

Question 17

explain fixation in terms of the stages of development

Answer 17

if a child experiences severe problems or excessive pleasure at any stage of development this may lead to fixation
adults who experience stress later in life are likely to show regression, they regress back to the psychosexual stage they were fixated at as a child

Question 18

explain the oral stage

Answer 18

0-18 months
The focus for pleasure and gratification is the mouth, a child will get pleasure from biting and sucking which are oral activities
As there are no teeth voice of the infant is in a stage called oral passive which is when the pleasure is mainly derived from sucking and swallowing like breastfeeding
The infant then enters the oral aggressive phase where the infant gains pleasure from biting and chewing like when they start teething
If a child is weaned too early or late from its mothers milk or feeding patterns were erratic it was argued that the child would become more fixated at the oral stage, meaning that this would have an unconscious effect on personality, in an adult this fixation might mean if orally passive that they are dependent very passive and will be gullible. An oral aggressive person will be aggressive physically or verbally.
Being orally aggressive or passive is dependent on the mother-child relationship
overall people with an oral fixation are more likely to chew pens, bite fingernails and smoke.

Question 19

explained the anal stage

Answer 19

18 months to 3 years
Around 18 months the child meeting to the anal phase of development the libido (sexual energy) of the child moves from the mouth to the anus pleasure is therefore gained from defecation, this is also the age at which children tend to be potty trained
If a child loves you to the party and is overly keen to do so in the child is thought to be in the anally expulsive stage, as an adult this fixation translates to a generous person who has demonstrative with their emotions they may also have fits of temper
It’s the parents are very strict about potty training the children become anxious about using the potty and try to hold onto the faeces rather than use the potty, this stage is called anally retentive
An adult with an unconscious fixation at this stage will display personality characteristics like being very organised very neat and reluctant to spend their money

Question 20

explain the phallic stage

Answer 20

3 to 6 years
Around the age of three the child enters the phallic stage of development the focus of pleasure moves to the genitals from the anus. This stage is differentiated by the gender of the child, boys experience the Oedipus complex and girls go through the Electra complex.
Boys experience intense sexual feelings for their mother, father is seen as a rival and wants him to leave so the mother can focus on him but fears because the father is a lot bigger he could harm him. Freud believed boys feel the father will castrate him - castration anxiety. In order to combat this anxiety, boys befriend their father and do this by acting in a similar way by identification.
In single mother cases where there is no father to identify with, psychodynamic theorists believe the boy will be homosexual there is obviously no evidence for this!
Girls realised they do not have a penis and believe their mother has removed it so they developed penis envy. When that desire is not fulfilled it is expressed through the desire to have a baby, the little girl desires the father in a similar way to boys with their mothers and so she goes through identification in the same way fixations can lead to a jealous and anxious adult

Question 21

explain the latent stage

Answer 21

Around the age of six children under the latent stage the Libido is displaced throughout the body and it seems that this is a relatively calm time in development with no complexes to resolve or foci for pleasure. The child essentially concentrates on being a child

Question 22

explain the genital stage

Answer 22

The libido is once again focused on the genitals at this stage and that is where it stays for the rest of the life, everyone reaches this stage and from here becomes an adult. It is the fixations in the first three stages that have an enduring effect on the personality

Question 23

How are fixations manifested?

Answer 23

oral receptive - trusting, gullible, over-dependent. may suck thumb
oral aggressive - aggressive, domineering, sarcastic, may chew pencils/bit nails or smoke
Anal retentive - obsessively tidy, can be stubborn and mean. Doesn’t like to spend money, likes routine
anal expulsive - very generous, likes to spend money, untidy, very colourful/creative
phallic - vain and impulsive, unreliable, jealous and anxious, if men don’t have a male role model they are likely to grow up homosexual

Question 24

What is meant by free Association

Answer 24

Simple technique of psychodynamic therapy in which a patient talks of whatever comes into their mind
the technique involves a therapist reading a list of words and the patient immediately responds with the first word that comes to mind
it is hoped that fragments of repressed memories will emerge in the course of free association
This technique may not prove useful of the controls are resistant and is reluctant to say what he or she is thinking, on the other hand though resistance provides a strong clue that the client is getting close to some important repressed idea and that further probing is called for

Question 25

What a strength of the psychodynamic approach

Answer 25

This approach supports bowlbys in highlighting how important childhood experiences are in later development strengthening the case for children’s Rights reform. This means that children are or should be nurtured as their childhood serves as a precursor to adulthood.

Freud’s ideas are used by some therapists today to treat mental health issues so this would suggest there is a group of psychologists who feel that the psychodynamic ideas have merit and validity. There are also case studies from for his work that seemed to show his patients made a recovery following therapy

Freud pioneered talking therapy

Question 26

What are limitations of the psychodynamic approach

Answer 26

Freud’s theory was based on the intensive study of single individuals who are often in therapy e.g. little hans
Although his observations were detailed and carefully recorded it is not possible to make universal claims about human behaviour
We cannot generalise the findings
In addition his patients were usually highly wealthy Viennese people
As Freud put forward the theory and carried out the studies his ideas are inevitably likely to be subjective

Freud’s ideas do not meet the scientific criterion of falsification
It is not open to empirical testing and therefore the possibility of being disproved
As many of Freud’s ideas occur at an unconscious level it is impossible to test them
Key concepts are not directly observable and have to be inferred from indirect procedures such as dream analysis