Psychodynamic approach Flashcards
What did Freud suggest most of our mind is made up by?
The unconscious mind
What is the unconscious mind?
a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality
What is the preconscious and how do we become aware of it?
It’s just below our conscious mind and it includes thoughts and ideas which we may become aware of during dreams of ‘slips of the tongue’ which Freud called parapraxes
What are the three components of our personality?
id, ego, superego
What is the id?
o The primitive part of our personality
o Operates on the pleasure principle
o Mass of unconscious drives and instincts
o Entirely selfish and demands immediate gratification
What is the ego?
o Works on the reality principle
o the mediator between the id and superego, reduces conflict between them
o does this with a number of defence mechanisms
What are the three defence mechanisms?
Repression - forcing a distressing memory out of the unconscious mind
Denial - refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
Displacement - transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
What is the superego?
o Formed at end of phallic stage
o our internalised sense of right and wrong
o Based on the morality principle
o Represents the moral standards of the child’s same-sex parent
Evaluation points for the psychodynamic approach?
\+ Explanatory power - Case study method - Untestable concepts \+ Practical applications - Psychic determinism
How does the psychodynamic approach have explanatory power?
o One of the most dominant force in psychology
o Used to explain a wide range of phenomena such as personality development
o Also draws link between childhood experiences and later development, one of the first to do this
How was the case-study method used with the psychodynamic approach
o Freud’s theory was based on the intensive study of Little Hans
o Although observations were detailed it is not possible to make such universal claims about human nature based on studies of such a small number of individuals who were psychologically abnormal
o His interpretations were highly subjective, no other researcher would have made the same conclusions he did about Little Hans
How does the psychodynamic approach have untestable concepts?
o Doesn’t meet the scientific criterion of falsification
o Not open to empirical testing
o Many of Freud’s concepts said to occur at an unconscious level and so difficult to test
o Status of pseudoscience
What is the practical explanation of the psychodynamic approach?
o New form of therapy
o Psychoanalysis
o Employs a range of techniques to access the unconscious
o Many successes with patients suffering from mild neuroses
o However, inappropriate for more serious mental issues such as schizophrenia
How is the psychodynamic approach psychic determinism?
o Freud believed that there was no such thing as an accident, all ‘slips of the tongue’ have meaning
o Everything is driven by unconscious forces and has deep symbolic meaning
o Suggests any free will we have is an illusion, unconscious mind controls everything
