Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
What are the 3 assumptions?
Influence of childhood experiences
The unconscious mind
Tripartite personality
What is the influence of childhood experiences?
Early childhood experiences shape our adult personality
Conflict and fixation
Fixation occur through frustration and overindulgence
What stages are included in childhood experiences?
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency
Genital
What is frustration?
The child’s needs have not been met
What is overindulgence?
The child’s needs have been more than satisfied
Child feels too comfortable to move onto the next stage
What happens in the oral stage?
0-18 months
Breastfeeding
Frustration = pessimism, envy, sarcasm
Overindulgence = optimism, gullibility, neediness
What happens in the anal stage?
18 months- 3 years
Potty training
Frustration = stubborn, possessive
Overindulgence = messy, disorganised, reckless
What happens in the phallic stage?
Odeipus complex leads to superego and gender identity
Self assured, vail, may have problems with sexuality
What happens in latency?
5 years - puberty
Knowledge and understanding of the world
No fixations as no pleasure focus
What happens in genital?
Puberty- death
Well developed adult personality
Well adjusted
What is the unconscious mind?
Irrational, ruled by pleasure seeking, repressed thoughts and feelings are kept
Unavailable to the conscious mind
Motivated by unconscious drives
What is the conscious mind?
What we are currently thinking and feeling, what we are aware of
What is the preconscious mind?
what we are not currently thinking about, could be aware, similar to memories
How do the conflicts from the unconscious mind appear?
Through fantasies and dreams
Disguised in shape of symbols
Ego defence mechanisms
What do conflicts between the id, ego and superego cause?
Anxiety
How does the ego protect itself?
With ego defences
What defence mechanisms does the ego use?
Displacement (transfer of impulses from one person to another)
Projection (undesirable thoughts attributed to someone else)
Repression (pushing painful memories deep down)
How can you find out what happens in the unconscious mind?
What are they?
Parapraxes
Slips of the tongue, accidental things we say which are on our unconscious mind
What is the tripartite personality?
Contains
Id
Ego
Superego
What is the id?
Impulsive and unconscious
Present at birth
Demand immediate satisfaction
Pleasure principle
Gain pleasure and gratification at any cost
What is the ego?
Conscious, rational part
Work out realistic ways of balancing the demand of the id in a socially acceptable way
Reality principle
What is the superego?
Sense of right and wrong
Seeks to perfect and civilise our behaviour
What does the ego act as?
A referee to resolve the conflict between the id and super ego
What are the 4 main components of dream analysis?
Dreams as wish fulfilment
Symbolic nature of dreams
Dream work
Role of the therapist
What is dreams as wish fulfilment?
dreams are the unconscious fulfilment of wishes that could not be satisfied in the conscious mind
allow expression of buried urges and desires
the id = pleasure principle
what is symbolic nature of dreams?
Manifest content
Latent content
Dreams allow us to fulfil our unconscious wishes and desires
The actual content on a dream is expressed symbolically
If we dreamed what we truly desired it may cause anxiety
What is manifest content?
What we actually recall- the story of the dream
What is latent content
The hidden meaning of the dream, underlying wish/ emotion
What is dream work?
How is it done?
The latent content is transformed into manifest content
Through dream work processes
What are dream work processes?
Processes are applied to repressed wishes to produce the content of the dream that is experienced
What are the dream work processes?
Condensation
Displacement
Representation
Symbolism
Secondary elaboration
What is condensation
Dream thoughts are rich in detail but are condensed to brief images in a dream, several associations
What is displacement?
The emotional significance of a dream is separated from its real object to an entirely different one, the dream content is not censored
What is representation
A thought is translated into visual images
What is symbolism?
A symbol replaces an action, person or idea
What is secondary elaboration?
Unconscious mind collects all different images, ties together to form a logical story, disguises the latent content
What is the role of the therapist?
Decide the content
Access unconscious thoughts and feelings
Bring to conscious awareness and the unconscious conflict will be resolved
What is a strength about the effectiveness of dream analysis
Solms used PET scans to highlight regions of the brain that were active whilst dreaming
The rational part of the brain was inactive during REM, whereas centres concerned with memory and motivation were active (the ego becomes suspended while the id is free rein -> ego defences are down)
What is a methodological issue in dream analysis?
Research into dreaming is conducted in sleep laboratories, questioned if the sleep is authentic, lack ecological validity
Confounding variable = studies on dreaming done on humans who are deprived of sleep, can impair biological functions such as secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters
What is an issue with subjective interpretation?
Role of therapist
The dream being interpreted is subjective, may not be reliable information
What is an ethical issue with a therapist and client relationship?
Potential power imbalance
Patient becomes reliant on the therapist
Lead to overdependence
More true in people who experience depression
What is an ethical issue with false memory syndrome?
False memory of traumatic experiences
False memories can come to light during psychoanalysis
Patient is likely to straight away believe their therapist
Toon = therapists induce false memories so that the therapy will take longer, will make more financial gain
What is an ethical issue with emotional harm?
A therapist may guide a client towards an insight that is emotionally distressing
Distress may cause greater problems
Psychotherpists must warn their patients of this potential issue
What did Matt and Navarro say about the effectiveness of dream analysis?
Review of 63 meta analyses on the effect of psychotherapy found 75% of people receiving dream analysis showed improvements
What did Hobson and McCarley say about the effectiveness of dreams
Dreams are nothing but commands sent from the brain, simply a form of thinking that happens while we sleep
What is Bowlbys study called?
Bowlbys 44 Juvenile Thieves Study 1944
What is the methodology of bowlby?
5-17 years old
31 males
13 females
22 grade IV thieves (stealing for a long time)
4 grade 1 thieves (one theft)
Control group = 44 similar age, IQ, sex but didn’t steal
What are the procedures for Bowlby?
Each child given a mental test for intelligence
Noted emotional attitude of the child
Interviewed for early psychiatric history
Bowlby interviewed child and mother
Reviewed results, child met with psychiatrist weekly on period of 6 months
Mothers talked about problems with social worker
What are the findings of Bowlby?
6 character types=
Normal
Depressed
Circular
Hyperthymic
Affection less
Schizoid
What are the conclusions of Bowlby?
Childhood experiences effect later behaviours eg maternal deprivation
Social and economic factors = link to poverty
Prevent separation, provide good substitute emotional care
What are the ethical issues with Bowlby, evaluation
No confidentiality
First name and last initial used, provided details of their life
Initials or numbers should have been used
No valid consent
Age 5-17 years old
1944 ethical guidelines not as stringent
Social implications Bowlby
2015 parental leave, parents can have a strong bond with their child and have their time off
Financial implications
Under 2 = £252 per week for full time nursery, may not be financially viable for parents to return to work as childcare costs outweigh money earnt
Gov scheme allows parents to claim tax relief on child care costs = better for the economy
Evaluation of methodology in Bowlby
Based on recollections of the parents
From many years below = not accurate = lack of internal validity
Case study = qualitative data, history of juvinelles = high external and ecological validity
Evaluation of procedures, Bowlby
Lacks population validity, all control and p’s were emotionally disturbed, lack of external validity
Cause and effect cannot be established, causal relationship between prolonged separation and emotional disturbance, threatens internal validity
