Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
Role of unconscious
Sigmund Freud suggested that the part of our mind that we know about and are aware of - the conscious mind - is merely the ‘tip of the iceberg? Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious - a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality. The unconscious also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed, or locked away and forgotten. These can be accessed during dreams or through slips of the tongue’ (what Freud referred to as parapraxes). An example of such a slip is calling a female teacher ‘mum’ instead of ‘miss’. Just bubbling under the surface of our conscious mind is the preconscious which contains thoughts and memories which are not currently in conscious awareness but we can access if desired.
The structure of personality
• The Id is the primitive part of our personality. It operates on the pleasure principle - the Id gets what it wants. It is a seething mass of unconscious drives and instincts. Only the Id is present at birth (Freud described babies as being ‘bundles of Id’). Throughout life the Id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs.
• The Ego works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the other two parts of the personality. The Ego develops around the age of two years and its role is to reduce the conflict between the demands of the Id and the Superego. It manages this by employing a number of defence mechanisms.
• The Superego is formed at the end of the phalic stage, around the age of five. It is our internalised sense of right and wrong. Based on the morality principle it represents the moral standards of the childs same-gender parent and punishes the Ego for wrongdoing (through guilt).
Describe the psychosexual stages
-Oral 0-1 - focuses of pleasure is mouth, mothers breast is object of desire- if conflict not resolved can lead to oral fixation- smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical.
-Anal 1-3 - focus of pleasure is anus- pleasure from pooing.- can become anal retentive- perfectionist or obsessive- or anal expulsive- thoughtless or messy.
Phallic- 3-6 -focus of pleasure is genital area- can lead to phallic personality- narcissistic or reckless, over ambition.
Latency- 6-puberty- sexual urges quiet
Genital- during puberty- sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty- can become difficult forming heterosexual relationships.
3 defends mechanisms
Repression-forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
Denial-refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
Displacement-transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target.
Strength- real world application
Introduced the idea of psychotherapy. Freud brought to the world a new form of therapy- psychoanalysis. This was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically. New therapy employed a range of techniques designed to access the unconscious, such as dream analysis. Psychoanalysis claims to help clients by bringing their repressed emotions into their conscious mind so they can be dealt with. Psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern-day talking therapies such as counselling.
Counterpoint- psychoanalysis is regarded as inappropriate, even harmful, for people experiencing more serious mental disorders like schizophrenia. Many of symptoms for schizophrenia like paranoia and delusional thinking mean that those with the disorder have lost their grip on reality and cannot articulate their thoughts in the way required for psychoanalysis. Suggests Freudian therapy may not apply to all mental disorders.
Strength- explanatory power
Can explain human behaviour. Controversial and bizarre, but has had a huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought. Alongside behaviourism, psychodynamic approach remained a key force in psychology for the first half of the 20th century and has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including personality development, origins of psychological disorders, moral development and gender identity. Also draws attention to the connection between experiences in childhood like relationships with our parents and our later development.
Limitation- untestable concepts
Much of it is untestable. Argues that approach doesn’t meet scientific criterion of falsification. Not open to empirical testing and the possibility of being disproved. Many of freuds concepts like Id and Oedipus complex are said to occur at unconscious level, making them difficult to test. Furthermore his ideas were based of subjective studies like little Hans of single individuals, making it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour.
Little Hans and Oedipus complex
In the phallic stage, Freud claimed that little boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother and a murderous hatred for their rival in love - their father (the Oedipus complex). Fearing that their father will castrate them, boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father, taking on his gender role and moral values.
Freud also suggested that girls of the same age experience penis envy: they desire their father - as the penis is the primary love object - and hate their mother (the Electra complex). Although Freud was less clear on the process in girls, they are thought to give up the desire for their father over time and replace this with a desire for a baby (identifying with their mother in the process).
Freud supported his concept of the Oedipus complex with his case study of Little Hans. Hans was a five-year-old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street. Freud suggested that Hans’s phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred (displaced onto horses. Thus, horses were merely a symbolic representation of Hans’s real unconscious fear - the fear of castration experienced during the Oedipus complex.
Strength-Unconscious
It emphasises the importance of the unconscious in determining our behaviour. It can help us to understand the root causes of unusual behaviours. For example, Hans’ did not understand why he was afraid of horses until his father and Freud suggested that they might represent his father, and be a manifestation of his attempt to resolve the Oedipus complex.
