Psychodynamic approach

Question 1

What is the conscious?

Answer 1

The small amount of mental activity we know about (e.g thoughts and perceptions)

Question 2

What is the preconscious?

Answer 2

just under the surface of the conscious mind-includes thoughts or ideas we may become aware of dream or through ‘slips of the tongue’(parapraxes)

Question 3

What is the unconscious?

Answer 3

-Things we aren’t aware of-biological drives and instincts that influence the behaviour and personality
-Also includes disturbing memories that have been repressed e.g an adult suffers a nasty spider bite as a child and later devolops an intense phobia of spiders later in life without any recollection of the experience as a child.

Question 4

What is the role of the unconscious?

Answer 4

It unconsciously directs our thoughts and actions.The psychodynamic approach claims that all significant experiences in early childhood,especially the interactions with parents, are held in our unconscious mind and that it this will ultimately influence our personality characteristics,actions and relationships we form from adulthood.

Question 5

What is the ID?

Answer 5

Present from birth and is driven by the pleasure principle as the dominant force of the ID is to seek pleasure.
-It is the childish,selfish an hedonistic part of the personality part of the personality which focuses on the self and immediate satisfaction of desires.

Question 6

What is the ego?

Answer 6

-Develops when we are 18 months old
-driven by the reality principle
-We cant always get what we want so the ego develops as a consequence of reality
-When we are older, the role of the ego is to make sure that neither the Id nor the superego become dominant forces as this could adversely affect the mental health of an individual.

Question 7

What is repression?

Answer 7

-An unpleasant memory /experience is held in the unconscious mind (due to it being too overwhelming to consciously process)
-No ability to recall the event or situation.
-This reduces anxiety caused by the situation.

Question 8

What is the role of the superego?

Answer 8

-Develops at 5 years old
-driven by morality principle
-develops through socialization and acts as the individuals conscience and helps the personality form a moral code.
-It is complete opposition of the Id,attempting to suppress it, and feels guilt.

Question 9

What is denial?

Answer 9

-An inability/refusal to accept the reality of an unpleasant situation
-Reduces anxiety caused by the situation

Question 10

What is displacement?

Answer 10

-When a strong (often negative emotion is expressed onto a less threatening substitute person or object.
-This reduces anxiety by allowing expression of emotion.

Question 11

What is the first stage of the psychosexual stages?

Answer 11

Oral stage:0-2 years old
-Focus for pleasure and gratification is the mouth

Question 12

What happens if their is fixation in the oral stage and what is the cause of this?

Answer 12

May affect the personality:
-Orally fixated behaviour so may become orally passive(dependent, passive, and gullible)or orally aggressive (verbally or physical)
This could be because the child is weaned from her mothers milk early or too late ,or if the feeding patterns are erratic.

Question 13

What is the second stage of devolopment?

Answer 13

Anal stage-2-3 years old:
-Pleasure focus moves from mouth to the anus.
-Age when children are usually toilet-trained and pleasure comes from withholding and expelling faeces.

Question 14

What happens if fixation occurs in the anal stage and what causes this?

Answer 14

-Become anally impulsive which as an adult are very generous and demonstrative with their emotions.
-If parents are very strict with toilet training,they become anally retentive.As an adult this means they may be very organised, neat and reluctant to spend their money.

Question 15

What is the third stage of devolopment?

Answer 15

Phallic stage-3-6 years old:
-The focus of pleasure moves to the genitals
-This stage is different for boys and girls

Question 16

What is oedipus complex?

Answer 16

-Boy experiences intense sexual feelings for his mother;his father is then seen as a rival for his mothers affections.
-This causes anxiety so the boy will try to befriend his father and behave similarly so he sees him as an ally and not a rival known as IDENTIFICATION

Question 17

What is Electra complex?

Answer 17

-Girl will realise she does not have a penis and they believe the mother has removed it
-As a result they develop penis envy of males.
-The girl will desire the father (in a similar way to boys with their mother in the same way

Question 18

What can fixation in the phallic stage lead to?

Answer 18

-Jealous and anxious adult

Question 19

What is the fourth stage of development?

Answer 19

Latent stage-6-12 years old:
-Conflicts and issues of the previous stages are repressed with the consequence that children are unable to remember much of their early years.
-Child is able to concentrate on being a child and Freud argued there are no fixations or effects on adult personality.

Question 20

What is the fifth stage of development?

Answer 20

Genital stage-12+ years:
-culmination of psychosexual development and the fixing of sexual energy in the genitals
-In this stage sexual desire becomes conscious ,alongside the onset of puberty
-From this stage the child becomes an adult
-Freud argued that it is the fixation in the first three stages that have an enduring effect on the adult personality,although fixation in the genital area is also argued to lead to difficulties forming heterosexual relationships.

Question 21

What was the background and aim of the little Hans experiment?

Answer 21

-Little Hans was a supporter of Freud and when his son developed a phobia,he referred to him as Freud
-Freud agreed to help and believed Han’s phobia was due to things going on in his unconscious mind

Question 22

What was the method Freud used for this experiment?

Answer 22

Longitudinal case study and describes Hans fear from 3-5 years old
-Qualitiative data was gathered by Little Hans father during observations of and conversations with his son which was sent to Freud by letter,who replied with interpretations of Hans behaviour and with advice

Question 23

What did Hans father report about his son?

Answer 23

-Just before the age of three,started to devolop an active interest in his ‘widdler’ and he started to masturbate.This caused his mother to send for Dr A to cut it of.
-At three Hans sister was born and he resented her and wanted her to drown in a bath
-Hans developed a fear of white horses and being bitten by them.This seemed to relate to the two key incidents:firstly overhearing a man saying to his child ‘dont put you finger to the white horse or it will bite you’ secondly seeing a horse pulling a carriage fall down.As a result Hans phobia was generalized to carts and buses
-Before and after the development of the phobia,Hans was anxious that his mother would leave and he experienced fantasies one about a giraffe, two plumber fantasies and finally a parenting fantasy.

Question 24

What did Freud do to help Hans phobia?

Answer 24

-Freud believed he was experiencing the oedipus complex so the fear of his father manifested as a fear of the horses,particularly with those dark around the mouth (representing his fathers beard)
-Hans obession with his ‘widdler’ was another sign of being in the phallic stage.

Question 25

What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 25

-Freuds theories have a huge influence today and has useful practical application in terms of therapy,despite some of his assumptions being very controversial

-Highlights the importance of childhood later on in development.It emphasizes how childhood experiences ,such as conflict,influences behaviour later on in adulthood.This strengthens the case for children’s rights to reform and suggest that children should be nurtured as their childhood will have such a big influence on their experiences in adulthood.

Question 26

What are the limitations of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 26

-Widely criticized as a therapy
-Can be seen as harmful,distressing and also no more effective than if no treatment had been used
-Suggests that psychoanalysis might not be for everyone
-It may not be suited for more serious disorders such as schizophrenia because those with the disorder do not usually have accurate perception of reality and often cannot articulate thoughts in the way required by psychoanalysis.
-So perhaps not as comprehensive as other approaches.

-Difficult to test scientifically.Concepts such as the id,ego and superego are vague and observable,occurring in the unconscious.
-This means that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criteria of falsification as it is not open to scientific testing.Therefore it has little credibility