psychodynamic approach Flashcards
what is the role of the unconscious
freud-part of mind we know about and are aware of tip of iceberg
unconscious-vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts signf influence on behaviour and personality, contains threatening and disturbing memories repressed, accessed during dreams or slips of the tongue- parapraxes
preconscious-contains thoughts and memories which are not in conscious awareness but can access if desired
what is the structure of personality
id-primitive part, pleasure principle, present at birth, selfish and demands instant gratification of needs
ego-relaity princple, mediatory between id and superego, develops at 2, reuce conflict between demands of id and superego, employs defence mechanisms
supergo-formed end of phallic stage (5), internalised sense of right and wrong, morality principle, represents moral standards of childs same gender parent and punishes ego for wrongdoing through guilty
what are psychosexual stages
oral (0-1)- focus of pleasure is mouth, oral fixation-smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical
anal (1-3)- focus of pleasure is anus, withholding and expelling faeces, anal retentive- perfectionist obsessive, anal expulsive-thoughtless messy
phallic (3-6)- focus of pleasure genital area, phallic personality-narcissistic reckless
latency-earlier conflicts repressed
gential-sexual desires become conscious alongside onset puberty, difficult forming heterosexual relationships
what are defence mechanisms
ego difficult job balacning conflicts demands of id and superego
unconscious and ensure that ego able to prevent from overwhelming by temp threats or trauma
often involve some form of distortion of reality
regarded psychologically unhealthy and undesirable
what is real world applicaiton (eval)
introduced idea of psychotherapy
freud-psychoanalysis
first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
employed range of techniques designed to access unconscious
claims to help clients by bringing repressed emotions to conscious mind so dealt with
forerunner to modern day talking therapies
value of psychodynamic approach in new approach to treatment
regarded inappropraite for people experiencing more serious mental disorders
schizophrenia-lost grip on reality and cant articulate their thoughts required by psychoanalysis
may not apply to all mentaldisorders
what is explanatory power (eval)
ability to explain human behvaiour
huge influence on pyshcoogy and contemporary thought
remained key force in psychology and used to explain wide range phenomena
signf drawing attention to connection between experiences in childhood and later development
has had positive impact on psychology
what is untestable concepts (eval)
untestable
popper-does not meet scientific criterion falsification
not open to empirical testing
said to occur at unconscious level making them difficult to test
ideas based on subjective study of single individuals which makes difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour
pseudoscientific rather than established fact
