psychodynamic approach Flashcards
who developed the psychodynamic approach?
Freud
what are the 3 assumptions of this approach?
- the unconscious mind
- instincts or drives
- early childhood experiences
THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND
what is the unconscious mind?
the driving force behind our behaviour. the psychodynamic approach believes that if we have problematic or challenginng behaviour then we must access the unconscious mind to sort it out
what is instincts or drives?
they motivate our behaviour. this means that we are driven by instinct to go through a series of stages in the development of our behaviouur and personality
what is early childhood experiences?
early childhood is believes to be important in making us the person we are. most of our psychological development is formed before the age of 6
what are the 3 levels of consciousness?
- unconscious
- preconscious
- unconscious
what is the conscious mind?
what we are aware of at any given time e.g., what we see, hear, smell or think
what is the preconscious mind?
madde up of memories that we can recall when we want to e.g., we can recall our phone number
what is the unconscious mind?
made up of memories, desires, and fears which cause us extreme anxiety and have been repressed. it influences our behaviour, however, we are unaware of what is in our unconscious and how it drives our behaviour
THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
what are the 3 parts of the personality?
- id
- ego
- superego
where does the id operate?
in the unconscious
what does the id contain?
our innate, aggressive and sexual instincts
what does the id do?
operates according to the pleasure principle and demands immediate gratification regardless of circumstances. for example, if you are hungry it demands that you eat there and then
what does the ego do?
mediates between the impulsive demands of the id and the reality of the external world. for exaple, it may delay gratifying the id until there is a more appropraite time to satisfy its demands
where is the superego?
the conscious and the unconscious
what does the superego do?
takes our morals into consideration and is involved in making us feel guilty. includes ideas about how to behave that we adopt from our parents
DEFENCE MECHANISMS
what are defence mechanisms?
the methods we unconsciously use to reduce anxiety
what weakens the influence of the ego?
anxiety
why does the ego need to be strong?
to mediate between the id and the superego
why are defence mechanisms useful?
they allow the ego to operate in a distorted reality becuase they reduce the unpleasant thoughts and feeling associated with a traumatic situation
why is overreliance on defence mechanisms unhealthy?
they all operate to distort reality in some way
3 defence mechanisms
- repression
- denial
- displacement
what is repression?
when an unpleasant memory is pushed to the unconsious mind where it isn’t accessible to the conscious and can’t cause anxiety. it can still affect behaviour in the unconscious mind
what effect on behaviour does repression have?
there is no recall of the situation
what is denial?
there is a refusal to accept the reality of an unpleasant situation. this reduces anxiety caused by that situation
what effect does denial have on behaviour?
someone may believe that the situation is not negative and it shouldn’t cause anxiety. this is not positive thinking, merely a resistance to accept reality
what is displacement?
when the focus of a strong emotion is expressed onto a neutral person or object. this reduces anxiety by allowing expression of that emotion
what effect does displacement have on behaviour?
someone may exhibit strong emotion but focus it onto an unincolved person or object
who did research into defence in 2014?
Gagnepain, Henson and Anderson
what was their hypothesis?
suppressing unwanted memories reduces their unconscious influence
what did the research focus on?
visual memories and used post-traumatic stress sufferers
what were participants asked to do?
either recall images or suppress them
who was their brain activity measured
using an fMRI
what did the evidence suggest
the memory traces had been weakened by suppression
1 strength of this study
provides support for suppression. it indicates that trying to forget could be a useful strategy to reduce the effects of trauma for PTSD patients
1 weakness of this study
it may not be applicable to other types of memory such as eyewitnesses
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES
what did Freud believe personality developed through
a series of 5 stages
what did Freud call these stages?
psychosexual stages
what do psychosexual stages emphasise?
the most important driving force in development is the need to express sexual energy or libido
where are psychosexual stages?
in our unconscious mind
how do tensions form?
from a build up of sexual energy and the need to release it in order to feel pressure
what are the 5 psychosexual stages?
- oral stage
- anal stage
- phallic stage
- latency stage
- genital stage
what age is the oral stage?
birth to 18 months
what is the child focused on during the oral stage?
oral pleasures e.g., sucking
how can an oral fixation or oral personality develop?
too much or too little gratification
what do oral personalities have a tendency to do?
smoke, drink alcohol, over eat, bite their nails
what are they like personality wise?
overly dependent on others, gullible, and perpetual followers
what else might they do?
fight these urges and develop pessimism and aggression towards others
what age is the anal stage?
18 months to three years
what is the child’s focus of pleasure during the anal stage?
eliminating and retaining feces
what does the child have to learn to do through society’s pressure?
learn to control anal stimultion
what can anal fixation during this stage result in?
an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control
what can happen on the other end of the spectrum?
they may become messy and disorganised
what age is the phallic stage?
ages three to six
what happens during the phallic stage?
the pleasure zone switches to the genitals
what happens to a boy during this stage?
they develop unconscious sexual desires for his mother
what happens with the father as a result of this?
the boy becomes rivals with his father and sees him as competition for the mother’s affection
why does the boy develop a fear of their father?
they fear that their father will punish them for these feelings by castrating them
what is this group of feelings called?
the oedipus complex
why do boys eventually decide to identify with their father rather than fight him?
out of fear of castration and the strong competition of his father
what does identifying with the father lead the boy to develop?
masculine characterisics and identifies himself as a male, and represses his sexual feelings towards his mother
what does a fixation at this stage result in?
sexual deviances (overindulging and avoidance) and weak or confused sexual identity
what age is the latency sage?
age six to puberty
who added the latency stage later on?
neo-freudians
what happens during this stage?
sexual urges remain repressed and children interact and play mostly with same sex peers
what age is the genital stage?
puberty onwards
what happens during the genital stage?
adolescents direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers, with the primary focus of pleasure is the genitals
who did Freud study in 1909?
Little Hans
Little Hans method
Freud carried out a case study of a child called Little Hans who had a phobia of horses. he was observed by his father, who made notes of Han’s dreams and things he said, and passed them on to Freud for analysis
Little Hans results
Hans was afraid of horses because he thought they might bite him or fall on hum. during the study he developed an interest in his ‘widdler’. his mum had tolkd him not to play with it or she’d cut it off. Hans told his dad about a dream where he was married to his mum and his dad was now his grandfather
Little Hans conclusion
Frued’s interpretation was that Hans had reached the phallic stage of development and showed evidence of the ‘Oedipus complex’. he wanted to have an exclusive relationship with his mother and was jealous of his father. Hans had sexual feelings for his mother. the horse symoblised his father because, to him, they both had big penises. his fear of horses is an example of displacement. he was afraid he would be castrated by his father if he found out about his feelings for his mother. this was symbolised by his fear that a horse would bite him
1 strength of Little Hans case study
- the findings provided evidence to support Freud’s theories
1 weakness of Little Hans
- the results were based entirely on observation and interpretation. this means that a cause and effect relationship can’t be established
2 strengths of the psychodynamic approach
- it offers methods of therapy, such as psychoanalysis, which may also uncover unconscious conflicts. patients can then understand the causes of their problems and resolve them and release their anxieties
- Freud’s theory places emphasis on how experiences in early childhood can affect later development. this has formed the basis for lots of other imporant theories
2 weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach
- Freud’s claims are based on his subjective interpretation of his patients’ dreams, etc. therefore, they’re often unreliable and open to bias
- Freud’s theories are related to the unconscious mind, which can’t be accessed. as such, his theories are unfalsifiable (they can’t be proven wrong).
