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psychodynamic approach Flashcards

1
Q

who developed the psychodynamic approach?

A

Freud

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2
Q

what are the 3 assumptions of this approach?

A
  • the unconscious mind
  • instincts or drives
  • early childhood experiences
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3
Q

THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND

A
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4
Q

what is the unconscious mind?

A

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

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5
Q

what is instincts or drives?

A

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

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6
Q

what is early childhood experiences?

A

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

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7
Q

what are the 3 levels of consciousness?

A
  • unconscious
  • preconscious
  • unconscious
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8
Q

what is the conscious mind?

A

what we are aware of at any given time e.g., what we see, hear, smell or think

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9
Q

what is the preconscious mind?

A

madde up of memories that we can recall when we want to e.g., we can recall our phone number

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10
Q

what is the unconscious mind?

A

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

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11
Q

THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

A
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12
Q

what are the 3 parts of the personality?

A
  • id
  • ego
  • superego
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13
Q

where does the id operate?

A

in the unconscious

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14
Q

what does the id contain?

A

our innate, aggressive and sexual instincts

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15
Q

what does the id do?

A

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

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16
Q

what does the ego do?

A

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

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17
Q

where is the superego?

A

the conscious and the unconscious

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18
Q

what does the superego do?

A

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

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19
Q

DEFENCE MECHANISMS

A
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20
Q

what are defence mechanisms?

A

the methods we unconsciously use to reduce anxiety

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21
Q

what weakens the influence of the ego?

A

anxiety

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22
Q

why does the ego need to be strong?

A

to mediate between the id and the superego

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23
Q

why are defence mechanisms useful?

A

they allow the ego to operate in a distorted reality becuase they reduce the unpleasant thoughts and feeling associated with a traumatic situation

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24
Q

why is overreliance on defence mechanisms unhealthy?

A

they all operate to distort reality in some way

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25
Q

3 defence mechanisms

A
  • repression
  • denial
  • displacement
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26
Q

what is repression?

A

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

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27
Q

what effect on behaviour does repression have?

A

there is no recall of the situation

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28
Q

what is denial?

A

there is a refusal to accept the reality of an unpleasant situation. this reduces anxiety caused by that situation

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29
Q

what effect does denial have on behaviour?

A

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

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30
Q

what is displacement?

A

when the focus of a strong emotion is expressed onto a neutral person or object. this reduces anxiety by allowing expression of that emotion

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31
Q

what effect does displacement have on behaviour?

A

someone may exhibit strong emotion but focus it onto an unincolved person or object

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32
Q

who did research into defence in 2014?

A

Gagnepain, Henson and Anderson

33
Q

what was their hypothesis?

A

suppressing unwanted memories reduces their unconscious influence

34
Q

what did the research focus on?

A

visual memories and used post-traumatic stress sufferers

35
Q

what were participants asked to do?

A

either recall images or suppress them

36
Q

who was their brain activity measured

A

using an fMRI

37
Q

what did the evidence suggest

A

the memory traces had been weakened by suppression

38
Q

1 strength of this study

A

provides support for suppression. it indicates that trying to forget could be a useful strategy to reduce the effects of trauma for PTSD patients

39
Q

1 weakness of this study

A

it may not be applicable to other types of memory such as eyewitnesses

40
Q

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

A
41
Q

what did Freud believe personality developed through

A

a series of 5 stages

42
Q

what did Freud call these stages?

A

psychosexual stages

43
Q

what do psychosexual stages emphasise?

A

the most important driving force in development is the need to express sexual energy or libido

44
Q

where are psychosexual stages?

A

in our unconscious mind

45
Q

how do tensions form?

A

from a build up of sexual energy and the need to release it in order to feel pressure

46
Q

what are the 5 psychosexual stages?

A
  1. oral stage
  2. anal stage
  3. phallic stage
  4. latency stage
  5. genital stage
47
Q

what age is the oral stage?

A

birth to 18 months

48
Q

what is the child focused on during the oral stage?

A

oral pleasures e.g., sucking

49
Q

how can an oral fixation or oral personality develop?

A

too much or too little gratification

50
Q

what do oral personalities have a tendency to do?

A

smoke, drink alcohol, over eat, bite their nails

51
Q

what are they like personality wise?

A

overly dependent on others, gullible, and perpetual followers

52
Q

what else might they do?

A

fight these urges and develop pessimism and aggression towards others

53
Q

what age is the anal stage?

A

18 months to three years

54
Q

what is the child’s focus of pleasure during the anal stage?

A

eliminating and retaining feces

55
Q

what does the child have to learn to do through society’s pressure?

A

learn to control anal stimultion

56
Q

what can anal fixation during this stage result in?

A

an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control

57
Q

what can happen on the other end of the spectrum?

A

they may become messy and disorganised

58
Q

what age is the phallic stage?

A

ages three to six

59
Q

what happens during the phallic stage?

A

the pleasure zone switches to the genitals

60
Q

what happens to a boy during this stage?

A

they develop unconscious sexual desires for his mother

61
Q

what happens with the father as a result of this?

A

the boy becomes rivals with his father and sees him as competition for the mother’s affection

62
Q

why does the boy develop a fear of their father?

A

they fear that their father will punish them for these feelings by castrating them

63
Q

what is this group of feelings called?

A

the oedipus complex

64
Q

why do boys eventually decide to identify with their father rather than fight him?

A

out of fear of castration and the strong competition of his father

65
Q

what does identifying with the father lead the boy to develop?

A

masculine characterisics and identifies himself as a male, and represses his sexual feelings towards his mother

66
Q

what does a fixation at this stage result in?

A

sexual deviances (overindulging and avoidance) and weak or confused sexual identity

67
Q

what age is the latency sage?

A

age six to puberty

68
Q

who added the latency stage later on?

A

neo-freudians

69
Q

what happens during this stage?

A

sexual urges remain repressed and children interact and play mostly with same sex peers

70
Q

what age is the genital stage?

A

puberty onwards

71
Q

what happens during the genital stage?

A

adolescents direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers, with the primary focus of pleasure is the genitals

72
Q

who did Freud study in 1909?

A

Little Hans

73
Q

Little Hans method

A

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

74
Q

Little Hans results

A

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

75
Q

Little Hans conclusion

A

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

75
Q

1 strength of Little Hans case study

A
  • the findings provided evidence to support Freud’s theories
76
Q

1 weakness of Little Hans

A
  • the results were based entirely on observation and interpretation. this means that a cause and effect relationship can’t be established
77
Q

2 strengths of the psychodynamic approach

A
  • 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
78
Q

2 weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach

A
  • 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).

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