Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
Who created the psychodynamic approach?
Sigmund Freud
Name the key assumptions of the psychodynamic approach.
- The unconscious mind is the key determinate of how we behave
- We possess innate ‘drives’ that motivate behaviour as we develop
- Childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when we reach adulthood
What did Freud believe the mind was divided into?
Conscious
Preconscious
Unconscious
What is the conscious mind?
The part of the mind that we are aware of
What is the preconscious mind?
The part of the mind that contains all of the inactive but potentially accessible thoughts and memories
What is the unconscious mind?
Makes up majority of the mind
Contains biological drives and instincts that significantly influence our behaviour and personality
Contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed
What did Freud believe our personality was divided into?
Id
Ego
Superego
What is the Id?
Pleasure principle
The only part that is present at birth
Primitive and selfish, demands instant gratification
What is the ego?
Reality principle
Formed at around age 2
Known as the mediator between the Id and the Superego
Reduces the conflict between demands
What is the superego?
Morality principle
Formed between ages 3-5
Internalised sense of right and wrong
Represents moral standards of child’s same sex parent
What are the psychosexual stages?
The childhood development stages
The child must resolve one stage in order to move on to the next
Any conflict that is unresolved from these stages leads to fixation
The individual would then carry this behaviour associated with the stage into adulthood
Name the five psychosexual stages in order.
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency
Genital
Explain the oral stage.
Develops from 0-1 years old
Pleasure focused on mouth
Mothers breast is the object of desire
What are the consequences of the oral stage?
Oral fixation
Smoking, biting nails, sarcasm, critical
Explain the anal stage.
Develops from 1-3 years old
Pleasure focused on anus
Gained pleasure from withholding or expelling feces
What are the consequences of the anal stage?
Anal retentive (withhold) —> perfectionist, obsessive
Anal expulsive (expel) —> thoughtless, messy
Explain the phallic stage.
Develops from 3-5 years old
Pleasure focus on genital area
Child experiences oedipus + electra complex
What are the consequences of the phallic stage?
Phallic personality
Narcissistic, reckless, possibly homosexual
Explain the latency stage.
Develops from 6-12 years old
Earlier conflicts are repressed
No consequences for this stage
Explain the genital stage.
Develops at puberty
Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty
What are the consequences of the genital stage?
Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
What is the Oedipus complex?
- Boys become subconsciously attracted to their mother
- Experience sexual desires to their mother
- Envy and jealousy are aimed at the father
- Hostile feelings towards father leads to castration anxiety
- Resolved by identification with father
What is the Electra complex?
- Girls become sexually attached to their father and become increasingly hostile towards their mother
- Begins with belief that she has already been castrated and blames the mother
- Experiences penis envy
- Solved by identification with mother
What are defence mechanisms?
Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and the superego
They may distort reality
Name the three defence mechanisms.
Denial
Repression
Displacement
What is denial?
Ignoring the reality of a situation to avoid anxiety or consequences
What is repression?
Subconsciously blocking ideas or impulses that are undesirable
What is displacement?
An individual redirects a negative emotion from its original source to a less threatening recipient
What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?
- Highlights a widely accepted link between childhood experiences and adult characteristics
- Case study methodology which gathers rich and detailed information
- Some evidence supports the existence of ego defence mechanisms
What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach?
- Largely idiographic and therefore lacks empirical evidence
- Case study methodology lacks in ecological validity
- Many of Freud’s ideas are considered non-falsifiable
- Research was androcentric
