Psychodynamic approach Flashcards
psychodynamic approach
understanding the mind and behaviour that sees unconscious processes and childhood experiences as shaping our adult personality and behaviour
basic assumptions
unconscious mind drives behaviour, must access unconscious mind to sort of bad behaviour
instincts drive behaviour
early childhood experiences are pivotal, most of our psychological developments argued to be formed by age 6
Freuds three levels of the mind
conscious = part we can access
pre-conscious = just below surface, can surface into conscious, many memories reside there
unconscious = drives or instincts, traumatic or unpleasant memories, not accessible but driving behaviour
structure of personality
ID = birth - 18 months, pleasure principle. childlike, selfish, irrational, hedonistic, focuses on self
Ego = 18 months - 3 years, reality principle. balanced id and superego. ego ensures neither one becomes dominant in a personality as this adversely affects behaviour and mental health
Superego = 3 years - 6 years, morality principle. guilt, holds you back from doing certain things, holds personality to a moral code
defence mechanisms
also called ego defence mechanisms, reduce anxiety which weakens ego, must be strong to keep id and superego in check
repression
outline: an unpleasant memory is pushed into the unconscious mind where it is not accessible to the conscious mind and therefore cannot cause anxiety. it does still affect behaviour
effect: there is no recall of event or situation
Denial
outline: this is a refusal to accept the reality of an unpleasant situation. This reduces anxiety caused by that situation.
effect: someone may believe that the situation is not negative and that therefore should not cause anxiety. this is not positive thinking, merely a resistance to accept reality
displacement
outline: this is when the focus of a strong emotion is expressed onto a neutral person or object. reduces anxiety by allowing expression of that emotion
effect: someone may exhibit very strong emotion but focus it on an uninvolved object or person.
Gagnepain et al
do suppressed memories influence behaviour
participants were asked to pair words with pictures, their brain function was measured by fMRI while the participant was thinking of the picture when given the word or while they were trying to actively supress the image from coming to mind.
to test the effects they asked participants to look at distorted images to identify objects, ordinarily they could do so quickly and successfully. however when they has suppressed the image this wasn’t the case. this suggests the memory trace was weakened by suppression . fMRI scanning of activity showed memories had been disrupted and that behaviour may not be affected by suppressed memories if they cannot be recalled.
forgetting can be a useful strategy to reduce effects of trauma .
psychosexual stages
oral stage: birth - 18months = pleasure through the mouth
fixation through weaned off mothers milk too early or too late = passive or aggressive
oral fixation = chew pens, bite nails, smoke
anal stage: 18months - 3 years = pleasure through defecation
anally expulsive = keen to use the potty fixation: generous, open with emotions
anally retentive= anxious to use the potty fixation: very organised, neat and reluctant to spend money
phallic stage: 3-6 years = pleasure through genitals?
Oedipus = sexual feeling for mother, father is rival, fear father with castrate him???? resolved by befriending father, if no father present boy may become homosexual
Electra = sexual feelings for father, hatred towards mother as she feels she removed her penis? befriends mother to resolve this. if not resolved she becomes jealous and anxious as an adult.
latent stage: 6-11 years = sexual feelings displaced throughout body no complexes to resolve
genital stage: 12+ years = pleasure through genitals again and stays this way forever more
little Hans
Hans father sent reports to Freud
Hans has a phobia of horses, Freud theorised this was due to Hans noticing it had a significantly larger penis than his. Freud believed the child’s fear was a displacement of the child’s fear of his father linking it to the Oedipus complex.
Freuds analysis could be disproved as Hans saw a horse collapse when he was young this could’ve scared him and classically conditioning his fear
evaluation
importance of childhood is in later development
still used by some therapists today
difficult to test, lack reliability
case studies lack reliability and cant be genrelaised, and cultrally specific
