Psychodynamic approach

Question 1

Role of the unconscious

Answer 1

• Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious
• We are unaware of it but it directs much of our behaviour
• Also contains threatening memories that have been repressed - can be accessed during dreams and slip of the tongue

Question 2

Structure of personality

Answer 2

• Tripartite model - consists of 3 personalities
• Id = pleasure principle - entirely unconscious - made up of selfish aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification - present at birth
• Ego - reality principle - balances conflicting demands of the Id and the superego - manages this by employing defence mechanisms - present at age 2
• Superego - morality principle - our sense of right and wrong - represents moral standards of childs same-sex parent - present at age 5

Question 3

Psychosexual stages

Answer 3

• Freud claimed a child developed in 5 stages - each stage is marked by a conflict that the child must overcome in order to progress to the next stage - if conflict isn’t resolved it leads to fixation where the child becomes ‘stuck’ in that stage
  1) Oral - age 0-1 years - focus of pleasure is the mouth - mothers breast is object of desire - Oral fixation = smoking, biting nails, sarcastic and critical
  2) Anal - age 1-3 years - focus of pleasure is the anus - Anal retentive = perfectionist, obsessive - Anal expulsive = thoughtless, messy
  3) Phallic - age 3-6 years - focus of pleasure is the genital area - Phallic personality = narcissistic, reckless
  4) Latency - earlier conflicts are repressed
  5) Genital - puberty - sexual desires become conscious - Fixation = difficulty forming heterosexual relationships

Question 4

Oedipus and electra complexes

Answer 4

Oedipus:
- Phallic stage - age 3-5
- Boy wants mother as his primary love object - wants father out of the way - fears his father knows this and will castrate him
- Identifies with father to stop castration anxiety

Electra:
-Phallic stage - age 3-5
- Girl also desires her mother - realises she doesn’t have a penis like her father and is jealous - becomes hostile towards mother as she believes her mother has castrated her - develops attraction to father instead because she believes he can give her a baby
- Eventually resolves feelings towards mother and identifies with her

Question 5

Defence mechanisms

Answer 5

1) Repression - forcing a distressing memory from the conscious mind
2) Denial - refusing to believe something because it is too painful to acknowledge
3) Displacement - transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target

Question 6

Psychodynamic app - evaluation - strength

Answer 6

• Real world application
• Introduced idea of psychotherapy
• Psychoanalysis was first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
• The forerunner to many modern talking therapies such as counselling
• Shows value of psychodynamic app in creating new approach to treatment

Question 7

Psychodynamic app - evaluation - limitation

Answer 7

• Untestable
• Doesn’t meet scientific criteria of falsification
• It isn’t open to empirical testing
• Many of Freud’s concepts occur at an unconscious level so they are impossible to test
• Freud’s theory was pseudoscientific