Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

Assumptions of the psychodynamic approach:

Answer 1

• our childhood plays an important part in the shaping of our personalities as adults. Traumatic experiences in childhood may cause abnormal behaviour later.
• conflicts in the unconscious mind influence our behaviour and personalities
• as a result of the changing nature of conflicts, an individual is constantly changing (dynamic) as they develop.

Question 2

Unconscious mind:

Answer 2

Freud believed in the existance of a part of the mind that was inaccessible to conscious thought and called this the unconscious mind.

Question 3

Metaphor of the iceberg:

Answer 3

• Freud used a metaphor of the iceberg to help understand the mind.
• The tip of the iceberg represents the conscious mind, which is visible to us and we’re aware of it.
• The larger part of the iceberg represents the unconscious mind which is hidden underwater
• Most of our actions and behaviours are controlled by his part of the mind

Question 4

What structures did Freud divide the mind into?

Answer 4

• the id
• the ego
• the superego

each of which demands gratification, but is frequently in conflict with the other parts. Conflicts are affected by our childhood

Question 5

The id -

Answer 5

• formed from birth to 18 months.
• based entirely in the unconscious mind
• most primitive and instinctive part of personality - irrational and emotional and deals with feelings and needs
• pleasure principle: demands immediate gratification, regardless of circumstances

Question 6

The ego -

Answer 6

• formed from 18 months to 3 yrs.
• reality principle (works out realistic ways to meet id’s demands) - is rational and acts as a mediator between superego and id and aims to reduce conflict between them.
• ego defense mechanisms alleviates conflict

Question 7

The superego -

Answer 7

• formed between 3-6 years.
• morality principle - develops through identification with the same sex parent and internalisation of their moral standards
• it acts as a moral guide. its role is to control instinctive impulses of id in line with society norms and morals
• punishes the ego through guilt if it succumbs to ids demands

Question 8

What principle is the ego?

Answer 8

reality principle

Question 9

What principle is the superego?

Answer 9

morality principle

Question 10

Defense mechanisms:

Answer 10

• Helps the ego manage the conflict between the id and superego.
• Provide compromise solutions on an unconscious level + deal with unreasonable conflict + alleviates anxiety.
• Distorts perception of reality which is psychollogically unhealthy

Question 11

What are the three defense mechanisms?

Answer 11

• Repression
• Denial
• Displacement

Question 12

What is repression:

Answer 12

Blocking unacceptable or unpleasant memories, thoughts or impulses from conscious awareness - which are moved to the unconscious mind.
They do not stay quietly in the unconscious mind - repressed memories, thoughts and impusles continue to influence behaviour + cause distress without the individual being aware of it

Question 13

What is denial:

Answer 13

Refusal to accept reality to avoid any painful feelings associated with that event.
The individual acts as if the traumatic event has not actually happened.

Question 14

What is displacement:

Answer 14

Redirecting of thoughts or feelings (usually hostile) and happens in situations where people feel unable to express themselves to the cause of the feelings / frustration.
Instead, the individual ‘takes it out’ on an innocent (substitute) person or object

Question 15

Psychosexual stages definition:

Answer 15

Freud claimed that children develop through a sequence of 5 stages. At each stage, the individual experiences unconscious conflict. To resolve these conflicts, one had to gratify their erogenous zones. The unresolved conflict (lack of gratification or too much gratification) results in a fixation, becoming stuck in the stage and the conflict is carried forward and expressed in behaviour as an adult.

Question 16

What are the 5 psychosexual stages?

Answer 16

• Oral stage
• Anal stage
• Phallic
• Latency
• Genital

Question 17

What is the acronym for the psychosexual stages?

Answer 17

Old Age Pensioners Love Grandkids

Question 18

Oral stage:

Answer 18

• 0-1 years
• The focus of pleasure (erogenous zone) in this stage = mouth.
• Children are learning feeding behaviours by feeding through mothers breast.
• If it becomes a fixation - could lead to over-dependancy in adult relationships, e.g. separation anxiety disorder

Question 19

When does the oral stage occur?

Answer 19

0-1 year old

Question 20

Where is the erogenous zone in the oral stage?

Answer 20

Mouth

Question 21

Example of overdependancy in adult relationships?

Answer 21

separation anxiety disorder

Question 22

Anal stage:

Answer 22

• 1-3 years
• Erogenous zone = anus
• The child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces.
• Fixations are caused by too strict potty training - leading to obsession with cleanliness later in life - perfectionism.

Question 23

When does anal stage occur?

Answer 23

1-3 years

Question 24

Phallic stage:

Answer 24

• 3-5 years
• Erogenous zone = genital area
• Males experience Oedipus complex - child has unconscious desires for his mother. They develop anxiety worrying the father is going to find out and castrate them (castration anxiety)
• This leads to the child’s development of gender identity. They resolve this by repressing unconscious desires and identifying with the father.
• This is also the stage of morality development, where the child identifies with the same sex parent and develops a super ego.
• Carl Jung suggested girls have an Electra complex, which is unconscious desire for their father. During this, they also go through penis envy, causing feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. Over time, they give up their desire for their father and identify with the mother.

Question 25

When does phallic stage occur?

Answer 25

3-5 years

Question 26

Latency stage:

Answer 26

• 6-12 years
• Earlier conflicts are repressed during this stage and sexual urges become less active.
• Focus on social and intellectual development
• Fixation in this stage - leads to social difficulty later on in life

Question 27

When is the latency stage:

Answer 27

6-12 years

Question 28

Genital stage:

Answer 28

• 12 years+
• Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty
• If erogenous zone (genitals) not gratified - difficulty forming intimate relationships later in life.

Question 29

When is the genital stage?

Answer 29

12+

Question 30

Strength of psychodynamic approach = practical applications for therapy in the form of psychoanalysis.

Answer 30

The therapy uses a range of different techniques designed to access the unconscious mind, such as dream analysis and hypnosis. These techniques help deal with the conflicts in our unconscious mind and can help treat disorders such as anxiety and depression. Bergin analysed 10,000 patient histories and estimated that 80% beneffited from psychoanalysis.
SB: shows that as the treatment is effective and has benefitted people in the real world, there is an increase in validity of the underlying assumptions of the approach.

Question 31

What did Bergin do and find?

Answer 31

Bergin analysed 10,000 patient histories and estimated that 80% beneffited from psychoanalysis.

Question 32

What different techniques can access the subconscious mind?

Answer 32

• dream analysis
• hypnosis

Question 33

Strength of psychodynamic approach = very influential in creating paradigm shifts in psychology.

Answer 33

Firstly, instead of relying on self-analysis and self report like introspection, Freud suggested new methodological procedures for gathering empircal evidence, e.g case studies and observations of behaviour.
Secondly, the approach emphasised role of traumatic childhood memories on later life - which helped realise the importance of childhood in development (a belief now widely accepted). - paved the way for attachment research to follow decades later.
Thirdly, emphasised role of unconscious mind. This helped psych gain popularity and attracted interest into psych and helped recruit researchers and scholars into the field who went on to help psych move forward.
Thus the approach was very influential on the development of psych as a field

Question 34

Weakness of approach = gender bias in its view towards female sexuality.

Answer 34

In his theories, Freud often seemed to remain ignorant of female sexuality and based his theories significantly around male sexual development. Concepts such as ‘penis envy’ convey females as the lesser sex who envy male superiority and that this leads to anxiety. This means females were seen as inferior and inadequate and led to misunderstandings of female behaviour. - leads to misdiagnosis of female beh and seeing them as having mental issues when there may be nothing wrong. Therefore - approach is genderbiased and its theories and applications may not be generelisable to females.

Question 35

Weakness of approach = difficult to test scientifically.

Answer 35

Most of the research from the psychodynamic approach revolves around concepts that are hard to measure and operationalize - e.g. conflicts in the unconscious mind. A problem with such poorly defined concepts is that they can only be studied via self-report measures therefore leaving the data vulnerable to subjective interpretation and thus bias. In addition, as these concepts are hard to measure, it can be argued that such concepts are not falsifiable and therefore the approach lacks a key feature of science. Researchers like Popper would call the approach a pseudoscience. Therefore, the approach decreases in credibility.

Question 36

Case study by Freud - Little Hans