Psychodynamic approach Flashcards
What are the assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?
- early childhood experiences are believed to be pivotal in shaping adulthood
- the driving force behind our behaviour is the unconscious mind
- approach assumes we have three parts to our personality; Id, ego. superego
What is the role of the unconscious?
- unconscious=drives & instincts that motivate our behaviour & personality & are inaccessible
- contains threatening & disturbing memories that have been repressed & locked away to protect conscious self from anxiety
What is the id?
Freud describe personality as a ‘tripartite’
- Id= operates on the ‘pleasure principle’ - insatiable set of instincts that are innate, demands immediate gratification of needs
What is the Ego?
- works on the ‘reality principle’ develops around age of 2
- it arbitrates (aims to reduce conflicts) between the demands of the Id and superego
- manages this by employing defence mechanisms
What is the Superego?
- works on the ‘morality principle’
- formed at the end of the phallic stage
- concerned with right and wrong and acts to internally punish & rewards us
- arises through identification with same sex parents and internalizing their moral standards
What are psychosexual stages?
- psychological development takes place in series of fixed stages in childhood
- at each stage their is conflict that a child must resolve before the move onto next stage or fixation occurs
Oral stage description
- 0-1 year
- mouth is the main focus of pleasure (sucking, swallowing)
- successful completion- weaning
oral fixation- smoking, nail biter, sarcastic
Anal stage description
- 1-3 years
- focus of pleasure is the anus (pleasure from withholding & expelling faeces )
- successful completion =potty training
fixation= very tidy or messy
Phallic stage description
- 3-6 years
- focus of pleasure is the genital area
- experience of Oedipus (mother as primary love) & Electra complex (penis envy, attraction to father)
- fixation= narcissistic, reckless traits
Latency stage description
- 6-12 (approx.)
- earlier conflicts repressed into sports & other hobbies> childhood years forgotten
Genital stage description
- 12+
- sexual desires become conscious with the onset of puberty
- aim to develop healthy adult relationships
- occurs if earlier stages have been negotiated successfully
What are defence mechanisms?
unconscious strategies that Ego uses to manage conflict between Id and the Superego and reduces anxiety
- repression, denial, displacement
How does the psychodynamic approach have real life application?
- introduced the idea of psychotherapy
- psychoanalysis was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
- employed a range of techniques such as dream analysis & free association used to access the unconscious
- forerunner to modern talking therapies such as counselling
- merit
What is a counterpoint for the psychodynamic approach real life application?
- psychoanalysis regarded inappropriate even harmful for people experiencing more serious mental disorders
- e.g. symptoms of schizophrenia such as paranoia & delusional thinking mean individuals lost grip on reality & cannot articulate their thoughts in the way required
- not applicable to all
What is a strength of the psychodynamic approach?
- ability to explain human behaviour
- used to explain a wide range of phenomena such as; personality development, gender identity, & moral development
- also significant in drawing attention to connection between experiences in childhood & relationships with parents on later development
What is a weakness of the psychodynamic approach?
- much of it is unfalsifiable
- Popper=does not meet scientific criterium of falsification
- as it is not open to empirical & scientific testing
- Freuds concepts such as the Id & Oedipus complex said to occur on unconscious level difficult/ impossible to test
- ideas based on subjective case study (Little Hans) cannot make universal claims about behaviour
Define the defence mechanism
denial- refusing to acknowledge reality
displacement- taking out emotions on a substitute object
repression - people chooosing to forgot unpleasant memories
