Psychodynamic approach Flashcards
(17 cards)
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 which 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
- present at birth
What is the Ego?
- works on the ‘reality principle’ develops around age of 2
- it mediates (aims to reduce conflicts) between the demands of the Id and superego
- manages this by employing defence mechanisms e.g. repression , denial & displacement
What is the Superego?
- works on the ‘morality principle’
- formed at the end of the phallic stage (5)
- 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 helps to 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 used to access the unconscious
- forerunner to modern talking therapies such as counselling
- merit
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, origins of psychological disorders
- also significant in drawing attention to connection between experiences in childhood & relationships with parents on later development
- positive impact on psychology
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
What is another limitation of the psychodynamic approach?
- deterministic
- suggests that much of human behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts in childhood, implying that free will plays no role
- even behaviour that appears accidental like slips of tongue are interpreted as unconscious desires
- extreme pessimistic view weakens the approach as it portrays individuals as powerless
Define the defence mechanism
denial- refusing to acknowledge reality
displacement- taking out emotions on a substitute object
repression - people chooosing to forgot unpleasant memories
