psychodynamic approach

Question 1

assumptions

Answer 1

• unconscious is inaccessible to conscious awareness
• traumatic memories from childhood are repressed
• unconscious mind can reveal itself through psychoanalysis

Question 2

personality structure

Answer 2

id - governed by the pleasure principle
ego - governed by reality principle (balances id & superego)
superego - governed by morality principle

Question 3

defence mechanism

Answer 3

used by ego to cope with demands of id and superego
repression - trauma is forced into the unconscious mind
displacement - feelings towards target individual cannot be expressed so is transferred to something / someone else

Question 4

psychosexual stages

Answer 4

children pass through stages where they must overcome a crisis

Question 5

emergence of psychology as a science

Answer 5

• shifted Wundt’s idea to focus on role of unconscious mind instead
• less scientific approach than others; has contributed to understanding / treatment of conditions

Question 6

evaluation

Answer 6

• has led to development of psychoanalysis treatment - proven to be effective (Biskup et al. 2005 found that after therapy, 77% showed clinical improvements)
• Freud’s ideas demonstrate significant gender bias (obsession with oedipus complex is androcentric and so is seen as irrelevant to understanding women)
• psychoanalytic theory criticised for being culturally biased (Freud’s patients - Viennese middle class so his universal generalisations were based on unrepresentative sample)
• little hans supports concepts of phallic stage, repression and oedipus complex
• nomothetic & idiographic methods (aims to generate laws of behaviour using methods like case studies)