Psychodynamic approach

Question 1

What is the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

A perspective that describes different forces, most of which are unconscious.

Question 2

What is the unconscious?

Answer 2

The part if the mind that we are unaware of but which continues to direct much of our behaviour.

Question 3

What is the Id?

Answer 3

Entirely unconscious, the Id is selfish and aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification.

Question 4

What is the ego?

Answer 4

The ‘reality check’ that balances the conflicting demands of the Id and the superego.

Question 5

What is the superego?

Answer 5

The moralistic part of our personality which represents the ideal self: how we ought to be.

Question 6

What are defence mechanisms and give examples?

Answer 6

Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the Id and the superego.
Examples include repression, denial, displacement, projection, reaction formation and sublimation.

Question 7

Define psychosexual stages.

Answer 7

Five development stages that all children pass through. At most stages there is a specific conflict.

Question 8

What is the oral stage, developed by Freud?

Answer 8

Occurs at ages 0-15/18 months.
Pleasure gained from sucking and swallowing. As the teeth emerge pleasure gained from biting and chewing.

Question 9

What is the anal stage, developed by Freud?

Answer 9

Occurs at 1-3 years.
Pleasure gained from expelling and playing with faeces. During toilet, training pleasure gained from holding on to and controlling bowel movements.

Question 10

What is the phallic stage, developed by Freud?

Answer 10

Occurs at ages 3-5/6.
The libido become focused on curiosity and pleasure involving the genitals, which becomes directed towards the opposite sex parent. Boy experience the Oedipus complex, girls experience the electra complex.

Question 11

What is the latency stage, developed by Freud?

Answer 11

Occurs around 5 years to puberty.
This is the standstill stage. The child directs its attention to cognitive and social development.

Question 12

what is the genital stage, developed by Freud?

Answer 12

This occurs at puberty onwards.
Re-emergence of libido and directed at love objects outside the family.

Question 13

What is repression?

Answer 13

A defence mechanism used to prevent unpleasant memories from being conscious. Forcing distressing memories from the mind. Thoughts that are commonly repressed are those that result in feelings of guilt from the superego.

Question 14

What is denial?

Answer 14

A defence mechanism which is refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality.

Question 15

What is displacement?

Answer 15

A defence mechanism which includes transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target.

Question 16

What is projection?

Answer 16

An important defence mechanism because it is when a person’s own thoughts/feelings are projected onto another person (usually caused by guilt).

Question 17

What is reaction formation?

Answer 17

A defence mechanism where a person behaves in the opposite way to how they think or feel.

Question 18

What is sublimation?

Answer 18

A defence mechanism which was regarded by Freud as a very positive and productive defence and one that benefitted society-negative thoughts and feelings are channelled or redirected into socially acceptable behaviour.

Question 19

What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 19

• Freud highlighted a widely accepted link between childhood experience and adult characteristics.
• Case study methodology embraces our complex behaviour by gathering rich information, and on an individual basis when conducting research.
• Some evidence supports the existence of ego defence mechanisms such as repression, e.g. adults can forget traumatic child sexual abuse (Williams, 1994).
• Modern day psychiatry still utilises Freudian psychoanalytic techniques.

Question 20

What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 20

• The approach does not meet the scientific criterion for falsification, as it can’t be tested through empirical methods as they are said to occur at an unconscious level.
• Case study evidence is difficult to generalise to wider populations.
• By using case studies to support theories, it doesn’t use controlled experiments to collect empirical evidence, so is considered far less scientific than other approaches.

Question 21

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 21

The attachment of the child to the parent of the opposite sex, accompanied by envious and aggressive feelings towards the parent of the same sex.

Question 22

What is the Electra complex?

Answer 22

A young girls attraction to the parent of the opposite sex during the phallic stage.

Question 23

What was the aim of the Little Hans study?

Answer 23

To try to understand little Hans, a 5 year old boy and his phobia of horses and to treat it,

Question 24

What was the procedure of the Little Hans study?

Answer 24

Qualitative data was gathered by Little Hans’ dad through observations and conversations with his son which was then reported to Freud by letter.
First report of Hans was when he was 3 and developed an interest in his penis and also other people. Main theme of his fantasies and dreams was about penis.
When Hans was 5 - father wrote to Freud explaining concerns “he is afraid a horse will bite him and is somehow connected to being scared of a large penis.
Freud wrote a summary of his treatment “analysis of a phobia in a 5 year old boy”.
Hans was taken to Freud, he was asked about his phobia.
His phobia improved over weeks. Scared of white horse with black around mouth - Freud believed it symbolises his fathers moustache.

Question 25

What year was the Little Hans study conducted?

Answer 25

1909

Question 26

What did Freud conclude from the Little Hans case?

Answer 26

Concluded that the boy was afraid that his father would castrate him for desiring his mother. Freud interpreted that the horses in the phobias were symbolic of the father, and that Hans feared that the horse (father) would bite (castrate) him as a punishment for the incestuous desires towards his mother.

Question 27

What was Freud’s interpretation of Hans’ phobia?

Answer 27

Saw his phobia as an expression of the Oedipus complex. He thought that during the phallic stage, a boy develops an intense sexual love for his mother. As it is impossible to live with the continual castration-threat anxiety provided, the young boy develops a mechanism for coping with it known as ‘identification with the aggressor’.

Question 28

What are the weaknesses of the Little Hans’ study?

Answer 28

• Freud only met Hans twice and instead received most of his information from Hans’ father.
• His father was already familiar with the Oedipus complex and interpreted the case in light of this.
• There are perhaps other more realistic explanations for Hans’ fear of horses. It has been reported that he saw a horse die in pain and was frightened by it. This might have been sufficient to trigger a fear of horses (classical conditioning). The Little Albert study by Watson and Raynor suggests that phobias can be learned responses developed by through the process of classical conditioning.

Question 29

What are the strengths of the Little Hans study?

Answer 29

• Studying Hans in this way provided Freud with a greater amount of detail than other research methods. It was conducted over a long period of time. This means a large amount of information and detail was gathered.
• The case of Little Hans does appear to provide support for Freud’s theory of Oedipus complex. Through analysis, Freud and Hans’ father were able to use the idea of the Oedipus complex to explain the boy’s phobia. For example, by recognising that horses symbolised the father and that Hans displaced his fear of his father into horses. By resolving this conflict, Hans was cured of his phobia. Shows that Freuds explanation worked because Hans got better.