Psychodynamic approach Flashcards
How does freud describe the brain?
Like an iceberg.
What happens to repressed memories?
They are locked away in our unconscious, we can access them through dreams or ‘slips of tongue’ (paraphrases).
What does psyche mean?
The mind.
What are the three parts the mind consists of?
The conscious
The preconscious
The unconscious
What is the conscious mind?
Thoughts we are aware of and can talk about eg. ideas, emotions and decisions.
What is the preconscious mind?
Thoughts that are not immediately accessible but can be brought into conscious awareness.
What is the unconscious mind?
The largest part of the mind.
Holds thoughts and memories that are not accessible to awareness but influence out behaviours and feelings. eg. impulses, desires, repressed emotions.
What is the role of the unconscious mind?
According to psych determinism
Our behaviours shaped by unresolved unconscious conflicts among different parts of our personality, experiences in early developmental stages.
What can problems during the psychosexual stages cause?
Fixation
What is fixation?
Where an individual remains stuck in a particular stage, expressing certain negative traits.
What does the unconscious mind protect?
The conscious mind from potentially harmful thoughts , this reduces anxiety.
What are three defence mechanisms?
Repression
Denial
Displacement
What are the structures of personality?
Id
Ego
Superego
What is the Id?
newborn infant
focuses on satisfying personal needs and desires.
Pleasure principle, immediate gratification Hedonism
What part of the mind is the id apart of?
Unconscious mind
What is the ego?
18 months begins to form
reality principle
rational thinking to manage. the ids demands
Acts as a mediator between id and superego.
What part of the mind is the ego apart of?
Conscious mind.
What is the super ego?
3 years begins to develop
morality principle
internalises values and norms of parents and society
influences behaviour by guilt when individuals actions conflict with strict standards.
What part of the mind is the super ego apart of?
Preconscious mind.
What is meant by psychosexual stages?
A child will experience an unconscious conflict that they must resolve at each stage
What is the oral stage?
0-1 years
Pleasure is mouth
Consequence is oral fixation
eg. biting nails, smoking, sarcastic
What is the anal stage?
1-3 years
pleasure is anus
consequence is anal retentive eg. perfectionist, obsessive
anal expulsive eg. thoughtless, messy
What is the Phallic stage?
3-6 years
Focus is on genital area
Consequence is phallic personality eg. narcistic, reckless
What is the latency stage?
6-11 years
Earlier conflicts are repressed
Focus is on genitals sexual desires become conscious alongside puberty
Consequence is difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.
What is the oedipus complex?
A sexual desire for their mother.
What is castration anxiety?
The fear that the father will find out and remove the boys genitals.
Boy will eventually realise he cannot compete with father and instead identifies with him, imitating his behaviour and developing male gender identity
What is the electra complex?
Jung
Describes a girls attachment to her father and dislike to for her mother
Does freud reject the electra complex?
Yes
What is penis envy?
Girls assume they used to have a penis but think they lost it due to castration.
Resent their mother for loss of penis.
Desire is Eventually replaces by wanting a baby so develop a female gender identity.
What phase are the electra and oedipus present in?
Phallic stage
What are defence mechanisms?
Strategies involving the unconscious mind that the ego can use to manage unresolvable conflicts.
What is denial?
Refusal to accept the reality of a situation.
What is displacement?
Strong emotion is moved from the source of that emotion and placed onto a substitute target.
What is repression?
Unpleasant memory or painful emotion is placed into the unconscious mind and no longer accessible to the conscious mind.
What are some positive evaluations of the psychodynamic approach?
Real life applications
Explanatory power, can explain human behaviour.
What are some criticisms of the psychodynamic approach?
You can’t explain how to treat big mental health disorders.
Untestable, cannot be falsified.
