psychodynamic approach

Question 1

what are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

1. • ability to explain a range of human behaviours
     - it focuses on emotional development that occurs in early childhood that can explain the way we behave as adults
     - helped to understand development of personality and certain psychological disorders using techniques like dream analysis
     - led to development for a therapy to treat anxiety disorders laying the foundation for psychotherapy in modern psychiatry
     - from the basis of bringing repressed emotions to the conscious mind to be dealt with
     - inspired modern talking therapies like counselling showing the value of the psychodynamic approach in creating a new approach to treatment

Question 2

what are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 2

• not testable as concepts such as the unconscious are not easy to operationalise and open to empirical testing
• shows that it lacks scientific rigour due to retrospective nature of psychoanalysis
• makes it impossible to test therefore the approach can be determined as subjective
• key concepts are not directly observable and have to be inferred from indirect things like dream analysis
• lacks generalisability due to lack of evidence and reliance of case studies like Hans