Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
Structure of the personality
Conflicts between ID, ego and super ego create anxiety and if unresolved cause mental disorder
Id description
Instinctive and primitive, impulsive inherited components at birth
Remains infantile
Birth- 18months
Ego description
Mediates and works by reason
Etiquette and rules of how to behave, realistic strategy to obtain pleasure
18months- 3years
Super ego description
Values and moral of society during phallic stage ‘ideal self’
3-6 years
What does the ego use as protection?
Defence mechanisms
Displacement
Defence mechanism used to satisfy an impulse with a substitute object
E.g. slam door when frustrated
Denial
Blocks external events from awareness
Not acknowledging issues
E.g. Refusing to accept addiction
Repression
Suppressing events that cause anxiety
Eg repr saint thoughts of same sex parents in Oedipus complex
Repressing memory of abuse
Positives of psychodynamic approach
Hugely influential in understanding normal/ abnormal behaviour
Pioneering approach: relied on observation and empirical case studies rather than introspection
Led to successful treatments and psycho analysis
Negatives of psychodynamic approach
- emphasis on sexual factors and early childhood experiences, overlooks biological/ situational
- lacks validity as cannot disprove
- gender biased eg little ev of Electra, an after thought
- culture bias: Viennese women/ himself/ Hans, biased sample
- anecdotal evidence
- deterministic
Iceberg analogy
Conscious above water
Unconscious is water
Submerged in pre conscious (super ego) and unconscious is ID
Ego free floating
Define conscious thought
What we are aware of
Eg feeling thirsty
Preconscious thoughts
Not currently aware of but can be brought to consciousness
Unconscious thoughts
No idea of what is contained, significant and disturbing
