Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
What is in this approach
- the structure of personality
- the role of the unconscious
- defence mechanisms
- psychosexual stages
What is the personality split into
Id- pleasure principle - Ego - Superego -
What is the role of the unconscious
- Freud believed we are all driven by desires
- not aware of these desires
- initial work was on people with mental disorders
What would happen if there was ever unresolved conflict
- starts in childhood when the ego has not fully developed
- lead to a mental disorder
- fear of your mother in childhood may be unconscious
- fear can only be resolved by bringing this out of the subconscious
What is the Oedipus/Electra complex
- Fred’s most infamous and controversial theory
- one unconscious desire was for all people to have an unconscious desire for affection (sexual) from the parent to the opposite sex
- this unconscious fear is then coupled with the fear of the same sex parent finding out and castrating them
- then Cause them to want to kill off their same sex parent before they uncover their secret
- only when an adult ego can resolve this issue can we have a healthy adult relationship
- issue not resolved can lead to defence mechanisms
What is repression
- traumatic memory is best pushed to the unconscious
- a stressful incident when you were younger
- may try and forget so that you aren’t stressed by it
- leads to unresolved conflict as the problem isn’t dealt with
What is denial
- same as repression
– except the person actually convinces themselves it didn’t happen or it wasn’t traumatic
What is displacement
- the feelings of anger or lust towards somebody are deemed unacceptable
- (super ego says so)
- those feelings are displaced onto something more acceptable
What is the case study in this approach
- little hans
- was afraid of his father because he believed that because he loved his mother his dad wanted to castrate him
- little hand moved his fear to horses and had defence mechanisms such as displacement because he moved his fear
What are the psychosexual stages
Old- oral Age- anal Pensioners- Phallic Love- latency Guinness- genital
What is the oral stage
- birth to one year
- mouth
- experience: weaning
- oral gratification: sucking, eating and biting
- adult traits/problems: optimism, gullibility, dependency, pessimism, passivity, hostility, sarcasm and aggression
What is the anal stage
- one to three years
- anus
- conflicts: toilet training, gratification from expelling and withholding feces
- adult traits: excessive cleanliness, orderliness, stinginess, messiness, rebelliousness and destructiveness
What is the phallic stage
- three to five years
- genitals
- conflicts: Oedipal conflict, sexual curiosity, masturbation
- adult traits: flirtatiousness, vanity, promiscuity, prose and chastity
What is latency
- five to six years to puberty
- no part of the body
- conflicts: period of sexual calm, interest in school, hobbies, same-sex friends
- adult traits: low attachment
What is genital
- from puberty onwards
- genitals
- conflicts: revival of sexual interests, establishment of mature sexual relationships
What did Freud believe about the psychosexual stages
- all children go through it
- if a conflict arises in childhood and left unresolved then the child will remain fixated with that part of the body
Strengths of approach
:) very influential
- first researcher to delve into unconscious
- this work lead to a more scientific approach
- helped paved the way for the cognitive approach
:) frauds focus on childhood
- first to emphasis the importance of a happy and healthy childhood on adult mental health
- Bowlbys research may not have been investigated without work on the psychosexual stages
Weaknesses of this approach
:( the theory is unfalsifiable
- can not be treated as scientific
- cannot be disproven
- the role of the unconscious cannot be tested empirically
- frauds theory has been larger lay discarded
:( treatments are largely ineffective
- psychoanalysis focused on using talking to pull out the unconscious and rag into the conscious
- clinical trials have been proven to be ineffective and no better than placebo for treating disorders
