Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

What are the assumptions?

Answer 1

• Our personality known as the psyche - is comprised of the Id, Ego and Superego.
• We possess innate drives/instincts that motivate behaviour as we develop through our lives.
• Childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when we reach childhood.
• All behaviour has a cause (usually unconscious) therefore all behaviour is determined.

Question 2

The role of the unconscious

Answer 2

Freud believed in existence of unconscious mind which is part of the mind that is inaccessible to conscious thought.

The unconscious is made up of our biological drives and instincts as well as threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed or locked away and forgotten.

Do you have a significant influence on our everyday actions behaviours and on our personality in which the influence can be revealed in slips of the tongue/Freudian slips, through dreams and neurotic behaviour.

Question 3

The structure of the personality

Answer 3

Freud describes personality as TRIPARTITE composing of 3 parts:

ID

Ego

Superego

Question 4

Explain ID in terms of the TRIPARTITE personality as part of the structure.

Answer 4

• Pleasure principle
• present from birth - 18 months
• It is entirely selfish and demands immediate gratification. It is irrational and emotional.
• Unconscious part of mind and acts as a devil.

Question 5

Explain Ego in terms of the TRIPARTITE personality as part of the structure.

Answer 5

• Reality principle
• Formed at age of 2
• Reduces conflict between impulsive demands of the ID and the moralistic demands of the Superego by using a number of defence mechanisms such as displacement or repression.
• Conscious part of mind and acts as a mediator.

Question 6

Explain Superego in terms of the TRIPARTITE personality as part of the structure.

Answer 6

• Morality principle
• Formed at Phallic stage ( around 5 yrs)
• It is out internalised sense of right and wrong and is determined by parental standards of good behaviour which determines which behaviours are permitted and causes guilt when rules are broken - creates anxiety.
• Unconscious part of mind and acts as an angel.

Question 7

Defence Mechanisms

Answer 7

The EGO has a difficult job of balancing the conflicting demands of the ID and Superego (aka intrapsychic conflict) which can cause anxiety.

If individuals are unable to deal with a situation rationally, then defence mechanisms may be triggered in order to reduce his anxiety.

Defence mechanisms tend to operate unconsciously to ensure that the EGO Is able to prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats or trauma.

However, they often involve some form of distortion of reality and as a long-term solution are regarded as psychologically unhealthy and undesirable.

Examples of defence mechanisms are:

Repression

Displacement

Denial

Question 8

Explain Repression as a form of a defence mechanism.

Answer 8

• Burying an unpleasant thought or desire in the unconscious.
• Repressed thoughts and impulses continue to influence behaviour without the individuals being aware of the reasons behind their behaviour.
• E.g. traumatic childhood experiences may be repressed and so forgotten but individuals may have trouble forming relationships in upcoming future.

Question 9

Explain Displacement as a form of a defence mechanism.

Answer 9

• Emotions are directed away from the source or target, towards other things.
• this gives the hostile feelings are rude for expression, even though they are misapplied to an innocent person or object.
• E.g. slamming a door instead of hitting a person, arguing at your partner when you are angry with your boss at work.

Question 10

Explain Denial as a form of a defence mechanism.

Answer 10

• I threatening thought is ignored or treated as if it is not true.
• This allows the individual to deal with painful feelings that may be associated with the situation and reduce their anxiety.
• E.g. a wife might find evidence that her husband is cheating on her, but explain it away using other reasons.

Question 11

Psychosexual Stages

Answer 11

Freud believed that personality developed through a sequence of 5 stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency ad Genital ( Old, Age, Pensioners, Love Guinness) in which pleasure seeking energies of the ID become focused on certain erogenous areas.

This psychosexual energy or libido is described as the driving force behind behaviour.

Each stage is marked by different conflict that the child must resolve in order to progress successfully to the next stage. Any psychological comfort that is unresolved leads to fixation when the child becomes ‘stuck’ and carry certain behaviour and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life.
Oral stage, Anal stage, Phallic stage, Latency stage and Genital stage.

E.g. during Anal stage the primary focus of the libido is on controlling bladder and bowel movements. Fixation at the Anal stage could have been caused by too strict potty training and may lead to an anal retentive personality - which leaves the individual obsessed with hygiene and cleanliness and may show itself in obsessive - compulsive disorder as an adult.

Question 12

Oral stage

Answer 12

• 0 - 18 months
• Satisfaction is derived from the mouth e.g. sucking, eating, weaning (breastfeeding stopped) which could cause conflict.
• Fixations at Oral stage result in personality types of:

Oral receptive (over indulged)
Effect on adult personality is very trusting, optimistic and gullible. 

Oral aggressive (frustrated)
Effect on adult personality is aggressive, dominating, pessimistic, envious and suspicious.

Question 13

Anal stage

Answer 13

• 18 - 36 months
• Satisfaction is derived from the Anal region. Toilet 🚽 training can cause conflict.
• Fixation at the Anal stage can result in these personalities:
  Anal expulsive (over-indulged)
  Effects on adult personality is disorganised, reckless, generous and giving.

Anal retentive (frustrated)
Effects on adult personality is mean, stubborn and obsessively tidy.

Question 14

Phallic stage

Answer 14

• 3 - 6 years old
• Unconscious
• Genitals are a key source of satisfaction. The Oedipus complex occurs where the boy desires his mother and fears castration from the father who he sees as his love rival. Whereas girls desire their father during this stage (Electra complex) and experience penis envy in which they blame their mother for the lack of a penis. Identification with the same sex parent resolves the conflict.
• The fixation in the Phallic stage result in the adult personality in being self assured, vain, impulsive. Conflict may result in homosexuality, authority problems and rejection of appropriate gender roles.

Question 15

Latency stage

Answer 15

• Sexual desires are strongly repressed and so sexual desires are reduced.
• Fixation in Latency stage effect the adult personality in the individual not wanting to engage with the opposite sex and avoids emotional involvement.

Question 16

The Genital stage (puberty)

Answer 16

• Satisfaction derived from genitals and is basis for adult expressions of love.
• Fixation in Genital stage results in a Genital personality and effects the adult personality in being well adjusted, mature and able to love and be loved.

Question 17

What is OEDIPUS & ELECTRA COMPLEX

Answer 17

During the Phallic stage the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. At this stage children begin to discover the difference between males and females.

Freud believed that boys begin to view their fathers as a rival for the mother’s affection’s - the OEDIPUS complex describes these feelings of wanting to possess the mother and the desire to replace the father. However, the child experiences castration anxiety, a type of fear that the child believes they will be punished for the feelings by the father.

ELECTRA COMPLEX is experienced by young girls - penis envy.

Eventually. children begin to identify with the same sex parent as a means of vicariously possessing the other parent. For girls, Freud believed that penis envy was never fully resolved and that all women remain somewhat fixated on this stage.

Question 18

What are the evaluation points of Psychodynamic Approach?

Answer 18

1) Pioneering Approach ✅
2) Practical Application ✅
3) Case study methodology ⛔️
4) Untestable concepts ⛔️
5) Psychic Determinism ⛔️

Question 19

Outline the evaluation point 1) Pioneering Approach ✅

Answer 19

Point: Strength is that it has had a huge influence on psychological thinking.

Example: Can be used to explain wide range of behaviours such as aggression, anxiety and eating disorders.

Explain: Psychodynamic Approach also drew attention to the connection between experiences in childhood (I.e. our relationship with parents) and later development and played major role in establishing developmental psychology and other theorists such as Bowlby and Erikson.

Re-cap: This is strength as his Pioneering work had a major influence on psychology and Western contemporary thought.

Question 20

Outline the evaluation point 2) Practical application ✅

Answer 20

Point: Major contribution that psychodynamic approach has made to psychology is through introduction of therapies used to access the unconscious.

Example: Psychoanalysis (including dream analysis and free association) are all used to find and treat unconscious conflicts.

Explain: Freud & his followers were also the 1st to demonstrate the potential of psychological explanations rather than biological explanations for behaviours.

Elaborate: This led to the formation of psychological treatments, rather than biological therapies, which have been found to be successful in treating patients with a wide range of disorders.

Re-cap: This is a strength as it illustrates the useful practical applications of the approach.

Question 21

Outline the evaluation point 3) Case study methodology ✅/⛔️

Answer 21

Point: Freud’s psychoanalytical Theory was based on case studies of his patients in therapy.

Example: He used Little Hans to prove the existence of the Oedipus complex.

Explain: This is a strength as this idiographic approach, with its in-depth qualitative methods of investigation, gathered rich info about the lives of his individual patients using observations that were detailed and carefully recorded.

Elaborate: However, critics suggested that it’s not possible to make such universal laws of behaviour and personality development based in studies of such small number of individuals who were psychologically abnormal.

Re-cap: This therefore ?’s whether the conclusion drawn from these case studies lacks population validity and whether they can be used to explain the personality of the population as a whole.

Question 22

Outline the evaluation point 4) Untestable concepts ⛔️

Answer 22

Point: Popper argued that Psychodynamic approach does not meets the scientific criterion of falsification, in that it cannot be empirically tested.

Explain: Many of Freud’s concepts (defence mechanisms, psychosexual stages) are said to occur at the unconscious level, making them difficult, if not possible to test.

Example: When trying to explain offender behaviour, there is the difficulty associated with testing some of the concepts such as an inadequate SUPEREGO, whose existence is difficult/not possible to prove.

Elaborate: Means that applications to crime cannot be tested empirically and can only be judged at face value.

Re-cap: This questions whether it fulfils the criteria of psychology as a science.

Question 23

Outline the evaluation point 5) Psychic Determinism ⛔️

Answer 23

Point: Humanistic approach makes the criticism that the Psychodynamic perspective is too deterministic as it leaves little room for idea of free will.

Explain: Psychodynamic approach suggests that adult behaviour is determined by a combination of innate drives & early experiences and that any free will, we may think we have is an illusion.

Example: If someone was over indulged or deprived at a psychosexual stage then they would develop an abnormality in adult life.

Elaborate: Even something as seemingly random such as slip of tongue can be explained by the underlying authority of the unconscious.

Re-cap: This is a weakness because the approach suggests that all behaviour is driven by unconscious forces only, ignoring possibility of free will which may also govern behaviour.