Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
What are the three different levels of consciousness that affect behaviour?
Conscious(everything that we are aware of in the present moment)
Sub conscious( Dream state, recent experiences and could be conscious if we put cognitive effort into remembering the memories)
Unconscious(Drives, instincts and traumas all inaccessible thoughts that we cannot retrieve)
What are the psychodynamic approach assumptions?
- Three levels of consciousness influence our behaviour and the unconscious being the main drive controlling our behaviour therefore this approach is psychic deterministic
- Three parts of the personality control our behaviour (tripartite) ID, ego and superego
- Childhood experiences during the psychosexual stages influence our behaviour
Describe three parts of the personality
- ID: forms during 0-18 months, it is in our unconscious, Demands and seeks immediate gratification. Operates under pleasure principle as the ID is a mass of unconscious desires.
- Ego: Forms during 18 months to 3 years, It is in our conscious. It balances selfish needs with reality and seeks to satisfy the ID in a socially acceptable way. Operates under the reality principle.
- Superego: forms during 3-6 years, it is in all our three levels of consciousness. It acts as a conscious and opposes the ID. It contains our moralistic goals and wants everything to be correct and perfect. It operates under the morality principle.
Describe the defence mechanisms and why do we have them?
Displacement: This defence mechanism transfers feelings from the true source on to a subject target
Repression: Forcing a distressing memory out of our conscious level to the unconscious level
Denial: Not accepting or acknowledging some aspect of reality.
-We have them to protect the Ego from the demands of the ID and the Superego to reduce anxiety.
What are the psychosexual stages and what age do they form and what is the conflict within each stage and the fixation?
- Oral stage: forms between 0-18 months. (Conflict)Weaning from breast and bottle, sucking on breast and bottle gives them pleasure.
- Anal stage: forms between 18 months and 3 years. (Conflict) toilet training
- Phallic stage: forms between 3-6 years. (Conflict) Oedipus and Electra complex
- Latency stage: Forms between 6-11 years. (Conflict) no conflict the mind is at rest.
- Genital stage: Forms between 12 years onwards. (Conflict) sexual desires become conscious as a result of puberty.
What is the result of a fixation at each psychosexual stage?
Oral- Smoking, biting nails, sarcasm
Anal- Excreting or withholding feces as it gives them pleasure, expulsive personality (doesn’t clean up after themselves) retentive and they retain everything(organised, thoughtful, generous)
Phallic-Homosexuality, narcissistic personality
Latency stage- Lack of sexual fulfilment and interests
Genital stage- Difficulty forming relationships
Describe the Oedipus complex
- Boys will develop sexual attraction towards their mothers
- They then develop a hatred towards their lover rival which is their father as the boy will perceive they are in competition for the mothers attention
- They then develop castration anxiety from the father
- To deal with this conflict they repress their thoughts of their mother and identify with the dad and adopt their values, morals and beliefs through internalisation.
- They then move on from the phallic stage
Describe the Electra complex
- Girls will desire their fathers
- They then develop penis envy and blame their mothers for their castrated state and develop hatred towards them
- to deal with this conflict they repress their thoughts of their fathers, identify with the mother adopting their beliefs, morals and values through internalisation.
- They then move on from the phallic stage
AO3 for psychodynamic approach
- Little Hans
- Methods of research
- Deterministic
- Bem
Outline how the psychodynamic approach is deterministic and why that is a weakness?
P: The psychodynamic approach is criticised for being strongly deterministic.
E:Freud suggested that our behaviours are determined by our unconscious innate drives which are shaped by repressed memories and conflicts from childhood experiences.
E:It suggests certain behaviours such as being narcissistic and having a narcissistic personality is a result of a fixation during the phallic stage of the psychosexual stages which has shaped our innate drives to cause those behaviours to occur.
L: This approach is psychic deterministic and suggests free will is just an illusion which weakens the approach.
Outline how psychodynamic approach is criticised for its methods of research?
P: Freud is criticised on his methods to research behaviour.
E: Freuds research was based on various unconscious concepts such as the ID and the Oedipus and Electra complex.
E: Therefore it was really difficult to scientifically test these concepts, meaning results that were gathered were subjective from cases studies such as little Hans.
L: This weakens the psychodynamic approach as it does not support psychology as a field of scientific study as science has to be based on objectivity.
Outline how psychodynamic approach has real life application
P: Freud is praised for his development of psychoanalysis.
E: Psychoanalysis is a therapy used to treat mental disorders such as depression and abnormal behaviours. It does this by accessing the unconscious level of the mind to reduce these
abnormal behaviours and mental disorders.
E: It aims to bring unconscious traumas to the conscious level of the mind so client can deal with it with the therapist and this will produce a cathartic effect.
L: It has decreased in popularity over the years but has contributed towards the development of many psychotherapy methods as they are based on the psychoanalysis principles and is still successful to this day which strengthens the approach.
Outline how little Hans has provided research strengthening the psychodynamic approach
P: Little Hans is a case study that supports Freuds idea of the existence of the Oedipus complex.
E: Hans father wrote to Freud to tell him about Hans phobia of horses. Hans was particularly afraid of horses with black around their mouth. Freud analysed the information.
E: Freud claimed that he unconsciously sexually desired his mother and saw his father as a rival and feared castration he displaced his fear onto horses. The horses with black around their mouth represented the dads beard. He also had a fear of horses falling down and that was his unconscious desires to see his father die.
L: This case study supports the idea that the experiences during the psychosexual stages influence behaviour.
