Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

Assumption One:
Tripartite Personality
Different stages
Dominating personalities

Answer 1

Tripartite Personality- Adult personality is structured into three parts that develop at different stages in life.

Different stages:
ID- innate instincts, driven by pleasure principle, demands immediate gratification, babies only have ID.
EGO- 2 years old, driven by the reality principle, rational and logical, mediator, satisfys ID without disgracing superego.
SUPEREGO- 4/5 yrs, driven by moral, seeks to perfect behaviour, developed through identification with others, Rewards ego with pride and punishes with guilt.

Dominating personalities:
ID dominated- Selfish, potentially criminal, aggressive, impulsive, manipulative
SUPEREGO dominated- self righteous, guilt ridden, highly moral, doesn’t use EDM effectively

Question 2

Assumption Two:
Levels of Consciousness and EDM’s
Iceberg Analogy
What are EDM’s (including examples)

Answer 2

Consciousness and Ego Defense Mechanisms- much of our behaviour is determined by our unconscious mind. Used the iceberg analogy to explain the different levels of consciousness (FREUD)

Iceberg Analogy:

• Smallest part- Conscious (we are aware)
• Middle- Pre-conscious (unconscious thoughts that can be brought into conscious mind)
• Largest part- Unconscious (we are unaware)

EDM- attempts to deal with conflicts in our unconscious minds.
Eg. Repression- preventing traumatic events from entering the conscious mind
Displacement- Desires aren’t acceptable in society, so we displace them onto others we percieve to be a ‘safer’ object or person.

Question 3

Assumption Three
Childhood Experiences
5 psychosexual stages (incl: where pleasure is focused upon, conflict, example, resolved conflict)

Answer 3

Childhood experiences- experiences during childhood shape our adult personality. 5 psychosexual stages and during each stage, libido is attached to a different part of the body. During each stage, there is a conflict that must be resolved otherwise fixation will occur.

5 psychosexual stages-

Oral-
0-18 months- pleasure focused on mouth
Conflict- insufficient breast feeding or too much leading to fixation.
Eg. Oral Agressive (SPADE)- Due to frustration
Resolved conflict- Form healthy relationships with others, accepts affection, can enjoy food and drink.

Anal-
18 months- 3yrs- pleasure focused on withholding or expelling faeces.
Conflict- in terms of potty training, can lead to fixation.
Eg. Anal Expulsive- generous, messy, careless- due to too much expelling.
Resolved conflict- Able to deal with authority, balance of organised and messy.

Phallic-
3-5 years-pleasure focused on genitals
Conflict- surrounds identifying with parent of opposite sex/development of superego and can lead to fixation.
Eg. Phallic Character- reckless, self assured with harsh superego. May develop problems with sexual identity.
Resolved conflict- Identify with same sex parents, development of conscience and moral development.

Latency-
5 years- puberty. Little to no sexual motivation during this stage.

Genital-
Puberty onwards- the libido Is attached to the genitals again and during this stage there is a focus upon the development of independence.

Question 4

THERAPY:
Application of the Psychodynamic Assumptions- 
DREAM ANALYSIS:
Unconscious mind
Link to DA

Answer 4

The assumption assumes that there are unresolved conflicts within the unconscious mind (potentially creating conflicts such as anxiety).

Freud- ‘The royal road to knowledge of the unconscious mind’
The unconscious mind expresses itself in diagnosed form in our dreams.

Link to DA:
Dream Analysis aims to uncover the real meaning behind our dreams and gives us the ability to bring our unconscious mind to our conscious mind to resolve conflict.

Question 5

THERAPY:
Application of the Psychodynamic Assumptions-
DREAM ANALYSIS:
Childhood Experiences
Link to DA

Answer 5

The assumption assumes that behaviour can be influenced by our childhood experiences. (Potential unresolved conflicts due to traumatic experiences).

Link to DA:
We are usually able to repress such trauma, however, during dreaming, the traumatic experiences may resurface. Dream Analysis will be used to resolve these conflicts.

Question 6

THERAPY:
Application of the Psychodynamic Assumptions-
DREAM ANALYSIS:
Tripartite Personality
Link to DA

Answer 6

The assumption assumes that are personality is developed through the five psychosexual stages of childhood. The first part developed is the ID and we can usually control the desires of ID using ego defence mechanisms.

Link to DA:
Usually block out the demands of ID using EDM (which is low during dreaming). The demands of ID are unacceptable in society; therefore we live out the desires of the ID during dreaming.
Purpose of our dreams is to live out wished and fantasies in an acceptable way rather than allowing them to build up and threaten our society.

Question 7

THERAPY:
Main Components of Dream Analysis-
Wish Fulfilment

Answer 7

Dreams allow the unconscious fulfilment of wishes and fantasies that are deemed unacceptable in the conscious mind.
During dreaming, EDM’s are low thus allowing the ID to reign over the dream. The wishes and fantasies of ID are satisfied during dreaming.

Question 8

THERAPY:
Main Components of Dream Analysis-
Symbolic Nature of Dreams
Two types of content within a dream (including Eg.)

Answer 8

Freud claims that the real meaning of our dreams are disguised in order to protect us and that their contents are expressed symbolically.

Two types of content within a dream:
Manifest- The symbol within a dream (what you see). Eg. Snakes.
Latent- What the dream really means. A psychiatrist interprets the symbols, to reveal the latent content with help of the client.

Freud argued that in order to understand a dream, it is essential to consider symbols in the context of a persons life. For example, Snake represents a penis, yet if someone was a zookeeper, it would suggest their daily life moreover this symbolisation.

Question 9

THERAPY:
Main Components of Dream Analysis-
Dreamwork
Examples of processes of Dreamwork

Answer 9

In order for our dreams to form, we use the processes of dreamwork which helps transfer the latent content into manifest content. Therapists need to understand the processes of dreamwork so that they are able to transfer the dream back into latent content to understand the real meaning of the dream.

Processes of Dreamwork incl:
Displacement- Transferring the meaning of one thing onto something more acceptable. (harming a celebrity)
Representation- A thought or emotion is transferred into something visual and real. (Weather)
Secondary Elaboration- Takes the different components of a dream and turns them into a story.

Question 10

THERAPY:
Main Components of Dream Analysis-
Role of the Therapist (incl eg)
In order for DA to be effective, the therapist must..

Answer 10

When a client meets a therapist, the client is able to describe the manifest content but is the responsibility of the therapist to try to reveal the latent content.

The therapist needs to work with the client to REVERSE the processes of dreamwork in order to reveal the latent content of the dream.
Eg. Condensation- Get the client to elaborate on smaller details of the dream by splitting it up into multiple sections.

In order for DA to be effective, the therapist must:
Therapists should ignore the obvious connections in a dream.
Work out what the different parts of a dream symbolise.
Free Association- patients express thoughts that come to mind when thinking about a certain part of the dream.
Consider various interpretations.

Question 11

THERAPY:
Evaluation- Effectiveness:
Research Evidence
Falk
(Supports theory of DA):
Solms
Hopfield

Answer 11

Falk: (1995)
Found that women experiencing a divorce showed increases in their self esteem following dream analysis sessions, compared to a control group.
Suggests that dream analysis has a positive impact on an individual- can prevent depression.
However- potentially a lack of internal validity as we cant prove DA to be the reason of the increase in self esteem.

Solms: (2000)
Conducted PET scans- Found that the rational part of the brain is inactive during dreaming.
Suggests that the ID is active during dreaming and supports Freud’s idea of Wish Fulfilment.

Hopfield:

Question 12

THERAPY:
Evaluation- Effectiveness: (Methodological issues)
Ecological Validity
Internal Validity

Answer 12

Ecological Validity:
Going to sleep under pressure- Can question whether sleep/dream state is authentic Patient often wired up with equipment taking various measurements.

Internal Validity:
Pps are often deprived of significant amounts of sleep prior to the research. This disruption will affect important biological function (such as hormone production). May be a confounding variable affecting the internal validity.

Question 13

THERAPY:
Evaluation- Effectiveness: (General Issues)
Subjective Interpretation (incl eg)

Answer 13

Subjective Interpretation:
The patients recall the dream. It may not be reliable info and may already have tried to interpret it themselves, making their recall biased.
Very difficult to falsify the underlying principles of DA (eg. cant prove ID is active).
However, psychoanalysis has led to the development of widely used therapies.
Goes against the objective, scientific aims of psychology.

Question 14

THERAPY:
Evaluation- Ethical Issues:
Psychological Harm
Deception (incl Eg)

Answer 14

Psychological Harm:
During DA, a therapist may guide a client towards an insight or interpretation that proves to be emotionally distressing.

Deception:
False Memory Syndrome.
The therapist may implant false memories and events into a clients mind. Eg. trying to determine a dream and result it down to childhood abuse, even if the client has never experienced childhood abuse, but the client believes it must be true.

Question 15

CLASSIC EVIDENCE: (1944)
What the research is about
Methodology:
Method Used and Aim to investigate
Participants- Thieves
Participants- Control Group
(Mothers)

Answer 15

Bowlby worked in a child guidance clinic and treated many emotionally disturbed children. He wanted to investigate the effects of separation on the children he treated.

Method Used and Aim to investigate:
Case Studies.
Aimed to investigate if there was a relationship between delinquency and experiences of separation.

Participants- Thieves:
44 Children (5-17yrs)- 31 boys and 13 girls
Attended a child guidance clinic in London
Described as ‘thieves’ as stealing was one of their many symptoms.
‘Thieves’ mainly average intelligence, some higher than average and 2 lower than average.

Participants- Control Group:
44 children- similar age, sex and IQ
ALSO attended the clinic
Emotionally disturbed, however they didn’t steal.

(Mothers):
Involved and interviewed in order to understand the history of the children.

Question 16

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Procedures:
Initial Examination
Therapy

Answer 16

Initial Examination:
Opportunity sampling.
Each child given mental tests by a PSYCHOLOGIST to assess IQ.
PSYCHOLOGIST also noted the emotional attitude/ at the same time, SOCIAL WORKER interviewed mother and recorded child’s early psychiatric history.
PSYCHOLOGIST AND SOCIAL WORKER reported to the PSYCHIATRIST (Bowlby).
PSYCHIATRIST interviewed child and mother.
After 2hr examination, the team reviewed school and other reports.

Therapy:
Many of the children continued to meet with the psychiatrist weekly over six months or less.
The mothers were still involved, talking to the social workers about their concerns.
These discussions enabled a detailed case history to be recorded.
Helped Bowlby diagnose children’s emotional problems.

Question 17

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Findings:
Diagnosis
Affectionless Character (incl eg)

Answer 17

Diagnosis:
Bowlby forst distinguished between different personality types of the children. 6 personality types were established, 3 of them being:
Normal- stable.
Depressed- unstable, now in a depressed state of mind.
Affectionless- Characterised by a lack of normal affection, lack of shame or reduced sense of responsibility.

Affectionless Character:
Of the 44 thieves, 14 were classified as affectionless.
Out of the 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation.
For example, Betty was placed in a foster home at 7 months, when her parents split, and she moved around different foster homes, spent a year in a convent school before returning home at 5.

Question 18

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Findings:
Other Participants
Other Factors

Answer 18

Other Participants:
From the 30 affectionless thieves: 5 prolonged separation.
From non thieves: 2 prolonged separation.

Other Factors:
17 thieves experienced prolonged separation from mother.
Of the 27 thieves that didn’t experience prolonged separation, many had mothers that were anxious, rigid or domineering. 5 were expressively hated by their fathers.
Many non-delinquents also had troubled childhood experiences with parents. Therefore, such early experiences may explain emotional problems but not delinquency.

Question 19

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Conclusion:
What can be concluded
How Bowlby used psychoanalysis to explain findings
Other factors could affect delinquency (incl examples)
Implications of research finding for treatment of delinquents

Answer 19

What can be concluded:
Relationship between early separation and delinquency.
Early experiences= vital importance for later development (eg, bad relationship between child and mother= damaged superego).

How Bowlby used psychoanalysis to explain findings:
Use psychoanalysis to conclude-
early experiences have vital importance for later development.
Relationship (between mom and child) damaged= potential damage to the development of the superego (decreased understanding of right and wrong)- the phallic stage of Psychosexual structure.

Other factors could affect delinquency (incl examples):
Poverty, Bad Housing, Lack of Opportunity.
Study however puts emphasis upon psychoanalytic factors such as early experiences.

Implications of research finding for treatment of delinquents:
If the findings are correct, delinquents should be offered treatment.
Early diagnosis= more effective treatment.
Better if prevented than treated.
However, sometimes separation is unavoidable.

Question 20

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Evaluation of Methodology:
Case Study- Strength and Weakness (2) (plus explanation)
Participants

Answer 20

Case Study- Strength and Weakness (2) (plus explanation):
S1- In depth study of an individual (group)- All children had been studied for at least 6 months, using a variety of methods and people.
S2- Gives quantitative and qualitative data.
W1- Difficult to generalise- Hard to generalise the behaviour of the thieves due to separation from their mother as experiences would have been different.
W2- Researcher Bias- Rapport, met with psychiatrist regularly.

Participants:
They were not representative of the target population as all the children were selected from a single clinic in London and London may have a different up bringing in comparison to a different clinic in a different area. This therefore affects the validity and could have been avoided if children were selected from different clinics.
Not representative of the different levels of delinquency as all were classed as thieves regardless of how often they stole.

Question 21

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Evaluation of Procedures:
Opportunity Sampling
Techniques used (Involving professionals, including eg)

Answer 21

Opportunity Sampling:
Opportunity sampling was used and a limitation of this could be that the research is gender biased as there were more male children than female.
All selected from the same clinic by chance, so it questions the relevance to the target population.

Techniques used:
The psychologist made notes of the child’s emotional attitudes- determining the emotional state of the child is subjective to the psychologist.
Social Workers data- Mothers data could be invalid due to social desirability bias. For eg, they may believe themselves to look bad if their child has a bad emotional attitude.
However, the psychiatrist is a trained professional.
Potential increase in researcher bias and lack of consistency/control.
Retrospective research- inaccurate memory from the mothers.

Question 22

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Evaluation of Procedures:
Therapy

Answer 22

Therapy:
Many children continued to attend therapy sessions and notes were still being taken to develop the case study further.
Advantage- seeing if the therapy had a positive impact on their attitude. Allowed a longitudinal study of the children.
Disadvantage- If the therapy sessions aren’t working, then it could prove to be very costly with little purpose.

Question 23

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Findings and Conclusions:
No causal finding (Including eg)
Separation is too general (including eg)

Answer 23

No causal finding:
Research only demonstrates that there is a relationship between delinquency and prolonged separation- no causal relationship can be established. Because other intervening variables could have caused the delinquent behaviour such as poverty and lack of opportunity.

Separation is too general:
Bowlby muddled different experiences in order to conclude that separation leads to an affectionless character and then to delinquency. However, separation alone may not be causing long lasting damage. For example, if a child has good substitutional care (grandparents or foster carer).
Research has shown if children experience a lack of emotional attachment before 6 months of age, they are able to recover. Maybe a sensitive period of development that was overlooked by Bowlby.

Question 24

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Findings and Conclusions:
Supporting research:
Rutter et al

Answer 24

Rutter et al: 2010
Compared Romanian orphans to a UK control group. Orphans who were adopted after 6 months old, lagged behind on all measures of physical, cognitive and social development.

Question 25

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
Ethical Issues:
Valid Consent
Right to Withdraw
Confidentiality

Answer 25

Valid Consent:
As children are mentally or emotionally unstable, you can question if their consent is valid.

Right to Withdraw:
The children could feel like they couldn’t withdraw once they began to take part in the case study.

Confidentiality:
Study stated what clinic they came from, potentially breaking confidentiality and exposing their location. Names of participants are released.

Question 26

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
EVALUATION:
Strength One
Example (DA &Psychoanalysis)
Childhood experiences
Why it is a strength (including Eg)

Answer 26

Successful Application to the real world. (Useful approach in Psychology).

Example (DA &Psychoanalysis):
DA aims to push unconscious thoughts into the conscious mind.-help those suffering from severe anxiety.
Psychoanalysis is successful- developing the talking cure (successful technique used in counselling sessions)

Childhood experiences:
Psychodynamic approach successful in highlighting the importance of childhood experiences.

Why it is a strength: (including Eg)
Helping understand mental health problems- psychological explanations of physical symptoms.
Eg. Paralysis with Anna O- no physical reason for paralysis- it was psychological.

Question 27

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
EVALUATION:
Strength Two
Freuds theory (including Eg)
Bowlby- separation
Why it is a strength

Answer 27

Considers nature AND nurture (both internal and external factors)

Freuds theory: (including Eg)
Personality development illustrates the effects of both nature and nurture.
Nature- Psychosexual Stages- every child experiences the oral stage.
Nurture- Childhood Experiences during each stage- different experiences can impact personality later on in life.
Eg- Oral Aggressive- SPADE- Suspicious, pessimistic, Aggressive, Dominant, Envious.

Bowlby- separation:
This is evident in the development of the superego, an internal drive (nature), yet Bowlby argued it may be under developed in those who experience separation form a caregiver (nurture)

Why it is a strength:
Previously, the dominant approach in Psychology was the Biological (Doesn’t include nature).
Psychodynamic highlights the importance of nature.
Interactionist approach that considers the significance of nature and nurture in influencing behaviour.
Less reductionist and more holistic.

Question 28

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
EVALUATION:
Weakness One
Mechanistic (including Eg)
Bowlby's research
Mental Illness
Why it is a weakness

Answer 28

Reductionist approach- reduces complex behaviour to a simple explanation.

Mechanistic: (including Eg)
Mechanistic reductionist- reducing behaviour to the mechanics of the mind (Tripartite personality).
For eg- If an individual commits a crime, the approach would reduce the behaviour to an individual having an ID dominated personality.

Bowlby’s research:
Found a link between delinquency and prolonged separation. Suggesting that their behaviour is explained from their separation.

Mental Illness:
Reductionist view of mental illness, simplifying mental illness to a product of unresolved unconscious conflicts.
However, explanation ignores any biological factors such as (Low levels of Serotonin- depression).

Why it is a weakness:
May lose understanding in trying to explain behaviour.
Places too much focus upon childhood experiences.
May not offer appropriate treatments.

Question 29

CLASSIC EVIDENCE:
EVALUATION:
Weakness Two
Subjective
Bowlby's research
Little Hans
Why it is a weakness

Answer 29

Cannot be proven wrong- Popper argued that a good theory can be proven wrong.

Subjective:
Is a subjective approach that used non-scientific methods to investigate behaviour.- Approach difficult to falsify.

Bowlby’s research:
Used interviews to gather the majority of finding. Could involve Researcher Bias. He used the idea 7yrs later to support his ideas.

Little Hans:
Freud used this to help develop his theory of the Oedipus complex.
However, Freud only met little hans once. Most of the communication was through letters with the father who he was friends with- Researcher Bias.
Can’t be proven wrong by accessing the unconscious mind.

Why it is a weakness:
Non Scientific Methods- Lack of Validity and open to interpretation.
Lack of internal and external Validity and cant be generalised.