Psychodynamic approach- component 1

Question 1

Describe and explain the assumption of ‘Influence of childhood experiences’

Answer 1

• childhood experiences determine adult personality
• freud suggested psychosexual stages experienced by child and each stage represents the libido fixation
• fixation (frustration e.g. undersatisfied/overindulgence e.g. oversatisfied) at any stage has long term effects on adult personality
• oral stage (0-18 months): mouth (sucking, chewing etc). Involves breast feeding etc. Frustration can cause pessimism, envy, sarcasm. Overindulgence= optimism, gullibility, neediness
• Anal (18 months-3 years): anus (withholding expelling, playing with faeces). Involves potty training. Frustration= stubborn, possessive, overly tidy. Overindulgence= messy, disorganised, reckless
• Phallic (3-5 years). Genitals (masturbation). Involves oedipus complex, which leads to superego and gender identity. Fixation= self assured, vain, sexuality problems, difficulty building and maintaining adult relationships
• Latency (5 years-puberty): little/no sexual motivation. Involves acquiring knowledge and understanding of world. No fixations as no pleasure focus.
• Genital (puberty onwards): gemitals (heterosexual intercourse). Fixation= well developed adult personality, well adjusted (if complexes in phallic stage resolved).

Question 2

Describe and explain the oedipus complex and electra complex

Answer 2

• (oedipus) boy is attracted to mother and wants all her attention but is jealous of father for having her attention. Boy had castration anxiety due to fear of father knowing this. Boy identifies with father to resolve this. Resolution allows healthy friendships and heterosexual relationships. freud stated homosexuality may be caused by unresolved oedipus complex
• (electra) girl is attracted to father and wants all his attention but is jealous of mother for having all attention. Blames mother for her not having a penis. Identifies with mother to resolve this.

Question 3

Describe and explain the assumption of ‘the unconscious mind’

Answer 3

• conscious mind contains logical information that we can access instantly. Contains Ego
• preconscious mind contains superego. thoughts and memories can be brought to conscious mind with effort and specific triggers
• unconscious mind contains Id. ruled by pleasure seeking. cannot be directly accessed, but may express indirectly e.g. in dreams. Determines much of behaviour and people are motivted by unconscious emotional drives. Contains unresolved conflicts that are threatening. May include sexual deviancies, violent urges, oedipus and electra complexes etc.

Question 4

Describe and explain the assumption of the ‘tripartite personality’

Answer 4

• Id: impulsive, unconscious part of personality present at birth. Demands immediate satisfaction (pleasure principle). Aims to gain instant pleasure and gratification at any cost
• Ego: conscious, rational part of mind, develops around age 2. Works out realistic ways of balancing Id’s demands in socially acceptable way. Governed by reality principle.
• Superego: develops age 4. forms sense of right and wrong. seeks to perfect behaviour. Learned through identification with parents and others.
• id and superego often in conflict so ego has to balance demands of both, considering consequences of person’s actions.

Question 5

How does the psychodynamic approach explain relationship formation?

Answer 5

• fixation in psychosexual stages may explain nature of adulthood relationships: over indulgence in oral stage may result in unhealthy dependence on others and so be too needy in relationships.
• defence mechanisms. e.g. someone in denial about sexuality may try to form relationships with people people of another gender they are not attracted to, so relationship is dysfunctional and breaks down.
• parent child relationships: Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis: ability to form meaningful healthy adulthood relationships dependent on forming close, warm and continuous relationship with mother in critical period of life (birth-5 years old). This relationship acts as prototype for future relationships, so disruption would impact them.

Question 6

Describe and explain the main components of dream analysis

Answer 6

• The latent content of the dream is transferred into manifest content e.g. a penis may be represented by a snake/gun, a vagina a tunnel/cave. Freud believed these symbols needed to be considered in the context of the person’s life e.g. a fish may represent a friend who is a fisherman.
• Dreamwork takes place where latent content is transformed into manifest content. Dreamwork processes applied to repressed wishes to produce manifest content.
• therapist decodes manifest content back to latent content. They suggest multiple interpretations for a dream, based on patient feedback and life experiences. Patient selects those that make sense.

Question 7

What did Freud believe about dreams?

Answer 7

• unconscious mind expresses itself through dreams
• dream content can reveal unconscious.

Question 8

Evaluate dream analysis in terms of effectiveness.

Answer 8

• supporting research: Solms (2000) used PET scans to highlight regions of brain active when dreaming. Found rational part of brain is inactive during rapid eye movement sleep (REM), but areas concerned with memory and motivation very active. Supports freudian view and would suggest ego becomes suspended whilst id is in control.
• lacks ecological validity. much of dream research conducted in sleep laboratories, so may not be as authentic as real sleep conditions, as patient is wired up to electrodes taking measurements. Impossible to conclude that dreaming is the same in everyday life
• latent content is subjective to each therapist
• uses self report methods. The dreams are described by patient, but may not be true due to social desirability bias. Patient may want to be see in a better light so does not reveal full truth about dreams.

Question 9

Evaluate dream analysis in terms of ethical issues

Answer 9

• potential power imbalance between patient and therapist. Patient is reliant on therapist to make progress. Patient may become over dependent on therapist. This may be especially apparent in depression patients who tend to become over reliant on important people in their life
• psychological harm risk: therapist may resurface past traumatic events which may cause emotional harm to patient as this can be distressing and disturbing.

Question 10

What was the methodology used in Bowlby’s research?

Answer 10

• series of case studies
• study was not an experiment
• Sample: 44 thieves at a guidance clinic. 31 boys , 13 girls aged 5-17.
• thieves graded in terms of severity of thieving. Grade IV (22 children)=stealing for a long time. Grade I (4)= only committed 1 theft.
• thieves had average intelligence
• control group 44 children that attended clinic who were ‘emotionally disturbed’, not thieves. Similar age, sex, IQ.
• mothers of all children interviewed to assess case histories of children.

Question 11

What are the procedures of Bowlby’s research?

Answer 11

• sample obtained through opportunity sampling
• each child tested for intelligence and emotional attitude by psychologist
• social worker interviewed child mother to record preliminary details of child’s early home life, identifying early psychiatric history
• psychologist and social worker reported to Bowlby (psychiatrist), who then interviewed child and mother
• many children continued to meet with psychiatrist over 6 months or more, mother talked over problems with social worker. These meetings and discussions allowed case studies to be made and psychiatrist could diagnose children’s emotional problems

Question 12

What were the findings of Bowlby’s research?

Answer 12

• identified 14 children as having ‘affectionless psychopathy’, (12 had prolonged separation from mothers)
• 30 non affectionless thieves (3 had prolonged separation from mother)
• control group (2 had prolonged separations)

Question 13

What did Bowlby conclude from his study?

Answer 13

• children would not be offenders if they had not had experiences that harmed their healthy development
• the mother and child relationship in the critical period of life is crucial, as damage may affect development of superego (leads to reduced sense of right and wrong)
• juvenille delinquency caused by early life experiences (prolonged separation from mother in critical period). Also caused by other factors e.g. poverty
• If findings correct, treatment should be offered (slow and difficult process). Earlier diagnosis made, treatment more effective. Preferable approach would be prevention rather than treatment, but this can be unavoidable such as if mother is sick for a long period.

Question 14

Evaluate Bowlby’s research in terms of methodology and procedures

Answer 14

• only shows relationship between prolonged separation and affectionless psychopathy, not causal findings. (other variables may have caused the emotional problems, such as that child may have had affectionless psychopathy, which caused prolonged separations, as they may have been put in care for being problematic). No causal conclusions can be drawn
• report of study used qualitative data (provides extensive detail, BUT is based only on views of one person so may have been BIASED by own beliefs e.g. importance of early experience
• social desirability bias as parents are interviewed so may present a more positive view on early experiences of children, which may not be completely correct.
• sample may not be representative of all delinquent children as all children in study were emotionally disturbed. Some delinquent children may all be emotionally healthy, and social factors/genetic factors lead to their delinquency.

Question 15

Evaluate Bowlby’s research in terms of ethical issues and social implications

Answer 15

• no confidentiality (report gives first names and initial of last name and case studies provide a lot of detail of lives- participants are identifiable). Not clear whether families and children aware of this.
• appears from article that data collected as part of treatment for patients and was retrospective to use the data in report. Report published in 1946 (7-10 years after data collected), so difficult to obtain valid consent this length of time after data was collected.
• BUT ethics attitudes were very different at time then they are now, as ethical guidelines were not published at this time.