Psychodynamic Approach - defence mechanisms and psychosexual stages

Question 1

Defence mechanisms

Answer 1

Defence mechanisms help the ego manage the conflict between the id and the superego. They provide compromise solutions (usually unconscious) to deal with unresolvable conflict. They also provide a strategy to reduce anxiety, which weakens the ego’s influence.

Question 2

Repression

Answer 2

Repression is the unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts. However, these repressed thoughts continue to influence behaviour. For example, a person who is abused as a child may not remember the abuse but could still have trouble forming adult relationships.

Question 3

Denial

Answer 3

Denial is the refusal to accept reality to avoid having to deal with any painful feelings that may be associated with a traumatic situation. For example, an alcoholic may deny that they have a drinking problem.

Question 4

Displacement

Answer 4

Displacement occurs when the focus of a strong emotion (e.g. anger) is expressed on an alternative person or object. For example, a student who has been given a detention by their teacher might kick their locker.

Question 5

Psychosexual stages

Answer 5

Freud believed that personality developed through a sequence of five stages. These are referred to as psychosexual stages to emphasise that the most important driving force in development is the need to express sexual energy (libido). At each stage this energy is expressed in different ways and through different parts of the body.

There is an unconscious conflict at each stage which must be resolved before the next stage is reached. Freud believed that parents played an important role in a child’s progression through the psychosexual stages. If the child is allowed to experience too much or too little gratification at any of the stages, a process called fixation could occur in which the child’s later adult personality could show permanent signs reflecting the stage at which fixation occurred.

Question 6

Stage 1

Answer 6

Oral (0-1 years)

Focus of pleasure is the mouth and the control of sucking, tasting and biting.

Trusting and able to give/receive affection

Oral fixation - smoking, biting nails. sarcastic and critical

Question 7

Stage 2

Answer 7

Anal (1-3 years)

Focus of pleasure is the anus/ The child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces

Can deal with authority figures

Anal retentive personality - perfectionist and obsessive

Anal expulsive personality - thoughtless and messy

Question 8

Stage 3

Answer 8

Phallic (3-5 years)

Focus of pleasure is the genital area. Child experiences the Oedipus or Electra complex.

Adopts the behaviours/traits of the same sex

Question 9

Stage 4

Answer 9

Latent (6-12 years)

Focus is on the mastery of the world and social relationships. Earlier conflicts are repressed/resolved and early years are forgotten

Question 10

Stage 5

Answer 10

Genital (12 - puberty)

Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty.

Individual is a well-adjusted adult

Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships

Question 11

Oedipus complex

Answer 11

During the phallic stage, boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother and a hatred for their rival in love – their father. Fearing that their father will castrate them (castration anxiety), boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father. In doing so, they internalise his gender role and moral values (his superego).

Question 12

Electra complex

Answer 12

During the phallic stage, girls experience penis envy and so desire their father. They also believe they have been castrated and blame their mother for this. Over time, girls give up their desire for their father and replace this with a desire for a baby. In turn, they identify with their mother and internalise her gender role and moral values (her superego).

Question 13

Advantages of Psychodynamic Approach

Answer 13

+ Psychodynamic concepts such as defence mechanisms do have intuitive appeal; most people appreciate the ideas of denial, repression and displacement.

+ The psychodynamic approach has practical applications. It has led to the development of psychoanalysis – a therapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders. This laid the foundation for psychotherapy in modern psychiatry.

+ The case study of Little Hans supports the Oedipus complex proposed by Sigmund Freud. However, the Oedipus complex could only be inferred from behaviour or reported thoughts/experiences (e.g. through dream analysis) where subjective interpretation is open to investigator bias. The psychodynamic approach lacks scientific rigour.

Question 14

Disadvantages of Psychodynamic Approach

Answer 14

• The key concepts of the psychodynamic approach such as the unconscious mind and defence mechanisms lack falsifiability because they are unconscious processes and therefore difficult to test.
• Concepts of the psychodynamic approach are based on small samples due to the reliance of the case study method. This poses problems of generalisability
• Freud also only looked at child experiences

Question 15

Freudian slip

Answer 15

An unconscious error or oversight in writing, speech or action that is held to be caused by unacceptable impulses breaking through the ego’s defences and exposing the individuals true wishes

Question 16

Free association

Answer 16

Practice of allowing the patient to discuss thought, dreams, memories or words regardless of coherency

Question 17

How Freud used dream interpretation in his work

Answer 17

Dreams are wish fulfilments and will ultimately argue that there wishes are the result of repressed or frustrated sexual desires