Psychodynamic Approaches Flashcards
The Great Demotions
Darwin, part of an evolutionary process
Freud, drivers of our behaviour are unconscious and irrational.
What is the Psychodynamic Approach
- Focus on experiences in childhood
- Focus on the unconscious mind
According to freud what are the three parts the human mind consists of?
- Conscious Mind
- Pre Conscious Mind, recallable to the conscious mind
- Unconscious Mind, accessed through dream analysis, wishes and feelings
Motivated unconscious
- not socially acceptable to express sexual and aggressive instincts
- Incest could be as a result of hating siblings and parents also childhood trauma
- Suppress these feelings by not allowing them into the conscious
Id, Ego and Superego
Id = Instinctive feelings, and operates on pleasure principle
Ego = Mediates between the Id and superego, operates on the reality principle
Superego = Moral conscience and valued
Example
‘I want it now’
‘You need to plan before you get it’
‘You can’t have it, it’s not right’
What is the Capgras illusion
Capgras and Carette (1924)
- Thinking your spouse is an imposer
- Represents and attempt to hide incest desires between a young woman and her father.
Freud: Anxiety
Objective Anxiety:
Fear of danger from the world
Neurotic Anxiety:
Fear that instincts will not be under control
Moral Anxiety:
Fear of your own moral values, for example feeling guilty.
Defence Mechanisms: Repression
- Unable to recall certain traumatic experiences because they are blocking the memories from their conscious.
Example; An adult not being able to remember being abused as a child.
Freuds Fainting episodes
- Jung states that Freud believed he had death wishes towards him as a result of his interest in corpse.
- Becker say’s fainting is the refusal to stay conscious when threatened.
Defence Mechanisms: Displacement
- Targeting others as a result of our own stressors
Example; Kicking the cat because you are being bullied
Defence Mechanisms: Projection
- As a result of our own impulses which we aren’t happy about, we then condemn others with the same impulses to make ourselves feel better.
Example; Girlfriend likes her teacher, when her boyfriend talks about a teacher she becomes annoyed and says he likes his teacher.
Defence Mechanisms: Reaction Formation
- Expressing the complete opposite of an unacceptable desire
Example; If you are accused of being gay then you would go over the top to prove that you aren’t
Defence Mechanisms: Regression
- Going back to a behaviour from early development.
Example: Using a baby voice to talk when stressed.
Defence Mechanisms: Undoing
- A action which amends an unacceptable behaviour or impulse
Example; Lady Macbeth washing the murder from her hands “Macbeth affect”
Defence Mechanism: Compensation
- Making up for your own limitations by trying to develop other positive traits
Example; Low self esteem as a result of being small, then going to the gym to get really big as a result of this.
Defence Mechanism: Sublimation
- Channeling pent up stresses like sexual frustration into things which are social acceptable for example Boxing.
- Mature defence mechanism
Defence Mechanism: Humour
- Managing unpleasant situations with self disrespect.
Freud: Jokes allow the expression of impulses especially sexual ones.
What are the psychosexual stages of development
- If a child is unable to resolve a certain conflict in one of the stages they may become fixated resulting in problems arising in adulthood.
- With each stage, sexual gratification matures
Oral Stage of psychosexual development
- From birth to 18 months
- Erogenous zone: Mouth, lips and tongue (exploring with mouth as well as swallowing)
- Key conflicts include dependancy on others
Anal Stage of psychosexual development
- 18months to 3 years
- Erogenous zone: anus and bum region, pleasure from going to the toilet (poo)
- Key conflicts associated with self control
Anal-retentive = organised and controlled
Anal-expulsive = disorganised and messy
Phallic Stage of psychosexual development
- 3-5 years
- Erogenous zone: Genitals
- Key conflicts include; castration anxiety, oedipus and Electra complexes
- Sexual desire for opposite sex parent
- Development of superego
Displacement and Phobias
- Phobias happen as a result of anxiety being displaced onto a object.
- Little Hans had horse phobia, the horse resembled his father.
- Resembled his father because of the large penis
Displacement and Fetishes
- Fetishes happen because of the fear of castration
- The fetishised object is a substitute for the mothers missing penis.
Latency Stage of psychosexual development
- 6 - 12 years
- Sexual motivations channelled into age appropriate interests and activities such as sports and hobbies.
Genital Stage of psychosexual development
- Two motivating factors sex and aggression
- Healthy individuals release this through sexual intercourse and exercise
What is Psychoanalytic Therapy
Goal:
Trying to bring thoughts from the unconscious awareness to conscious to help with psychological disorders
Tools:
- ‘Interpretation’, suggesting meanings behind accounts of patient. Psychoanalyst must try to overcome patient ‘resistance’.
- ‘Neutrality’, making sure there is a distance between therapists and patient so no personal influence. ‘Transference’, explaining feelings about people to the analyst.
- Be aware of ‘countertransference’, own feelings influence their response
Counter Transference
Transference:
- Seeking approval
- Acting the helpless child
Counter transference:
- Rescue fantasy
- Inappropriate response
Malan Triangles
Shows transference in psychology
Triangle of conflict: Defence, Anxiety, Feeling (Hidden)
Triangle of persons: Other, Therapist, Parent
Three Windows Into the unconscious
Free Association
- Client says what comes to mind without stopping chain of thought
- Reveal unconscious mind
Three Windows Into the unconscious
Slips of Tongue
- Freudian Slip
- Accidentally calling someone by the wrong name
- Nothing happens by accident
Three Windows Into the unconscious
Dreams
- Dream analysis
- Unconscious thoughts
Freud Evaluation
- Freud had no interactions with Hans and his father could have been biased
- Didn’t observe little Hans, only met once
Freud: Parsimony
- Scientific material should be parsimonious
- Freuds theory is extremely complex, not a parsimony theory at all
- I.e. boys look up to fathers not fear of castratration
Freud: Falsifiability
- Evidence has to prove it to be false
- Psychoanalytic theory has no testable hypotheses as well as changing over time. Example, freud believed symbols in dreams meant things universally then changed his idea to being specific to each person
- Freud believed his theory was so good there was no need for it to be tested.
- Freud uses defence mechanisms to explain results which go against psychoanalytic theory.
Freud positives
- Scientific method is closed minded
- Replicability crisis over half the studies can’t be replicated, not just Freud.
- Macbeth affect has failed to replicate
Other issues
Overly sexualised
Not falsifiable
Sexist
Importance of childhood experiences in development
Innovative
Important information on the unconscious
