Pyschodynamic Flashcards
What does this approach emphasise?
The active nature of mental processes and their role in shaping personality and behaviour.
Who developed this approach?
Sigmund Freud
What are the main assumptions?
- Human behaviour has unconscious causes we aren’t aware of.
- Humans have a need to fulfil basic biological motivations.
- Childhood experiences influence the adult personality and psychological disorders.
What are the three levels of consciousness?
- Conscious.
- Preconscious.
- Unconscious.
What is the conscious?
What we are aware of at any given time.
What are examples of the conscious?
What we see, hear, smell or think.
What is the preconscious?
Memories we can recall when we want to.
What are examples of the preconscious?
Addresses, telephone numbers, childhood memories.
What is the unconscious?
Memories, desires and fears that cause extreme anxiety and have therefore been repressed or forced out of conscious.
How does the unconscious affect our behaviour?
Through ‘Freudian Slips’ and the content of our dreams.
How can the unconscious be accessed?
Through a psychoanalyst.
What are the three parts of personality?
- The Id.
- The ego.
- The superego.
What is the id?
- Contains our innate, aggressive and sexual instincts.
- Obeys the ‘pleasure principle’.
- Accounts for unreasonable behaviour.
What is the ego?
- Exists in both the conscious and unconscious part of our mind.
- Acts as the rational part, known as the ‘reality principle’.
- Develops within the first three years of life.
- Balances the id and the superego.
What is the superego?
- Exists in both the conscious and unconscious part of our mind.
- Takes our morals into consideration.
- Plays a role in making us feel guilty.
- Develops around the age of five or four.
What did Freud believe about the three parts of personality?
They can be in conflict leading to anxiety.
How is anxiety reduced by the three parts of personality?
The ego mediates between the id and superego by using an unconscious defence mechanism.
What are the three unconscious defence mechanisms?
- Repression.
- Denial.
- Displacement.
What is repression?
The ego stopping unwanted and painful thoughts from becoming conscious.
What is denial?
A threatening event or unwanted reality being ignored or blocked from conscious awareness.
What is displacement?
A negative impulse being redirected onto another person or an object.
What are the five stages of psychosexual development?
Oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital.
What age is the oral stage?
Zero to eighteen months.
What age is the anal stage?
Eighteen months to three and a half years.
What age is the phallic stage?
Three and a half years to six years.
What age is the latent stage?
Six years to puberty.
What age is the genital stage?
Puberty to adult.
What are the characteristics of the oral stage?
Sucking behaviour.
What are the characteristics of the anal stage?
Keeping or discarding faeces.
What are the characteristics of the phallic stage?
Genital fixation.
What are the characteristics of the latent stage?
Repressed sexual urges.
What are the characteristics of the genital stage?
Awakened sexual urges.
What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?
- First theory to focus on psychological causes of disorders, before it was focused on physical causes.
- First approach to suggest that mental health disorders may be linked to unresolved conflicts related to biological needs.
- Offers methods of therapy which may uncover unconscious conflicts.
- Patients can understand the cause of their problems and resolve them.
- Places emphasis on how early childhood experiences can affect later development.
What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach?
- Freud’s claims are based on subjective interpretations of his patients’ dreams and are therefore unreliable and open to bias.
- Freud’s theories are related to the unconscious which can’t be accessed, making his theories unfalsifiable.
- Psychoanalysis may take a long time and can be expensive.
- Childhood conflicts may be emotionally distressing and possibly inaccurate, depending on the reliability of the patient’s memory.
- Based on case studies so it can’t be generalised.
- The unscientific research methods mean it’s not possible to establish cause and effect.
