The psychodyanmic approach

Question 1

What is the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

This approach refers to the the active nature of mental processes and their role in shaping personality and behaviour.

Question 2

What are the three levels of consciousness? What do they mean?

Answer 2

1. Conscious : aware of anything at any given time.
2. Preconscious: made up of memories that we can recall when we want to.
3. Unconscious: made up of memories, desires and fears which cause anxiety and so have been forced out of conscious awareness.

Question 3

What are the three parts of personality?

Answer 3

The Id
The ego
The superego

Question 4

What is the Id?

Answer 4

Basic animal part of personality, innate and sexual instincts.
Pleasure principle, obeys.
Accounts of unreasonable behaviour.
Appears at birth.

Question 5

What is the ego?

Answer 5

Exists in both conscious and unconscious.
Rational part, aka. Reality principle.
Develops in the first three years.
Balances the id and superego.

Question 6

What is the superego?

Answer 6

Both conscious and unconscious.
Takes our morals into consideration, makes us feel guilty.
Develops four to five years of age.
Ideas about how to behave through socialisation with our parents.

Question 7

Give 3 unconscious defence mechanisms, and what they mean.

Answer 7

Repression: ego stops unwanted and painful thoughts from becoming conscious.
Denial: unwanted event is ignored and blacked from conscious.
Displacement: negative impulse is redirected onto something else.

Question 8

What are the five stages of psychosexual development?

Answer 8

Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latent
Genital

Question 9

What are the characteristics of the five stages of psychosexual development?

Answer 9

Oral- sucking behaviour
Anal- keeping or disgusting faeces
Phallic- genital fixation.
Latent- repressed sexual urges.
Genital- awakened sexual urges.

Question 10

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 10

The positive complex refers to a child’s unconscious sexual desire for the opposite sex parent and hatred for the same sex parent.
The negative complex refers to a child’s unconscious sexual desire for the same sex parents and hatred for the opposite sex parent.

Question 11

Give some strengths of the psychodynamic approach.

Answer 11

First theory to focus on psychological causes of disorders, instead of evil spirits.
Links mental health to unresolved conflicts related to biological needs.
Offers methods of therapy.

Question 12

Give some disadvantages of the psychodynamic approach.

Answer 12

Claims based on his subjective interpretations of his patients dreams, so they are unreliable and open to bias.
Friends theory is based in the unconscious mind, making his theories unfalsifiable.
Can’t be generalised to everyone as they were based on individuals with special cases.