The psychodynamic approach Flashcards
What is the psychodynamic approach?
A perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience.
Who theorised the psychodynamic approach?
Sigmund Freud suggested that the part of our mind that we know about and we are aware of (the conscious mind)- is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Most of our mind is made up by the unconscious- a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality.
What is the unconscious?
The part of our mind that we are unaware of but which directs much of our behaviour.
What is the structure of personality according to freud?
He described personality as tripartide, composed of three parts:
Id- Operates on the pleasure principle- the Id gets what it wants. Only the Id is present at birth. Throughout life the Id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs.
Ego- Operates on the reality principle- it is the mediator between the Id and super ego. The Ego develops at around age 2 and its role is to reduce the conflict between the demands of the Id and superego. It does this by employing defence mechanisms.
Super Ego- operates on the morality principle- Formed at the end of the phallic stage at around 5. It represents the moral standards of the child’s same-gender parent and punishes the Ego for wrong doing.
What are the psychosexual stages?
Freud claimed that the child development occurred in five stages:
Oral (0-1 years) Focuses of pleasure is the mouth, mothers breast can be the object of desire.
Anal (1-3 years) Focus of pleasure is the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces.
Phallic (3-6 years) Focus of pleasure is on the genital area.
Latency (6-12 years) Developing defence mechanisms.
Genital (12+ years) Reaching full sexual maturity.
What are the different adult fixations as a consequence of the unresolved conflict in the psychosexual stages.
Each stage in the psychosexual stages is characterised by a conflict, which must be resolved to pass on to the next stage. Failure to do so results in a fixation at that stage, where dysfunctional behaviours associated with that stage are carried forward to adulthood.
Oral- Smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, overeating.
Anal- Anal retentive- perfectionist, obsessive
- Anal expulsive- messy, thoughtless
Phallic- Deviancy, sexual dysfunction
Latency- None
Genital- Difficult forming heterosexual relationships.
If all stages were successfully completed then the person should be sexually matured and mentally healthy.
What is the Oedipus and Electra complexes?
In the phallic stage, Freud claimed that little boys develop feelings towards their mother and a murderous hatred for their rival the father. Fearing that their father will castrate them, boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father, taking on his gender role and moral values. ( Oedipus complex)
Freud also suggested that girls the same age experience penis envy. They desire their father and hate their mother. (The electra complex)
What was the case study of little Hans?
Hans was a five-year old boy who had developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street.
Freud believed that Hans’s phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear on his father was transferred onto horses.
What are defence mechanisms?
Unconscious strategies that the Ego uses to manage the conflict between the Id and Superego.
What are the three defence mechanisms?
Repression- Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind.
Denial- Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality.
Displacement- transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute.
Evaluation: One strength of the psychodynamic approach.
It introduced the idea of psychotherapy as opposed to physical treatments.
Freud brought to the world a new form of therapy- psychoanalysis. This was the first attempt to treat mental disorders.
The new therapy employed a range of techniques designed to access the unconscious, such as dream analysis.
Also been the forerunner to many modern day talking therapies.
This suggests that Freudian therapy may not apply to all mental disorders.
Evaluation: One limitation of the psychodynamic approach.
Much of it is untestable.
It is not open to empirical testing. Many of Freud’s concepts are said to occur at an unconscious level, making it difficult to test.
His ideas were based off of subjective study of single individuals (little Hans) which makes it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour.
This suggests that Freud’s theory was pseudoscientific rather than an established fact.
Evaluation: Psych determinism
The approach suggests that much of behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts rooted in childhood.
This means that every accidental slips of the tongue, has some kinds of meaning and can give us insights into our unconscious.
