The psychodynamic approach Flashcards
Describe the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind.
Conscious: What we are aware of at any one time.
Preconscious: Thoughts which may become conscious at some point.
Unconscious: The part we are unware of.
What is the role of the unconscious?
The driving, motivating force behind our behaviour and personality.
Protects the conscious self from trauma and conflict.
How can the unconscious mind be explored?
- Freudian slips.
- Interpretation of dreams.
What is the structure of the personality?
The Id
The ego
The superego
Tripartite
Describe the Id
- The pleasure principle
- Present at birth
- Demands instant gratification
- Drive to act on urges and desires without restraint to fulfill basic drives.
Describe the superego
- The morality principle
- Develops at 4/5
- Morals, ideals and standards.
- Conscience: rewards with pride, punishes with guilt.
- Attempts to supress the unacceptable urges of the Id.
Describe the ego
- The reality principle
- Reduce conflict between the Id and the Superego.
- Mediates.
How does personality develop according to Freud?
Via passage through the psychosexual stages of development: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent, Genital.
- Emphasises the importance of libido and specifically the expression of sexual energy as the driving force in development.
Describe fixation.
An indiviual carries behaviours relevant to a psychosexual stage into adulthood due to an unresolved conflict at one of the stages.
Oral stage
Age, libido, conflict, fixation
- 0-1 years
- Mouth
- Weaning
- Sucking thumb, smoking and overeating to gain oral stimulation.
Anal stage
- 2-3 years
- Bladder and Bowels
- Toilet training
- Anal expulsive or Anal retentive.
Phallic stage
- 3-5 years
- Genitals
- Oedipus and Electra complex
- Overly dependant on Mother/Father and Gender identity confusion
Describe the Oedipus complex.
Boys
(5)
- Father seen as threat and rival
- Desires Mother
- Castration anxiety
- Resolved by identifying with Father
- Boys adopts male identity and characterisitcs
Describe the electra complex
Girls
- Mother is a threat and rival
- Desire for sexual possession of Father
- Penis envy
- Sees hereself and mother as powerless
- Converts desires for a penis into desires for a baby
- Identifies with mother and adopts the female role
Latent stage
- 6-12 years
- Dormant/not active
- Generally calm, defence mechanisms develop
- Immaturity (but fixation not common)
Genital stage
- 13 + years
- Sexual desires (onset of puberty)
- The development of the ego and superego continue to control and balance the urges to help behaviours be appropriate to the expectations of parents and society.
Define defence mechanisms
Unconscious resources used by the ego to manage the conflict between the Id and the Superego.
Often involve a distortion of reality.
Describe repression.
A distressing memory is forced out of the conscious mind into the unconscious mind.
Describe denial.
Refusal to acknowledge some part of reality.
Describe displacement.
Transfer feelings from the true source of the distressing emotions onto a (less threatening) substitute target.
Evaluation
+ Practical application - psychotherapy. Psychoanalysis - first attempt to treat psychologically not physically -has led to therapies.
+ Although occasionally controversial and bizarre, it has nevertheless had a huge influence on psychology and Western contemporary. For example it is able to explain personality development, abnormal behaviour, moral development and gender identity. Draws attention to the connection between experiences in childhood and our later development.
– Unfalsifiable - pseudoscience - Karl Popper
– psychoanalysis is regarded as inappropriate, even harmful for people experiencing more serious mental disorders.
