The Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

What does the PA assume?

Answer 1

Our behaviour and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives
Adult behaviour and feelings are rooted in childhood experiences
All behaviour has a cause
Personality is made up of 3 parts

Question 2

Who is the psychologist for the PA?

Answer 2

Freud

Question 3

What is the unconscious mind?

Answer 3

A vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that have a significant influence on our behaviour and personality
The unconscious also contains disturbing memories that have been repressed and forgotten
Accessed durimg dreams

Question 4

What are the psychosexual stages?

Answer 4

Oral
Anal
Phalic
Latency
Genital

Question 5

What happens in the oral stage?

Answer 5

0-1 years
The focus of pleasure is the mouth and the mothers breast is an object of desire
Oral fixation - smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical

Question 6

What happens in the anal stage?

Answer 6

1-3 years
The focus of please is in the anus
Cild gains pleasure withholding and expelling faeces
Anal retentive - perfectionist, obsessive
Anal expulsive - thoughtless, messy

Question 7

What happens in the phalic stage?

Answer 7

3-5 years
Focus of please on the genital area
Child experiences the Oedipus of Electra complex

Question 8

What happens in the latency stage?

Answer 8

Earlier conflicts are repressed

Question 9

What happens in the genital stage?

Answer 9

Sexual desire becomes conscious alongside the onset of puberty
Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships