the psychodynamic approach Flashcards
the role of the unconscious
- freud suggested that the part of the mind that we are aware of (conscious) is merely the tip of the iceberg, smallest part
- most of mind made up of unconscious, storehouse of biological drives and instincts that influence our behaviour and personality
- unconscious also contains threatening or disturbing memories that have been locked away or repressed and forgotten, life (sex, pleasure drive or libido) and death (aggression, destruction) drives
- these can be accessed through dreams or slips of the tongue (parapraxes), for example calling a teacher mum instead of miss
- just under the surface of the conscious mind is the preconscious which contains thoughts and memories that are not in conscious awareness but can be accessed if desired
- ideographic approach, theory of personality
structure of personality
- freud descriver as ‘tripartite’, composed of 3 parts
id - primitive part of personality, operates on pleasure principle and gets what it wants, mass of unconscious drives and instincts, only thing present at birth and throughout life is selfish and demands instant gratification of needs, life and death drives, seeks pleasure from satisfying drives, egocentric
ego - works on reality principle, mediator between other 2 parts of personality, develops around 2 years old, reduces conflict between demands of id and superego, employs a number of defence mechanisms, thinks about consequences, in charge
superego - formed at end of phallic stage around age 5, internalised sense of right and wrong, based on morality principle, represents moral standards of child’s same gender parent and punishes ego for wrongdoing (guilt), contains ego ideal (set of moral standards), shaped by upbringing during psychosexual stages
psychosexual stages
- freud claimed that child development occurred in 5 stages
- each stage with conflict that child must resolve in order to successfully progress to next stage
- any conflicts unresolved leads to fixation where child becomes stuck and will carry any behaviours into adult life
- id can be either over gratified or under gratified
- trying to satisfy libido
- oral, 0-1 years, focus of pleasure is mouth, mother’s breast can be object of desire, can lead to oral fixation (smoking, biting nails, sarcastic and critical)
- anal, 1-3 years, focus of pleasure is anus, gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces, can lead to being anal retentive (perfectionist and obsessive) or anal expulsive (thoughtless and messy)
- phallic, 3-6 years, focus of pleasure is genital area, can lead to phallic personality (narcissistic and reckless)
- latency, earlier conflicts are repressed
- genital, sexual desires become conscious along onset of puberty, can lead to difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
defence mechanisms
- help ego to balance conflicting demands of id and superego
- these are unconscious, ensure that ego prevents us from getting overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas
- protects consciousness, how we feel about ourselves etc.
- often involve some distortion of reality and in the long-term are regarded as psychologically unhealthy and undesirable
examples -
repression - forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
denial - refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality (eg. with an illness)
displacement - transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto substitute target (eg. parents being annoying, you go out and get mad at your friends)
sublimation - redirecting ‘wrong’ urges into socially acceptable actions (eg. to fulfil life drive, pornography, to fulfil death drive, argumentative or martial arts etc.)
oedipus complex
- boys
- must be resolved at phallic stage
- sexual desires towards mother, loves mother, wants to posses her
- see father as rival for her love and so will hate him
- also worried that father will find out about these feelings and castrate him (castration anxiety)
- significant internal conflict
- to resolve this must identify with father
- identification with same sexed parent is what resolves this stage and is when superego develops
- comes to a realisation that they need to find someone else to display these feelings towards, often with similar traits to mother
- leads to ‘appropriate’ gender identity
- thought to be more superior than girls, less of an internal complex for girls and so therefore females are less moral
evaluation - real-world application
- introduced idea of psychotherapy as opposed to physical treatments
- freud bought the idea of psychoanalysis, first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
- employed range of techniques to access the unconscious, such as dream analysis
- psychoanalysis claims to help clients by bringing their repressed emotions into their conscious mind so they can be dealt with
- psychoanalysis is forerunner to many modern day talking therapies such as counselling
- shows value of psychodynamic approach in creating new approaches to treatment
evaluation - counterpoint to real-world application
- although freudian therapists have claimed success for many clients with mild neuroses, psychoanalysis is regarded as inappropriate or even harmful for people with more serious illnesses such as schizophrenia
- freudian therapy and there may not apply to all mental disorders
evaluation - explanatory power
- strength is ability to explain human behaviours
- huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought
- has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including personality development, origins of psychological disorders, moral development and gender identity
- also draws attention to connection between experiences in childhood and our later development
- positive impact on psychology as well as literature, art and other human endeavours
- takes lots of psychic energy to keep things in unconscious, which can manifest into personality and mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, or OCD etc.
- all to do with dealing or not dealing with stuff that has happened
- developed psychoanalysis to try and uncover repressed experiences to help treat problems such as phobias
- subjective, abstract concepts
evaluation - untestable concepts
- popper argued that psychodynamic approach does not meet scientific criterion of falsification
- not open to empirical testing, many of freud’s concepts are said to occur at an unconscious level, making them nearly impossible to test
- ideas also based on subjective study of single individuals, making it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviours
- freud’s theory was pseudoscientific (not a real science) rather than established fact
- can’t falsify the theory or prove that it exists
- all of freud’s methods are subjective and unscientific
evaluation - support from little hans
- supports existence of oedipus complex
- little hans developed fear of horses after seeing one collapse in the street
- freud suggested this was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was displaced onto horses
- freud got little hans’ dad to ask him whether he thought of his dad when seeing the horse and he said yes
- dad also asked about dreams
- overcame oedipus complex by identifying with father correctly, seeks to find woman similar to mother to have a sexual relationship with as an adult
- however this can’t be generalised at all
evaluation - support from anna o for freud’s theory of repression
- fear of water, didn’t know why
- sister had pushed her in at some point during fight about father whilst on boat
- free association (talking therapy) uncovered memory
- when it came into consciousness she realised why she had the phobia and it disappeared
- supports defence mechanisms, she had repressed the memory
- went through catharsis
evaluation - oedipus complex
- alpha bias
- suggested that struggle during phallic stage is more traumatic for males and therefore their superego is more developed (men viewed as superior)
- incorrect judgement because more males are found in the prison system, if females were less moral then we would expect more females to commit crime
evaluation - lacking temporal and historical validity
- not all children grow up with mother and father, for example same sex relationships or single parents
- children would be unable to go through the phallic stage with both the male and female parents
- freud would predict that this would lead to fixation or undesirable outcomes
evaluation - freud’s theory as example of psychic determinism
- limitation, personality just a product of drives and internal conflicts during psychosexual stages
- life and death drive cannot be accessed
- we do not consciously choose to repress something
- cant control treatment we had during childhood
- we have no free will, hard determinism
