The Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

Whats included in the psychondynamic approach?

Answer 1

The role of the unconscious
The structure of personality, that is Id, Ego and Superego
Defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement
Psychosexual stages

Question 2

Whose work is most closely associated with the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 2

Sigmund Freud

Question 3

What is the Psychodynamic approach?

Answer 3

A perspective that describes the different forces (dynamics), most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience.

Question 4

What is the unconscious?

Answer 4

The part of the mind that we are unaware of but which directs much of our behaviour.

Question 5

What is the ID?

Answer 5

Entirely unconcious, the id is made up of selfish aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification.

Question 6

What is the Ego?

Answer 6

The reality check that balances the conflicting demands of the id and the superego.

Question 7

What is the Superego?

Answer 7

The moralistic part of our personality which represents the ideal self - how we ought to be.

Question 8

What is meant by defense mechanisms?

Answer 8

Unconcious strategies that the ego uses the manage conflict between the id and superego.

Question 9

What is meant by psychosexual stages?
What is at every stage?
If not met what happens?

Answer 9

The five development stages that all children pass through.
At each stage there is a different conflict
The outcome of which determinds furture development.

Question 10

What did Sigmund Freud suggest about the role of the unconscious?

Answer 10

The part of our mind that we know about and are aware of (the conscious mind) is mearly the “tip of the iceberge”. Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious - a vast of storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality.
Also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed or locked away and forgotten. These can be accessed through dreams or through ‘slips of the tongue’ eg, calling a teacher mum instead of miss.

Question 11

What is just under the surface of our subconscious?

Answer 11

Preconscious - this contains thoughts and memories which are not currently in conscious awareness but we can access if required.

Question 12

How did Freud describe personality?

Answer 12

As tripartite meaning composed of three parts:
Id
Ego
Superego

Question 13

What is the Id?

Answer 13

the primitive part of our personality
it operates on the pleasure principle - the id gets what it wants
It is a seething mass of unconscious drives and instingts
Only the Id is present at birth

Question 14

What is the Ego?

Answer 14

Works on the reality principle
The mediator between the other two parts of the personality
Developes around the age of two
Role is to reduce the conflict between the demands of the Id and superego
Manages this by employing a number of defence mechanisms

Question 15

What is the superego?

Answer 15

Formed at the end of the phallic stage around the age of five
Is the internalised sence of right and wrong
Based on the morality principle
It represents the moral standards of the childs same-sex parent and punishes the ego for wrongdoing - through guilt

Question 16

What are phsychosexual stages (acording to Freud)?

Answer 16

Child development occurred in five stages
Each stage (apart from latency) is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve in order to progress successfully to the next stage
Any phsychosexual conflict not resolved leads to fixation where the child becomes stuck and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life

Question 17

What are the five phsychosexual stages?

Answer 17

oral
anal
phallic
lanency
genital

Question 18

Oral -
age?
description?
consequence of unresolved conflict?

Answer 18

0-1 years
focus of pleasure is the mouth, mothers breast can be the object of desire
oral fixation - smoking, biting nails, sarcasm, critical

Question 19

Anal stage-
age?
description?
consequence of unresolved conflict?

Answer 19

1-3 years
focus on pleasure in the anus , child gets pleasure from witholding and expelling feaces
anal retentive- perfectionist, obsessive anal expulsive- thoughtless messy

Question 20

Phallic stage-
age?
description?
consequence of unresolved conflict?

Answer 20

3-6 years
focus on pleasure in the genital area
phallic personality- narcissistic, reckless

Question 21

Latency stage-
age?
description?
consequence of unresolved conflict?

Answer 21

earlier conflicts are repressed

Question 22

Genital stage-
age?
description?
consequence of unresolved conflict?

Answer 22

sexual desires become more conscious alongside the onset of puberty
difficulty forming heterosexual relationships

Question 23

What is one strength of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 23

It introduced the idea of psychotherapy (as apposed to physical treatments)
Freud brought to the world a new form of therapy - psychoanalysis

Question 24

What did psychoanalysis bring?

Answer 24

The first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically.
The new therapy employed a range of techniques designed to access the unconcious, such as dream analysis.
Psychoanalysis claims to help clients by bringing their repressed emotions into their concious mind so they can be delt with.
Psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern -day talking therapy, such as counselling.
New approach to treatment.

Question 25

What is Counterpoint?

Answer 25

Although Freudian therapists have claimed success for many clients with mild neuroses psychoanalysis is regarded as innapropriate, even harmful, for people experiencing more serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia

Question 26

How is schizophrenia an example of counterpount?

Answer 26

many of the symptoms of schitzophrenia such as paranoia and delusional thinking, mean those with the disorder have lost their grip on reality and cannot articulate their thoughts in the required way for psychoanalysis.

Question 27

What is explanatory power?

Answer 27

Another strength of Freuds theory is its ability to explain human behaviour.
Freuds theory is controversial in many ways, and occasionally bizarre but it has nevertheless had a huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought

Question 28

What has the psychodynamic approach been useful for in areas such as psychology, literature, art and other human endevours?

Answer 28

alongside behaviourism the psychodynamic approach remained a key force in osychology for the first half of the 20th century and had been used to explain a wide range of phenomina inclusing personality development, the origins of psychological disorders, moral development and gender identity.
The approach is also significant in drawing attention to the connection between experiences in childhood, such as our relationship with our parents and our later development.

Question 29

What are untestable concepts?

Answer 29

one limitation of the psychodynamic approach is that much of it is untestable
The philosopher of science Karl Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsfiction.
It is not open to empirical testing (and the possibility to being disproved)
Many of Freuds concepts are said to occure at the subconcious level, making them difficult, if not impossible to test.
His ideas were based on on the subjective study of single indeviduals, such as little Hans, which makes it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour

Question 30

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 30

The psychodynamic apporach suggets that much of our behaviour is determined by unconcious conflicts rooted in our childhood
Freud believed there is no such thing as an accident.
Even something as random as a ‘slip of the tongue’ is driven by unconcious forces and has deep meaning.
Critics claim this is an extreem view because it dismisses any possible influence of free will on behaviour.

Question 31

(Freuds case study of Little Hans and the Oedupus complex) What does Freus claim about little boys in this study?

Answer 31

In the phallic stage, Freud claimed that little boys develop incestuous feeling towards their mother and murderous hatred for their rival in love - their father. Fearing that their father wil castrate them, boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father taking his gender role and moral values

Question 32

(Freuds case study of Little Hans and the Oedupus complex) What does Freud say about little girls?

Answer 32

Girls of the same age experience penis envy, they disire their father - as the penis is the primary love object - and hate their mother (the electra complext). Althought Freud was less clear on the proccess in girls they are thought to give up their desire for their father over time and replace this with a disire for a baby (identifying with their mother in the process)

Question 33

What was Freuds case study of Little Hans and the Oedupus complex?

Answer 33

Hans was a five year old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street.
Freud suggested that Hans’s phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transfered (displaced) onto horses