The psychodynamic approach Flashcards
Role of unconscious
Psychodynamic approach
Freud suggested most of our mind is made up of the unconscious - a storehouse of biological drives & instincts that has huge influence on our behaviour & personality
Unconscious contains repressed memories
These accessed during dreams or ‘slips of tongue’
Just under surface of conscious is the preconscious, which contains thoughts & memories which aren’t in conscious awareness but can be accessed if desired
The Id
Psychodynamic approach
Primitave part of personality
Operates on pleasure principle
Seething mass of unconscious drives & instincts
Only Id is present at birth
Throughout life Id is selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs
Ego
Psychodynamic approach
Works on reality principle and is mediator between Id and Superego
Develops around 2 years
Role is to reduce conflict between demands of Id and Superego
Manages this by employing a number of defence mechanisms
Superego
Psychodynamic approach
Formed at end of phallic stage (around 5)
Our internalised sense of right and wrong
Based on morality principle - represents moral standards of child’s same gender parent and punishes Ego for wrongdoing
Psychosexual stages
Psychodynamic approach
Freud claimed child development occured in five stages
Each marked by diff conflict the child must resolve to progress to next stage
Any unsolved conflicts lead to fixation where child becomes stuck & carries certain behaviours through to adult life
List of psychosexual stages
Psychodynamic approach
Oral (0-1) - Focus of pleasure is the mouth
Fixation = smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical
Anal (1-3) - Focus of pleasure is anus, child gains pleasure from withholding & expelling faeces
Anal retentive - perfectionist, obsessive
Anal expulsive - thoughtless, messy
Phallic (3-6) - Focus of pleasure is genitals
Phallic personality - narcissistic, reckless
Latency - Earlier conflicts repressed
Genital - Sexual desires become conscious alongside onset of puberty
Fixation - Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
Defence mechanisms
Psychodynamic approach
Ego has help balancing demands of Id and Superego from defence mechanisms
These are unconscious and ensure Ego is able to prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas
They involve some form of distortion of reality & as a long-term solution are psychologically unhealthy and undesirable
Repression, denial & replacement
Evaluation: Real-world application
Psychodynamic approach
Strength: introduced idea of psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis was first attempt to treat mental disorder psychologically rather than physically
Employed range of techniques designed to access the unconscious (i.e. 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 modern day talking-therapies (i.e. counselling)
Therefore, value of psychodynamic app in creating new app to treatment
Evaluation: Real-world application (Counterpoint)
Psychodynamic approach
However, psychoanalysis is inappropriate for people experiencing more serious mental disorders (i.e. SZ)
Many symptoms of SZ (paranoia & delusionial thinking) mean those w/ the disorder have lost their drip on reality & cannot articulate their thoughts in way required by psychoanalysis
Therefore, Freudian therapy may not apply to all mental disorders
Evaluation: Explanatory power
Psychodynamic approach
Strength: ability to explain human behaviour
Freud’s theory is controversial in many way but has had huge influence on psychology
Alongside behaviourism, psychodynamic app remained key force in psychology for 1st half of 20th century & has been used to explain wide range of phenomena (i.e. personality development & gender indentity)
App is sig in drawing attention to connection between childhood experiences and our later development
Therefore, psychodynamic app has pos impact on psychology, as well as literature & art
Evaluation: Untestable concepts
Psychodynamic approach
Limit: much of it is untestable
Popper argued that psychodynamic app doesn’t meet scientific criterion of falsification
It is not open to empirical testing
Many of Freud’s concepts are said to occur at an unconscious level, making them difficult to test
Furthermore, his ideas were based on subjective study of single individuals, such as Little Hans, which makes it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour
Therefore, Frued’s theory was psuedoscientific rather than established fact
