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the psychodynamic approach Flashcards

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1
Q

what is the psychodynamic approach?

A

a perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience

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2
Q

what are the 3 parts of the mind?

A
  • the concsious
  • the preconscious
  • the unconcious
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3
Q

what is the conscious?

A

part of the mind that we know about and are aware of

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4
Q

what is the preconscious?

A

contains thoughts and memories which are not currently in conscious awareness but we can access if desired

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5
Q

what is the unconscious?

A
  • a storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality
  • contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed, locked away or forgotten
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6
Q

how can unconsious thoughts be accessed?

A
  • during dreams
  • through ‘slips of the tongue’ (what freud referred to as parapraxes)
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7
Q

what are the 3 parts of the tripartite personality?

A
  • id
  • ego
  • superego
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8
Q

what is the id?

A
  • operates on pleasure principle
  • operates on unconscious level
  • only the id is present at birth
  • throughout life, the id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs
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9
Q

what is the ego?

A
  • operates of reality principle
  • operates mainly on conscious and preconscious levels
  • develops around the age of 2
  • role is to reduce the conflicts between the demands of the id and superego
  • it manages this by employing a number of defence mechanisms
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10
Q

what is the superego?

A
  • operates on morality principles
  • operates on all 3 levels of consciousness
  • forms at the end of the phallic stage, around the age of 5
  • it is our internalised sense of right and wrong
  • represents the moral standards of the child’s same-gender paren
  • punishes the ego for wrongdoing through guilt
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11
Q

what are defence mechanisms?

A

unconscious stragies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and the superego

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12
Q

what are 3 examples of defence mechanisms?

A
  • represssion
  • denial
  • displacement
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13
Q

what is repression?

A

forcing a distressing memory out of their conscious mind

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14
Q

what is denial?

A

refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality

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15
Q

what is displacement?

A

transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target

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16
Q

what happens if you overuse defence mechanisms?

A
  • it may lead to poor mental health
  • as a long-term solution, they are regarded as psychologically unhealthy and undesirable
17
Q

what happens if there is an an imbalance between the id, ego and superego?

A
  • bad mental health, abnormal behaviour, leads to mental imbalances
  • if the ego is too weak, it cannot regulate the other parts of the personality
  • if the id is too strong, the individual may be selfish, out of control, a seeker of instant gratification
  • if the superego is too strong, the individual may be seen as pompous, rigid, strict, anxious and obsessive
18
Q

what are the psychosexual stages?

A
  • 5 developmental stages that all children pass through
  • at each stage there is a different conflict, the outcome of which determines future developmen
19
Q

what happens if any psychosexual stages are unresolved?

A
  • fixation
  • the child becomes ‘stuck’ and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life
20
Q

what are the 5 psychosexual stages?

A
  • oral
  • anal
  • phallic
  • latency
  • genital
21
Q

when do each of the 5 stages occur?

A
  • oral: 0-1 years
  • anal: 1-3 years
  • phallic: 3-5 years
  • latency: 5 years-puberty
  • genital: puberty onwards
22
Q

during the oral stage, what is the focus of pleasure and what marks successful completion of this stage?

A
  • mouth is the main focus of pleasure
  • the child enjoys tasting and sucking ie. breastfeeding
  • successful completion of this stage is demonstrated by weaning (eating independently)
23
Q

what is the consequence of unresolved conflict during the oral stage (ie. oral fixation)

A
  • oral receptive (not allowed to feed freely): passive, needy, sensitive to rejection, overeats and drinks, bite nails, may smoke
  • oral aggressive (allowed to feed too often / too long): hostile and verbally abusive, sarcastic
24
Q

during the anal stage, what is the focus of pleasure and what marks successful completion of this stage?

A
  • focus of pleasure is the anus
  • child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces
  • successful completion is marked by potty training
25
Q

what is the consequence of unresolved conflict during the anal stage (ie. anal fixation)

A
  • anal retentive: very tidy, stubborn, likes order and being in control, perfectionist, obsessive
  • anal expulsive: messy, disorganised, thoughtless, doesn’t like to follow rules
26
Q

what occurs during the phallic stage?

A
  • focus of pleasure is the genital area
  • become inquisitive as to the differences between boys and girls
  • during this stage the awareness of sex differences is the basis of the oedipus and electra complexes
27
Q

what is the consequence of unresolved conflict during the phallic stage?

A
  • phallic personality: narcissistic, reckless
  • failure to resolve this stage leads to oedipus and electra complexes
28
Q

describe the oedipus complex (3-5 years)

A
  • boy develops intense attachment to their mother
  • sees father as rival
  • fears father knows this and will castrate him as punishment
  • identifies with father to stop castration anxiety
  • represses the feelings he has for his mother and identifies with the father
  • establishes superego
29
Q

describe the electra complex (3-5 years)

A
  • girl is very close to her mother when she is little, until she discovers that she does not have a penis
  • this makes her feel inferior and blames her mother for allowing her to be castrated
  • desires father, as penis is her object of desire
  • one way for her to be equal is to have a baby as a penis substitute
  • as a result she never identifies with her mother
  • never fully resolves complex - ‘weaker superego than males’
30
Q

what happens during the latency stage?

A
  • sexual urges sublimated into school, sports and other hobbies
  • earlier conflicts are repressed or resolved
  • focus on developing same sex friendships
31
Q

what happens during the genital stage?

A
  • sexual desire becomes conscious
  • resolution occurs through settling into a ‘loving’, one-to-one, hetersexual relationship
  • failure to resolve this stage leads to perversion and difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
32
Q

describe the case study of little hans, which supports the oedipus complex

A
  • hans was a 5-year-old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street
  • freud suggested that his phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred onto horses
  • thus, horses were merely a symbolic representation of hans’s real unconscious fear - the fear of castration experienced during the oedipus complex
33
Q

evaluation: real-world application with psychotherapy

A
  • freud brough a new form of therapy: psychoanalysis
  • this was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
  • the new therapy employed a range of techniques designed 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 the forerunner to many modern-day therapies, such as counselling, that have since been established
  • this shows the value of the psychodynamic approach in creating a new approach to treatment
34
Q

evaluation: freudian therapy and theory does not apply to all mental disorders

A
  • although freudian therapists have claimed success for many clients with mild neuroses, psychoanalysis is regarded as inappropriate, even harmful, for people experiencing more serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia
  • many of the symptoms of schizophrenia, such as paranoia and delusional thinking, mean that those with the disorder cannot articulate their thoughts in the way required by psychoanalysis
35
Q

evaluation: able to explain human behaviour

A
  • freud’s theory had a huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought
  • it has been used to explain phenomena including personality development, the origins of psychological disorders, moral development and gender identitity
  • 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
  • this suggests that, overall, the psychodynamic approach has had a positive impact on psychology, as well as on literature, art and other human endeavours
36
Q

evaluation: much of it is untestable

A
  • karl popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification
  • it is not open to empirical testing as it does not have the possibility of being disproved
  • many of freud’s concepts (such as the id and the oedipus complex) are said to occur at an unconscious level, making them difficult, if not impossible, to test
  • his ideas were also based on the subjective study of single individuals, such as little hans, which makes it difficult to make universal claims about humans behaviour
  • this suggests that freud’s theory was pseudoscientific rather than established fact
37
Q

evaluation: psychic determinism

A
  • freud believed there is no such thing as an ‘accident’
  • even something as random as a ‘slip of the tongue’ is driven by unconscious forces and has deep meaning
  • critics claim this is an extreme view as it dismisses any possible influence of free will on behaviour

psych - [5] approaches (8 decks)

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