The Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

What is the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Who created the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 2

Signing Freud

Question 3

What are the key assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 3

• behaviour was determined more by psychological factors that biological or environmental ones
• people are born with basic instincts, drives and needs that motivate behaviour
• behaviour is largely controlled by the unconscious mind
• used case study methods
• believed that early childhood experiences determine adult behaviour and personality and the unconscious mind is made up of repressed childhood experiences
• our personality is dynamic and tripartite - I’d, Ego, Superego

Question 4

Why did Freud suggest that free will is a delusion?

Answer 4

Because Freud states that whenever we make a choice or decision, hidden mental processes of which we are unaware and no control over, determine these choices.

Question 5

What did Freud assume about our mind?

Answer 5

That it comprises of 3 levels:
• Conscious
• Preconscious
• Unconscious

Question 6

What is the conscious mind?

Answer 6

We are directly aware of our thoughts and experiences

Question 7

What is the preconscious?

Answer 7

Our thoughts, feeling and experiences that we are not directly aware of but can be easily accessed.

Preconscious represents what you would have stored in long term memory.

Memories of our experiences are stored here and can be retrieved through both recall and recognition.

Question 8

What is the unconscious?

Answer 8

It contains instincts, drives, and desires that we are not aware of but have strong influences over our behaviour. Many of these would be disturbing to the individual if they were to become conscious.

These thoughts are completely inaccessible without the use of specialist techniques from a psychoanalyst - contains repressed traumatic events and conflicts.

Question 9

Freud believed the personality is made up of three parts. What are they?

Answer 9

• Id
• Ego
• Superego

Question 10

What is the id?

Answer 10

The id (the pleasure principle) and is the primitive part of personality that demands pleasure. It is entirely unconscious and is made up of selfish, aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification. The id is present from birth.

Question 11

What is the superego?

Answer 11

The superego (the morality principle) is formed at the phallic stage at 5. It is our internalised sense of right and wrong. It represents the moral standards of the child’s same-sex parent and punishes the ego for wrong-doing (through guilt). It represents the ideal self.

Question 12

What is the ego?

Answer 12

The ego (the reality principle) is the mediator between the other two parts of personality. It develops at 2 and it’s role is to reduce the conflict between the id and superego and to also satisfy the demands of the id.

Question 13

What sort of personality would someone have if they had a weak superego?

Answer 13

They would be selfish and not think about the consequences of their actions.

Question 14

What sort of personality would someone have if they had a strong superego?

Answer 14

They would be selfless, have strong morals but might always feel guilty.

Question 15

What are defence mechanisms?

Answer 15

They are used by the ego to prevent painful, upsetting or disturbing thoughts and conflicts becoming conscious or entering into awareness.

They are unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and the superego.

Question 16

What are the 3 types of defence mechanism?

Answer 16

• Repression
• Denial
• Displacement

Question 17

What the repression?

Answer 17

Forcing a distressing memory into the unconscious mind to prevent us from experiencing too much anxiety.

Question 18

What is denial?

Answer 18

Refusing to accept some aspect of reality

Question 19

What is displacement?

Answer 19

Transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion into a substitute target.

Question 20

Define psychosexual stages

Answer 20

5 developmental stages that all children pass through. At each stage there is a different conflict, the outcome of which determines future development.

Question 21

What are the 5 stages?

Answer 21

• Oral
• Anal
• Phallic
• Latency
• Genital

(Old age pensioners love gin)

Question 22

What are the characteristics of the oral stage?

Answer 22

The mouth is the first area to be associated with gratification (because of feeding).
If weaning is not handled sensitively individuals will be fixated at this stage and may bite their nails/suck their thumb/ smoke cigarettes (oral character

ID 0-1 years

Question 23

What are the characteristics of the anal stage?

Answer 23

Gratification comes from expelling and withholding faeces. If toilet training isn’t handled sensitively the individual will be fixated at this stage and be excessively organised, tidy, concerned with bodily cleanliness. May also be mean and stubborn (anal character)

EGO + ID (2-3)

Question 24

What are the characteristics of the phallic stage?

Answer 24

Gratification is gained from the genital area of the body. The important developmental process is the development of gender identity through the resolution of the Oedipus and Electra Complexes. Fixation may result in the adult always looking for a mother figure or homosexuality.

Superego (4-5)

Question 25

What are the characteristics of the latency stage?

Answer 25

A period of relative calm in which ego defence mechanisms are developed. Fixation does not normally occur at this stage.

(6-12 years)

Question 26

What are the characteristics of the genital stage?

Answer 26

Gratification is associated with nature sexual relationships - sexual desire becomes conscious with the onset of puberty.

(13-18 years)

Question 27

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 27

• Boy starts to develop sexual desire for his mother and becomes jealous of his father
• The boy is in state of conflict - fearing his father will castrate him, he represses his desires for his mother
• Instead he identifies with his father and takes on his gender role and moral values
• He internalises his father’s superego to avoid castration

Question 28

What is the Electra complex?

Answer 28

• The girl realises she has no penis. She blames her mother and starts to sexually desire her father who has one.
• The girl realised she can have neither her father nor a penis - so she replaces her desire for her father with a desire for a baby.
• In doing so she identifies with her mother and takes on her gender roles and moral values.
• She internalises her mother’s superego in order to have her own child.

Question 29

How do psychoanalysts study behaviour?

Answer 29

They use case studies

Question 30

Give an example of a case study

Answer 30

Little Hans

He was aged 4-5 and feared that horses would bite him. Freud explained his phobia as resulting from the Oedipus complex and the ego’s use of the defence mechanism ‘displacement’. He claimed he had displaced his fear of castration by his father for having sexual thoughts about his mother, onto another object. In this case horses biting him.

Question 31

What feature of the psychodynamic approach does the little Hans cast study support?

Answer 31

The stages of personality

Oedipus complex

Question 32

EVALUATION OF FREUD’S CASE STUDIES

What are the limitations of Freud’s case studies?

Answer 32

• As case studies are the study of one person or one group of people and therefore provide valuable insight, the findings