The Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
What is the psychodynamic approach?
A perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct behaviour and experience.
Who created the psychodynamic approach?
Signing Freud
What are the key assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?
- 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
Why did Freud suggest that free will is a delusion?
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.
What did Freud assume about our mind?
That it comprises of 3 levels:
• Conscious
• Preconscious
• Unconscious
What is the conscious mind?
We are directly aware of our thoughts and experiences
What is the preconscious?
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.
What is the unconscious?
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.
Freud believed the personality is made up of three parts. What are they?
- Id
- Ego
- Superego
What is the id?
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.
What is the superego?
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.
What is the ego?
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.
What sort of personality would someone have if they had a weak superego?
They would be selfish and not think about the consequences of their actions.
What sort of personality would someone have if they had a strong superego?
They would be selfless, have strong morals but might always feel guilty.
What are defence mechanisms?
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.
What are the 3 types of defence mechanism?
- Repression
- Denial
- Displacement
What the repression?
Forcing a distressing memory into the unconscious mind to prevent us from experiencing too much anxiety.
What is denial?
Refusing to accept some aspect of reality
What is displacement?
Transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion into a substitute target.
Define psychosexual stages
5 developmental stages that all children pass through. At each stage there is a different conflict, the outcome of which determines future development.
What are the 5 stages?
- Oral
- Anal
- Phallic
- Latency
- Genital
(Old age pensioners love gin)
What are the characteristics of the oral stage?
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
What are the characteristics of the anal stage?
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)
What are the characteristics of the phallic stage?
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)
What are the characteristics of the latency stage?
A period of relative calm in which ego defence mechanisms are developed. Fixation does not normally occur at this stage.
(6-12 years)
What are the characteristics of the genital stage?
Gratification is associated with nature sexual relationships - sexual desire becomes conscious with the onset of puberty.
(13-18 years)
What is the Oedipus complex?
- 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
What is the Electra complex?
- 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.
How do psychoanalysts study behaviour?
They use case studies
Give an example of a case study
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.
What feature of the psychodynamic approach does the little Hans cast study support?
The stages of personality
Oedipus complex
EVALUATION OF FREUD’S CASE STUDIES
What are the limitations of Freud’s case studies?
• As case studies are the study of one person or one group of people and therefore provide valuable insight, the findings
