The psychodynamic approach

Question 1

Which psychologist is the psychodynamic approach most closely associated with?

Answer 1

Sigmund Freud

Question 2

What is the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

According to Freud, what is the conscious mind?

Answer 3

The part of our mind that we know about and aware of.

Question 4

According to Freud, what proportion of the mind is conscious and what proportion of the mind is unconscious?

Answer 4

Freud suggested that the conscious mind is merely the ‘tip of the iceberg’. Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious.

Question 5

What is the unconscious mind?

Answer 5

The part of the mind that we are unaware of but which continues to direct much of our behaviour. For example, the unconscious is thought to be a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality. It also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed.

Question 6

What is our ‘preconscious’?

Answer 6

A part of the mind that contains thoughts and ideas which we may become aware of during dreams of through ‘slips of the tongue’. An example of such a slip is calling a female teacher ‘mum’ instead of ‘miss’.

Question 7

What term was used by Freud to refer to ‘slips of the tongue’?

Answer 7

Parapraxes

Question 8

Freud described personality as ‘tripartite’. Explain why.

Answer 8

Freud described personality as a tripartite because he believed personality to be composed of three parts.

Question 9

Freud identified three parts of personality. Name these three parts.

Answer 9

The id, the ego and the superego

Question 10

The first part of our personality is called the id. What is the id?

Answer 10

The id is 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 instincts. Only the id is present at birth, which is why Freud describes babies as being ‘bundles of id’. Throughout life the id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs.

Question 11

Is the id a conscious or unconscious part of our personality?

Answer 11

The id is entirely unconscious

Question 12

Which principle does the id operate on?

Answer 12

The pleasure principle

Question 13

Why did Freud describe babies as ‘bundles of id’?

Answer 13

Because the id is the only part of our personality that is present from birth.

Question 14

Why is the id thought to be a selfish part of our personality?

Answer 14

The id is selfish because it is made up of instincts that demand immediate gratification.

Question 15

The second part of our personality is the ego. What is the ego?

Answer 15

The ego works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the id and the superego. The ego develops around the age of two years and its role is to reduce conflict between the demands of the id and the superego. It manages this by employing a number of defence mechanisms.

Question 16

Which principle does the ego operate on?

Answer 16

The reality principle

Question 17

At what age does the ego part of our personality develop?

Answer 17

At approximately two years of age

Question 18

How does the ego reduce conflict between the demands of the id and the demands of the superego?

Answer 18

By employing defence mechanisms

Question 19

What are ‘defence mechanisms’?

Answer 19

Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and the superego. These mechanisms help to prevent us from becoming overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas.

Question 20

Why are defence mechanisms thought to be psychologically unhealthy and undesirable?

Answer 20

Because defence mechanisms often involve some form of distortion of reality. Therefore, as a long term solution they are regarded as psychologically unhealthy and undesirable.

Question 21

What are the three defence mechanisms?

Answer 21

Repression, denial and displacement

Question 22

Repression is one of the three major defence mechanisms. What is repression?

Answer 22

Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind. For example, an individual forgetting the trauma for their pet dying.

Question 23

Denial is one of the three major defence mechanisms. What is denial?

Answer 23

Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality. For example, continuing to turn up to work even though you have been sacked.

Question 24

Displacement is one of the three major defence mechanisms. What is displacement?

Answer 24

Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target. For example, slamming the door after a row with your girlfriend.

Question 25

The third part of our personality is the superego. What is the superego?

Answer 25

The superego is formed at the end of the phallic stage, around the age of five. It is our internalised sense of right and wrong. Based on the morality principle is represents moral standards of the child’s same-sex parent and punishes the ego. The superego represents the ideal self (how we ought to be).

Question 26

When is the superego formed?

Answer 26

The superego is formed at the end of the phallic stage, around the age of five.

Question 27

Which principle is the superego based on?

Answer 27

The superego is based on the morality principle.

Question 28

What would the id, ego and superego suggest you do in the following situation: ‘You have missed lunch and are walking past a cake shop’.

Answer 28

ID: The id would walk into the cake shop and buy several cakes immediately to satisfy its hunger, or just take them from the counter and eat them before even paying.

EGO: The ego would reason that one cake would be enough to suppress the hunger until dinner time and would wait patiently to be served, reasoning that the wait would not be too long.

SUPEREGO: The superego would decide that the empty calories of eating a cake would not be worth it as it is unhealthy and that it might be better to wait so they can get a sandwich.

Question 29

What would the id, ego and superego suggest you do in the following situation: ‘You are just leaving work and your boss asks you to stay another hour’.

Answer 29

ID: The id would refuse to work the overtime. It has other things to do and would not care if the boss sacked it.

EGO: The ego would reason that the boss must really need it to stay and work the extra hour and that this may lead to promotion in the future. It wouldn’t want the boss to think negatively about it.

SUPEREGO: The superego would offer to work the hour’s overtime for free. They might even offer to stay an extra two hours instead of one.

Question 30

What would the id, ego and superego suggest you do in the following situation: ‘You are on a bus and discover that someone has left a wallet full of £50 notes’.

Answer 30

ID: The id would look around to check no one was looking and immediately pocket the wallet.

EGO: The ego may reason that someone else has lost the money who needed it and, although there is no danger of being caught and punished, it is best to do the right thing.

SUPEREGO: The superego would take the wallet to the police station in the hope that whoever had lost it would come back and ask if it had been handed in.

Question 31

According to Freud, how many stages are associated with child development?

Answer 31

Freud claimed that child development occurred in five stages.

Question 32

According to Freud there are five stages of child development. How does a child progress to the next stage?

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

What happens if any psychosexual conflict is left unresolved?

Answer 33

Any psychosexual conflict that is unresolved leads to fixation where the child becomes ‘stuck’ and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage throughout adult life.

Question 34

What are the five psychosexual stages proposed by Freud?

Answer 34

• Oral
• Anal
• Phallic
• Latency
• Genital

Question 35

Briefly describe the first psychosexual stage: Oral

Answer 35

Oral (0-1 years):

Focus of pleasure is the mouth. As a result, a mother’s breast is the object of desire. The consequence of unresolved conflict is oral fixation. This could result in an individual: smoking, biting nails, being sarcastic and being critical.

Question 36

Briefly describe the second psychosexual stage: Anal

Answer 36

Anal (1-3 years):

Focus of pleasure is the anus. A child therefore gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces. There are two consequences of unresolved conflict during this stage:

1. Anal retentive
   Being a perfectionist and obsessive
2. Anal expulsive
   Being thoughtless and messy

Question 37

Briefly describe the third psychosexual stage: Phallic

Answer 37

Phallic (3-5 years):

Focus of pleasure is the genital area. During this stage, a child will either experience the Oedipus or Electra complex. The consequence of unresolved conflict during this stage is the development of a phallic personality. This is characterised in the following ways:

• Narcissistic
• Reckless
• Possibly homosexual

During the phallic stage, little boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother and a hatred for their rival in love: their father (the Oedipus complex). Fearing that their father will castrate them, boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father, taking on his gender role and moral values.

Girls experience penis envy, leading them to desire their father and hate their mother (Electra complex). Although Freud was less clear on the process in girls, they are thought to give up the desire for their father over time and replace this with the desire for a baby. This causes them to identify with their mother in the process.

Question 38

During the phallic stage, do boys experience Oedipus complex or Electra complex?

Answer 38

Boys experience Oedipus complex

Question 39

During the phallic stage, so girls experience Oedipus complex or Electra complex?

Answer 39

Girls experience Electra complex

Question 40

Freud supported his concept of the Oedipus complex with a case study. Name this case study.

Answer 40

The case study of Little Hans

Question 41

Briefly outline Freud’s case study of Little Hans.

Answer 41

Hans was a five-year-old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street. Freud suggested that Hans’ phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was displaced onto others. Thus, horses were merely a symbolic representation of Hans’ real unconscious fear: the fear of castration experienced during Oedipus complex.

Question 42

Briefly describe the fourth psychosexual stage: Latency

Answer 42

Latency:

During this stage, earlier conflicts are repressed. There are no consequences of unresolved conflict.

Question 43

Briefly describe the fifth and final psychosexual stage: Genital.

Answer 43

Genital:
Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty. The consequence of unresolved conflict during this stage is a difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.