The Psychodynamic Approach (AP P2)

Question 1

What 3 levels is the mind made up of?

Answer 1

• Conscious
• Subconscious
• Unconscious

Question 2

2 Main drives

Answer 2

Life drive (Eros): preserve and create life, associated with emotions such as love
Death drive (Thanatos): extinction and ‘inanimate’ state, associated with emotions of fear, hate and anger

Question 3

The unconscious

Answer 3

Stores biological drives and instincts significantly influencing behaviour and personality

Question 4

Sigmund Freud’s belief

Answer 4

• Behaviour is influenced by the unconscious
• Childhood experiences affect later life
• Disturbing memories are repressed into the unconscious, and are accessed during dreams or parapraxes (Freudian Slip, e.g. calling your teacher Mum)
• Use psychotherapy to access memories and resolve them

Question 5

What 3 components is the structure of the personality made up of?

Answer 5

• Id
• Ego
• Superego

Question 6

The Id

Answer 6

• Primitive part of the personality
• Operate pleasure principle
• Gets what it wants
• All that is present when we are born
• Selfish, demands gratification

Question 7

The Ego

Answer 7

• Reality principle (mediator)
• Develops age 2
• Reduces conflict between the Id and Superego by employing defence mechanisms

Question 8

The Superego

Answer 8

• Forms at the end of the phallic stage (age 5)
• Based on morality principle
• Represented moral standards of the child’s parents of the same sex (e.g. son and dad)

Question 9

What are the names and ages of the psychosexual stages?

Answer 9

1) Oral stage (0-1 years)
2) Anal stage (1-3 years)
3) Phallic stage (3-6 years)
4) Latency stage (6-12 years)
5) Genital stage (puberty onwards)

Question 10

Oral stage

Answer 10

• Stage 1
• Age 0-1
• Focus of pleasure: the mouth
• Desiring the mother’s breast
• Consequences in later life of not overcoming: smoking, nail biting, sarcasm, over-critical, bad language

Question 11

Anal stage

Answer 11

• Stage 2
• Age 1-3 (potty training)
• Focus of pleasure is anus
• Child gains pleasure from withholding/expelling faeces
• Consequence in later life of not overcoming: Anal retentive- perfectionist, obsessive, pedantic, well organised, clean. Anal expulsive: thoughtless, reckless

Question 12

Phallic stage

Answer 12

• Stage 3
• Age 3-6 (become aware of their bodies, superego developing)
• Focus of pleasure if genital area
• The child experiences Oedipus (male desires mother) or Electra (female desires father) complex
• Consequence in later life of not overcoming: phallic personality, narcissistic, reckless, possible homosexual

Question 13

Latency stage

Answer 13

• Stage 4
• Age 6-12
• Earlier conflicts are repressed

Question 14

Genital stage

Answer 14

• Stage 5
• Puberty onwards (desire of Id)
• Sexual desires become conscious alongside onset of puberty
• Primary source of pleasure is persuit of heterosexual relationships
• Consequence in later life of not overcoming: difficulty forming heterosexual relationships

Question 15

What is a defence mechanism?

Answer 15

• Ego uses defence mechanisms to help with balancing the conflicts of the Id and Superego
• Unconscious, help prevent us being overwhelmed temporarily
• Can involve a distortion of reality and can be physiologically unhealthy in the long term

Question 16

What are the 3 defence mechanisms?

Answer 16

• Repression
• Denial
• Displacement

Question 17

What is repression?

Answer 17

Forcing a distressing memory out of the unconscious mind and into the unconscious

Question 18

What is denial?

Answer 18

Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality, twisting reality

Question 19

What is displacement?

Answer 19

Transferring feeling from a true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target

Question 20

Gender bias

Answer 20

• Weakness of Freud’s approach
• Alpha bias: researcher exaggerates the difference between men and women
• Androcentric: only viewing behaviour through the male eyes
• Male behaviour becomes the norm
• Symptom of the era (male dominated)

Question 21

Not scientific of falsifiable

Answer 21

• Weakness
  -‘Unconscious mind is not directly observable (not objective) therefore difficult to test (not falsifiable)
• Tries to make a generalisation
• Not replicable, subjective interpretation (relies of post-hoc reasoning)
• Doesn’t tell us about the individuals experience
• Deters from the credibility of the approach

Question 22

Psychoanalysis

Answer 22

• Strength
• Used as a part of therapy today
• Human behaviour is complex, psychotherapy needed for specific people/problems
• Resolves issues buried in the unconscious mind
• Some foundations in psychotherapy are used in other counselling/talking therapy
• Psychodynamic approach has a valuable contribution to psychology

Question 23

What is post-hoc reasoning?

Answer 23

• What has already happened then developing a concluding
• Prone to bias
• Twist your explanation
• Ties in with the issue of determinism

Question 24

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 24

• Behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts rooted in childhood
• All behaviour has a cause
• Doesn’t account for free will/choices
• Limitation of the psychodynamic approach
• Freud relied on post-hoc reasoning