The Psychodynamic Perspective

Question 1

What are the assumptions of the area?

Answer 1

1. Behaviour is casused by our unconscious minds and the conflict of the tripatite personality- the id, the ego and the superego
2. Childhood experiences, such as trauma, can impact our behaviour in adulthood

Question 2

What 3 main ideas did Freud come up with to explain the unconscious mind?

Answer 2

• The conscious
• The preconscious
• The unconscious

Question 3

Freud

What is the conscious mind?

Answer 3

Part of mind you can access and control

Question 4

Freud

What is the preconscious mind?

Answer 4

Part of the mind that can be accessed with efort, e.g. things stored in your long term memory

Question 5

Freud

What is the unconscious mind?

Answer 5

Part of the mind you can subconsciously access through sleep and dream analysis- cannot control

Question 6

What are the three parts of the human psyche?

Answer 6

• the ID- unconscious thoughts, natural primitive instincts
• the EGO- ourself, balances other 2
• the SUPEREGO- good thoughts, morality, surpress ID’s desires

Question 7

What are the 5 stages of psychosexual development?

Answer 7

1. Oral- fixation on mouth pleasure, causes smoking and nail biting
2. Anal- Fixation on feces, expletive= more carefree, retentive= more uptight
3. Phallic- Fixation on male genitalia, leads to oedipus/ electra complex
4. Latency- Ignore sexual please, enjoy learning
5. Genital- Normal sexual tendancies are developed

Question 8

Why could usefulness be argued as a strength?

Answer 8

It’s given rise to treatments used to help people overcome phobias/ other conditions

Question 9

Why could generalisability be argued as a weakness?

Answer 9

Case study- little Hans was the only participant