Psychodynamic approach

• Sigmund Freud laid the foundations for the psychodynamic approach. Freud more specifically outlined the notion of the unconscious which is at the forefront of his psychoanalytic method.
• This approach is centred around three main concepts of Freud’s theory: personality is formed through the passage of psychosexual stages, personality has a discernible structure and we all carry internal defence mechanisms. 
• THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS:

  -There are three main parts of the mind outlined by Freud: the conscious mind, preconscious mind and unconscious mind.

  -The conscious mind is what we are aware of, the section of the brain in which we use to form our conscious thoughts (the tip of the iceberg).
• THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS: -The preconscious mind sits just below the surface of our conscious mind which is where our memories are retrieved from. 

  -The unconscious mind is the biggest part of the iceberg which sits below the surface which can hold disturbing memorising such as trauma.

  -Some unconscious thoughts can be presented through Freudian slips and dreams.
• THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY:

  -Freud denotes personality as a tripartite including the Id, Ego and Superego which all three features develop at different stages in one’s life. Each feature isn’t a separate entity but rather they function together not always cohesively.
• THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY:

  -The Id is a primitive part of our personality which functions on the pleasure principle. It is present at birth and contains unconscious biological drives and instincts. The Id helps to ensure infant survival.
• THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY:

  -The Ego develops at age 2 and functions on the reality principle. It is the mediator between the Id and Superego, constantly mediating the two.
• THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY:

  -The Superego develops at age 15 and operates on the morality principle. It is our sense of right and wrong and represents the moral standard of the same-sex parent. The Ego is punished through guilt and rewarded through pride. The Ego tried to civilise our behaviour by oppressing our urges of the Id.
• THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY:

  -Freud says that an equal balance between all three features is a healthy personality but when the Superego is dominant we can be more judgmental and moralistic, yet if the Id is more dominant we can be much more impulsive. 
• DEFENCE MECHANISMS:

  -Repression, denial and displacement are the three main defence mechanisms we use.

  -Repression refers to an unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing thoughts from the conscious mind.

  -Denial involves blocking out external events from awareness. 

  -Displacement is when we satisfy an impulse with a substitute object.
• PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES:

  -The road to conscience passes through the psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. 
• The oral stage (up to 1 years old) is focused on oral pleasure such as sucking and hence people who smoke and bite their nails are thought by Freud to be fixated in the oral stage of their development.
• The anal stage (1-3 years old) is focused on experiencing  pleasure in their bowel and bladder movement - additionally Freud thought that successful toilet training determines the success of this stage. 
• The phallic stage (3-6 years old) is centred around children understanding the difference between boys and girls and the erogenous zone in this stage is the genitals. Here there is often conflict when a child feels a desire for the opposite sex parent and hatred toward the same sex parent. This is known as Oedipus complex in boys and Electra complex in girls.
• The latency stage (6 years old to puberty) isn’t technically considered a phase due to the dormancy of sexual feelings as children are usually focused on school, hobbies and friendships.
• The genital stage (from puberty onwards) is a sexual reawakening  which the person redirects to more socially acceptable partners. During this stage people have mature sexual interests.
• SCIENTIFIC CREDIBILITY: EVALUATION

  -The evidence to support the psychodynamic approach is mostly clinical evidence rather than empirical evidence and thus the scientific credibility is questionable due to the lack of objective methods used to carry our research as well as the lack of falsifiability. 
• CASE STUDIES: EVALUATION

  -When Freud was theorising the Oedipus complex, he based his investigations on case studies. 

  -Freud conducted individual case studies where participants were selected to be subjects of the study often had some kind of special psychological interest and thus cannot represent the general population - showing a lack of ecological validity. 
• CASE STUDIES: EVALUATION

  -Through these studies mainly produced qualitative data which suggests that the findings of the case studies are based on subjective conclusions. Because of Freud's involvement with these case studies, researcher bias is also another element that affects the validity of the studies. 

  -Therefore Freud’s data and theories have a limited application and limited generalizability. 
• REAL WORLD APPLICATION: EVALUATION

  -Biskup et al (2005) conducted a naturalistic study of 36 patients, at the end of their psychoanalytic therapy, 77% of the patients showed clinically significant improvements. This study also provides scientific credibility as it follows the empirical method and thus acts as supporting evidence for the validity of the psychodynamic approach. 
• REAL WORLD APPLICATION: EVALUATION

  -Bachrach et al (2000) conducted a meta-analysis  of every major study on the efficacy of psychoanalytic treatment. During this meta-analysis he found that all of the studies show that psychoanalysis is an effective treatment for many patients. 

  -Both studies draw on real world applications of Freud’s ideas of treatment.  
• CULTURAL BIAS: EVALUATION

  -Whilst there are some disparities with gender bias in Freud’s work such as the fixation on the Oedipus complex, there is a much more prevalent cultural bias.

  -All of Freud's patients came from the Viennese middle-class; all of Freud’s generalisations are derived from this extremely limited sample which is highly unrepresentative.
• CULTURAL BIAS:

  -Furthermore, Freud denounced his therapy as ‘the talking cure’; in cultures where talking about your mental health and personal problems aren’t encouraged or seen as a social norm then Freud’s approach will not be effective.

  -This practical limitation can provide doubt on the effectiveness of any therapeutic approach based on psychoanalytic ideas. 
• PSYCHIC DETERMINISTIC: EVALUATION

  -Freud suggested that all of our behaviour is due to our unconscious and internal conflict which we have no control over.

  -Hence every action and behaviour we produce is seen by Freud to have an insight into our unconscious.

  -The psychodynamic approach rejects the idea of free will.
• PSYCHIC DETERMINISTIC: EVALUATION

  -This approach completely negates all other explanations and approaches for behaviour such as  the behavioural approach which believes behaviour is learnt through associations or the cognitive approach which believes that behaviour is centred around inferences and the information processing model.