Psychodynamic approach

• Assumptions of the psychodynamics approach

  • Humans have basic instincts (unconscious urges)
  • The mind has an internal structure ( ID, ego, superego )
  • Unconscious conflicts are usually rooted in our childhood
• Psychodynamics is the study of the unconscious mind and the unconscious mental drives that develop in childhood, their interactions and how these forces influence behaviour, personality and mental state
• Role of the unconscious

  • Our behaviours are shaped by unresolved conscious conflicts among different parts of our personality
  • The unconscious protects the conscious mind from potential harmful thoughts which reduces anxiety
• Defence Mechanisms

  • These are stratergies involving the unconscious thoughts that the ego can use to manage unresolvable conflicts
  • This involves Denial, Displacement, Repression
• SUPEREGO - moral principles - controls impulses from the id, it judges whether actions are right or wrong based on society's standards

  • develops between 4 - 5 years old
• EGO - reality principle - balances between id and superego, mediates between them, tries to satisfy both but also considers external realities and social norms

  • develops between 18 months - 3 years
• ID - pleasure principle - seeks immediate gratification of needs/wants without regard to consequences or reality.

  • present at birth
• Denial

  • A refusal to accept the reality of a situation
• Displacement

  • When we take our stronger emotions on weaker invididuals
• Repression

  • Unpleasant memories that are no longer accessible to the conscious mind
• Psychosexual stages

  • Freud argues that as a child develops, they pass through 5 psychosexual stages
  • These involve Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital
• Oral - Focuses on pleasure around the mouth (0-1yrs)
• Anal - Focuses on pleasure around the anus (1-3yrs)
• Phallic - Focuses on pleasure around genital area (3-5yrs)
• Latency - Repressed sexual urges (6-puberty)
• Genital - Sexual desires develop (Puberty onwards)
• Supporting evidence for the Psychodynamic approach

  P - A strength is that the Psychodynamic approach has depth to the research and has an intuitive appeal to the approach

  E - Freud research extensively into the human mind and behaviour,

  E - For instance, the use of defence mechanisms has been able to explain and demonstrate the use of them in helping people deal with traumatic behaviours.

  L - The Psychodynamic approach has been a substantial influence on Psychology and still can be seen in modern day Psychology. 
• Contradictory evidence for the psychodynamic approach

  P - It includes lots of untestable concepts.

  E - The philosopher of science, Karl Popper, argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification, in the sense that it can’t be proved or disproved.

  E - Many of Freud’s concepts are said to occur at an unconscious level. This makes them Difficult, if not impossible, to test

  L - This affords psychodynamic theory the status of A fake science rather than real science which is a limitation of the approach.