psychodynamic approach

• assumptions of psychodynamic


  innate instincts or drives and early childhood experiences motivate our behaviour
• the Id


  demands gratification
• the ego


  compromises between the impulsive id and the moral demands of the superego
• the superego


  the moral part of personality
• defence mechanisms 


  repression

  denial

  displacement
• repression


  unpleasant memory is pushed into the unconscious mind so it cannot be recalled or cause anxiety
• denial


  refusal to accept the reality of an unpleasant situation to reduce anxiety

  eventually convince themselves it’s not negative
• displacement


  strong emotion is expressed onto a neutral person or object to reduce anxiety by allowing expression of the emotion
• who made the psychosexual stages


  freud
• when is the oral stage


  birth to 18 months
• what’s the oral stage

  focused on oral pleasures

  to much/too little can lead to oral fixation = smoking etc

  may become overly dependent
• when is the anal stage

  18 months to 3 years
• what’s the anal stage

  focus of pleasure on eliminating and retaining feces
• anal retentive


  obsession with cleanliness and control
• anal expulsive 


  messy and disorganised
• when is the phallic stage

  3 years to 6 years
• what’s the phallic stage

  focused on gender development

  pleasure zone switches to genitals
• oedipus complex - phallic


  boy develops unconscious sexual desires for his mother and rivals with his father

  develops a fear of castration

  decides to identify with father instead of rival him
• electra complex


  girl develops unconscious sexual desires for her father and rivals with her mother
• when is the latency stage

  6 years to puberty
• what’s the latency stage

  sexual urges are repressed
• whens is the genital stage

  puberty onwards
• what’s the genital stage

  sexual urges are awakened and directed into opposite sex peers
• AO3 - case study

  little hans by freud
• little hans study

  5 year old boy developed a phobia of horses after one almost bit him

  father documented his actions and sent them to freud
• little hand study findings

  freud interpreted the data as displacement in the phallic stage

  the horses were a symbolic representation of the boy’s unconscious fear of castration
• little hans evaluation

  :( ethics = consent, withdraw, confidentiality

  :( researcher bias = interpretation

  :( demand characteristics = father was a follower of freud
• AO3 - real life application


  paradigm shift, new empirical methods of collecting data:

  case studies

  observations

  rather than introspection

  =potential for treatments
• AO3 - abstract, unfalsifiable


  cannot test concepts about thoughts of the unconscious mind because it is out of our control and therefore we can’t report on it reliably

  gives a lack of scientific credibility to psychology
• cultural and gender biases

  culturally specific to vienna

  19th century was a time of sexual repression - argues that freud responded to this by over-emphasising the sexual aspects of his theory

  focused on male development