AO3 - Psychodynamic Approach

• The psychodynamic approach uses case studies which are very limiting and cannot easily be generalised to others.
• We cannot prove/ disprove or even measure the unconscious mind.
• Many children in today’s society are successfully brought up by one parent, which is not acknowledged by Freud's ideas.
• Does not take into account the physical or biological aspects of behaviour.
• Does not take into account importance of social learning from outside the family such as media influences.
• Alternative ideas like behaviourist theories would explain childhood behaviour as being due simply to classical and operant conditioning.
• Freud & Breuer brought 'cathartic therapy' as therapeutic method into modern Psychology.
• Catharsis is the useful release of negative emotion, experienced in therapy.
• Pascual-Leone & Greenberg (2007) presented evidence that states processing emotions in therapy is a significant step towards positive change.
• The psychodynamic approach ignores the importance of genetic factors.
• The psychodynamic approach is gender-biased, which limits its validity.
• Much of the supporting research was by Freud himself, which is subjective.
• Freud's theories cannot be tested but also cannot be falsified.
• Much of the research is observational or based on self-reports, which are subjective.
• Fisher & Greenberg (1996) summarised 2,500 studies and found support for the existence of unconscious motivation in human behaviour as well as for the defence mechanisms of repression, denial and displacement.
• It was the first approach to suggest a psychological, rather than a biological, treatment for disorders such as depression.
• Psychotherapy is a practical application of Freud's theories.
• Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criteria for falsification.
• The psychodynamic approach is not open to empirical testing.
• The psychodynamic approach is believed to be deterministic (psychic determinism).
• The case study of Little Hans(Freud, 1909) supports many of the ideas in the psychodynamic approach.