Untestable concepts

• P- One limitation of the psychodynamic approach is that much of it is untestable
• E- the philosopher of science Karl Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification. It is not open to empirical testing
• E- many of freuds concepts are said to occur at an unconscious level, making them difficult, if not impossible to test. Furthermore, his ideas were based on the subjective study of single individuals such as Little Hans which makes it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour
• L- this suggests that Freud’s theory was pseudoscientific rather than established fact