psychodynamic approach

• key assumptions

  - first 5 years of life are most important for our future development (developing stable personality+ form healthy relationships)

  - occurs through set stages and conflict occurs at each stage

  - conflict= important for for healthy personality

  - person could be fixated in a stage if conflict isn't resolved

  - conflict occurs in unconscious part of the mind
• what's the conscious part of the mind?


  the small amount of mental activity we know about eg thoughts and perceptions
• what's the preconscious part of the mind?


  things we could be aware of if we tried/ wanted to be eg memories and stored knowledge
• what's the unconscious part of the mind?


  -things we're unaware of and can't become aware of

  - powerful impacts of behaviour

  - eg deeply buried conflict and trauma
• The id


  - biological part of the mind

  - present in the newborn+ consists of basic biological impulses and drives

  - works on pleasure principle

  - the drive motivates us to behave in certain ways+ that we want to satisfy urges and wishes

  - urged + wishes put us in a state of arousal, when satisfied, arousal is reduced
• The ego


  - aims to balance the id urges in line with what's realistically possible by considering the environment

  - works on reality principle- gratification of urges must be delayed until situation is appropriate

  - also has the job of defending the unconscious mind against displeasure
• The superego


  - judged what actions are right or wrong

  - internalised representation of the values and morals of society

  - conscience

  - violating the superego's standards or even the impulse to do so causes anxiety

  - someone whose failed to internalise the moral standards of society will have few behavioural constraints and may engage in excessively or over indulgent or criminal behaviour
• Defence mechanisms


  -Unconscious strategies that protect our conscious mind from anxiety by distorting reality in order to cope better with a situation.

  - protect us from distressing, painful and unpleasant thoughts and feelings

  - the ego uses these defences to deal with stress caused by conflicting demand of id and superego

  - denial, repression, displacement
• Denial


  - making yourself believe that something won't happen when in fact it will, usually a reaction to bad news

  - eg smokers who are addicted saying that they will quit
• Repression


  - pushing bad experiences or negative emotions to the back of your mind so you forget about it

  - acts as a memory process to protect us from bad emotions

  - eg someone you love was injured and you don't like to think about it
• Displacement


  - this is where you redirect your hostile feelings onto an innocent object or person as they cannot be expressed where they should.

  - eg anger might be turned to aggression in sport
• Psychosexual stages of development

  - predetermined sequence and can result in either successful completion or a healthy personality or can result in failure, leading to an unhealthy personality

  - oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital

  ( old age people like gardening)
• what are the fixations possible?

  oral, anal, phallic, genital