psychodynamic

• The psychodynamic theory was developed by Sigmund Freud
• Freud suggested that the conscious part of the mind we know about is merely 'tip of the iceberg'
• Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious mind which is a vast store of biological drives and innate instincts that have significant influence on our behaviour and personality
• the unconscious mind contains traumatic or disturbing memories that have been repressed, denied or displaced. they can be accessed through dreams or 'slip of the tongue'
• the structure of personality is made up from a tripartite system of the ID, Ego and Superego. As well as the pleasure, reality and morality principles
• The ID is the primitive part of our personality operating on pleasure principle. It is a mass of unconscious innate drives and instincts that are present from birth. Throughout life the ID is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of needs however is very dominant in early years.
• The Ego is the reality principle and acts as a mediator between the ID and the Superego. It develops around the age of 2 with the role of reducing conflict between the demands of the ID and SE. It manages this by a number of defense mechanisms: repression, denial and displacement.
• defense mechanisms:

  repression- pushing something into the unconscious mind because it causes too much trauma/anxiety.

  denial- pretending something didn't happen to avoid addressing the trauma and anxiety

  displacement- picking a substitute source to push the anger onto because the original target may not be available or applicable.
• The Superego is the morality principle which forms around 5 at the end of the phallic stage. It is our internalized sense of what is right and wrong and represents our moral standards to compete against our ID.
• Freud claimed that child development occurs in 5 stages, where each is marked by a different conflict the child must resolve in order to successfully progress to the next stage. Whenever there is a psychosexual conflict that is unresolved leads to fixation where the child becomes stuck and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life
• Oral stage (0-2)- the focal point of pleasure is based around the mouth. Unresolved conflict can result in nail-biting and smoking as an adult
• Anal stage (1-3)- the focal point is conforming to social demands such as toilet training. Unresolved conflict can result in an anal-retentive personality with perfectionist and obsessive behaviours. Or anal-repulsive personality with thoughtless and messy behaviours.
• Phallic stage (3-5)- focal point is around genitals where girls identify with their mothers via Electra complex and boys identify with their dads via castration anxiety. Unresolved conflicts can lead to a phallic personality of being narcissistic, reckless and possibly homosexual behaviours.
• Latent stage (6-12)- during this period childhood traumas and conflicts are repressed to help mature and develop mastery of the world. Fixation and unresolved conflict can lead to immaturity and relationship problems.
• Genital stage (12+)- the focal point is based around sexual desires becoming more conscious with the onset of puberty. unresolved conflict can lead to difficulty forming hetrosexual relationships.
• Although Freuds theory is controversial, it has had huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought. the psychodynamic approach has remained the dominant force in psychology for the first half of the 20th century and been applied to a wide range of theories such as personality development, abnormal behaviour etc. This gives the approach great explanatory power.
• A weakness of the theory is that it was based upon the intensive study of individuals who were often in therapy such as Little Hans. Therefore although his observations were detailed, they are ungeneralisable to the whole of human population. As well as this because Freud was the only one observing, his findings would have been highly subjective as its unlikely another researcher would have drawn the same conclusions. This suggests that Freuds methods lack scientific validity.
• A weakness of the approach is that is has been criticized that the psychodynamic approach is a untestable concept and that it cannot be relied on. Many of Freuds concepts such as the ID are said to occur at the unconscious level making them near impossible to test. According to Popper this gives the psychodynamic approach the status of pseudoscience ('fake') rather than real science.
• a strength of the approach is that there is practical application due to it leading to the formation of psychoanalysis, a forerunner to many current psychotherapies used today such as CBT. although the psychoanalysis has been criticized as inappropriate and harmful for people experiencing more serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia.