Psychodynamic

• One part of the psychosexual stages of development is the phallic stage (age 3-6 years) where the libido is focused on gender love and morality. The child develops an obsession with the opposite sex parent which leads to imitation of the same sex parent. The superego is developed. The consequences of unresolved conflict are criminality and sexual dysfunction.
• Freud did a case study on 'Little Hans' who had a phobia of horses. Freud believed this was due to displacement of the fear of his father who he believed got in the way of him and his mother having a relationship. When he began to discuss his dreams and fantasies the fear went away which supports the concept of defense mechanisms and overcoming unconscious conflict.
• The Psychodynamic approach argues that behaviour is determined by internal psychological factors i.e. the unconscious mind and also childhood experiences. We are born with basic sexual and aggressive instincts. Unconscious conflicts are dealt with through 'defense mechanisms'.
• The unconscious mind stores our socially unacceptable drives and instincts, unpleasant memories and unresolved conflicts. It is also the source of our dreams and automatic thoughts and influences our personality.
• The structure of personality:

  • The ID - instinctual, pleasure seeking, irrational, emotional. Results in sex and violence
  • The Ego - sense of reality developed during psychosexual stages, mediates between other 2 parts, creates self-preservation
  • The Superego - morals, punishing wrongdoing, societal values. Results in feelings of guilt, expressing complex ideas.
• The psychosexual stages of development:

  • O - Oral
  • A - Anal
  • P - Phallic
  • L - Latent
  • G - Genital
• The phallic stage is between 3-6 years old. It focuses on gender, love and morality. An obsession with the opposite-sex parent leads to the child trying to imitate the same-sex parent. Failure to work through this stage leads to sexual disfunction and criminality.
• The defence mechanisms are:
• The defence mechanisms are:

  • Repression - forcing a distressing memory out of the unconscious mind
  • Denial - refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
  • Displacement - transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotions onto a substitute.
• Freud did a case study on 'Little Hans' who was a little boy suffering with a fear of horses. Freud believed that the fear was caused by the boy's fear of having his penis cut off, and that the horse represented the boy's father. After Hans discussed his dreams and fantasies the fear started to go away.
• Psychodynamic therapy is beneficial for treatment as the examining of the unconscious helps some people with their mental health issues. Whilst it is very expensive and time-consuming, it acknowledges the impact of the past on mental health and the fact that we cannot fully understand ourselves.
• The approach lacks scientific merit as it was based in individual case-studies that lacked a cause and effect relationship. Most of the individuals involved were European, middle-class and psychologically abnormal which means the findings lack population validity. Also, Freud's interpretations were highly subjective.
• The approach has had mainly positive applications as it has helped to establish the importance of childhood in psychology. This led to the development of other theories like Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation. This has meant parents/institutions have put more effort into avoiding child/parent separation and the resulting trauma. However there are negative applications as well as the approach implies that homosexuality is a negative consequence.