Psychodynamic approach

• Assumptions

  • unconscious activity is the key determinate of how we behave
  • we possess drives that 'energise' our minds to motivate behaviour as we develop through our lives Frued proposed 5 psychosexual stages and if we experience conflict during these it can lead to certain behaviours in our future
  • childhood experiences have a significantly importance on our personality when we reach adulthood
• Frueds psychosexual stages

  ORAL- 0-1, pleasure of the mouth -> oral fixation e.g. nail biting or smoking

  ANAL- 1-3, pleasure of the anus -> anal retentive (perfectionist/obsessive) or anal repulsive ( thoughtless/messy)

  PHALLIC- 3-5, pleasure in genital area, Opedipus or electra complex -> phallic personality (narcissistic/reckless/possible homo)

  LATENCY- earlier conflicts repressed

  GENITAL- sexual desire alongside onset puberty -> difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
• Oedipus complex

  • incestuous feelings towards mother
  • murderous hatred of father fear will castrate them
  • repressed feelings towards mother/ identify with father
  • taking on gender role and moral values

  Electra complex

  • girls experience penis envy- desire their father
  • hate mother
  • eventually given up and desire a baby-> identify with mother
• Freud tripartite personality structure

  • proposed 3 part personality- the psyche

  ID- dive to satisfy urges (pleasure principle)

  EGO- acts rationally, balancing ego and superego ( reality principle, develops 2-4)

  SUPEREGO- moral norms (morality principle, develops 4-5)

  • attempts to control powerful ID with feelings of guilt
  • the ego balances potential conflict between the superego and the id by reducing anxiety, when there is significant conflict the ego redirects psychic energy using defence mechanisms
• Defence mechanisms

  REPRESSION- burying unpleasant thoughts and desires in the unconscious

  DISPLACEMENT- emotions directed away from their source/target towards other things

  DENIAL- threatening thought is ignored or treated as not true

  • abnormal behaviour is a result of these defence mechanisms
• research methods used by the approach

  • based on case studies of those who were psychoanalysed with the aim of bringing unconscious mental activity to the conscious to release anxiety

  FREE ASSOCIATION- expressing immediate thoughts as they happen

  DREAM INTERPRETATION- analysing latent content of manifest content
• EVAL

  😃considered childhood expereinces

  • highlights link between childhood experiences and adult behaviour
  • people can readily accept behaviours on his account
  • raises plausibility

  😔unscientific

  • considered non-falsifiable as there is an emphasis on the unconscious
  • reduce plausibility

  😃psychoanalytic therapy beneficial to society

  • release repressed memories allowing them t=hem to be addressed nd dealt with
  • high value