Psychodynamic approach

• What were the 3 assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?

  Unconscious processes determine our behaviour, personality has 3 parts and early childhood experiences determine adult personality.
• What is psychic determinism?

  All mental processes are predetermined by unconscious forces.
• How does the id behave?

  Primitive and infantile, acts on pleasure principle.
• How does the super ego behave?

  Controls the id's impulses and turns them into moralistic goals.
• How does the ego behave?

  Operates according to reality principle (realistic ways of satisfying the id's demands).
• What are the 5 psychosexual stages?

  Oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital.
• What is the oral stage?

  Age 0-1 where mouth is the focus of pleasure and completion is shown by weaning. The consequences are that the person becomes sarcastic, overeats and smokes.
• What is the anal stage?

  Ages 1-3 where defecation is source of pleasure and completion is shown by potty training. Consequences are anally retentive means they are tidy and a perfectionist, anally expulsive means they are thoughtless and messy.
• What is the phallic stage?

  Ages 3-5 years where there is a form of pleasure in genital area. The consequences are that you may have a phallic personality (narcissistic, reckless, homosexual).
• What is the oedipus and electra complex?

  Oedipus- boy wants mother as primary love object and wants father out of the way.

  Electra- girls desire their father as they have penis envy and hate their mother.
• What is the latency stage?

  Ages 6 to puberty where earlier conflicts are repressed and sexual urges are sublimated into sports/hobbies.
• What is the genital stage?

  Ages puberty to adulthood where the focus is on genitals but not as much as phallic stage, the task is to develop healthy adult relationships which should happen if the earlier stages are completed. Consequences are that there may be difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.