Psychodynamic approach

• What is the role of personality and defence mechanisms? (2 AO1)


  Personality broken down into: ID, superego, ego

  
  

  
  

  Defence mechanisms consist of: denial, displacement. This reduces anxiety from conflict between id & superego
• What are the 5 psychosexual stages? (2 AO1)


  Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

  Unconscious conflict at each stage, must be resolved to reach next stage, if not it leads to fixations in adult personality

  
  

  E.g. phallic stage, libido energy at genitals, boys go through Oedipus complex, girls Electra
• What is the Oedipus complex? (2 AO1)


  Boy desires his mother but hostile towards father viewing him as a rival, leading to castration anxiety

  
  

  must be resolved for superego to develop which arises from identification with same sex parent and internalises their morals
• What is one strength of the psychodynamic approach?


  evidence to support

  
  

  Freud studies boy called little Hans who feared horses.

  
  

  Similarities were found between father and horses, e.g. muzzle= moustache, blinkers= eyes

  
  

  Suggests fear of his castration anxiety and of his father was displaced onto the horse
• What is one limitation of the psychodynamic approach?


  Difficult to oppose

  
  

  Freud's theory is based on the unconscious in behaviour

  
  

  e.g. one study involved adults being asked to recall childhood to see conflicts at different psychosexual stages, if they couldn't remember events, it was seen as repression

  
  

  Lacks falsifiability, reduction in credibility as a science
• What is a second strength of the psychodynamic approach?


  Real-world applications, led to development of psychoanalysis

  
  

  e.g. ink blot test, people are shown images and what they see in it represents their unconscious

  
  

  e.g. dream analysis, where people identify what their dreams represent in their unconscious

  
  

  Effectiveness reinforces claim that unconscious mind drives behaviour as it makes the unconscious conscious
• What is a second limitation of the psychodynamic approach?


  Doesn't acknowledge the influence of conscious mental processes

  
  

  CBT is effective in treating behaviour like depression, by challenging negative thoughts & replacing them

  
  

  Suggests behaviour has a cognitive bias

  
  

  To provide more comprehensive explanation of behaviour, must consider role of conscious and unconscious as both have real-world applications