Psychodynamic A03

• Research Support- Explanatory power

  Controversial and bizarre yet had a huge influence on psychology and Western contemporary thought and Psychodynamic approach was the dominant force in the first half of the 20th century
• Uses of Psychodynamic Approach


  Has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena like personality development, abnormal behaviour, moral development and gender. Also significant in drawing attention to such relationships with parents and later relationships.
• Case study method

  Freud's theory became based on intensive study of individuals who were in therapy.
• Freud's methods

  They were detailed and carefully recorded yet critics criticised that its not possible to make universal claims about human nature based on smaller groups of people. Freud's interpretations- highly subjective and thus, they lack scientific vigour like the Little Hans study
• Untestable concepts


  Karl Popper argued the PA does not meet scientific criteria of falsification - not open for possibility of it being disapproved. Many of his concepts like Oedipus complex and ID occur at unconscious level making it impossible to test. PA= pseudoscience
• Practical Application

  New form of therapy created called psychoanalysis which employs a range of techniques to access unconscious hypnosis. Psychoanalysis was a forerunner to many modern day psychotherapies
• Patient choice

  Patients suffering from mild neuroses - freudian therapists claimed success but patients with serious mental disorders like schizophrenia- psychoanalysis deemed as inappropriate
• Psychic determinism

  The belief that all behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control rooted in childhood such that any free will we think we have is an illusion- there are no accidents. E.g: Slip of the tongue.