Psychodynamic approach

• What is repression ?

  The unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts. Although these thoughts become part of the unconscious the person is no longer aware of them, they still influence behaviour
• What is Denial?

  Refusing to accept reality in order to avoid dealing with painful feelings
• What is displacement ?

  Diverting emotions onto someone or something else as the person feels unable to take them out on the person they should be directed
• What is the ID

  • The id required immediate gratification. it is pleasure orientated and completely selfish

  • Present at birth
• What is the ego ?

  • The ego is the conscious and rational part that has to sort out the demands of the id and the demands of the superego

  • Age 1 Reality principle
• What is the superego?

  • The superego is the moral part of the personality concerned with right and wrong. it develops through socialisation when people learn the moral standards and expectations of their culture

  • By age 5

  • conscience
• What is the conscious ?

  The small amount of mental activity we know of mental activity we know

  eg thoughts perceptions
• What is the preconscious ?

  Things we could be aware of if we wanted or tried e.g. memories
• What is the unconscious ?

  Things we are unaware of and cannot become aware of but shapes our personalities
• What happens in the Oral stage

  • Age 0-2

  • pleasure source- Mouth sucking biting swallowing

  • Conflict - weaning away from mothers breast

  • outcomes - Oral receptive personality ( tension is reduced through oral activity)

  Oral aggressive personalty ( hostile and verbally abusive to others)
• What happens in the Anal stage

  • Age 2-3

  • Pleasure source - anus

  • Conflict - potty training

  • outcomes - Anal retentive personality ( compulsive seeking for order and tidinsss normally stuborn and perfectionist )

  Anal expulsive personality ( lacks self control usually messy and careless )
• What happens in the Phallic stage ?

  • Age 3-6

  • pleasure source - genitals

  • conflict- Oedipus in boys and Electra in girls

  • Outcomes - Oedipus conflict ( the boy has sexual desires for his mother and sees father as a rival as the boy fears castration will be the punishment

  Castration anxiety ( this fear caused the boy to feel his father hates him because of his feelings toward his mother

  Electra complex -( girls begin to have sexual desires for their father and sees mother as a rival When girls realise they don’t have a penis they develop penis envy )
• what happens in the latency stage

  • Age 6-12

  • pleasure source - sexual urges channelled into sport or hobbies

  • conflict - A period of relative calm

  • outcomes - same sex friends to avoid sexual feelings
• What happens in the Genital stage

  • Age 12+

  • physical sexual changes reawakens repressed needs

  • direct sexual feelings towards others leads to sexual gratification

  • outcome - feelings for opposite sex can be a source of anxiety because they are reminders of the feelings for the parents and the trauma that resulted from that
• Who Is little Hans

  • Hans is a 5 year old boy with the fear of horses

  • Freud interviews hans and explains that the fear has been developed from repressed and displaced fear for his father

  • Hans would be afraid of his father as he was in the Oedipus complex

  • the horse became a symbol of the father due to its whiskers just like his father and it could be castrated also the horse has a large penis like his father ( compared to hans )
• Real world application of the psychodynamic approach

  Freud's theory offers a method of therapy where a therapist aims to identify and deal with a patients unconscious conflicts. Maat et al's meta analysis found that psychoanalysis produced significant improvements in symptoms and this remained for years after treatment
• Research support of the psychodynamic approach

  Fisher and Greenbreg's meta analysis of over 2500 studies found evidence for the existence of unconscious motivation in human behaviour as well as the use of the defence mechanisms repression, denial and displacement
• Disadvantage of the psychodynamic approach

  One disadvantage of the psychodynamic approach is that it was unscientific this is because Freud claims are based on his interpretations of his patients unconscious thoughts therefore they are hard to scientifically test and cannot be proved right or wrong
• Problems with Freud's research

  Freud's work was often limited to a small sample or case study such as little Hans which means it is hard to generalise from them. These studies are also very subjective and other psychologists have identified different reasons for Little Hans' behaviour
• Disadvantage of the psychodynamic approach

  One disadvantage of the psychodynamic approach is the gender bias this is a problem because Freud's work is criticised for being a sexist, alpha biased theory as he focusses mainly on men and didn't consider how male and female sexuality differs
• Disadvantage of the psychodynamic approach

  One disadvantage of thee psychodynamic approach is that it is unethical this is because recalling childhood experiences in therapy may be emotionally distressing and possibly inaccurate depending on the reliability of the patients memory and the analysts interpretations
• Disadvantage of the psychodynamic approach

  one disadvantage of the psychodynamic approach is that the data used was rerospective this is a crucial because Freud's use of retrospective accounts can be unreliable and impossible to test this is because it requires looking back in time