A03 - Evaluations

• P - Has explanatory power

  E - Has had huge influence on western thought, been used to explain a wide range of behaviours and drew attention to how childhood influences adult personality

  E - For example, it can be used to explain why men go for trait their mum possesses in women

  L - Alongside behaviourism, it was the dominant approach in psychology in the 20th century
• P - Practical application in the real world

  E - Freud introduced a new form of therapy, psychoanalysis. This therapy is designed to access the unconscious mind using techniques such as hypnosis and dream analysis

  E - Psychoanalysis is most suitable for individuals suffering from mild neuroses but has been criticised as inappropriate for people with severe mental disorders like schizophrenia

  L - That said, psychoanalysis is the forerunner to modern day psychotherapies and talking cures that have been established
• P - Displays gender bias

  E - Approach shows alpha bias, exaggeration between males and females, the approach is centred on and dominated by male views

  E - For example, the Oedipus and Electra Complex, these were developed in the Phallic Stage and leads to penis envy

  L - This is influenced by the patriarchal society
• P - Includes untestable concepts

  E - Critics have argued that the approach does not meet the scientific requirements for falsification as empirical methods are not used when testing the approach

  E - For example, Karl Popper has argued that the approach should be considered a pseudoscience rather than a real science

  L - This reduces the validity and usefulness of the theory and research from the approach