psychodynamic approach

• Freud argued that a lot of our behaviour is directed by our unconscious mind.
• The amount of

  unconscious conflict will depend upon the completion of 5 psychosexual stages:
• stage 1- Oral – mouth is main source of pleasure (breast feeding
• stage 2- Anal – control over faeces is main source of pleasure (toilet training)
• stage 3- Phallic – genitals are main source of pleasure (eventual identification with same sex parent)
• (still phallic) Oedipus complex – boys resent their father and desire their mother
• (still phallic) Electra complex – girls have penis envy, desire their father and resent their mother
• stage 4- Latency – instincts subside and moral behaviour develops further
• stage 5- Genital – instincts reappear and sexual desires become conscious
• psychosexual stages- Fixation at a stage occurs when a negative event happens within our childhood that prevents us

  from successfully completing a stage.
• Individuals have a tripartite structure of personality- eg ego id and superego
• Tripartite structure- The ID - pleasure principle that is present from birth (in the unconscious mind)

  • The Ego –reality principle that appears around age 2 (mainly in the conscious mind)

  • The Superego – morality principle that appears at the end of the phallic stage,

  once we have identified with our same sex parent (partially in the conscious mind)
• The ego copes with the conflicting demands of the ID and superego which causes anxiety.

  To reduce anxiety, the ego uses defence mechanisms:

  • Repression – distressing memories are forced into the unconscious mind

  • Denial – reality is not acknowledged

  • Displacement – negative emotions are transferred from the real source to a substitute target
• oral- mouth is main source of pleasure (breast feeding), anal- control over faeces is main pleasure source (toilet training), phallic- oedipus and electra complex, latency- instincts subside and moral behaviour develops further, genital- instincts reappear and sexual desires become conscious.
• put together by sigmund freud- describes various forces, mostly unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience
• the unconscious mind influences behaviour, focuses on early childhood development through the 5 psychosexual stages- oral anal phallic latency genital
• structure of perosnality- freud describes this as tripartite, meaning three parts the id, the ego and superego, all of which develop at different times and are responsible for different things
• the id- the pleasure principle, present from birth, completely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs
• the ego- develops around age 2, reality principle, strives to satisfy the ids desires in a more realistic and socially-acceptable way, tames the id, weighs up the costs and benefits of an action before deciding whether to act on or abandon the behaviour
• the ego reduces the conflict between the demands of the id and superego by employing defence mechanisms
• the superego- develops at the end of the phallic stage, morality principle- idealism vs realism. represents the moral principles of our same-sex parent
• the superego - pushes the ego through guilt but also rewards the ego with pride
• defence mechanisms- used by the ego in order to cope with the conflicting demands of the other two parts of the personality, the id and the superego
• defence mechanisms- the ego works by distorting reality so the individual can continue with their everyday life without unpleasant feelings or memories dominating their conscious awareness- denial- refusal to acknowledge an aspect of reality, repression- forcing a distressing memory out of your conscious mind and displacement- transferring feelings from a true source of distressing emotion to a substitute target
• according to freud our personality develops as we progress through each of the psychosexual stages in order to live a healthy adult life
• during each stage, the child fixates and gains pleasure through a specific part of the body
• examples of fixation at the psychosexual stages- oral= adult fixation example could be smoking or over eating, anal= neatness, messiness, phallic= vanity, overambition,
• phallic stage- castration anxiety from the father for if he were to find out about the child's desires for the mother leads to the male child banishing his love for the mother into the depths of his unconscious mind, as a result of this they start to identify with their fathers, they internalise gender roles and the fathers values and morals which leads to the resolution of the oedipus complex which then ultimately leads to the development of the superego
• superego- after phallic stage, morality principle- internalises the norms of same sex parent
• ego- develops at around age 2, reality principle, uses rational thinking to manage the ids demands
• examples of fixation at psychosexual stages- anal stage- stage 2- can lead to overly messiness in later adult life