the psychodynamic approach

• assumptions of psychodynamic approach

  • behaviour results from unconscious processes - influences on our behaviour come from a part of the mind we have no direct awareness of
  • psychodynamic conflict explains behaviour - conflict between 3 components has consequences for our behaviour
  • behaviour is motivated by sexual drives - born with 2 main drives (sexual and aggressive)and these motivate our behaviour
  • childhood experiences are important - adult personality is shaped by relationships, experiences and conflict
• the role of the unconscious

  • unconscious forces are primary motivators of our behaviour (freud)
  • unconscious contains the id 9source of aggressive and sexual drives)
  • freud thought he could access unconscious urges through slips of the tongue (parapraxes), free association, dream analysis and in neuroses
  • pre-conscious - 'go between' between conscious and unconscious, unconscious thoughts and desires can rise to the surface and become conscious
• the structure of personality

  • the id - primitive, based on pleasure principle. present from birth, concerned with satisfying our desires, unconscious
  • the ego - mediator between other 2 elements,, based on reality principle. develops from experience of not aways getting our own way, spans all 3 levels of consciousness
  • the superego - sense of right and wrong, based on morality principle. develops around age of 5 and represents moral standards set out by our same sex parent. spans all 3 levels of consciousness
  • these elements are often in conflict with eachother
• psychosexual stages

  • freud believed children are brown with a sexual pleasure urge
  • if something happens, they become 'fixated' at that stage
• oral stage (psychosexual stages)

  • age - 0-1
  • pleasure centre - the mouth, breasts are object of desire
  • possible cause of fixation - early weaning, deprivation of love or food
  • possible results of fixation - biting nails, smoking, sarcasm
• anal stage (psychosexual stages)

  • age - 1-3
  • pleasure centre - anus
  • possible cause of fixation - harsh toilet training, lax toilet training
  • possible results of fixation - tidiness, obsessiveness, meanness
  • anally retentive - very tidy
  • anally expulsive - messy
• phallic stage (psychosexual stages)

  • age - 3-5
  • pleasure centre - genital area
  • possible cause of fixation - no father figure, very dominant mother
  • possible result of fixation - sexual anxiety, envy, self obsession
  • phallic personality - narcissistic, homosexuality, sexual anxiety
  • if phallic stage is failed - no superego, id dominant
• oedipus complex

  1. boy starts to desire mother
  2. boy sees father as rival for mothers attention
  3. fears if father finds out about his feelings for mother he will castrate him
  4. boy is in state of conflict. resolves this by internalising and identifying with father
  5. leads to development of superego. boy substitutes his desire for mother into desire for other women
• electra complex

  • girl starts to desire father who has a penis
  • sees mother as rival for father
  • girl begins to develop penis envy, blames her mother for removing her penis
  • to resolve this the girl identifies with her mother so that she can have her father
  • the superego develops, as does gender identity. she replaces penis envy with a desire for a baby
• latency (6-11)

  • earlier conflicts repressed
  • sexual urges sublimated into sports and other hobbies
  • focus on developing same sex friendships
  • no requirements for competition
• genital (adolescence)

  • focus on genitals
  • develop healthy adult relationships
  • happens when earlier stages are successful

  if failed = problems with heterosexual relationships
• defence mechanisms

  protects the ego

  • denial - rejecting the thought / feeling and completely refusing to acknowledge some aspects of reality
  • repression - forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
  • displacement - transferring feelings from true sources of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
• defence mechanisms - extras

  • regression - going back to childhood behaviour as a way to cope
  • reaction formation - acting in the opposite way
  • sublimation - doing another activity
• the psychodynamic approach is unscientific, sexist and has no place in modern psychology - DISAGREE

  • real world application - new approach to treatment (eg. psychoanalysis, counselling0
  • positive impact - better understanding of personality, abnormality, gender identity, moral development. connection between childhood and later development
• the psychodynamic approach is unscientific, sexist and has no place in modern psychology - AGREE

  • inappropriate - to more serious mental disorders (schizophrenia) as they have lost grip on reality
  • pseudoscientific - untestable as many ideas involve the unconscious mind, doesnt meet scientific criteria of falsification
  • single individuals studied - cannot generalise
  • psychic determinism - behaviour rooted from childhood, dismisses free will
• psychodynamic approach eval - :) real world application

  • introduced idea of psychotherapy (as opposed t physical treatments)
  • freud brought forward psychoanalysis - first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically and contained techniques designed to access the unconscious (eg dream analysis)
  • helps help clients by bringing their repressed emotions into their conscious mind so they can be dealt with
  • psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern day 'talking therapies' (counselling)
  • shows value of psychodynamic approach in creating a new approach to treatment
• psychodynamic approach - :( real world application - COUNTERPOINT

  • although psychoanalysis had success with patients with mild neuroses, the treatment is regarded as inappropriate and harmful for people experiencing more serious mental disorders- schizophrenia
  • many symptoms like paranoia and delusional thinking mean the person with disorder has lost their grip on realist and cant articulate their thinking in the way psychoanalysis requires
  • suggests this therapy may not apply to all mental disorders
• psychodynamic approach - :) ability to explain human behaviour

  • has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including personality development, abnormal behaviour, moral development and gender identity
  • this approach is significant in drawing attention between experiences in childhood (relationship with parents) and later development
  • suggests overall the approach has had a positive impact on psychology - and also on literature, art and more
• psychodynamic approach - :( untestable concepts

  • this approach doesnt meet the scientific criterion of falsification
  • its not open to empirical testing (and possibility of being disproved)
  • many of freuds concepts (id, oedipus complex) are said to occur at an unconscious level, making them difficult if not impossible to test
  • ideas were based on subjective study of single individuals which makes it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour
  • suggests his theory was pseudoscientific (not a real science) rather than established fact
• psychodynamic approach - :( psychic determinism

  • the theory states much of our behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts rooted in childhood and because of this there is no such thing as an accident
  • even slips of the tongue are driven by unconscious forces and has deep meaning
  • critics say this is an extreme view as it dismisses any possible influence of free will on our behaviour