Psychodynamic approach

• What does the psychodynamic approach suggest?

  Events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lived. These events remain in unconscious mind and cause adult problems.
• 3 roles of the unconscious mind

  - Store house of biological drives

  
  

  - Driving force of personality and behaviour

  
  

  - Contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed
• The iceberg analogy


  Suggests that there are 3 levels of the mind:

  - Conscious mind- Parts we know and have immediate awareness of

  
  

  - Preconscious mind- Accessible memories that have to be retrieved

  
  

  - Unconscious- Repressed traumas and painful memories

  
• 3 parts of the psych

  Id, ego and superego
• ID

  - The part of the mind present in infants that controls basic biological impulses. It works on the pleasure principle as it wants to satisfy the individuals needs
• Ego

  Develops as the child grows. It is the part of the mind that tries to gratify the ID's needs whilst focusing on what's realistically possible.

  
  

  - It also defends the mind from the unconscious mind using defence mechanisms
• Superego


  Develops during the phallic stage and focuses on the morality principle as it is an internalised representation of the values and morals of society.
• 3 defence mechanisms


  Repression, denial and displacement
• What are defence mechanisms used for?

  Used by ego to manage conflict between the id and superego by creating compromised solutions and providing anxiety reducing strategies
• Repression

  Forcing distressing memory out of unconscious mind
• Denial

  Refusal to acknowledge some aspects of reality
• Displacement


  Transferring the feelings of distressing emotions onto a substitute target
• 5 psychosexual stages of development (Old Age Pensioners Love Guinness)

  Oral

  Anal

  Phallic

  Latency

  Genital
• Oral stage


  Occurs in the first 0-18 months of a child's life where the focus on the libido is in the mouth. This means that the child focuses on exploring with the mouth.
• What is the possible cause of fixation in the oral stage?

  Being weaned too early or too late in breast feeding
• What are the 3 possible result of fixation in the oral stage?


  Nail biting, smoking, chewing gum
• Anal stage


  Occurs when a child is between 1 and 3 years old (During toilet training) and the focus of the libido is in the anus. The child feels that they have control over their parents for the first time and gains pleasure from retaining or expelling faeces.
• What is the possible cause of fixation in the anal stage?

  Overly harsh / lax during toilet training
• What are the 2 possible results of fixation in the anal stage?

  The individual can become anal retentive (Controlling and obsessive) or anal expulsive (Thoughtless and messy)
• Phallic stage


  Occurs between the ages of 3-6 years old and the focus of the libido is in the genitals. At this stage, the superego will develop through the Electra or Oedipus complex, causing identification with their same sex parent to take place.
• What is the possible cause of fixation at the phallic stage?

  A dominant mother figure / no father figure
• What are the 3 possible results of fixation at the phallic stage?

  Sexual anxiety, self-obsession and envy
• Oedipus complex


  Suggests that boys have unconscious sexual feelings for their mothers and want to take their fathers place. They have guilt about this and have castration anxiety (fear that their father will castrate them if he finds out). The boys will then decide to identify with their father and take on his beliefs to avoid this.
• Electra complex


  A girl develops penis envy and realises that her dad has one which causes her to develop sexual feelings for him. She then sees her mother as a rival and blames her for not having a penis because she must have castrated her. The girl will identify with the mother so she can possess her father.

  
  

  - Superego doesnt develop as strongly in girls
• Latency stage


  Occurs at around the age of 7 up until puberty. During this time, earlier conflicts are repressed and sexual urges divert into hobbies and a large focus on making same sex friends.
• Genital stage


  Occurs from puberty onwards when the focus of the libido is the genitals. The individual wants to develop healthy adult relationships but this can only take place if the other stages were completed successfully.
• Outline the Little Hans case study

  Little Hans was a 5 year old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing a horse pulling a carriage fall over and make loud noises. Freud explained the phobia through the Oedipus complex, suggesting that he wanted to possess his mother and was scared of his father due to castration anxiety. He then displaced the fear of his father onto the horse which had blinkers and black around the mouth like his father's glasses and beard.
• What is a limitation of the psychodynamic approach regarding it being deterministic?

  The approach is deterministic as it believes there is no such thing as an accident and everything, even a slip of the tongue is due to unconscious forces. This therefore suggests that we have no free will or control over our behaviours making its application limited.
• What is a strength if the psychodynamic approach regarding its practical applications for therapy?

  The approach has had practical application in the development of therapies such as marriage counselling which is based off of Freud's ideas that we need to talk about deep rooted, unconscious issues to resolve them.
• What is a limitation of the psychodynamic approach regarding its use of case studies?

  Freud's research is based off of a single case study on Little Hans. This was used to develop his theory about the electra and oedipus complex. However, case studies are conducted on individuals who are deemed psychologically abnormal. This therefore suggests that the approach lacks external validity and cant be generalised
• What is a limitation of the psychodynamic approach regarding its scientific credibility?

  It has been argued that Freud's theories don't meet the criteria to be considered scientific. This is because they are untestable as they are based on the unconscious mind. This therefore suggests that concepts such as defence mechanisms make the approach a pseudoscience and lower it validity.
• What is a strength of the psychodynamic approach regarding the attention it draws to the connection between childhood experiences and adult life?

  The approach draws attention to the connection between childhood experiences and how they have an impact on adult life. This allows for a deeper understanding of psychological processes which leads to further developments of treatments such as therapies. Therefore, it has real life application.