Freud Psychodynamic Explanation of Aggression

• what is the unconscious mind?

  the part of the mind that we are unaware of and what is in it
• can the unconscious mind be accessed directly?

  no it cannot
• what is in our unconscious mind?

  aggressive and destructive urges
• describe repression

  prevents unacceptable desires, motivations and emotions from becoming conscious
• what are the parts of the mind?

  the Id, the ego and the superego
• can repressed memories impact our behaviour?

  yes it can influence our behaviour and motivations
• what is the id?

  basic biological instincts including aggressive and sexual drives - primitive part of our personality
• when is the id developed?

  present at birth - newborn infants have it and therefore entirely driven by the id
• what is the ego?

  part of the mind that protects the conscious mind from the thoughts that are too disturbing.

  ego has defence mechanisms - push into unconscious mind
• what does the ego try and do?

  balance the conflicting demands of the id and socially acceptable behaviour
• what is the superego?

  moral part of the self, tells us what right and wrong is and how we should behave
• when do we develop the superego?

  at the age of 6 we learn this from same sex parent
• what is the Oedipal conflict?

  repressed material into the unconscious mind and not accessible to conscious thought. helping the individual from anything traumatic and unable to deal with
• how did Freud believe we could access the unconscious mind?

  analysis of dreams and through a technique known as word association
• what can issues with the development of the ego or superego mean?

  problems managing the impulses of the id
• what is likely if a person is aggressive?

  the id is too dominant
• what is Thanatos?

  our aggressive drive that makes us destructive. this build up in pressure that can only be relieved by expressing aggressive nature.
• what is catharsis?

  • psychodynamic principle of emotional release
  • aggressive urges that are usually released through action/fantasy
• what are examples of releasing catharsis?

  watching an aggressive film or playing sport
• what are the limitations of Freud evidence?

  case study like little 'hans' and 'wolfman' - they had emotional and behavioural problems

  • hard to generalise as other studies had women from Austria and hard to generalise
• what scientific research investigated catharsis and what was found?

  children who watch aggressive/violent films they often imitate the aggressive behaviour (bandue 1963) they become more aggressive and not less
• do you think this is a very scientific explanation of aggression?

  • dream analysis and word association are open to subjective bias in interpretations of results
  • the theory cant be tested directly because we cant access the unconscious mind. therefore theory falsifiable