The psychodynamic approach

• Evaluation: Untestable concepts (limitation)

  Much of the approach is untestable.

  Karl Popper argued that the approach doesn't meet the scientific criterion of falsification, and not open to empirical testing.

  Many concepts were criticised as they are said to occur at an unconscious level, making them impossible to test.

  Ideas were based on the subjective study of single individuals, Little Hans, makes it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour.

  Freud's theory was pseudoscientific rather than an established fact.
• Evaluation: Explanatory power (strength)


  The ability to explain human behaviour.

  Remained a key force in psychology and has been used to explain a range of phenomena including personality development, origins of psychological disorders, moral developments.

  The approach is also significant in drawing attention to the connections between experiences in childhood and later development.

  The approach has had a positive impact on psychology.
• Evaluation: Real-world application (strength)


  It introduced the idea of psychotherapy.

  The first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically - range of techniques to access the unconscious, ie. dream analysis.

  Help clients by bringing their repressed emotions into their conscious mind so they can be dealt with.

  Shows the value of the approach in creating a new approach to treatment.
• Displacement


  Transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotions onto a substitute target.

  Eg. slamming the door after being told off by your parents.
• Denial


  Refusing to acknowledge some aspects of reality.

  Eg. continuing to turn up to work even though you've been sacked.
• Repression


  Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind into the unconscious mind.

  Eg. forgetting the trauma of your favorite pet dying.
• Defence mechanisms

  Repression, denial, displacement.

  Help the ego manage the conflicts between the Id and Superego and provide compromising solutions to deal with unresolved conflict.
• Little Hans case study

  Hans was a 5-year-old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse on the street. Freud suggested that Hans's phobia was a form of displacement in which he repressed fear of his father was transferred onto horses.

  Horses were a symbolic representation of Hans's unconscious fear - fear of castration experienced during the Oedipus complex.
• Electra complex


  In the phallic stage, little girls will experience penis envy: they desire their father - as the penis is the primary love object - and hate their mother.

  Give up their desire for their father over time and replace t his desire for a baby - identifying with their mother in the process.
• Oedipus complex


  In the phallic stage, little boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother and murderous hatred towards their father - fear that they will castrate them.

  Repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father - take on his gender role and moral values.
• Order of psychosexual stages

  Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital.
• Genital


  Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty.

  Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.
• Latency


  Earlier conflicts are repressed.
• Phallic


  3-6 years.

  Focus of pleasure is the genital area.

  Phallic personality - narcissistic, reckless.
• Anal


  1-3 years.

  Focus of pleasure is the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding or expelling faeces.

  Anal retentive - obsessive, perfectionist.

  Anal expulsive - thoughtless, messy.
• Oral


  0-1 years.

  Focus of pleasure is the mouth, mother's breast can be the object of desire.

  Oral fixation - smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical.
• Psychosexual stages

  Early childhood experiences determine adult personality. Each stage is marked by a different conflict that must be resolved, if conflict isn't resolved then it leads to a fixation that carries into adult life.
• The Superego


  This is our morals and is involved in making us feel guilty. Develops around 3-6 years (at the end of the phallic stage).

  Based on the morality principle, determines which behaviours are permissible and causes feeling of guilt when rules are broken - based on parental and societal values.
• The Ego


  Acts as a rational part known as the reality principle. Develops between 18 moths and 3-years. Balances the impulsive demands of the Id and moralistic demands of the Superego. Uses defence mechanisms to cope with the demands and to mediate conflicts between Superego and Id and to protect the conscious from anxiety.
• The Id


  Primitive part of personality that contains innate biological urges. It wants to be satisfied by whatever means possible, obeys the pleasure principle. Present from birth. Wants immediate gratification and seeks pleasure.
• Structure of personality

  Id, Ego, Superego
• Free association


  Patients say whatever comes to mind - they aren't to censor what they say.
• Dream analysis


  Analysing the latent content (the underlying meaning) of manifest content (what was remembered from the dream).
• Accessing the unconscious mind


  Thoughts and memories can be accessed via 'slips of the tongue' (parapraxes), dream analysis or free associations.
• Unconscious mind


  The driving or motivating force behind our behaviour and personality. Contains disturbing, traumatic and unacceptable thoughts and memories - traumatic repressed memories drive our behaviour.

  Protects the conscious self from anxiety, fear, trauma and conflict by using defence mechanisms.
• Preconscious mind


  Contains memories and store knowledge which are not in conscious awareness but can be accessed/recalled is required.
• Conscious mind


  The part we're aware of is just the 'time of the iceberg' eg. what we see, hear, smell - thoughts and perceptions.
• Assumptions

  Human behaviour has unconscious causes, we're not aware of these.

  Behaviour is motivated by sexual and aggressive drives which create psychic energy.

  Different parts of the mind are in constant dynamic struggle with each other.