8: Psychodynamic approach

• The unconscious


  The part of the mind that we have no awareness of
• The structure of personality:

  id, ego, superego
• 5 psychosexual stages


  oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, genital stage
• Defence mechanisms


  Repression,denial,displacement
• Freud said...


  Most of our mind is unconscious

  
  

  The unconscious is a storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has an impact on personality

  
  

  It also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed to avoid further distress
• What did Freud call the "slip of the tounge"

  Parapraxes- they reveal what you are actually thinking.
• ID


  Entirely unconscious, the id is made up of selfish aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification.
• SUPEREGO


  The moralistic part of personality which represents the ideal self, and moral standards.
• EGO


  operates on the reality principle and balances demands of the ID and SUPEREGO
• Oral description and fixation

  0-1 years

  Pleasure in the mouth

  Mothers breast object for desire

  "Over or under fed"

  Oral personality- smoking,nail biting,sarcasm,critical of others.
• Anal description and fixation

  1-3 years

  Pleasure centre in anus

  Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces

  "Too strict or liberal"

  Anal personality- retentive+expulsive
• Phallic description and fixation

  3-5 years

  Focus on genital area

  Boys-Oedipus complex

  Girls-electra complex

  "Dominant mum or no father figure"

  Phallic personality-narcissistic,reckless,homosexual
• Latency description


  Earlier conflicts repressed
• Genital description and fixation

  From puberty

  Sexual desire becomes conscious and directed to intimate heterosexual relationships

  Genital personality-problems forming heterosexual relationships
• The Oedipus complex


  Boys-unconsciously develop incestuous feelings towards mother

  
  

  Murderous feelings towards father

  
  

  Fear castration + repress feelings more mother and identify with father

  
  

  Adopt fathers moral values and gender roles (superego)
• The electra complex


  Girls- penis envy

  
  

  Unconsciously desire their father

  
  

  Unconsciously hate their mother

  
  

  Give up desire for father and identify with mother

  
  

  Desire for father replaced for desire with baby
• Repression (defence mechanism)


  Forcing and distressing memory out the unconscious mind
• Denial (defence mechanism)


  Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
• displacement (defense mechanism)


  Transferring feelings from the true source of distress to substitute target
• The case of little Hans

  fear of horses after seeing one collapse in street, fear of castration, Freud determined Oedipus complex was root of fear
• Strength- explanatory power


  Explanatory power

  
  

  Offers explanations for personality,abnormality

  and gender

  
  

  Important in making connection between childhood experiences and later development, however it is pessimistic
• Freud believed humans exist somewhere between...


  Common unhappiness and absolute despair
• Strength- case studies


  Evidence from case studies

  (Little Hans,Anna O)

  
  

  Findings cannot be generalised

  
  

  Universal claims cannot be made from small number of abnormal individuals

  
  

  Highly subjective

  Scientific rigour
• Weakness- untestable concepts


  Popper said this approach does not process the criteria for being a science

  
  

  Lack of falsification

  
  

  Impossible to ever prove theory incorrect

  
  

  Pseudoscience (false science)

  
  

  Never tested empirically
• Strength- practical applications

  Psychoanalysis

  
  

  Access the unconscious-

  Dream analysis, hypnosis, free association

  
  

  Helpful with mildly neurotic patients

  
  

  But not those suffering with things like schizophrenia
• Weakness- psychic determinism


  Freud said no such thing as an accident

  
  

  Freudian slips driven by unconscious

  
  

  He said deep symbolic meanings and drives exist in the unconscious

  
  

  Rooted in childhood

  
  

  Free will is an illusion- humanistic approach disagrees