Psychodynamic

• Our behaviour and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives 
• • Personality exists in 3 parts
• Adult behaviour and feelings are rooted from childhood experiences 
• The Unconscious Mind

  contains disturbing memories that have been repressed / forgotten 
• conscious = thoughts + perceptions

  preconscious = memory + stored knowledge

  unconscious = instincts + fears + selfish motives

  
• According to Freud, the mind is mostly made of the unconscious 
• The id 

  • Only part present at birth
  • The pleasure principle 
  • Unconscious drives + instincts 
  • Selfish, demands instant gratification
• The ego 

  • Develops at around 2
  • The reality principle 
  • Balances the id and superego
  • Uses defence mechanisms 
• The superego

  • Formed around 5 
  • The morality principle 
  • Represents the ideal-self 
  • Represents moral standards of the same sex parent
  • Punishes the ego for wrong doing (guilt) 
  • Internalised sense of right and wrong 
• Psychosexual stages 

  • Child development occurs in 5 stages 
  • A stage must be resolved before a child moves on to the next stage 
  • Unresolved stages leads to fixation, carries certain behaviours into adulthood
• Old 

  Age

  Pensioners 

  Like 

  Gin 
• Repression

  Forcing a memory out of the mind 

  Denial 

  Refusing to acknowledge some aspect or reality 

  Displacement

  Transfers feelings from source onto a substitute target 
• Oedipus complex 

  • Develops at phallic stage 
  • Boys have feeling for mother
  • Want to murder father 
  • Fear father will castrate them 
  • Feelings for mother repressed
  • Identify with father 
• Little Hans 

  • 5 year old
  • Phobia of horses 
  • Father appointed Freud 
  • Freud stated Hans was afraid of his father
  • Displaced his fear onto horses 
• Electra complex 

  • Develops at phallic stage 
  • Girls have penis envy 
  • Desire father because of penis envy 
  • Hates mother 
  • Loses desire for father over time 
  • Desires a baby 
• + Practical application 

  • Freud devised psychoanalysis - therapy that aims to access the unconscious 
  • The formed the basis of modern-day therapies and has been shown to be effective at treating mild neuroses

  Therefore, there is human benefit to the psychodynamic approach and its subsequent therapy 
• -- Poor methodology 

  • Based on case studies, makes the samples unusual 
  • Cannot be generalised or repeated, causes a lack of reliability 
  • Interpretaitions were highly subjective 

  Therefore, Frued's methods lack scientific rigour