Psychodynamic

Cards (10)

  • Influences of childhood experiences
    Early childhood experiences have an effect on later development
    • Aspects of our behaviour + emotions as adults can be linked to stages + events in childhood
    Frustration or overindulgence at stages can then be reflected In adult personality characteristics
    • During each stage libido (life force) is attached to a specific part of the body 
    • If a child becomes frustrated or overindulged at a stage it can lead to fixation - becoming stuck at a stage due to being too comfortable or not enough.
  • Oral stage(0-1 years old)-id part of personality is present
    • Libido is focussed on the mouth
    • Pleasure gained from biting, sucking and chewing
    • Major life events include breast feeding and weaning from milk to solid foods
    Frustration needy,gullible,optimistic
    Overindulgence pessimistic.jealous,smokes
    Anal stage(1-3 years old)-ego starts to develop
    • Libido is focussed in the anus
    • Major life events include potty training
    Anal retention(rarely uses potty) =overly tidy
    Anal expulsion (uses potty too much) = reckless,messy
  • Phallic stage(3-6 years old)-superego develops during this stage
    • Libido is focussed on the genitals
    • Major life events include Oedius complex for boys and Electra complex for girls
    • These happen unconsciously
    Oedipus complex
    • Boys sexually attracted to their mother
    • Sees father as love rival
    • Wishes to kill father which causes guilt
    • To resolve boys identify with father takes on his behaviour and values) to reduce guilt
    • Identification development of superego
  • Phallic stage(3-6 years old)-superego develops during this stage
    Electra complex
    • Girls develop penis envy which is an envy for what boys have
    Blame their mothers for this
    • Father become their love objects
    • Girls soon swap the envy for wish to have children
    • Identification with mother to resolve conflict development of a superego(weaker than a males)
    • Fixation at this stage leads to narcissistic behaviour
  • Latency stage(6-12 years old)
    • Libido is dormant(asleep/not active)
    • Children in this stage spent time developing non sexual activities e.g. school,friendship
    • No fixation at this stage
    Genital stage(puberty onwards)
    • Libido is focussed on genital
    • Explore sexual relationships
    • If passed through other stages with no fixations, able to build normal relationships with opposite sex
  • Tripartite personality
    • Freud believed the adult personality is split into three parts that develops at different stages
    The id
    Unconscious, primitive and present from birth
    • Represents our innate,biological drives and impulses
    • Operates on pleasure principle
    • Seeks immediate gratification of basic needs/hunger,sexual desires)
    Impulsive and ignores social norms or consequences
  • The ego
    • Around age 2
    Conscious and rational
    • Works on balancing demands of id and superego in a socially normal way
    • Governed by reality principle
    The superego
    • Around age 4
    • Sense of right and wrong
    • Contains our ideal self
    • Gained through identification with parent (inherit moral value from same sex parent)
    • Governed by morality principle
  • The id and superego are in conflict with one another
    When these are in conflict with one another the ego acts as a referee in order to resolve the conflict
    • Depending on the dynamic of the threes parts of the personality, different behaviour traits can be displayed
    Dominant id:
    Impulsive,selfish,irrational, uncontrollable
    Dominant superego:
    • Excessive guilt, very moralistic,judgemental
    Ego strength:
    • Well balanced, rational
  • The Unconscious Mind
    • Freud believe that the unconscious mind determines much of our behaviour, similar to an iceberg whatever goes on underneath of it has the greatest and biggest influence
    • In the unconscious mind, unconscious drives(pleasure,sex, aggression from the id) and any unresolved conflicts from childhood are stored
    Drives much if our behaviour in later life
    • Provokes anxiety within
  • The ego which is the conscious part of the mind, defends itself from the anxiety created with various ego defence mechanism
    Examples of defence mechanisms
    Repression
    Pushing painful memories deep down into our unconscious mind, sometimes known as 'motivated forgetting'
    Displacement
    Satisfying an impulse with a msubstitute object
    Projection
    Undesirable thoughts are attributed to someone else