Psychodynamic approach.

• Influences of childhood experiences.
• Psychodynamic approach - personality is our unique character and Freud suggested that personality develops due to an interaction between our innate drives and our early experiences.
• IOCE - early childhood experiences have an effect on later development, aspects of our behaviour and emotions as adults can be linked to stages and events in childhood, frustration or overindulgence at certain stages are reflected in adult personality types.
• Psychosexual stages - at each stage the libido is attached to a part of the body, there are 5 stages 1-3 are the most important for determining personality, overindulgence or frustration can lead to fixation.
• Oral stage - 0-1 years old, the id is present, libido is focussed on the mouth and pleasure is gained from biting, sucking and chewing. Major life events breastfeeding and weaning onto solid foods. Problems at this stage can lead to fixation meaning specific personality traits. Overindulgence - someone needy, gullible, optimistic. Frustration - pessimistic, jealous, smokes or bites nails.
• Anal stage - 1-3 years old, libido focussed on anus, major life events is potty training, conflict affects adults personality. Fixations too much expulsion or retention. Anal retention - child doesn't potty regularly, holds on, leading to overly tidy adults. Anal expulsion - child potties too much, leads to overly reckless and messy adult.
• Phallic stage - libido focussed on genitals. Oedipus complex - boys feels sexually attracted to mother, sees father as love rival, wishes to kill father, feels guilt so takes on fathers behaviours, development of the superego. Electra complex - girls develop penis envy for what boys have, blame their mothers for it, fathers become love object, swap penis envy for a wish to have children, resolves conflict with mother development of the superego. Fixation at this stage leads to adults being narcissistic (self-absorbed) difficulty maintaining and building relationships with others.
• Latency stage - 6-12 years old, libido is dormant, children spend time developing non-sexual activities, no fixation at this stage.
• Genital stage - puberty upwards, libido is focussed on genitals, explore sexual relationships with others if child passed through previous stages with no fixation able to build normal relationship with opposite sex.
• The unconscious mind.
• The unconscious mind - ice berg, underneath the surface has the greatest influence, drives from unresolved conflict, stored in our unconscious mind, much of our behaviour goes into later life, provokes anxiety, ego the conscious part of the mind defends itself from anxiety with various ego defense mechanisms.
• Defence mechanisms - repression - pushing painful memories deep down into the unconscious mind known as motivated forgetting - during oedipus complex aggressive thoughts about the same sex parents are repressed.
• Defence mechanisms - displacement - satisfying an impulse (e.g. aggression) with a substitute object - someone who is frustrated by their boss at work may go home and kick the dog.
• Projection - undesirable thoughts attributed to someone else - you might hate someone but your superego believes this is unacceptable and so you turn it into 'they hate me'.
• Tripartite personality.
• The id is from birth, the ego is from around 2 years old, the superego is from around 4 years old.
• The adult personality has 3 parts that all develop in different parts of their life.
• The ID - part of the personality structure that includes humans basic needs and instinctual drives, sex, hunger, aggressiveness, based on pleasure principle to avoid pain/displeasure, to obtain pleasure.
• The ego - develops at 2, the conscious rational part of the mind, function is to work out the realistic ways of balancing demands of the ID in a socially acceptable way, governed by the reality principle.
• The super ego - the last part of someone's personality to develop at 4 years old, sense of right and wrong, our ideal self, learned mostly through identification with parents, governed by morality principle.
• The ID and superego are in conflict and the ego acts as a referee to try and resolve the conflict, depending on the dynamics of the 3 we may display certain behaviours/traits.
• Dominant ID - impulsive and selfish.
• Dominant superego - excessive guilt.