psychodynmic

• the three psychodynamic assumptions are :

  • influence of childhood experience
  • tripartite personality
  • unconscious mind
• Freud suggested that our childhood experiences shape our adult personality
• in our childhood experiences we go through developmental stages called psychosexual stages
• Each stage is associated with a body part that is the source of pleasure (libido)
• oral, anal, phallic, latentcy, genitals
• any problems at the stages can result in a child becoming fixated
• eg. harsh potty training in the anal stage can lead to someone whos overly tidy
• the mind is like an iceberg
• the conscious part is merely the tip, and under is the pre-conscious and the large unconscious
• the unconscious is illogical and ruled by pleasure seeking
• included in the unconscious are ego defense mechanisms
• these keep disturbing or threatening material from coming from the unconscious into conscious awareness
• eg. repression is an ego defense mechanism which pushes painful memories into the unconscious
• the third assumption is that behaviour can be influenced by the tripartite personality
• Freud stated that our personality consists of three parts
• the id , the ego and the superego
• the id is what we are born with and is impulsive and pleasure seeking
• the ego is conscious and rational and balances the id and super ego
• the superego is concerned with right and wrong and contains our ideal self
• the id and the superego are often in conflict and the ego acts as a referee
• depending on the dynamics of these parts, we may display certain behaviours
• eg. a dominant id may make a person more selfish