Psychodynamic approach

• The unconscious

  Freud suggested that the part of our mind that we know about and are aware of - the conscious- is the tip of the iceberg

  most of our mind is made of the unconscious , a store of biological drives and instincts that has influence on our behaviour and personality

  it contains memories that have ben repressed
• the Id

  the primitive part of our personality

  it operates on the pleasure principle

  the Id gets what it wants

  it is the unconscious drives and instincts

  only the Id is present at birth

  throughout life the Id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs
• the Ego

  works on the reality principle

  mediator between other 2 parts of personality

  Ego develops at age 2

  role is to reduce conflict between demands of Id and super ego
• super ego

  formed at the end of the phallic stage around age 5

  internalised sense of right and wrong

  based o morality principle

  represents moral standards of the child’s same-gender parents and punishes ego for wrongdoing through guilt
• psychosexual stages

  oral - focus of pleasure in mouth

  anal - focus of pleasure in anus

  phallic - focus of pleasure in genital area

  latency - earlier conflicts are repressed

  genital - sexual desires become conscious alongside onset of puberty
• psychosexual stages

  frued claimed child development occurred in 5 stages

  each stage is marked by a conflict that the child must resolve to move onto the next stage

  any psychosexual conflict that isnt resolved leads to fixation where the child becomes stuck and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through adulthood
• consequence of unresolved conflict

  oral- biting nails, critical, sarcastic

  anal retentive- perfectionist, obsessive

  anal expulsive- thoughtless and messy

  phallic personality - narcissistic, reckless

  genital- difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
• defence mechanisms

  ego has difficult job balancing conflict of Id and superego

  these defence mechanisms are unconscious, and ensure the ego is able to prevent us being overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas
• a strength of the psychodyamic explanation is its real world application

  a new form of therapy, psychoanalysis, was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically

  it claimed to help clients by bringing their repressed emotions into their conscious so it can be dealt with

  this is the basis of many modern day therapies
• however, it’s real world application has been criticised

  although freudian therapists have claimed success for many clients with mild neuroses, psychoanalysis is regarded as inappropriate, and even harmful for people experiencing more serious, mental disorders like schizophrenia
• a strength of this theory is its ability to explain human behaviour

  freuds theory is controversial in many ways and occasionally bizarre but has had a huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought

  it has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including personality development, psychological disorders, moral development, and gender identity

  it is significant in drawing attention to the connections between childhood an later development
• a limitation is that much of it is untestable

  it doesn’t meet the scientific criteria of falsification

  many of Freuds concepts are said to occur at an unconscious level making it very difficult to test

  his ideas were based on the subjective study of single individuals making it difficult to make universal claims