Pschodynamic Approach

• Psychodynamic approach is based on the idea that our personality, thoughts, feelings and behaviour are shaped by unconscious processes.
• The psychodynamic approach was developed by Sigmund Freud who believed that we have three levels of consciousness - conscious, preconscious and unconscious
• the role of the unconcious


  our conscious mind is merely the "tip of the iceberg"

  most of our mind is made up of the unconcious

  under ther surface of our concious mind is the preconscious

  
• the unconcious mind

  • the part of the mind which we are unaware of, but directs most of our behaviour
  • has significant influence on our behaviour and personality
  • contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed or locked away and forgotten
  • thses memories can be accessed during dreams or 'slips of the tongue' eg. calling teacher mum instead of miss
  • Freud called these parapraxes
• the conscious mind

  • the part of our mind we know about and are aware of
  • the 'tip of the iceberg'
• the preconcious mind

  • under the surface of our conscious
  • contains thoughts and memories which are not currently in conscious awareness but we can access if we want to
• the structure of the personality


  Freud described the personality as 'tripartite' composed of 3 parts
• 3 parts of the personality

  1. Id
  2. Ego
  3. Superego
• Id

  • primative part of our personality
  • operates on the pleasure principle
  • selfish, agreesive instincts which demand immediate gratification
  • only present at birth
  • Freud described babiues as being 'bundles of Id'
  • throughout life, Id is entirely selfish
• Ego

  • operates on the 'reality principle'
  • mediator between the id and superego
  • develops around 2yrs of age
  • role is to reduce conflict between the demands of the id and superego
  • manages this by using defence mechanisms
• Superego

  • formed at the end of the phallic stage, around 5yrs of age
  • our internalised sense of right and wrong
  • based on the morality principle
  • represents the moralistic part of our personality which represens the ideal self/ how we should be
• psychosexual stages


  child development occurs in 5 stages

  each stage (except latency) has a conflict which must be resolved in order to progress to the next stage

  any unresolved conflict leads to fixation which the child becomes stuck with and carries certain beahviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life
• psychosexual stages

  1. oral
  2. anal
  3. phallic
  4. latency
  5. genital
• oral stage

  • 0-1 yrs
  • focus- mouth --> mothers breast can be object of desire
  • consequnce of unresolved conflict - oral fixation --> smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical
• anal stage

  • 1-3 yrs
  • focus- anal pleasure --> gain pleasure from toilet training
  • consequence(1) - anally retentive --> perfectionist, obsessive
  • consequence(2)- anally explusive --> thoughtless, messy
• phallic stage

  • 3-6 yrs
  • oedipus+ electra complex
  • focus - genital area
  • consquence - phallic personality --> narcissistic, reckless
• latency stage

  • 5yrs- puberty
  • superego fully develops
  • earlier conflict repressed
  • no consequences
• gentital stage

  • sexual desires become concious alongside puberty
  • puberty to adulthood
  • consequnces - difficulty forming hetrosexual relationships
• mnemonic of psychosexual stages


  Old

  Aged

  Pensioners

  Like

  Guiness
• defence mechanisms


  unconcious strategies that the Ego uses to manage the conflict between the Id and Superego
• defence mechamisms

  1. repression
  2. denial
  3. displacement
• repression


  forcing a distressing memory out of the concious mind
• denial


  refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
• displacement


  transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
• little hans- aims


  aims- claimed that little boys develop feelings for their mother and hatred for their father (oedipus complex). boys repress their feeling for their mother and identify with their father, taking on his gender role and moral values. girls expirence 'penis envy' and desire thier father and haqte their mother. they are thought to give uo their desire for their farther overtime and replace this with a desire for a baby- identifying with thier mother.
• little hans- method


  method- 5yr old boy who developed a phobia or horses after seeing one collapse in the street. Freud suggested that little hans' phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred (displaced) onto horses.
• little hans- conclusion

  conclusion- Therefore, horses were just a symbolic representation of hans' real unconcious fear- castration anxiety
• A03- real world application

  • psychodynamic approach introduced idea of psychotherapy.
  • psychoanalysis- first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically. Claims to help by bringing repressed emotions into concious so they can deal with it
  • techniques to access the unconcious eg. dream analyisis
  • psychoanalysis brought about now talking therapies such as counselling
  • shows value of approach creating new approach to treatment
• A03- real world application counter

  • psychoananlysis is regarded as inaapropriate even harmful