psychodynamic

• Freud believed the mind was made of three parts

  1. Subconscious - what we are aware of
  2. Preconscious - thoughts we become aware of through slips of the tongue
  3. Unconscious - vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that influence our behaviour
• Freud believed the personality had three parts

  1. Id - primitive part of the personality which operates on the pleasure principle and demands instant gratification
  2. Ego - works on reality principle and is the mediator between the Id and Superego
  3. Superego - internalised sense of right and wrong which is based on the morality principle. It punishes the ego through guilt and opposes the Id. Appears at the age of 5
• 5 psychosexual stages

  1. oral (0-1yr) - pleasure focus is mouth and the object of desire is the mother's breast
  2. anal (1-3yr) - pleasure focus is the anus and the child gains pleasure from withholding and eliminating faeces
  3. phallic (3-6yr) - pleasure focus is the genital area. In this stage, boys develop incestuous feelings for mother ad murderous hatred towards father known as the oedipus complex. Girls at this age develop the electra complex where they experience penis envy
  4. latency - earlier conflicts are repressed
  5. genital (puberty) - sexual desires become conscious
• Each psychosexual stage is marked with a different conflict the child must resolve to move onto the next. Any conflict that is unresolved leads to fixation where the child becomes stuck and carries behaviours associated with that stage through to adult life.
• Defence mechanisms used by the ego to reduce anxiety

  1. repression - forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
  2. denial - refusing to acknowledge reality
  3. displacement - transferring feelings from their true source onto a substitute target.
• Evaluation

  One strength of this approach is it introduced psychotherapy. Freud's psychoanalysis was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically. Psychanalysis claims to help clients deal with everyday problems by providing access to their unconscious, employing techniques like dream analysis. therefore, psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern day talking therapies. However, psychotherapy is inappropriate and even harmful for some serious mental disorders like schizophrenia.
• Evaluation

  One strength is it has explanatory power. Freud's theory is controversial and often bizarre, but it has had a huge influence on contemporary thought. It has been used to explain a wide range of behaviours and drew attention to the influence of childhood on adult personality. This suggests that , overall, the psychodynamic approach has had a positive influence on psychology and modern day thinking.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is the untestable concepts. Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach doesn't meet the scientific criterion of falsification, in the sense that it can't be disproved. Many of Freud's concepts, like the Id, ego and superego are all unconscious making them difficult to test. This means Freud's ideas lack scientific rigour meaning some would argue the theory is pseudoscience rather than real science.