Freud's psychodynamic explanation

• What is the iceberg representation?

  • Conscious is the top of the iceberg, it includes thoughts, memories and desires.
  • Subconscious is the middle of the iceberg, is is hidden unless we search for it.
  • Unconscious is the bottom of the iceberg, it includes emotions, beliefs and influences thinking/feeling.
• Iceberg

  • Material is repressed into the unconscious.
  • We don't repress things on purpose; it happens unconsciously.
  • This helps protect people for trauma.
  • Freud believed the source of mental health problems lay in the unconscious.
  • Therapy is needed to uncover unconscious thoughts and stop them from influencing behaviour.
• Innate drives

  • Eros: life instinct, known as libido, focuses on preservation and enjoyment of life and sexual energy, inhibits death instinct.
  • Thanatos: death instinct, drive towards death/destruction that is directeded towards the self, provides energy for the ego to inhibit sexual instinct.
  • Human behaviour is seen as an interaction between the two; thanatos is directed at others instead of ourselves, resulting in aggression.
• Personality development

  • Id (it in latin): innate, driven by eros and thanatos, requires immediate gratification, in the unconscious.
  • Ego (i in latin): developed at around 2, mediator for id and superego, driven by reality principle, controls impulses from id.
  • Superego (above i in latin): develops between 3-6, operates on morality principle, feels pride for acting correctly (ego-ideal), feels guilt for acting incorrectly (conscience).
• Controlling urges

  • Displacement - emotions are redirected to another person or object.
  • Reaction formation - adoption of direct opposite feelings to deny real ones.
  • Denial - refusing to accept reality by not perceiving/denying that it exists.
  • Repression - unconscious defence mechanism to hide disturbing or threatening thoughts.
• Catharsis

  • The process of releasing negative energy.
  • Helps to; vent aggression, release emotions, satisfy violent impulses etc.
  • Suppressing catharsis can lead to violent outbursts.
• Verona and sullivan (2008)

  • Laboratory experiment.
  • Aim - to find out if acting aggressively is cathartic for an individual.
  • Procedure - ppts put into a stressful situation then, half were allowed to press a shock button and half were not.
  • Results - the half that got to press the shock button had a reduction in their aggression but were more aggressive to the blast of hot air.
  • Conclusion - acting aggressively reduces tension but not aggressive drive.
• Evaluation

  • Strength - verona and sullivans study provides and objective measure.
  • C/A - it disputes catharsis as it shows that cathartic activities only reduce tension, not aggressive drive, because of how the group responded to the hot hair.
• Evaluation

  • Strength - accounts for individual differences, for example in the development of the ego through different methods of primary socialisation.
  • C/A - it is simultaneously reductionist because it assumes aggression stems from a dominant id and ignores other factors like brain structure.
• Evaluation

  • Strength - application; used to prevent a build up of destructive, aggressive energy in a harmless way.