Psychodynamic Approach

• Psychodynamic Assumptions


  Unconscious mind drives behaviour

  Childhood is critical in development

  Behavioural issues arise from unresolved, unconscious childhood conflicts
• 3 Parts of Mind

  Conscious (aware of)

  Preconscious (thoughts/memories not always accessible)

  Unconscious (unaware of)
• 3 Parts of Personality

  Id, ego and superego
• Id 


  Pleasure Principle

  Selfish and indulgent

  Develops from birth (oral stage)
• Ego


  Reality principle

  Balances id and superego

  Develops at 3-5 years (phallic stage)
• Superego


  Morality principle

  Responsible for guilt and safety

  Develops at 18 months - 5 years (anal and phallic stages)
• Libido


  Energy from primal survival/sexual instincts
• Fixation


  Energy left behind in previous psychosexual stage

  Either frustration or over-indulgence
• Internalisation


  Taking on the attitudes of another
• Psychosexual stages


  Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital
• Age in oral stage

  0 - 18 months
• Focus of libido in oral stage


  Mouth (breast-feeding)
• Fixations in oral stage


  Frustration: envy, pessimism, sarcasm

  Over-indulgence: optimism, gullibility
• Age in anal stage 


  18 months - 3 years
• Focus of libido in anal stage


  Anus (potty training)
• Fixations in anal stage 


  Frustration from strict potty training: stubbornness, tidiness

  Over-indulgence from lenient potty training: messiness, disorganisation
• Age in phallic stage


  3 - 5 years
• Focus of libido in phallic stage


  Genitals (due to Oedipus/Electra complexes)
• Fixation in phallic stage


  Frustration when haven't identified with same-sex parent: pride, recklessness, arrogance

  Over-indulgence: abnormal desires, relationship issues
• Age in latency stage


  5 years - puberty
• Latency focus


  None - just repress phallic stage
• Age in genital stage


  Puberty onwards
• Focus of libido in genital stage


  Genitals (for healthy sexual relationships)
• Oedipus Complex


  Boy becomes attracted to mother

  He wants to possess her and is afraid of his father - castration anxiety

  He internalises his father in order to overcome anxiety

  He shifts his attraction onto other women similar to his mother
• Electra Complex


  Girl attracted to her mother

  Upon discovering she has no penis, she becomes angry and resentful

  She believes it is her mother's fault she was castrated - penis envy

  She becomes attracted to her father and believes he can give her a substitute penis in the form of a baby boy

  She internalises her mother's behaviour to attract her father

  Her attention shifts onto men similar to her father
• Carl Jung


  Freud's student

  Created Electra Complex
• Denial


  Refusal to admit an unpleasant truth
• Repression


  Forgetting an unpleasant memory or the strong emotion associated with it
• Displacement


  Shifting an emotion directed at one person towards another person/thing
• Evaluation: Psychodynamic Approach


  Practical applications eg psychoanalysis

  Theories cannot be observed therefore cannot be falsified

  Overly deterministic - no such thing as an accident

  Only one case study (Little Hans) - lacks generalisability
• Little Hans


  Freud's case study for the psychodynamic approach
• Defence Mechanisms


  Denial, repression, and displacement.

  Unconscious mechanisms to protect the preconscious and conscious from distressing and unpleasant unconscious thoughts and feelings.

  Controlled by ego