Freud Psychodynamic

• Key Assumptions:

  1. Unconscious processes - unaware/determines our behaviour
  2. Tripartite personality - id, ego (defence mechanisms), superego
  3. Early childhood experiences determine adult behaviour
• Conscious: small amount of mental activity we know about - thoughts, perceptions
• Pre-conscious: things we could be aware of if we wanted or tried - stored memories/knowledge - becoming aware of things through dreams or slips of tongue e.g. teacher = miss but calling mum.
• Unconscious: unaware of and can’t become aware of - these are repressed memories - unconscious thoughts and feelings can have an effect on our behaviour.
• Psychic determinism: unconscious forces and drives are inborn and control or determine behaviour - everything we do/say has a cause.
• Behaviour is seen to be the result of a compromise between the three parts of the psyche ( personality ).
• ID - ‘I want to do that now’

  • Pleasure principle - id gets what it wants

  Only part that is present at birth

  Springs from two distinctive drives that all humans possess - Eros, fuelled by psychic energy called libido, and Thanatos which is the death instinct
• Ego - ‘maybe we can compromise’

  • Reality principle - assess reality of the external world and act appropriately

  Mediator between the other two part of the personality

  Develops around age of 2 years - reduces conflicts between id and superego

  Defends itself from id/superego struggles - defence mechanisms
• Superego - ‘it’s not right to do that’

  • Morality principle

  Conscience

  Opposes the desire of the id

  Enforces moral restrictions and battles against id impulses

  Develops later in childhood - towards end of Phallic stage - represents the moral standards of the child’s same-sex parent.
• Defence Mechanisms

  • Ego uses to protect it from id/superego conflicts
  • Repression, Denial, Displacement
• Repression

  Forcing distressing/threatening memory out of your unconscious mind.

  Any individual forgetting the trauma of their favourite pet dying.
• Denial

  Failing/refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality.

  Continuing to show up to work even though you’ve been sacked.
• Displacement

  Transferring feelings from the true object or an anxiety onto a substitute target or object.

  Slamming door after having a row with someone.
• Psychosexual Stages
• Oral 0-2 years

  Focus of pleasure on mouth, mother’s breast is object of desire.

  Oral fixation - smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical
• Anal 2-3 years

  Focus of pleasure is the anus, child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces.

  Anal retentive - perfectionist, obsessive

  Anal exclusive - thoughtless, messy
• Phallic 3-6 years

  Focus of pleasure is the genital area.

  Child experiences the Oedipus or Electra complex.

  Phallic personality - narcissistic, reckless, possibly homosexual
• Latency 6-12 years

  Earlier conflicts are repressed.
• Genital 12+

  Sexual desires become conscious, alongside the onset of puberty.

  Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
• Oedipus complex - Little Hans - want possession of mother and wants to get rid of his father ( id )

  • Castration anxiety from father ( ego )
  • Adapts to father’s morality ( superego )
• Electra complex - penis envy
• Fixation causes problems.
• -

  
• Scientific support

  Many critics have claimed that it is not scientific at all and is not testable or falsifiable 

  However!

  Many claims of psychoanalysis have been tested and many have been confirmed to use scientific methodology.

  Fisher and Greenberg ( 1996 ) summarised 2,500 of the undertaken studies, concluding that experimental studies of psychoanalysis ‘compare well with other studies relevant to major areas of psychology’ - adds scientific credibility to psychoanalytic explanations of human behaviour.
• Gender-biased approach

  Freud’s view on women and female sexuality was less developed than male sexuality

  Despite, his studies focusing on sexual development, he remained ignorant of female sexuality and how it may differ to male. 

  Karen Horney, a psychoanalyst, broke away for Freudian theory to criticise his work, not only because of how problematic his views were on women but because his theory is still so influential today.
• Culture-biased approach

  Sue/Sue ( 2008 ) argue that psychoanalysis has little relevance for those cultures that are non-Western.

  Psychoanalysts believe the right way to confront traumatic memories or mental disorders is to free the ‘locked’ memories in the unconscious through therapy.
• However!

  They claim that many cultural groups do not value insight in the same way that Western cultures do

  China, for example, if they feel depressed or anxious, they will avoid thoughts that do cause distress rather than be willing to discuss them openly. 

  This contrasts with the Western belief that open discussion and insight are always helpful in therapy.