Psychodynamic Approach

• What is the main purpose of the psychodynamic approach?

  The psychodynamic approach to psychology emphasises our unconscious thoughts and aims to understand how these thoughts conflict without experience i.e. biological, societal and those from early childhood
• What are the basic assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?

  Unconscious activity is the key determinitne of how we behave

  
  

  We possess innate drives that ‘energize’ our minds to motivate behaviour as we develop through our lives

  
  

  Our (three-point) personality is comprides of the ID, Ego and SuperEgo

  
  

  Childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when we reach adulthood
• What are the research methods used in the psychodynamic approach?

  Case studies using:

  - Dream interpretation: expressing immediate unconscious thoughts as they happen

  - Free association
• What is the unconscious mind?

  Things we are unaware of and can not become aware of e.g. unacceptable sexual desires, violent motives, childhood trauma, shameful experiences
• What are the key roles of the unconscious?

  Driving, motivating force behind our behaviour and personality

  
  

  Protects the conscious self from trauma and conflict
• What is the ID?

  Known as the pleasure principle. Driving us to satisfy selfish urges (exists from birth).
• What is the Ego?

  Known as the reality principle. Acts rationally, balancing the ID and the superego (develops years 2-4). Defence mechanisms are activated when triggered by the ego. To deal with the conflict, it needs support from the other two parts of the personality: the id and superego.
• What is the SuperEgo?

  Known as the morality principle. Concerned with keeping to moral norms and attempts to control a powerful ID with feelings of guilt (develops years 4-5).
• What are defence mechanisms?

  These are mainly unconscious and distort reality, so anxiety is reduced.

  
  

  However, they are only temporary; the only way to deal with these situations is to directly confront them in therapy.

  
  

  Defence mechanisms can be psychologically damaging.
• What are the Three key defence mechanisms Freud proposed?

  Repression, Displacement, and Denial
• What is repression?


  burying an unpleasant thought or desire in the unconscious (e.g. traumatic childhood experiences may be repressed and so forgotten and stillbirth pain from mothers)

  
  

  Freud states that we unconsciously block out painful memories, such as a child blocking out memories of physical and sexual abuse.
• What is displacement?


  emotions are directed away from their source or target, towards other things/ acceptable targets (e.g. wringing a dishcloth in anger, which would have otherwise been directed at the cat scratching the furniture).
• What is denial?


  This is the refusal to accept reality.

  
  

  For example, an alcoholic refuses to accept they have a problem, even though they have been arrested several times and have lost their job and family.
• What are the strengths of the Little Hans Study?


  In depth and detailed.

  
  

  Led to the development of therapy – the ‘talking cure’.
• What are the weaknesses of the Little Hans Study?

  Unfalsifiable; not capable of being proved false

  
  

  Cannot generalise from a case study.

  
  

  Other more plausible explanations for his fear of horses - behaviourism.
• What is meant by psychosexual development?

  Freud believed that personality develops during early childhood through a series of stages.

  
  

  Each of us must pass through these childhood stages, and if we do not have the proper nurturing and parenting during a stage, we will be stuck, or fixated, in that stage, even as adults.

  
  

  These stages are: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
• What is the oral stage?

  In the oral stage (birth to 1 year), pleasure is focused on the mouth.

  
  

  Eating and the pleasure derived from sucking (nipples, pacifiers, and thumbs) play a large part in a baby’s first year of life.

  
  

  According to Freud, an adult who smokes, drinks, overeats, or bites their nails is fixated in the oral stage of their psychosexual development; where fixation tendencies seek to ease anxiety.
• What is the anal stage?


  After passing through the oral stage, children enter what Freud termed the anal stage (1-3 years).

  
  

  In this stage, children experience pleasure in their bowel and bladder movements, so it makes sense that the conflict in this stage is over toilet training.

  
  

  Freud suggested that success at the anal stage depended on how parents handled toilet training.

  
  

  A number of personalities can happen if training is handled badly - anal-retentive and anal-expulsive personalities.
• What is the phallic stage?


  Freud’s third stage of psychosexual development is the phallic stage (3–6 years), corresponding to the age when children become aware of their bodies and recognise the differences between boys and girls.

  
  

  The erogenous zone in this stage is the genitals.

  
  

  The conflict arises when the child feels a desire for the opposite sex parent, and jealousy and hatred toward the same-sex parent.

  
  

  For boys, this is known as the Oedipus complex and for girls, the Electra complex.
• What is the latency stage?


  Following the phallic stage of psychosexual development is a period known as the latency period (6 years to puberty).

  
  

  This period is not considered a stage, because sexual feelings are dormant as children focus on other pursuits, such as school, friendships, hobbies, and sports.

  
  

  Children generally engage in activities with peers of the same sex. This consolidates a child’s gender-role identity.
• What is the Genital stage?


  The final stage is the genital stage (from puberty onwards).

  
  

  In this stage, there is a sexual reawakening as the incestuous urges resurface. But the young person redirects these urges to more socially acceptable partners (who often resemble the other-sex parent).

  
  

  People in this stage have mature sexual interests, which for Freud meant a strong desire for the opposite sex.

  
  

  Individuals who successfully completed the previous stages, reaching the genital stage with no fixations, are said to be well-balanced, healthy adults.
• What is the evidence for Freuds theory on psychosexual development

  Given that sex was a taboo topic, Freud assumed that negative emotional states (neuroses) stemmed from suppression of unconscious sexual and aggressive urges.

  
  

  For Freud, his own recollections and interpretations of patients’ experiences and dreams were sufficient proof that psychosexual stages were universal events in early childhood.
• What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?

  Freud highlighted a widely accepted link between childhood experience and adult characteristics.

  
  

  Case study methodology embraces our complex behaviour by gathering rich information, and on an individual basis – an idiographic approach – when conducting research.

  
  

  Some evidence supports the existence of ego defence mechanisms such as repression, e.g. adults can forget traumatic child sexual abuse (Williams, 1994).

  
  

  Modern day psychiatry still utilizes Freudian psychoanalytic techniques
• Development of the Superego

  • occurs at the Phallic stage of psychosexual development
  • arises through identification with same-sex parent
  • and internalisation of his / her moral standards
  • via resolution of Oedipus / Electra complex
• Little Hans


  was used in a case study to investigate his fear of horses after witnessing an accident. Freud's interpretation was based on his psychosexual theory of child development, and thus, Freud explained Little Hans' fears in terms of the Oedipus Complex.