Psychodynamic approach

• assumptions?

  1. our behaviour + feelings as adults are rooted in our childhood experiences
  2. all behaviour has an unconscious cause, all behaviour is pre-determined
  3. the unconsious reveals itself through paraproxes of the tongue
• What is the structure of personality ?


  ID, EGO, SUPER EGO
• What is the ID ?

  • present from birth
  • unconscious
  • pleasure
  • requires immediate gratification
  • desire for sex + death
• What is the EGO ?

  • anal stage
  • mediator between ID + reality
  • reduce conflict
  • defence mechanisms
• What is the super ego ?

  • phallic stage
  • conscious + ego ideal
  • moral principles
  • with guilt
• What are the psychosexual stages ?

  • oral
  • anal
  • phallic
  • latency
  • genital
• Oral ?


  0-2

  • focus on mouth gratification
  • e.g feeding
  • leads to smoking
• Anal 


  2-3

  • focus on anal gratification
  • e.g pooping
  • perfectionist
• Phallic ?


  3-6

  • focus on genetils
  • child experiences Oedipus or electra complex
  • leads to homosexual/narcisistjc
• Latency ?


  6-12

  • focus on developing relationships with others + conflicts of previous stages are repressed
• Genital 


  12+

  • sexual desires become conscious (relationships)
  • difficulty forming betrothed- sexual relationships
• What are the defence mechanisms?

  • repression
  • Denial
  • displacement
• What is repression ?


  Force digressing memories out of the mind
• What is denial ?

  • refusing to accept reality to avoid psychological pain
• What is displacement ?

  Redirection of impulses away from real targets to substitute ones
• What are defence mechanism for ?

  ego uses to stop overwhelming temporary threats

  • conflicts of ID + super ego
• What are the 3 parts of the consious ?

  • conscious
  • pre-conscious
  • unconscious
• What is the conscious ?

  Aware + know about
• Unconscious ?

  • biological drives + instincts that control our behaviour + personality
  • threatening + disturbing memories
  • accsess through dreams
• What is the treatment ?


  psycho analysis

  • makes the unconscious conscious
• evaluation

  1. deterministic
  2. unscientific
  3. can’t generalise
• deterministic ?

  • rejects the idea of free will
  • persons behaviour is determined by their unconscious
• Unscientific ?

  • subjective
  • hard to test
  • fails to use objective methods
• Can’t generalise ?


  Developed in western society