psychodynamic approach

• Psychodynamic Approach


  Monday 13th November
• Behaviourist approach


  Assumes behaviours are explained in terms of observation and learning (classical and operant conditioning)
• Limitation of the behaviourist approach is that it has a mechanistic view of behaviour and ignores mental processes
• Introspection


  First experimental psychology breaking up own process of thinking/ looking within
• Schema


  Mental shortcut/structures that represent aspects of world
• The psychodynamic approach emphasises our unconscious thoughts and aims to understand how these thoughts conflict with our experiences, i.e., biological, societal and those from early childhood
• Psychodynamic approach


  9/3/20XX
• What you are expected to know by spec

  • The role of the unconscious, the structure of personality (Id, Ego and Superego), defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages
• Sigmund Freud


  Psychiatrist, neurologist and key pioneer of the psychodynamic approach (including his psychoanalytic theory of personality)
• Freud theorised that our mental activity is mostly unconscious, and it is this unconscious activity that causes our behaviour
• Freud explained that traumatic childhood experiences pushed into the unconscious mind can later lead to mental disorders, and developed 'talking cures' (psychoanalysis, or more generally termed psychotherapy) to help release problematic repressed memories and relieve symptoms
• Assumptions of the psychodynamic approach

  • Unconscious activity is the key determinate of how we behave
  • We possess innate 'drives' (or 'instincts') that 'energize' our minds to motivate behaviour as we develop through our lives
  • Our [three-part] personality - the psyche - is comprised of the ID, Ego and Superego
  • Childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when we reach adulthood
• Conscious


  Part of our mind that we know about (tip of iceberg)
• Unconscious


  Most of our mind, storehouse of biological drives and instincts, contains repressed threatening and disturbing memories, can access through dreams or 'slip of tongue' (parapraxes)
• Structure of personality


  • ID - driving us to satisfy selfish urges (i.e. acts according to the 'pleasure principle') (exists from birth)
  • Ego - acts rationally, balancing the ID and the superego (i.e. acts according to the 'reality principle') (develops years 2-4)
  • Superego - concerned with keeping to moral norms (i.e. acts according to the 'morality principle'), and attempts to control a powerful ID with feelings of guilt (develops years 4-5)
• The biological approach assumes all behaviours can be explained through biological basis such as genetics, central nervous system or hormonal
• Genotype


  Genetic code
• Biological psychologists research behaviour through twin studies
• Cognitive approach


  Assumes all of us have internal mental process. They are private and therefore studied indirectly.
• Behaviourist approach


  Behaviour is explained through what is observable and in terms of learning
• Psychosexual Stages


  Monday 13th November
• Home learning: Describe two assumptions of the psychodynamic approach, explain the psychodynamic assumption "The unconscious mind", explain the psychodynamic assumption "Tripartite Personality", name one part of personality and explain its function
• Ego Defence Mechanisms


  • Repression - burying an unpleasant thought or desire in the unconscious
  • Displacement - emotions are directed away from their source or target, towards other things
  • Denial - a threatening thought is ignored or treated as if it were not true
• Freud was interested in the role of infant sexuality in child development. He recognised that this approach may have appeared strange to people unfamiliar with his ideas but observed that it was inevitable for a psychoanalyst to see this as important.
• The case focused on little Hans's psychosexual development, and it played a key role in the formulation of Freud's ideas within the Oedipus Conflict, such as the castration complex.
• Psychosexual Stages


  • Oral - sucking behaviour (0-18 months)
  • Anal - holding or discarding faeces (18 months - 3.5 years)
  • Phallic - fixation on genitals (3.5 - 6 years)
  • Latency - repressed sexual urges (6 years - puberty)
  • Genital - awakened sexual urges (puberty onwards)
• Oedipus Complex


  Freud proposed that during the phallic stage of personality development, boys experience the Oedipus complex. At around age 3 or 4, the young boy begins to desire his mother and wants her complete attention. This means he sees his father as a rival and wishes he was dead. This then creates anxiety and the repressed fear that his father will castrate him. The complex is eventually resolved by the boy's identification with his father. It is at this point that the superego is formed.
• Electra Complex


  The Electra complex was proposed by Carl Jung (a neo-Freudian). During the phallic stage, a little girl desires her father and realises that she does not have a penis. This leads to the development of penis envy and the desire to be a boy. This is resolved by the girl repressing her desire for her father and substituting the wish for a penis with the wish for a baby.
• Freud claimed that, during development, becoming fixated on one of these stages would restrict full development result in displaying specific personality symptoms.
• Freud proposed that during the phallic stage of personality development, boys experience the Oedipus complex.
• The Electra complex was proposed by Carl Jung (a neo-Freudian). During the phallic stage, a little girl desires her father and realises that she does not have a penis. This leads to the development of penis envy and the desire to be a boy.
• Freud claimed that little girls blame their mothers for their 'castrated state', which creates great tension. However, these feelings are repressed in order to remove the tension, and instead a little girl identifies with her mother and internalises her mother's gender identity, so that it becomes her own.
• Freud believed that the horse was a symbol for his father, and the black bits were a moustache.
• Evaluation of the psychodynamic approach

  • Strength: It has been hugely influential in western schools of thought, used to explain abnormality, development of personality, moral development and gender, significance of childhood experiences, real life application in talking therapy
  • Weakness: Uses the case study method, based on studying single individuals often in therapy, cannot make universal generalisation, lacks scientific rigour, not open to empirical testing, cannot test the Id Ego and Superego, considered a pseudoscience, psychoanalysis can be harmful for those with more serious mental difficulties
• Psychodynamic approach can explain certain cultural differences. Depending on where you've been raised and who you identify with can influence development of personality.
• Psychic determinism


  Do you agree?