psychodynamic

• 3 main elements


  1) role of the unconscious. 2) structure of personality. 3) defence mechanisms
• Structure of personality


  EGO (conscious). SUPEREGO (preconscious). ID (unconscious)
• Ego


  Works on the reality principle, Develops at age 2, Mediator between ID & superego
• Superego


  Occurs at phallic stage of psychosexual development, Internalised sense of right & wrong, based on the morality principle, Punishes the ego via feelings of guilt, Arises through identification & internalisation of same sex parent & their moral standard, appears around age 5
• ID


  Primitive part of personality, Operates on the pleasure principle, Demands instant gratification, Present at birth, Babies = 'bundles of ID'
• Defence mechanisms

  Provide compromise solutions to deal with unresolvable conflict, Provide a strategy to reduce anxiety (weakens ego's influence), The ego uses to try & balance the conflicts between the ID & superego
• Repression


  Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
• Denial


  Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
• Displacement


  Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
• Stages of development


  Freud claimed child development happens in 5 stages; each marked by a different conflict that must be resolved to progress to the next stage:any psychosexual conflict that isn't resolved/is disrupted leads to a fixation where the child becomes stuck & carries behaviours & conflicts associated with that phase through adult life - fixation could be due to trauma/ unpleasant experiences preventing them from moving on to the next stage
• 5 stages


  Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital
• Oral stage


  0-1 yrs. Pleasure centre = mouth. Cause of fixation: early weaning, deprivation of love & food. Results of fixation: smoking, nail biting, sarcasm
• Phallic stage


  1-3 yrs. Pleasure centre = anus. Cause of fixation: harsh toilet training, lax toilet training. Results of fixation: tidiness, obsessiveness, meanness
• Anal stage


  3-5 yrs. Pleasure centre = genital area. Cause of fixation: no father figure, very dominant mother. Results of fixation: self obsession, envy, sexual anxiety
• Oedipus complex/Electra complex


  The belief that young children experienced an unconscious desire for their opposite-sex parent, considered a necessary part of the phallic stage of psychosexual development
• Oedipus complex


  Boys have incestuous but unconscious feelings toward their mother & murderous hatred for their father, they have 'castration anxiety' so repress their feelings & identify with their father taking on his gender roles & moral value
• Electra complex


  Girls experience 'penis envy': girls desire their father as their penis is the primary love object, Freud said women are men without a penis', girls go against mother for 'sending her into the world so insufficiently equipped'
• Little Hans: method


  Qualitative data gathered by Hans' father through observations & conversations with his son, sent to Freud by letters
• Little Hans: findings


  From age 3 Hans showed interest in 'widdlers', both his own penis & the penis of the males, his mother threatens to have a doctor cut off his widdlers - leads to castration anxietyat age 4 developed fear of horses, Freud linked the horse to be a symbol of Hans' father, Hans was scared of the horse (father) & that it would bit (castrate) for his incestuous feelings towards his mother, the feelings for his mother were revealed through fantasies that he explained to his father, the phobia improved after his Oedipus was resolved
• Little Hans: conclusions


  Little Hans provided support of theory of psychosexual development & childhood sexuality - boys in the phallic stage experience development & childhood sexuality. Phobias are caused by unconscious anxiety being displaced onto harmless external objects. Hans is an example of unconscious determinism. Psychoanalysis was an effective treatment.
• Little Hans: evaluations - strengths 


  Strengths: in-depth qualitative date gained through observations & interviews so detailed conclusions.
• Little Hans: evaluations - weaknesses

  Weaknesses:Data gathered by Hans' father so may lack objectivity and be bias,Small sample size so can't be generalised to whole population, Ethnocentric
• Strengths


  Introduced psychotherapy: Freud's psychoanalysis was the 1st attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically instead of physically, psychoanalysis claims help clients deal with everyday problems by providing access to their unconscious, so is the forerunner of modern 'talking' therapy. Has had a huge influence on Western contemporary thought, used to explain a wide range of behaviours & drew attention to the influence of childhood on adult personality
• Psychoanalysis


  Inappropriate and harmful for more serious mental disorders, may not apply to mental disorders where the client has lost touch with reality
• Karl Popper: 'Psychodynamic approach doesn't meet the scientific criterion of falsification, as Freud's concepts occur at an unconscious level so are impossible to test, so it lacks validity as it can't be scientifically proven'
• Few psychologists accept the view that behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts as it leaves no room for free will beyond early childhood, so Freud's views were too extreme as most people do have a sense of control over their behaviour
• Results of fixation in Phallic stage

  Tidiness, obsessiveness, meanness