Psychodynamic approach

• 4 Assumptions

  • Unconscious activity is the key determinant of how we behave
  • Humans possess innate 'drives' (or 'instincts') that 'energise' our minds to motivate behaviour
  • Our personality is comprised of the id, ego, superego
  • Childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when we reach adulthood
• Conscious mind

  The part of our mind that we know about and are aware of
• Unconscious mind

  The part of the mind that we are unaware of but which continues to direct much of our behaviour
• Preconscious mind

  The part of our mind that includes thoughts, ideas, and memories that we may become aware of through dreams or slips of the tongue
• Focus of the psychodynamic approach

  To explain what is happening within our unconscious mind and how this can have an impact on our behaviour in society
• Id

  The primitive part of personality (entirely unconscious), operates on the pleasure principle, is selfish and demands immediate gratification, the only part of the tripartite structure of personality present at birth
• Ego

  Operates on the 'reality principle', mediates between the id and superego, reduces conflict between the demands of the id and the superego by employing defense mechanisms, develops around the age of 2 years
• Superego


  Operates based on the 'morality principle', represents moral standards of the child's same-sex parent and punishes the ego for wrongdoing, our internal sense of right and wrong, develops around the age of 5 years
• Psychosexual stages

  Freud's theory of child development occurring in 5 stages, each marked by a conflict that must be resolved before progressing to the next stage, unresolved conflicts can lead to fixations of certain behaviours
• Psychosexual stages

  • Oral (0-1 years)
  • Anal (1-3 years)
  • Phallic (3-5 years)
  • Latency (5 years - puberty)
  • Genital (puberty - adult)
• Oral stage

  Focus of pleasure is the mouth, unresolved conflict can lead to oral fixation (smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical)
• Anal stage

  Focus of pleasure is the anus, unresolved conflict can lead to anal retentive (perfectionist, obsessive) or anal expulsive (thoughtless, messy) personality
• Phallic stage

  Focus of pleasure is the genital area, unresolved conflict can lead to phallic personality (narcissistic, reckless) and Oedipus/Electra complexes
• Latency stage

  Repressed sexual desires, difficulty expressing emotions or forming relationships in the future
• Genital stage

  Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty, difficulty expressing and forming heterosexual relationships
• Denial

  Refusing to acknowledge some aspects of reality
• Displacement

  Transferring feelings from the true source of a distressing emotion onto a substitute target
• The psychodynamic approach introduced the concept of psychotherapy (instead of physical treatments), Freud brought into the world psychoanalysis (a new form of therapy)
• Psychoanalysis used techniques such as dream analysis to try and access the unconscious mind, the idea being that if we bring the unconscious thoughts to the conscious mind, they can be dealt with
• Psychoanalysis paved the way for many of the modern-day 'talking therapies'
• Despite the success of psychoanalysis, it has been deemed as inappropriate or even harmful, especially for those experiencing more serious mental health conditions such as schizophrenia
• Many of the symptoms of schizophrenia (paranoia, delusional thinking) mean those who have it can lose their grip on reality and cannot articulate their thoughts in a way required by psychoanalysis
• Freud's theory does not meet the scientific criteria of causability because much of it is based on the unconscious mind which cannot be accessed in order for it to be tested, and a lot of his research is based on case studies which we cannot generalise to the rest of the population
• The psychodynamic approach claims that much of our behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts rooted in childhood, Freud believed that there's no such thing as an accident and that even something as random as a slip of the tongue is driven by unconscious forces that have deep meaning
• Critics claim the psychodynamic approach's view of psychic determinism is an extreme view because it dismisses any possible influence of free will on behaviour
• Despite its controversies, the psychodynamic approach has had a huge influence on psychology and has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena (e.g. personality, psychological conditions, moral development)