Psychodynamic approach

• Overall assumptions:

  • place emphasis on the unconscious mind
  • most behaviour stems from early childhood experiences
  • influential psychologists: Freud
• The unconscious mind:

  1. function is to protect the conscious self from fear or trauma
  2. Therefore, the unconscious mind keeps these hidden through several different defence mechanisms
  3. 2. Another function that Freud believes it is the driving force behind out behaviour/personality
  4. This is because traumatic memories drive our behaviour
• The Tripartite structure of personality:

  • Our personality is made up of three parts: id, ego and superego
  • id - (0-18months) know as pleasure principle + focuses on self, irrational + emotional and deals with feelings and needs, seeks pleasure + is part of the unconscious mind
  • ego- (18months-3years) known as reality principle - rational part of personality - balancing the id and superego - conscious part
  • superego - (3-6years) known as morality principle - acts as the conscience or moral guide based on parental or societal values - part of unconscious mind
• Defence mechanisms:

  Functions:

  1. help the ego manage the conflict between the id and superego
  2. provide compromise solutions
  3. provide a strategy to reduce anxiety

  overuse of defence mechanisms can be unhelpful + lead to abnormalities such as drinking
• Defence mechanisms:

  • Denial - refusing to acknowledge reality
  • Displacement - taking out your emotions on a substitute object or expressed to alternative person
  • Repression - unpleasant memories are pushed down to the unconscious mind
• Defence mechanisms A03: WEAKNESS

  I: case studies - people have remembered traumatic memories

  E: repression suggest people are unable to access unpleasant memories however, some people can which contradicts the idea that the unconscious mind can repress them completely

  C: does not explain how some case studies have found people to recall unpleasant memories or trauma
• Defence mechanisms A03: WEAKNESS

  I: unfalsifiable and unscientific concepts

  E: unconscious process so cannot be studied directly and empirically as the refusal to acknowledge reality is very subjective to each person

  C: cannot be certain it is true as it cannot be scientifically tested which means its subjective
• Psychosexual stages:

  If we are frustrated/deprived or over-indulged, we may become fixated (stuck) in that stage - affects adult behaviour

  1. Oral (0-1years) : focus of pleasure is the mouth + mother's breast is focus of desire : oral fixation leads to chain smoking, biting nails in adulthood
  2. Anal (1-3years) : focus of pleasure is the anus - child gets pleasure by either withholding or expelling faeces : anal retentive - perfectionist, OCD or anal expulsive - messy
  3. Phallic (3-5years) : focus of pleasure is on genital area - boys go through Oedipus complex + girls go through Electra complex
• Psychosexual stages:

  4. Latency (6-11years) : previous conflicts are resolved or repressed + early years are largely forgotten : no effect on adult behaviour

  5. Genital (12years) : sexual desires become conscious with the onset of puberty : difficulty with relationships
• Psychodynamic approach A03: STRENGTH

  I: led to effective therapy for abnormality of psychoanalysis

  E: involves dream analysis which is about uncovering repressed traumas from the unconscious mind - this helps with anxiety or depression

  C: ideas of unconscious mind and defence mechanisms have helped develop a therapeutic technique to help people with daily struggles
• Psychodynamic approach A03: WEAKNESS

  I: unscientific + unfalsifiable

  E: Freud's explanation is difficult to test as it cannot be studied directly e.g. the idea of denial is subjective to each person and cannot be studied empirically

  C: concepts within the approach are not testable to be certain that they are explanations of human behaviour
• Psychodynamic approach A03: WEAKNESS

  I: too much emphasis on the past

  E: Freud over emphasised childhood influences at the expense of adult ones - even if childhood does play a part we cannot ignore adult experiences that might contribute to behaviour

  C: cannot prove only childhood experiences play a part in behaviour and ignores other important explanations such as adulthood
• Psychodynamic approach A03: WEAKNESS

  I: psychically deterministic

  E: suggests that our behaviour is predetermined by the unconscious mind and childhood experiences. This allows us to predict and determine future behaviour from fixation on psychosexual stages.

  However, it neglects individual differences and we will each respond differently to psychosexual stages

  C: ignores the role of free will and an adult's ability to make conscious choices about their life