psychodynamic approach

• The psychodynamic approach was developed by Sigmund Freud.
• The conscious mind contains everything you are currently thinking about.
• The preconscious mind contains everything you are not currently thinking about, that can easily be accessed.
• We can easily access information in the conscious and preconscious mind
• The unconscious mind can never be accessed when we are awake.
• The key assumption of the psychodynamic approach is that most of our behaviour is caused by the unconscious mind
• The personality is tripartite, containing the ID, ego and superego
• The ID wants instant gratification and is the impulsive, instinctive part of us
• The impulses caused by the ID come from the unconscious mind meaning we don't consciously think about them
• The ID is responsible for most of our behaviour
• The ID operates on the pleasure principle
• The superego operates on the morality principle and is responsible for following rules
• The superego is found in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind
• The ego mediates between the ID and superego and is based on the reality principle. Sometimes it compromises between the ID and superego, or sides with one of them.
• The ego is in the conscious and preconscious mind
• The superego is the part of the personality focused on rules and morals
• The ego is responsible for making decisions, which can happen in the conscious and preconscious mind
• The mind is a triparte structure: conscious, unconscious and preconscious
• Displacement is when the ego redirects the ID's impulses towards something else.
• Repression is when the ego pushes the impulse into the unconscious
• Denial is when the ego gives in to the ID, refusing to believe it has
• uncomfortable childhood experiences are locked in the unconscious mind, which means they are repressed
• Freud modelled how childhood experiences affect behaviour using 5 psychosexual stages
• Oral stage

  • 0-18 months
  • pleasure centres on the mouth
• Anal stage

  • 18 months- 3 years
  • pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination
  • anally retentive - nervous about using toilet
  • anally expulsive - keen to use toilet
• The Oedipus complex is where a boy becomes sexually attracted to his mother, becoming jealous of his father.
• Phallic stage

  • 3 - 6 years
  • pleasure zone is the genitals
  • oedipus and electra complex
  • girls have penis envy and don't trust their mother
• The Electra complex is where a girl becomes sexually attracted to her father, becoming jealous of her mother
• During the phallic stage, girls get penis envy and boys get castration anxiety
• Psychosexual fixation is when repressed psychological trauma affects behaviour
• Oral fixation causes an adult to be overly dependent, and have habits like smoking and nail biting
• anally retentive fixation causes an adult to be neat and organised, and careful with their money
• anally expulsive fixation causes an adult to be overly emotional, including being very angry
• phallic fixation causes an adult to be jealous and anxious
• latent stage

  • 6-12
  • dormant sexual feelings
  • ID not focused on any one part of the body
• genital stage

  • 12- adulthood
  • maturation of sexual interests
• Support for psychosexual stages from case study of Little Hans. Hans was 5 and Freud found evidence he was in the phallic stage. He also had an unresolved oedipus complex.
• A strength is that Freud was one of the first psychologists to investigate psychological causes for psychological disorders. Freud identified childhood experiences as a cause of psychological disorders, which is an idea still used in therapy in contemporary society. This is beneficial as the psychodynamic approach had a significant impact for future psychology.
• A strength of the psychodynamic approach is that it is idiographic and nomothetic. It is idiographic because it uses case studies to focus on individual experiences. It is nomothetic because it proposes general theories about behaviour, such as the tripartite structure of personality. This is beneficial as it strikes a balance between being idiographic and nomothetic.
• A limitation is that the approach is not scientific. Freud's research used a lot of case studies of patient's dreams. These interpretations were not based on empirical evidence, because there was no way of directly observing the unconscious mind. This is a limitation as Freud's theory is unfalsifiable.