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• The psychodynamic approach suggests that behaviour is determined by unconscious urges.
• There are four main aspects of the psychodynamic approach:

  • The role of the unconscious
  • The structure of the personality
  • Defence mechanisms
  • Freud's psychosexual stages
• The Role of the Unconscious

  Freud suggested that the mind is mainly unconscious, and the unconscious has biological drives and instincts which influence behaviour and personality. The mind also contains trauma memories which are repressed using defence mechanism and can arise through dreams or parapraxes, slips of the tongue. Under the conscious is the pre-conscious, which is thoughts and memories we can access if necessary.
• The Structure of the Personality

  Freud said that the personality consists of three parts:

  • The id: present at birth and drives urges to get what we want; the pleasure principle.
  • The superego: forms around 5 years at the end of the phallic stage and is our sense of right and wrong; the morality principle which represents the standards of same-sex parent and punishes the ego for wrongdoing.
  • The ego: mediates conflict between the wants (the id) and morals (the superego); the reality principle which forms around 2 years.
• Defence Mechanisms

  The ego uses defence mechanism to deal with conflict. These are unconscious and ensures that the ego prevents us from being overwhelmed by threats and trauma. However, they often distort reality and is not a good long-term solution.
• Freud's Psychosexual Stages

  • Oral
  • Anal
  • Phallic
  • Latency
  • Genital

  Each stage is marked by a different conflict that they need to resolve otherwise they cannot move onto the next stage and leads to fixation where they carry the behaviour and conflicts associated with the stage.
• Freud's Psychosexual Stages: Oral


  Occurs between 0-1 years and the object of desire is the mother's breast with the focus of pleasure being the mouth. If oral fixation is unresolved they will smoke, bite nails and be sarcastic and critical.
• Freud's Psychosexual Stages: Anal


  Occurs between 1 and 3 years. The focus of pleasure is the anus and children gain pleasure from withholding or expelling faeces. If this is unresolved, those who are retentive (withhold) will be perfectionists and obsessive, and those who are expulsive will be thoughtless and messy.
• Freud's Psychosexual Stages: Phallic

  Occurs between 3 and 6 years. The focus of pleasure is the genital area where the child experiences the oedipus (boys) or electra (girls) complex. The oedipus complex is when boys fancy their mum and hate their dad. The electra complex is when girls fancy their dads and hate their mum. If this is unresolved, they will be narcissistic, reckless and possibly homosexual.
• Freud's Psychosexual Stages: Latency

  Earlier concepts are repressed
• Freud's Psychosexual Stages: Genital


  Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty. If this is unresolved, they may have difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.
• Frued challenged the view that mental disorders are caused by physical illnesses and proposed that psychological disorders are the cause of physical illness
• Pre-Conscious

  Thoughts that occur just outside of awareness
• Unconscious


  Ruled by pleasure seeking and can't be directly accessed
• Accessing the unconscious


  • dream analysis
  • free association
• Instincts and Drives


  Instincts and drives motivate our behaviour. We are driven by instincts to go through stages in development. These drives or instincts are in the unconscious, cannot be accessed.
• Freudian Slip


  When someone accidentally says something, this is the unconscious seeping into the conscious.
• Defence Mechanisms


  Methods that use the unconscious to reduce anxiety, which weakens the influence of the ego.
• 3 main defence mechanisms


  • Denial
  • Displacement
  • Repression
• Repression


  An unpleasant memory is pushed into the unconscious where it is inaccessible and therefore cannot cause anxiety, but will still affect conscious behaviour. No recall of the event.
• Denial


  Refusal to accept the reality of an unpleasant situation. This reduces anxiety caused by that situation. Someone may believe the event is not harmful and therefore shouldn't cause anxiety
• Displacement


  When a strong emotion is expressed onto a neutral person or object. This reduces anxiety by allowing expression of the emotion.