Psychodynamic approach

• Assumptions of psychodynamic 


  Freud. Argued behaviour affected by unconscious mind, inaccessible to conscious evaluation. Past experience important
• conscious mind information 


  E.g. thoughts + perception.

  It is what we are aware of
• Pre-conscious examples


  E.G. Memories, stored knowledge

  it is thoughts we may become aware of if we try to recall
• un conscious examples


  E.g. fears, immoral urges

  it is the store of biological instincts we are not aware of but influence behaviour
• structure of personality: ID


  Principle- pleasure, age - birth, role- primitive + demands instant gratification
• Structure of personality: EGO

  Principle- reality, age - 2 years, role - mediator of ID and SUPEREGO
• Structure of personality: SUPEREGO

  principle- morality, Age- 5 years, role- sense of right+wrong punishes ego through guilt
• importance of stages

  Stages marked by conflict child must overcome to move onto nex. Unresolved leads to fixation and affects real life behaviour
• oral stage info

  Birth to 2 years, pleasure from oral (sucking), fixation leads to aggression or drinking, smoking problems
• Anal Stage Info


  15 months to 3 years, pleasure from controlling bowels, fixation leads to anal expulsive (messy) or anal retentive (rigid)
• Phallic stage info


  3-6 years, Oedipus complex (rival for affection of opposite sex parent), fixation leads to Confused sexual identity
• Latency stage


  6 years to puberty, focus on intellectual + social pursuits, fixation leads to problems communicating
• Genital stage info


  Puberty to adulthood, relationships and genital pleasure, problems here are carried over from previous stages
• Defense mechanisms: what


  Psychological strategies unconsciously used to protect from anxiety - involve distortion of reality to cope
• Defense mechanisms: repression (types)


  Force distressing memory into unconscious mind. E.g bit by dog, repress, fear of dogs unsure why
• Defense mechanisms: denial (types)

  Refusing to accept reality, E.g. Denial of addiction problems
• Defense mechanisms: displacement (types)


  Transfer feelings from source onto substitute target, E.G. Angry at boss, take anger out on family
• One strength of psychodynamic approach

  real world application, treat disorders psychologically not physically. psychoanalysis such as dream analysis brings repressed emotions into conscious mind to be dealt with.

  counter: won’t always work (schizophrenia dream analysis make it worse)
• Limitation of psychodynamic approach

  much is untestable, subjective such as little hans research makes difficult to make universal claims. E.G. Freuds Oedipus complex is unconcious so hard to test. Pseudoscientific not fact