Psychodynamic Approach

Question 1

What is the Psychodynamic Approach?

Answer 1

• Perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious, operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience.

Question 2

Assumptions of the Psychodynamic Approach

Answer 2

• Unconscious Mind - driving force behind behaviour. If we have challenging behaviour, we must access this to sort it out.
• Instincts/Drives - motivate our behaviour. Personality has 3 parts, id, ego, superego.
• Early childhood experiences determine adult personality.

Question 3

Sigmund Freud

Answer 3

• 3 parts to personality.
• Proposed that the mind is structured like an iceberg. Most of what occurs in the mind lies beneath the surface. Pre-conscious and unconscious. Conscious mind above surface is logical.
• Unconscious mind cannot be directly accessed. Expressed itself indirectly through developing mental illnesses and dreams.

Question 4

The role of the Unconscious Mind

Answer 4

• Part of the mind that we are unaware of but which continues to direct much of our behaviour.
• Used the metaphor of an iceberg the describe the mind. Tip of the iceberg, conscious mind, is visible.
• Larger part, unconscious, hidden by water.
• According to Freud, most of our everyday behaviours are the product of the unconscious mind which reveals itself by slips of the tongue.
• He believed that the mind actively prevents traumatic memories from the unconscious reaching conscious awareness. Memories may cause anxiety. Defense mechanisms to prevent awareness.

Question 5

Structure of the Personality

Answer 5

• Divided into 3 main structures - id, ego, superego. Each demands gratification but is frequently in conflict with the other parts.

Question 6

The ID

Answer 6

• Operates in the unconscious mind.
• Contains the libido.
• Operates according to the pleasure principal - demands immediate gratification regardless of circumstances.
• Only the id is present at birth.
• Throughout life the id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of it needs.

Question 7

The ego

Answer 7

• Balances the desires of the impulsive id and the moralistic demands of the superego.
• Develops at age 2 and its focus is to reduce conflict between the id and superego.
• Does this by employing defence mechanisms.

Question 8

The Superego

Answer 8

• Formed at age 5 during the phallic stage of development.
• Sense of what is right and wrong.
• Based on morality principle.
• Represents moral standards of the same sex and punishes the ego for anything we do wrong through the feeling of guilt.

Question 9

Defence mechanisms

Answer 9

• Several defence the ego may employ to reduce conflict between id and superego.
• If someone is confronted with a situation that they cannot deal with rationally, defence mechanisms may be employed.
• Triggered unconsciously and work by distorting reality to reduce anxiety.

Question 10

Repression

Answer 10

• Stops unacceptable thoughts and impulses.
• These repressed thoughts and impulses continue to influence behaviour without individual being aware of the reasons behind their behaviour.

Question 11

Denial

Answer 11

• Refuses to accept reality and avoids having to deal with painful feelings that may be associated with that event.
• Individuals acts as if the painful or stressful life event hasn’t occurred.

Question 12

Displacement

Answer 12

• Redirects thoughts or feelings in situations where the person feels unable to express them at the person they should be directing them towards.

Question 13

Psychosexual Stages of Development

Answer 13

• According to Freud, personality development occurred through a series of 5 stages.
• Emphasise that the most important driving force in development is the need to express sexual energy. (libido)
• Each stage apart from latency is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve in order to progress to the next stage.

Question 14

Oral Stage (OLD)

Answer 14

• Approx 0-2 years old.
• Focus of pleasure is the mouth.
• Oral passive (suckling and swallowing)
• Oral aggressive (chewing and biting)
• Breastfeeding - mother’s breast is the object of desire.
• Unresolved conflict - oral fixation (smoking, nail biting, sarcastic sense of humour, critical of others.
• Orally passive person can be gulliable.
• Orally aggressive person act out verbally.

Question 15

Anal Stage (AGE)

Answer 15

• Approx 1-3 years.
• Focus of pleasure is the anus.
• Child gains pleasure from holding onto and expelling their faeces.
• Unresolved conflict - tends to come from potty training. If parents are overly strict about it it can result in an anally retentive personality - perfectionist, obsessive.
• If child is overly keen to use the potty it can result in an anally expulsive personality - thoughtless, messy, overshare.

Question 16

Phallic Stage (PENSIONERS)

Answer 16

• Approx 3-5 years.
• Focus of pleasure is genital area.
• Child becomes aware of sex differences - results in fear, jealousy, rivalry.
• Child experiences Oedipus or Electra complex.
• Unresolved conflict - fixations include narcissistic, jealous, anxious, reckless and possibly homosexual behaviour.

Question 17

Oedipus Complex

Answer 17

• Comes from Greek Myth were a young man kills his father and marries his mother. Upon discovering this he pokes his eyes out and becomes blind.
• Oedipus complex arises because the boy develops sexual desires for his mother.
• Wants to possess his mother exclusively and get rid of his father to enable him to do so.
• Boy thinks that if his father were to find out, he would take away what he loves most. His penis.
• Boy develops castration anxiety.
• Sets out to resolve this problem by imitating, copying and joining in masculine type behaviours, rather than rival the mothers affections. (IDENTIFICATION).
• Reduces castration anxiety and resolves the complex.

Question 18

Electra Complex

Answer 18

• Girl desires the father but realises she has no penis.
• Blames the mother for this thinking she has removed it.
• Girl blames mother for her ‘castrated state’ and creates great tension.
• Develops penis envy and the wish to be a boy.
• Girl resolves this by repressing her desire for her father and substituting the wish for a penis with the wish for a baby.
• Represses her feelings to remove tension and identifies with the mother to take on female gender role resolving the complex.

Question 19

Latency Stage (LOVE)

Answer 19

• Approx 6-12 years.
• No psychosexual development takes place.
• Freud thought that most sexual impulses are repressed and sexual energy can be channelled towards school work, hobbies, developing new skills and friendships.

Question 20

Genital Stage (GUINNESS)

Answer 20

• 12+ years
• Sexual desires become conscious alongside onset of puberty.
• TIme of adolescent sexual experimentation.
• Successful resolution of which is settling down in a loving one to one relationship with another person in the their 20s.
• Fixation and conflict may result in difficulty forming heterosexual relationships,

Question 21

Evaluation - Deterministic

Answer 21

• Can be accused of physic determinism in its view of human behaviour.
• Means that there is no such thing as an accident.
• Freud thought something as apparently random as ‘as a slip of the tongue’ is driven by unconscious forces. - calling new partner by ex partners name.
• Freud would suggest that this is the name that you intended and it determined by unconscious forces with deep symbolic meaning.
• Weakness - implies that all behaviour even accidents are determined by unconscious conflicts that are rooted in childhood.
• Any free will we may think we have is an illusion.

Question 22

Evaluation - Interactionist

Answer 22

• Approach takes and interactionist approach of both nature and nuture - not considered reductionist.
• Approach explains human behaviour as a result of interaction between nature and nuture.
• Freud said we must all pass through fixed developmental stages (Nature) and the environment we experience (Nuture) as we pass through these stages affects the outcomes.
• Innate drives and libido force us through psychosexual stages. - child who is fixated in oral aggressive stage due to lack of oral stimulation will become envious and pessimistic.
• Child who is fixated in the oral receptive stage through too much stimulation will be trusting and optimsitc.
• Environmental conditions interact with the innate drive and lead to the uniqueness of the personality.
• Strength - helps to explain why personality can be varied and how individual experience need to be understood to explain a person’s behaviour.
• Recognises the complexity of human behaviour in a way that other approaches don’t - biological approach focuses only on innate characteristics.

Question 23

Evaluation - Evidence

Answer 23

• Wealth of supporting research.
• Supporting research of Freud comes from unscientific research methods - case studies, clinical interviews.
• 1909 - Freud published a case study on a phobia.
• 5 year old boy named Little Hans had developed a fear of horses after seeing an accident involving a horse.
• Freud concluded that Hans was battling an unresolved Oedipus complex. - rivalry relationship that develops between the child and same sex parent for affection of opposite sex parent.
• Unconscious level - child is expressing instinctive wishes to have sex with his mother and kill his father.
• Argued that the boy’s ego had displaced this unconscious fear of his father onto horses - Hans feared horses as he associated them with his father.
• Strength - increases validity of Freud’s theory. Data gained from case studies and clinical interviews provides lots of rich, qualitative data as they interpret the meaning of an experience to the individual concerned.

Question 24

Evaluation - Real Life Application

Answer 24

• Approach has led to several effective therapies.
• Practical applications are how approaches can be put into practice in the real world to help behaviour.
• Approach has been applied most frequently through psychodynamic therapies to help people with psychological problems.
• Psychoanalysis was developed by Freud to help patients with neurotic symptoms overcome problems and move on with their lives.
• Psychoanalysis can use dream analysis or free association to help patients examine the contents of their unconscious to understand their current difficulties and get well.
• Enables a link to be made between physical symptoms and a psychological state of mind - Anna O had her paralysis cured after Freud had psychoanalysed her.
• Strength - practical therapies give credibility to theory and approach - showed the importance of childhood experiences in adult mental illness.
• Freud showed that childhood trauma and problems need to be understood in to help some patients recover.

Question 25

Evaluation - Methods

Answer 25

• Has been based on case study and clinical interview data.
• Freud’s theory based on the intensive study of single individuals who were often in therapy.
• Little Hans and other Freudian cases such as rat man as examples.
• Weakness - although Freud’s observations were detailed and carefully recorded, critics have suggested that it is not possible to make such universal claims about human nature based on studies of such a small number of individuals who were psychologically abnormal. Interpretations highly subjective. Unlikely in case of Little Hans that any other researcher would draw the same conclusions.

Question 26

Evaluation - Gender Biased Approach

Answer 26

• Freud’s theory takes a very negative view of female development compared to males.
• Idea was to explain sexual and moral development, seemed to content to focus on male development and ignore a detailed explanation of female development.
• Very pessimistic about female morality - suggests that females are inherently inferior to males due to females possessing an underdeveloped super ego.
• Weakness - according to Karen Horney, dismissing women and their sexuality is an issue, not only as he treated many women, also his theories are still very influential today.