6. psychodynamic approach

Question 1

give 3 assumptions of the psychodynamic approach

Answer 1

1. our unconscious mind (i.e. the ID & the superego) governs our behaviour
2. psychic determinism is true (i.e our behaviour is motivated by urges & instincts: uncontrollable unconscious internal psychosexual conflicts (i.e. the ID & superego) which are rooted in our childhood experiences)
3. different parts of our psyche are in constant conflict

Question 2

THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
The conscious mind is the part of our mind that we know about and are aware of.
Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious-a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality.
The unconscious also contains

Answer 2

threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed or locked away and forgotten these can be accessed during dreams or through ‘slips of the tongue’.

Question 3

Under the surface of our conscious mind is the preconscious which contains

Answer 3

thoughts and memories which are not currently in conscious awareness, but we can access if desired.

Question 4

THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
Freud described personality as ‘tripartite’, composed of three parts:

Answer 4

THE ID
THE EGO
THE SUPEREGO

Question 5

THE SUPEREGO

Answer 5

is formed at the end of the phallic stage, around the age of five. It is our internalised sense of right and wrong.
Based on the morality principle it represents the moral standards of the child’s same-gender parent and punishes the Ego for wrongdoing (through guilt).

Question 6

THE EGO

Answer 6

works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the other two parts of the personality. The Ego develops around the age of two years and its role is to reduce the conflict between the demands of the Id and the Superego it manages this by employing a number of defence mechanisms.

Question 7

THE ID

Answer 7

is the primitive part of personality operates on the pleasure principle - the Id gets what it wants. It is a mass of unconscious drives and instincts.
Only the Id is present at birth throughout life the Id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs.

Question 8

name the 5 psychosexual stages

Answer 8

oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latent stage, genital stage

Question 9

ORAL (0-1 YRS)

focus of pleasure and consequence

Answer 9

Mouth - breast can be the object of desire
Oral fixation - smoking, biting nails.

Question 10

ANAL (1-3 YRS)

focus of pleasure and consequence

Answer 10

Anus - child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces
Anal retentive - perfectionist, obsessive
Anal expulsive - thoughtless, messy

Question 11

PHALLIC 3-6 (YRS)

focus of pleasure and consequence

Answer 11

Genital area - Oedipus / Electra complexes start
Phallic personality - narcissistic, reckless.

Question 12

LATENCY

focus of pleasure and consequence

Answer 12

None - earlier conflicts are repressed.

Question 13

GENITAL

focus of pleasure and consequence

Answer 13

Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty
Difficulty forming homosexual relationships

Question 14

Each stage (apart from latency) is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve in order to progress successfully to the next stage. Any psychosexual conflict that is unresolved leads to

Answer 14

fixation where the child becomes stuck’ and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life.

Question 15

DEFENCE MECHANISMS
The Ego has a difficult job balancing the conflicting demands of the Id and the Superego, but it does have help in the form of defence mechanisms - these are

Answer 15

unconscious and ensure that the Ego is able to prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas.

Question 16

Repression

Answer 16

Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind.

Question 17

Denial

Answer 17

Refusing to accept some aspect of reality.

Question 18

Displacement

Answer 18

Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target

Question 19

FREUD’S CASE STUDY OF LITTLE HANS AND THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX

In the phallic stage, Freud claimed that little boys develop

Answer 19

incestuous feelings towards their mother and a murderous hatred for their rival in love - their father (the Oedipus complex).
Fearing that their father will castrate them, boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father, taking on his gender role and moral values.

Question 20

Freud also suggested that girls of the same age experience penis envy:

Answer 20

they desire their father - as the penis is the primary love object - and hate their mother (the Electra complex). Although Freud was less clear on the process in girls, they are thought to give up the desire for their father over time and replace this with a desire for a baby (identifying with their mother in the process).

Question 21

Freud supported his concept of the Oedipus complex with his case study of Little Hans.
Hans was a five-year-old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street. Freud suggested that Hans’s phobia was a form of

Answer 21

displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred (displaced onto horses. Thus, horses were merely a symbolic representation of Hans’s real unconscious fear - the fear of castration experienced during the Oedipus complex.

Question 22

AO3: strength of PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

real world application - psychoanalytic theory

Answer 22

One strength of the psychodynamic approach is that it introduced the idea of psychotherapy (as opposed to physical treatments).
Freud brought to the world a new form of therapy - psychoanalysis. This was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically. The new therapy employed a range of techniques designed to access the unconscious, such as dream analysis. Psychoanalysis claims to help clients by bringing their repressed emotions into their conscious mind so they can be dealt with. Psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern-day ‘talking therapies, such as counselling, that have since been established.
This shows the value of the psychodynamic approach in creating a new approach to treatment.

Question 23

AO3: strength of PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

huge influence on psychology

Answer 23

Another strength of Freud’s theory is its ability to explain human behaviour.
Freuds theory is controversial in many ways, and occasionally bizarre, but it has nevertheless had a huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought. Alongside behaviourism, the psychodynamic approach remained a key force in psychology for the first half of the 20th century and has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including personality development, the origins of psychological disorders, moral development and gender identity. The approach is also significant in drawing attention to the connection between experiences in childhood, such as our relationship with our parents, and our later development.
This suggests that, overall, the psychodynamic approach has had a positive impact on psychology - and also on literature, art and other human endeavours.

Question 24

AO3: limitation of PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

pseudoscience - untestable

Answer 24

One limitation of the psychodynamic approach is that much of it is untestable.
Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification. It is not open to empirical testing (and the possibility of being disproved). Many of Freud’s concepts (such as the Id and the Oedipus complex are said to occur at an unconscious level, making them difficult, if not impossible, to test. Furthermore, his ideas were based on the subjective study of single individuals, such as Little Hans, which makes it difficult to make universal claims about human behaviour.
This suggests that Freud’s theory was pseudoscientific (not a real science) rather than established fact.