Psychodynamic Theory Flashcards
What is Thanatos and how does it link to aggression?
-The death instinct
-Causes anger towards people.
What is Eros?
The life instinct
What is catharsis?
A way to satisfy our urges without resulting in violence.
What is the id and how does it link to aggression?
Instinctive part and operate son pleasure principle.
-Doesn’t care about reality so causes the aggressive behaviour
-innate
What is the super-ego and how does it link to aggression?
-moral aspect of personality and operates on morality principle.
-develops due to parents/ upbringing
-tells us not to be aggressive/carryout aggressive behaviours.
What is the ego?
-logical aspect of personality and operates on reality principle.
-makes conscious decisions that balance the super-ego and the id.
What 3 aspects make up personality?
-Id
-Super-ego
-Ego
What study can support the theory and how?
-Researchers argued that youth with weak egos are immature and easily led into crime and violence by deviant peers.
-if ego is weak the id can make us more aggressive so more creditable explanation of aggression.
What study conflicts the theory and how?
-those who took part in a cathartic activity were more aggressive than those who didn’t.
-catharsis is said to re-channel aggression but actually made people more aggressive so theory is less credible.
Why is brain structure theory and hormone theory better for explaining aggression?
-Are both empirical so can be directly measure and therefore are more credible.
Why is the psychodynamic theory better than the other biological theories?
-can account for both nurture(superego) and nature(id) so can account for more factors and is more complete.
How is the psychodynamic theory useful?
psychodynamic therapies used in real life to help people which improves treatments for mental health.
Why is the theory not empirical?
The unconscious is not directly measurable and not tied to brain areas so can’t be seen on a brain scan so is more subjective and less creditable.
