3. Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
Outline the psychodynamic approach:
1. assumption
The psychodynamic apptoach argues all human behaviour can be explained in terms of the unconscious mind.
One role of the unconscious is that it is the driving force behind our behaviour and personality. It is the part of the mind containing a range of drives, instincts and memories that we are unaware of but which continue to influence our behaviour.
Another role of the unconscious is that it protects the conscious self from anxiety, fear, trauma and conflict (refer to the structure of he personality). This can be through the use of defence mechanisms.
Freud also argued we have a ‘preconscious’ just below the surface of the conscious mind which we may become aware of during dreams or slips of the tongue often referred to as ‘Freudian slips’.
INCLUDING:
(2) structure of the personality
(3) defence mechanisms
(4) psychosexual stages
Roles of the unconscious
One role of the unconscious is that it is the driving force behind our behaviour and personality. It is the part of the mind containing a range of drives, instincts and memories that we are unaware of but which continue to influence our behaviour.
Another role of the unconscious is that it protects the conscious self from anxiety, fear, trauma and conflict (refer to the structure of he personality). This can be through the use of defence mechanisms.
What is the unconscious mind
the unconscious mind makes up most of our mind
it is a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality
it contains threatening memories that have been repressed or forgotten
Outline the psychodynamic approach:
2. Structure of the personality
Freud described the personality as ‘tripartite’, composed on three parts:
The id is the primitive, instinctive part of the personality that we are born with that operates on the pleasure principle. The id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs and desires.
The ego works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the other two parts of the personality. The ego develops around the age of 2 years and its aim is to reduce the conflict between the id and superego by employing a number of defence mechanisms.
The superego operates on the morality principle which develops around the age of 5 based on the moral standards of the same-sex parent. It punishes the ego for wrongdoing through guilt.
Outline the psychodynamic approach:
3. Defence mechanisms
Freud argued the ego has a range of strategies it uses to manage conflict between the id and superego, known as ‘defence mechanisms’ because they protect our conscious mind from painful memories and emotions
• Repression: involves ‘pushing’ a painful memory into the unconscious so it can
be kept from conscious awareness.
• Denial: involves refusing to acknowledge some painful aspect of reality.
• Displacement: involves transferring feelings from the true source of distress onto a substitute target (e.g. from a parent to someone less close).
Outline the psychodynamic approach:
4. Psychosexual stages
Freud also claimed that child development occurred in five stages but that any unresolved conflicts at each stage will result in the child becoming ‘fixated’ (or stuck) and carrying through certain behaviours or conflicts into adult life.
-
Oral (0-2 vears)
- Focus of pleasure is the mouth particularly during breast feeding.
- Oral fixation may lead to smoking, nail-biting or being sarcastic and critical as an adult, etc. -
Anal (2-3 years)
- Focus of pleasure is the anus, from withholding and expelling faeces
- Fixation here may lead to becoming anally retentive’ (obsessive
perfectionism) or ‘anally expulsive’ (thoughtless and messy). -
Phallic (3-6 years)
- Focus is the genitals and the child experiences the Oedipus or Electra complex.
- Fixation may lead to narcissism, recklessness and possibly homosexuality -
Latency (6-12 years)
- Conflicts are repressed -
Genital (12 years+)
- Sexual desires become conscious during puberty.
- Fixation here may lead to difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.
Evaluate the psychodynamic approach:
Strengths
P: practical applications
E: ‘psychoanalysis’ (which aims to access the unconscious mind) has been shown to be an extremely successful therapy for a range of dfferent problems.
E: eg, psychoanalysis has been used to treat problems ranging from phobias to paralysis.
L: the approach has been useful in developing treatments that are effective in addressing mental health issues
P: less reductionist than other approaches
E: although Freud does reduce many human behaviours down to the activity of specific variables such as instinctive drives and sexual desires, he does also argue other factors play a role too.
E: eg, he argues psychosexual development is an interaction between instinctive drives (nature) and our upbringing (nurture) as well there being an interaction between the three parts of the personality.
L: the psychodynamic approach may be viewed as a more holistic explanation of human behaviour than many other approaches
Evaluate the psychodynamic approach:
Limitations
P: unscientific
E: the unconscious mind cannot be studied objectively, and cause and effect cannot be established due to the methods used (eg. case studies)
E: eg, Freud used the case study of Little Hans to explain his phobia of horses.
L: cannot replicate the studies or gain accurate findings to understand the unconscious mind scientifically
P: largely based on case studies
E: research conducted by Freud focused on the study in single individuals, often in therapy.
E: eg, Freud studied Little Hans who had a phobia of horses, which Freud argued was repressed fear of his father from early childhood being transferred (displaced) onto horses.
L: may not be possible to develop a theory of human behaviour based on such a small number of abnormal individuals, particularly when their conditions may have been misinterpreted
E: low population validity, findings can’t be extrapolated and generalised to other humans
P: can be criticised for being determinist
E: it suggests human behaviour is
pre-determined by other factors (ie
unconscious mind/forces) - known as psychic determinism - but this has been criticised for over-emphasising the role of the unconscious
E: eg, although unconscious drives may govern a number of behaviours, many argue we have far more conscious control than Freud suggested.
L: doesn’t account for free will in human
behaviour
the value of the psychodynamic approach
- developed psychoanalysis which is still used today in child therapy (eg phobias, paralysis)
- can be used in the legal system (eg. childhood trauma is a factor in behaviour)
- highly influential: has helped to contribute to other areas of research and has inspired other approaches and psychologists (pioneering)
- contributed to theories of psychosexual development
- pioneer in understanding the complexity of human behaviour (early 1900s)
- current psychologists using the psychodynamic approach still utilise case study evidence (eg. recording psychoanalytic interviews) to provide proof for their explanations
key assumptions of the psychodynamic approach
- unconscious activity is the key determinate of how we behave
- we possess innate ‘drives’ and ‘instincts’ that ‘energise’ our minds to motivate behaviour as we develop through our lives
- our tripartite personality (the psyche) is comprised of the ID, ego, and superego
- childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when we reach adulthood
research methods of the psychodynamic approach
Freuds psychoanalytical theory was based on case studies, which get her larger amounts of detailed information about individuals or small groups.
these cases were of patients with which he used psychoanalysis (‘talking cures’), aiming to bring unconscious mental activity to the conscious to release anxiety
techniques to do this include:
- free association: expressing immediate (unconscious) thoughts as they happen
- dream interpretation: analysing the underlying meaning (latent content) of what was remembered from the dream (manifest content)
current psychologists using the psychodynamic approach still utilise case study evidence (eg. recording psychoanalytic interviews) to provide proof for their explanations
