The psychodynamic approach

Question 1

What are the 5 key assumptions of the psychodynamic approach

Answer 1

• unconscious mind
• our personality is made up of 3 parts : Id, Ego and superego
• 5 psychosexual stages
• The oedipus complex
• unconscious defences

Question 2

What is the role of the unconscious mind and what does it contain

Answer 2

Behaviour is caused by unconscious factors which are largely unknown to us and beyond our control. Influences most of our every day thoughts, feelings and behaviours

contains repressed ideas, memories, primitive desires, drives, impulses and insticts

Question 3

What are the 3 parts our personality is made up of and what do they control

Answer 3

Id : unconscious/ instincts. It demand immediate gratification and is entirely selfish. present from birth to 18 months

Ego : reality principle of knowledge and memories. balances the id and superego through defence mechanisms. formed at 2 years old

Super ego: conforms to societal expectations and punishes the ego, but ignores the id. unconcious and is our morality principle. formed at age of 5

Question 4

What shapes our tripartite structure of personality

Answer 4

Experience and conflicts in childhood shape the development, and affect how a person behaves

Question 5

What are defence mechanisms

Answer 5

If an individual is faced with a situation they can’t deal with rationally, they are triggered.
They stop the individual becoming aware of unpleasant thoughts

Question 6

Repression as a defence mechanism

Answer 6

• burying an unpleasent thought in the unconcious
• infleunces behaviour without individual being aware of reasons behind it

Question 7

Denial as a defence mechanism

Answer 7

• thought is ignored and treated as untrue
• allows individual to not have to deal with painful feelings that may be associated with a situatiin and reduces anxiety

Question 8

Displacement as a defence mechanism

Answer 8

• emotions directed away from source of target and put towards other things
• gives hostile feelings a route for expression

Question 9

Psychosexual stages

Answer 9

Old - oral
Age - anal
Pensioners - phallic
Like - latency
Guiness - genital

Question 10

Oral stage of psychosexual stages

Answer 10

0 -1 years

focus of pleasure is the mouth, mothers breasts are objects of desire

consequence: oral fixations like smoking, biting nails, sarcasm, critical

Question 11

Anal stage of psychosexual stages

Answer 11

1- 3 years

focus of pleasure is anus. Child gains pleasure from holding/expelling faeces

consequence: anal retentive is perfective and obsessive whilst anal explusive is thoughtless and messy

Question 12

Phallic stage of psychosexual stages

Answer 12

3 - 6 years

focus of pleasure is genital area

consequence: phallic personality of a narcasist and reckless

Question 13

Latency stage of psychosexual stages

Answer 13

earlier conflicts are repressed

Question 14

genital stage of psychosexual stages

Answer 14

sexual desires become concious alongside the oneset of puberty

consequence: difficulty forming heterosexual relationships

Question 15

oedipus complex

Answer 15

• the primary focus of the libido during the phallic stage is on genitals
• freud believed that boys begin to view their fathers as rivals for their mothers affection

boys develop sexual feelings towards their mother in this stage and view the father as a great threat.However, the child i feared he will be punished for these feelings through castration anxiety

Question 16

psychodynamic approach strength of real world application

Answer 16

psychoanalysis is used to find and treat unconcious conflicts, which was used to develop talking therapy by freud called free association

the first to demonstrate the potential of psychological explanations of behaviour which led to the formation of many treatments used regularly in society

Question 17

strength of psychodynamics approach impact on future theories

Answer 17

freud was the first to discuss childhood and highlight the importance of how we grow up to be depending on parental relationships

inspired many theorists such as bowlby who studied influences of maternal deprivation

Question 18

strength of psychodynamics approach use of case studies

Answer 18

• use of case study allowed in depth research to be done over a long period of time
• however issues with generalisibality to population and researcher bias as freud had a close relationship with the family