Psychodynamic Perspective

What does Freud believe about the mind and how we should treat disorders?

• We need to ‘get inside the head’ of individuals in order to make sense of their relationships, experiences and how they see the world

• Behaviour is controlled by unconscious processes

What is the first principle of the psychodynamic perspective involving the strucutre of the unconscious mind?

Behaviour is strongly influences by the structure and drives of the unconscious mind- only a small part of the brain is fully conscious

• The id- the primitive part of the brain that operates on the pleasure principle that demands immediate gratification

• The ego- Mediates between the impulsive id and the reality of the external world (the reality principle) as well reducing conflict between the moralistic superego and the id

• The superego- Knows as the morality principle, it represents the moral standards of the child and punishes the ego for wrongdoing

What is the second principle of the psychodynamic perspective involving development?

Development is affected by early relationships

• Freud claims that our behaviour is the result of our unconscious innate drives and how much they were gratified when we were young

• Child development occurred in 5 stages which are marked by a different conflict (stages of psychosexual development)

• An psychosexual conflict that is not resolved leaded to a fixation where a child becomes stuck and carries some behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage into adult life

What is the third principle of the psychodynamic perspective involving defence mechanisms?

Our unconscious mind protects the conscious mind from difficult and uncomfortable thoughts and feelings

• The ego deploys defence mechanisms to conceal or distort unacceptable impulses, preventing them from rising into consciousness

• This can be done through several processes: denial, repression, projection, displacement (Little Hans), regression or sublimination (putting unacceptable behaviours into more acceptable ones)

What is the fourth principle of the psychodynamic perspective in terms of expression?

Important information about the unconscious minds can be found in how we express ourselves

• These are known as Freudian slips- a verbal mistake that is thought to reveal a repressed belief, thought or emotion

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the psychodynamic perspective?

• Useful practical applications

• Looks at both nature and nurture influences (holism)

But

• Low in population validity

• Low in scientific value

How is the psychodynamic perspective useful?

• It has useful practical applications for treatment e.g. psychoanalysis

• Psychoanalysis has had a huge impact on the world of counselling and this is a strength because it treats the whole person, not just the problem because of the influence beliefs about the unconscious mind have had on western thought and literature

• Freud determined that Little Hans’ phobia of horses was caused by a fear of his father and through talking about his beliefs he could learn to identify with his father and resolve the complex

How is the psychodynamic perspective holistic in appreciating nature and nurture?

• Looks at both nature and nurture by looking at the influence of the stages and the unconscious mind but also the impact of childhoods which increases internal validity as we gain insight

• Freud explains Little Hans’ phobia due to being in the phallic stage (nature) and his maladaptive relationships growing up (nurture)

How is the psychodynamic perspective low in population validity?

• The perspective uses case studies to analyse dysfunctional behaviour which normally only uses a small number of participants

• This makes it hard to generalise findings to the wider population

• Freud only studied LH so its hard to generalise findings about phobias to a larger population

How is the psychodynamic perspective low in scientific value?

• Subjective data collection is used- qualitative data so findings may be up to interpretation which decreases internal validity (reduced confidence in cause and effect as well as a lack of control 

• Freud’s study used leading questions such as “perhaps you wanted Hannah to fall in” and we can’t know if Freud’s interpretation is at all valid so studies lack falsification and objectivity