Psychodynamic approach

Assumptions

• Behaviour is determined by unconscious mental conflict - psychic determinism

• Tripartite structure of personality- Id, super ego & ego

• When the ego becomes overwhelmed by conflict between id & superego, it uses defence mechanisms

• Importance of childhood experiences & childhood development through 5 psychosexual stages

Iceberg analogy

• Conscious

• Preconscious

• Unconscious

Conscious

What you’re aware of here and now

Preconscious

What you can recall with a little effort

Unconscious

• Part of mind that we’re unaware of

• 9/10 of mind

• Content can’t be accessed

• Requires great effort to be uncovered eg therapy

Freudian slips

Unintentional errors regarded as revealing unconscious feelings

ID (pleasure principle)

• Present at birth

• Instructive part of personality

• “I want that”

• Wants to be satisfied & won’t tolerate delay or denial of its wishes

Superego (morality principle)

• Develops at age 5

• “You can’t have that”

• Conscience given by parents, rules etc

• Sense of right & wrong, morals

• Reward with pride or punish with guilt

Ego (reality principle)

• Develops age 2

• Balances demands of id & restraints of superego

• Rational part of personality

• Thinks logically

Defence mechanisms

• Unconscious strategies used by the ego when the id & superego are in disagreement

• Protects a person from anxiety

• Prevents painful unconscious thoughts & memories from becoming conscious

Denial

Making yourself believe something won’t happen when in fact it will

Displacement

When you transfer your feelings onto something less threatening eg slamming door

Repression

Pushing bad experiences into the unconscious so you no longer think about it

Oral stage

• Develops 0-18 months through weaning

• Focus of pleasure is centred around mouth - nourishment & comfort

• ID in control so baby is demanding

• Fixation - smoker, talking too much, nail biter, sarcastic personality

Anal stage

• Develops 18-36 months through toilet training

• Focus of pleasure is on the anus

• Can determine child’s future relationship with authority

• Ego has developed

• Fixation - early/harsh potty training can lead to anal-retentive personality - perfectionist, hates mess

Phallic stage

• Develops 3-6 years through oedipus/electra complex

• Focus of pleasure is in genital area

• Child learns morality & their gender

• Identifies with same sex parent & takes on their values

• Superego & conscience developed

Latent stage

• Develops 6 years-puberty

• Libido is dormant

• Sexual impulses repressed & redirected towards school, friends etc

Genital stage

• Develops puberty +

• Time of adolescent sexual experimentation

• Sexual impulses directed to heterosexual pleasure

Oedipus complex

• Boy wishes to have sex with his mother & kill his father as he is his love rival

• Boy becomes afraid & thinks the father knows

• Boy suffers castration anxiety

• Boy ends up solving the problem & identifying with the farther

Electra complex

• Girl hates her mother & displays obsessive attention to father

• Girl discovers she doesn’t have a penis & gets penis envy & resents her mother for this

Little Hans case study

• Had a fear of horses

• Freud explain phobia resulting from oedipus complex & ego’s use of displacement

• His castration anxiety had displaced onto horses

Strengths AO3

• P - practical applications

• E - Freud’s psychoanalytical techniques, such as free association & dream analysis, established the foundation for contemporary talking therapies and demonstrated that psychological issues could be addressed through insight and emotional processing, shifting away from biological reductionism. The influence of these Freudian methods can be seen today in psychodynamic psychotherapy, which remains widely used for treating conditions like depression, personality disorders and trauma by uncovering unconscious conflicts.

• T - shows that the psychodynamic approach has had a long-lasting and meaningful real-world impact on counselling/mental health services, benefiting society and promoting the idea that exploring early experiences and unconscious processes can lead to long-term therapeutic change.

Limitations AO3

• P - psychic determinism

• E - believes that all behaviour is shaped entirely by unconscious conflicts and early childhood experiences, leaving no room for free will. Freud argued that even seemingly trivial behaviours—such as slips of the tongue, dreams or mistakes—are not accidental but reveal hidden desires or unresolved conflicts within the unconscious mind. This extreme form of determinism suggests that individuals have no conscious control over their behaviour, which is unrealistic and overly rigid. For instance, two people may experience similar traumatic childhood events, yet only one develops a psychological disorder, indicating that behaviour cannot be explained solely by unconscious forces. Additionally, this deterministic view raises ethical & legal concerns: if all actions are driven by unconscious motives, it becomes difficult to hold individuals morally or legally accountable for harmful behaviour

• T - the approach’s reliance on psychic determinism weakens its explanatory power, oversimplifying human complexity and ignoring the role of conscious thought and external influences. Perhaps a more nuanced explanation of behaviour is the interactionist approach, which argues that behaviour results from a combination of biological influences, psychological processes, and environmental experiences

• P - concepts are highly abstract & untestable

• E - Freud’s central ideas—such as the id, ego and superego & the unconscious mind, exist as theoretical constructs rather than concrete psychological processes. Because these concepts cannot be objectively measured using empirical methods such as brain scans or behavioural experiments, researchers cannot determine whether they actually exist or whether Freud’s interpretations are valid. Karl Popper argued that scientific theories must be testable and capable of being proven wrong. Freud’s theories fail this criterion because they can explain any possible outcome: if a behaviour fits the theory, it is used as evidence; if it contradicts the theory, Freud could still claim it is a result of repression or unconscious conflict. This lack of operationalisation makes the psychodynamic approach unfalsifiable, because any behaviour can be explained after the fact using abstract ideas that cannot be independently verified.

• T - undermines the approach’s scientific credibility, limiting its acceptance within modern psychology, which values empirical evidence & falsification, contrasting the theory’s use of untestable theories.

• P - relies on evidence from case studies & dream analysis/free association

• E -  Freud based many of his key theories—such as the Oedipus complex, repression, and the structure of personality—on a very small number of individuals, including well-known cases like Little Hans & Anna O. While these case studies provided rich, detailed qualitative data, they involved people with highly unique problems and backgrounds, meaning the findings cannot be generalised to the wider population. In addition, Freud often played multiple roles in therapy (therapist, analyst and researcher), which introduces researcher bias: his interpretations may have been influenced by his own expectations or theoretical beliefs. Because case studies lack control over variables, they cannot establish cause and effect, and their data are open to alternative explanations. Furthermore, many of Freud’s analyses were constructed after the fact, making them difficult to replicate or verify scientifically

• T - reliance on subjective, unreplicable case material undermines the approach’s scientific credibility and weakens confidence in the universality of its claims.