Psychology - Psychodynamic Approach

Assumptions of the Psychodynamic Approach

• Early childhood experiences shape who we are

• Unconscious mind drives behaviour, to address problematic behaviour we must access the unconscious mind

• Behaviour motivated by instinct/drives, meaning we are driven by instinct to go through psychosexual stages in development of behaviour/personality

We have three parts to our personality - the id, ego and superego

Role of the unconscious

• Used metaphor of an iceberg to describe mind structure

• Conscious: Part of the mind we are aware of

• Preconscious: Thoughts/mems not always accessible but easily recalled

• Unconscious: Drives/instincts motivating our behaviour + personality in the unconscious, is inaccessible, also stores traumatic + unpleasant memories from childhood

The structure of personality

• id: ‘pleasure principle’ so unconscious, insatiable instincts which are innate, operates on the basis of seeking pleasure, selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs

• ego: ‘reality principle’ developed between 18 months and 3 years, is the conscious, rational part of personality, in touch with reality and arbitrates between the demands of the id and superego

• superego: ‘morality principle’ developed between 3-6 years old, is the unconscious/preconscious, moral part concerned with right and wrong

Defence mechanisms

• repression: unpleasant memory pushed into unconscious so cannot cause anxiety

• denial: refusing to accept reality of an unpleasant situation, reducing anxiety

• displacement: re-directing a strong emotion onto a neutral person or object

Psychosexual Stages

• Oral: main focus of pleasure is mother’s breast, stage completed successfully via weaning

• Anal: main source of pleasure from expelling and withholding faeces, stage completed successfully via potty training 

• Phallic: main source of pleasure from genital area, boys experience Oedipus complex/girls experience Electra complex 

• Latency: sexual urges sublimated into sports and hobbies, focus on developing same sex friendships 
  Genital: focus on genitals and experiencing pleasure with a partner, aim to develop healthy adult relationships

Fixation of each psychosexual stage 

• Oral: needy, over sensitive, oral fixation (e.g. smoking or nail biting), sarcastic, verbally abusive 

• Anal: tidy, ‘control freak’ or generous and disorganised 

• Phallic: If a child fails to identify with parent, can cause gender identity issues 

If you are deprived or over-indulged in any of these stages, you can become fixated in each stage

Evaluation of the Psychodynamic approach 

• Strength: Highly influential, stood the test of time, Freud was the first theorist to introduce the idea that mental illness could be psychological factors, idea that early childhood important was developed by researchers e.g. Bowlby in his attachment theory 

• Strength: Psychoanalysis techniques used by some therapists nowadays - e.g. dream analysis and free association to access unconscious mind, suggesting psychodynamic ideas have merit and validity 

• Strength: Case studies support the theory, e.g. ‘Little Hans’ phobia of horses were a displaced phobia of his father, also Oedipus complex affecting boys development in phallic stage - however case studies not generalisable to all as based on one unique individual 

• Limitation: unfalsifiable so not open to empirical and scientific testing, so hard to prove or disprove - concepts e.g. id and Oedipus complex believed to occur at unconscious level so cannot test, therefore approach rendered unscientific and less credible 

• Limitation: ignores current experiences and values childhood experiences, so approach ignores potentially valuable explanations and does not take a holistic view