Psychodynamic approach

what is Fred’s theory of personality

ID, Ego, Superego

Whet is the ID

• From Birth-18 months

• Unconscious biological drives and urges

• Demands instant gratification

What is the Ego

• 18months- 3 years

• Reduces conflict between demand of ID and superego

• Uses defence mechanisms to cope with conflicting ideas

What is the Superego

• 3-6 years

• Punishes ego through guilt but rewards ego with pride

• Direct opposite of ID

What are the defence mechanisms

Repression, Denial, Displacement

What is Repression

Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind

What is Denial

Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality

What is Displacement

Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion into a substitute target

What is the ice burg theory

• Top of the iceberg is the conscious mind and is visible

• Bottom of iceberg is the unconscious mind

• Our everyday actions aren’t controlled consciously but are products conscious mind

What is the preconcious mind

contains thoughts and memories which aren’t in conscious mind but can be accessed if desired

What is the unconscious mind

• Threatening memories that are locked away, forgotten

• Accessed during dreams

Assumptions of Psychodynamic theory

• Describes how unconscious mind influences behaviour

• Personality is constructed by passage through psychosexual stages

• Traumatic childhood experiences can lead to psychological disorders

What are the psychosexual stages

• Freud said children must pass through all these stages to live a healthy life

• Oral, anal, phalic, latency, genital

What is the Oedipus complex

• Male child unconsciously develops sexual feelings for mother and hatred to father

• Because of this desire, boy experiences anxiety from being punished by father so identifies with him

• Happen in Phalic state (3-6yrs)

What is the Electra complex

• Girls experience penis envy- they desire their father

• They give up the desire for their father and place it with desire for a baby (identifying with mother)

• Happens in phalic stage (3-6yrs)

What is a weakness of the psychodynamic approach- untestable concept

• Karl popper said approach didn’t meet scientific criterion of falsification

• It’s not open to empirical testing and possibility of being disapproved

• Concepts like ID said to occur when unconscious, making them very difficult to test

• Frauds ideas were based on study of individuals like little hans- hard to make universal claims about human behaviour

• Suggests the psychodynamic theory is Pseudoscience (fake science) than a real science

What is a strength of the Psychodynamic approach- idea of psychotherapy

• Freud brought new form of therapy- Psychoanalysis

• It was the 1st attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically

• It uses range of techniques to access the unconscious like dream analysis

• It claims to help client by burning their repressed emotions into their conscious mind so they can be dealt with

• Shows the value of the psychodynamic approach in creating new approach to treatment

What is a counterpoint of the idea of psychotherapy

• Psychoanalysis is inappropriate or harmful for people experiencing more serious mental disorders

• Symptoms of schizophrenia like paranoia mean they have lost grip on reality

• They can’t articulate their thoughts in the way required for psychoanalysis

• Suggests Freudian therapy may not apply to all mental disorders

What is a strength of psychodynamic approach- ability to explain human behaviour

• It had a huge influence on psychology

• was a key force in psychology for first half of with century and used to explain range of phenomena (personality development, gender identity)

• Suggest it’s had a positive impact on psychology

What is the Little Hans study

• 5yr old boy Hans developed fear of horses after seeing one collapse

• Greys said his fear was a form of displacement where his repressed fear of his dad was displaced onto horses

Weakness of little Hans study

• Limited support of Oedipus complex as boys father gave Freud details of study

• He was familiar with Oedipus complex so could have influenced the info he gave to Freud