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Psychodynamic Approach - Coggle Diagram
Psychodynamic Approach
Role of the Unconscious
Structure of personality
Id - Pleasure seeking principles (selfish, immediate gratification) present from birth.
Ego - Judge, mediator between Id and Superego, in charge of balancing desires and requirements of both. The ego develops around age 2, it manages conflict by employing defence mechanisms.
Superego - a reality based principle where we 'store' ideas of right and wrong (accepting moral principles etc). The superego helps us decide what rules to follow and what rules to break.
Freud claimed part of our mind that we are aware of - the conscious mind - is the 'tip of the iceberg'. Under the conscious is the preconscious mind - thoughts and ideas we become aware of during dreams etc.
Most of our mind is the unconscious - a storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has significant influence over behaviour and our personality. It also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed or locked away and forgotten. It is most likely to be reached in dreams, the manifest content is the dream as it appears to the person, therapists interpret these dreams to provide insight.
Defence Mechanisms
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Repression - burying unpleasant thoughts or desires in the unconscious. These thoughts continue to affect behaviour without the individual being aware.
Displacement - where emotions are directed from their source or target towards other things such as objects. This gives their hostile feelings a route for expression even though it is misapplied e.g. punching a wall.
Denial - refusal to accept reality to avoid having to deal with painful feelings associated with the event. They act as if the traumatising event did not happen which others find bizarre.
Psychosexual Stages
Oral Stage (0-2yrs) - mouth is focal point of sensation and is the way the child expresses early sexual energy.
Anal Stage (2-3 yrs) - beginning of ego development child becomes aware of demands of reality and need to conform to others demands, major issue is toilet training and child learns to control expulsion of bodily waste.
Phallic Stage (3-6 yrs) - sexual energy focusses on genitals, major conflict is the Oedipus Complex in which a male child unconsciously wishes to posses their mother and get rid of their father. As a result of this desire, boys experience castration anxiety and in an attempt to resolve this problem, identifies this with their father. At this stage the Electra Complex occurs for girls, similar but against the mother instead of the father.
Latent Stage (6-12 yrs) - develops mastery of the world around them, conflicts and issues of the previous stage are repressed with the consequence that they are unable to remember much of their early years.
Genital Stage (12+ yrs) - culmination of psychosexual development, fixing of sexual energy in the genitals, eventually directs us towards sexual intercourse and beginnings of adult life.
Evaluation
Understanding of human behaviour - suggests new methodological procedures for gathering evidence based on observation rather than introspection. Freud first to demonstrate use of psychological treatment over biological for anxiety and depression. De Maat 2009 - led to successful treatments, large scale review showed psychoanalysis produces significant symptom improvements years later.
Scientific Support - often criticised for lack of scientific evidence. Fischer and Greenberg 1996 - summarised 2500 studies, concluded experimental psychoanalysis compared well with studies of other relevant areas. Support for existence of unconscious in human behaviour and defence mechanisms.
Gender bias - Psychoanalysis by Freud, Freud's views on women and female sexuality were less well developed, ignored females almost completely. Karen Horney brome away from Freudian theory, problem as Freud's theories are still influential today.
Culture bias - Sue and Sue 2008 - little relevance to non-Western cultures, West believe in open discussion and insights that are helpful in therapy, Non-Western tend not to openly talk about problems.
Comprehensive theory - used to explain human behaviour outside other psychological realms, therapeutic application, interpret works using psychoanalytic concepts.