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UNIT 1.2 - PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH - Coggle Diagram
UNIT 1.2 - PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Assumption 1
Influence of childhood experineces
Experiences during childhood shape our adult personalities.
Psychological development takes place in a series of key development stages.
5 Psychosexual stages,
each stage is associated with a particular part of the body. Problems at any stage of development can result in a child getting fixated at the body part associated wthat that stage, which can have long-lasting effect on the personality.
Fixation at any of these stages can occur through:
Frustration
When the stage has not been resolved because needs have not been met, (for example, the child is under satisfied)
Overindulgence
This is when the needs of the chid have been nothing more than satisfied, and as a result is that the child feels too comfortable and reluctant to move on to the next stage.
Assumption 2
The unconscious mind
Preconscious mind and unconscious mind
The conscious mind is logical.
Unconscious mind is ruled by pleasure seeking. It cannot been accessed directly, but expresses itself through dreams.
Unconscious mind:
Freud believed that the
unconscious mind
determines out behaviour and that we are motivated by unconscious emotional drives.
Freud believed that the unconscious contains unresolved conflicts that have a powerful effect on out behaviour and experiences. Many of these conflicts show up in our dreams and fantasies, but the conflicts are so threatening that they show up in disguised forms.
The unconscious mind is also related to ego-defence mechanisms.
Conflicts between the id, ego and super ego creates anxiety
. Ego pretects itself with various ego defenses, these defences however if over used can become disturbed.
Example:
A boy who experiences maternal rejection from the birth of a younger sibling may regress mentally to a younger state of being and begin to soil clothes and become more helpless.
Other defence mechanisms could be:
Displacement
: Transfer of impulses from one person or object to another.
Projection
: Undesirable thoughts are attributed to someone else.
Repression
: Pushing painful memories deep down into out unconscious mind, so they are effectively forgotten.
Assumption 3*
*Tripartite personality
id:
This is the impulsive ( and unconscious) part of our personalities, and is present at birth. It demands immediate satisfaction, which can be referred to as the pleasure principle. The main aim of the id is to gain gratification and pleasure at any cost.
These three parts are symbolic processes
Ego:
This is the conscious, rational part of the mind that develops around the ages of two years. Its function is to work out realistic ways of balancing the demands of the id in a socially acceptable way. It is governed by the reality principle.
SuperEgo
This is the last part of our personality to develop. Forming at around the ages of 4, it embodies the child's sense of right and wrong as well as his or hers ideal self.
The SuperEgo seeks to perfect and civilise out behaviour. It is learned through identification with ones parents and others.
id and Super Ego often in conflict (battle between right and wrong). Thus the ego has to act as a referee and resolve the conflict, considering conseqences of a persons actions.
Psychodynamic explanation for relationship formation
Childhood experiences (Psychosexual development)
Psychodynamic approach consider the different stages of psychosexual development and uses the idea a fixation to explain the nature of relationships in adulthood.
For example, overindulgence during the oral stage could result in dependency with other later in life, this means that a pers
Another example, in the phallic stage the superego conscious and ego-ideal are developing, and its possible that fixation at this stage will result in an inability to love another person and entering a relationship.
Defence mechanisms
In some instances adulthood may bring up unpleasant emotions from the past, in these instances, people may use ego defence to help them avoid anxiety
Freud speaks about defence mechanisms and how they effect all aspects of behaviour.
For example, a person who is in denial about there sexuality might try and from relationships which are not inline with there true feelings, resulting in relationships being dysfunctional and eventually break down.
Another example, those who are being dishonest in a relationship may deal with their guilt through rationalisation ("they deserve it as they don't pay me enough attention")
Strengths and Weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach
Strength 1
Usefulness
Point
: The Psychodynamic approach has proved to be useful in several ways.
Evidence
: ideas put forward
Explain
: Generally, this approach is useful for helping to understand mental health problems, (i.e - that mental health can be caused by childhood trauma and/or unconscious conflicts)
Strength 2
Nature and Nurture
Point
: The psychodynamic approach takes into account both sides of nature-and-nurture debate.
Evidence
: Freud claimed that adult personalities are a product of innate drives (nature) and childhood (nurture).
The nature aspect comes from Freuds interpretation of the id which is instinctual, and is the biological aspect of our personality. The nurture comes in the form of the psychosexual stages that every child passes through.
Explain
: Freuds theory therefore considers the influence of nature (things we are born with) and nuture (things that develop through experience)
Strength 3
Reflects the complexity of human behaviour
Point
: Another strength is that the psychodynamic is Holist and recognises that human behaviour is influenced by multiple factors which cannot be seperated.
Evidence
: : : The psychodyamic approach improves on those other approaches that reduce explainations for human behaviours to one factor.
Explain
: The behaviourist approach proposes that recovery from mental disorders can be achieved by re-learning and does not take into consideration what may have caused that disorder in the first place. The problem with this is that the the original symptoms may return again because the actual cause is being ignored.