The Psychodynamic Approach

1
The Psychodynamic Approach

• Key assumptions
• 1. The importance of the unconscious mind
• 2. The importance of childhood experiences

2
The structure of the mind

• Freud suggested that we have three parts to our
  mind
• the conscious
• the pre-conscious
• the unconscious (or subconscious).

3
The conscious mind

• All we are aware of
• What we are thinking about that we are aware of
• Freud believed that we cannot know why we do
  things

4
The pre-conscious mind

• What we can be aware of
• Material that will become conscious to us once we
  are aware of it
• Thoughts that we can access memories, feelings
  etc.

5
The unconscious mind

• What we cannot be aware of
• Not accessible to us
• Contains inner drives
• All conflicts take place here and must be released

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Id

• The part of the mind that acts like the child in
  us
• Driven by instincts
• Seeks satisfaction with no care as to whether it
  is appropriate (imagine a spoiled child)
• Freud called it the pleasure principle
• I want..

7
Ego

• This is the part of the mind that acts like the
  caring parent figure
• Tries to satisfy the needs of the id within the
  limitations of what is possible
• Defends the id (the inner child) by using defence
  mechanisms
• Freud called it the reality principle
• I cant..

8
Superego

• This is the part of the mind that acts like the
  authoritarian adult in us (voice of
  mother/father)
• Pressures the ego to control the id in line with
  morals and rules
• Consists of the egoideal what we wish we were
  like
• Part of mind where we set standards
• But also gives us pride and guilt
• I shouldnt.

9
Child Development

• Babies begin life dominated by the ID
• i.e. seek immediate gratification (scream to be
  fed)
• Ego develops through contact with the environment
  and the restrictions put on the child (have to
  wait until later)
• Superego develops as a result of the
  internalisation of parental values (should be
  considerate to mother)

10
Defence mechanisms

• Conflict between the id, ego and superego lead to
  anxiety.
• Defence mechanisms are coping mechanisms which
  allow id impulses to be expressed in ways
  acceptable to the ego and reduce anxiety.
• They are often quite effective, especially in the
  short term.

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Defence mechanisms

• Denial not accepting truth
• Sublimation e.g. exercise
• Regression e.g. sucking thumb
• Displacement e.g. kicking wall
• Explain one of these to show how our hidden
  desires of the ID are disguised by the EGO

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The importance of early childhood influences

• From studying his patients, Freud became
  convinced that events from the past, often from
  early childhood, affect the personality of the
  adult
• You could explain how the id, ego and superego
  develop through the early years of life

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THEORY Freuds Personality TheoryPsychosexual
stages

• As babies grow older, the sexual drive (or the
  pleasure seeking drive) becomes focused on
  different areas of the body.

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The oral stage

• Birth to around one year
• The source of pleasure is the mouth.
• Two sub-stages
• Oral receptive sucking, swallowing
• Oral aggressive biting, chewing

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The anal stage

• From around 1 to 3 years
• Focus is on excretion and urination
• Two sub stages
• the expulsion sub-stage pleasure is gained from
  doing a poo
• the retention sub-stage pleasure is gained from
  holding it in

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Phallic stage 3-5 yearsBoys - Oedipus complex

• Boy notices that he is different to mother and
  same as father
• Wants attention from mother
• Wishes his father dead
• Thinks father knows this and will punish him by
  castrating him castration anxiety
• To please the father he models himself on the
  father and becomes male

17
Girls - Electra complex

• Girl notices that she does not have a penis
  penis envy (penis power)
• Blames mother for not giving her a penis (mother
  created her)
• Hates mother
• Feels guilt because she loves mother
• Models herself on the mother to try and please
  her and becomes female

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Latency and genital stage

• Latency From 5 to puberty children turn away
  from sexuality and focus more on social
  interaction and intellectual development instead.
• Genital at puberty the child focuses on his or
  her genitals as a source of pleasure and is
  interested in the opposite sex.
• The five stages of development (with sub-stages)
• OAPLG
• Old Age Pensioners Love Gravy

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Fixation

• Freud thought that many adult problems could be
  caused by passing through the psychosexual
  stages. Each stage involves frustration and these
  may lead to future problems.

20
Reaction formation

• Where a child does the opposite of what it wants
  to do.
• For example, during the oral stage, the child may
  show its dissatisfaction by spitting food out
  even though it is hungry.
• During the anal stage, the child could become
  constipated because of anxiety about having an
  accident.
•  

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Oral fixation

• Oral receptive personality
• Form relationships dependent upon others.
• Interested in gaining information and knowledge
  and material goods
• Gullible.
• "will swallow anything"
• Oral aggressive personality
• Sarcastic
• Argumentative
• Seek to hold firmly to others
• Aggressive in relationships with others

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Anal fixation

• Anal retentive personality
• Delayed gratification
• Always "save" for the future whether relating to
  money or other needs
• Orderliness, stingy and stubborn.
• Anal expulsive personality
• Disregard accepted rules of cleanliness,
  orderliness, and appropriate behaviour
• Control over others
• Messiness, sloppiness
• Aggressive destructiveness,
• Temper tantrums, emotional outbursts and cruelty.

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Fixation at the Phallic stage

• Males
• devote life to sexual promiscuity in quest for
  sexual gratification not gotten as a child.
• Or he might get attracted to men.

• Females
• Become daddys girl
• Freud believes that female superego develops less
  completely than males poorer moral standards

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Psychodynamic Approach 5

• Therapy used in the psychodynamic approach

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Key assumption

• Key assumption role of the unconscious mind
• Freud claimed that we cannot access the
  unconscious
• All of our conflicts take place in our
  unconscious we need to access them to resolve
  the conflict

26
Dream analysis

• Freud suggested that dreams represent unfulfilled
  wishes from the id, which try to break into
  consciousness and seek satisfaction while we are
  off guard (asleep).
• Can use free association

27
DREAMS

• The manifest content the part of the dream that
  is obvious what the dream seems to be about
• The latent content the part of the dream that
  contains the disguised wish what the dream is
  really about

28
Dreamwork the way Freud analysed dreams

• The point is to see the dream not simply in terms
  of either its manifest or its latent content.
• Rather it is to understand the processes by which
  the dream comes into being.
• This is what Freud calls the dream-work.

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Dreamwork - 1. condensation

•  
• Condensation Two or more latent thoughts are
  combined to make up one manifest dream image or
  situation.

30
Dreamwork 2. displacement

• Displacement Emotion or desire is transferred
  or displaced onto a meaningless / unrelated
  object in the manifest dream.

31
Dreamwork 3. symbolism

• Symbolism Where complex or vague concepts are
  converted into a dream image.
• Possibly a similar sounding (more recognisable)
  word instead or use a similar looking less
  intrusive object.
• According to Freud, dream symbols are mostly
  sexual

32
Dreamwork 4. secondary revision

• Secondary RevisionThe final stage of the dream
  work.
• According to Freud, this is where the dream loses
  'the appearance of absurdity and incoherence.'
• Can be thought of as the ways in which the dream
  work covers up the contradiction and attempts to
  reorganise the dream into a pattern in sync with
  the dreamer's experience of everyday life.

33
Dreamwork what does it do?

• Dream-work transform a latent (unconscious) set
  of thoughts into the manifest content (the
  dream), which is a disguised version of those
  thoughts.
• Applying the key assumption of the role of the
  unconscious (latent content)
• Applying the key assumption of the structural
  model of mind (desires of the id being repressed)

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Oedipus complex

• The case study of Little Hans

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Recap the Oedipus / Electra conflict

• The analysis of a phobia of a five year old boy
• THE CASE STUDY of LITTLE HANS
• (Sigmund Freud 1909)
• This is the ONLY case study of a child undertaken
  by Freud
• Freuds ideas about infant sexuality were based
  on his work with adult women(and his own self
  analysis)

36
Little Hans

• The CASE STUDY (psychoanalytic therapy) was
  carried out by correspondence and interviews with
  Hans father
• First reports when Hans was three
• Hans was interested in his widdler
• His mother told him not to play with your
  widdler .. or else she would call the doctor to
  come and cut it off
• Hans mother threatened to leave him

37
Little Hans

• Hans baby sister was born - he was told the
  stork had brought the baby
• Early jealousy of sister
• Continued interest in his widdler, according to
  father his dreams and fantasies were of widdlers
  and of widdling

38
Little Hans

• When Hans was five his father wrote to Freud
• Hans is afraid of horses, afraid a horse will
  bite him in the street, this fear seems to be
  connected to his being frightened by a large
  penis

39
Little Hans

• Freud father try to make sense of what Hans was
  experiencing and to resolve his phobia of horses
• Freud noted that Hans fear of horses developed
  after the child had anxiety dreams of losing his
  mother AND after he has been warned not to play
  with his widdler

40
Little Hans

• Hans dreams about a giraffe were explained as
  fear of big penis
• long neck big penis
• Freud theorised that Hans fear of horses was
  really fear of father
• Horse symbolic for father

41
Little Hans

• Freuds conclusion
• Little Hans phobia of horses was really fear of
  father (castration fear) during resolution of
  the Oedipus Conflict
• Fear resolved when Oedipus conflict resolved

42
Little Hans Criticisms

• Hans is analysed by the father who is emotionally
  involved
• Father is biased as he already admires the work
  of Freud and may have believed that the boy was
  in the Oedipal (phallic stage)
• Father put words into Hans mouth

43
Hans words?

• Daddy, in my dream, I was in the bath and the
  plumber came and unscrewed it. Then he took a big
  borer and stuck it into my stomach
• Interpretation
• Hans remembers his father having intercourse with
  his mother while he was in the womb

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HANS WORDS?

• The plumber came and first took away my behind
  with a pair of pincers and then he gave me
  another. Then the same with my widdler. Then he
  said let me see your behind and I had to turn
  it around and he took it away and then he said
  let me see your widdler.
• Interpretation
• Hans has identified with his father

45
HANS Words?

• Hans said he would like to be like granddad so
  that he can marry mum and have children.
• Much of this was Hans agreeing to his fathers
  leading questions

46
Little Hans evaluation

• Freud dealt with real people and their problems
• Not neat tidy but has ecological validity
• Unlike adult case studies
• No searching through past memory Hans father
  simply asked Hans!

47
Little Hans Other explanations

• Perhaps Hans dreams about widdlers widdling
  were caused by his fear that his mother might cut
  off his penis?
• But - Freuds theory was that mothers were the
  primary love object of little boys, (not that
  Mother could be feared)

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Psychodynamic approach

• Methods

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Case study

• A case study is an in-depth clinical analysis of
  an individual
• Freud used case studies in his analysis Anna O,
  little Hans
• Case study looks at all aspects of the
  individuals life
• Medical records
• Interviews
• Interview family members
• Observations
• Produces qualitative data

50
Subjective analysis

• Subjective interpretation is affected by the
  person doing the analysis
• Freud could only see the behaviour through his
  eyes (male, middle-aged, Victorian) which is also
  affected by his own life experiences
• If Freud was looking for a theory, then his
  analysis would be made with this theory in mind
  cannot be unbiased

51
High Validity

• Qualitative methods are high in validity
• Validity measuring what you think you are
  measuring
• High validity you are measuring how people act,
  think and feel in their real life rather than in
  a laboratory or controlled environment
• Freud knew what he had written in his diaries and
  had experienced his patients first hand so the
  interpretation has high validity

52
Generalisability

• If we study large groups of people, we can assume
  that their behaviour is typical of he general
  population this means we can generalise the
  findings of a study
• If we do a case study, we only see how one person
  behaves so we cannot generalise the findings to
  everybody

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reliability

• If we carry out a study again and find similar
  results, we can say the method has high
  reliability
• Reliability can be repeated / replicated and
  similar results achieved
• Case studies are unlikely to find similar results
  with different people so it has low reliability
  as a method

54
The scientific approach

• Stage 1 Data collection
• Stage 2A Theory building defining patterns
• Stage 2B Theory building identifying causes
• Stage 3 Theory testing
• Stage 4 Advancement of knowledge
• How does Freuds methods follow a scientific
  approach?
• He produced a theory and collected data to prove
  his theory

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Psychodynamic Approach

• Strengths and weaknesses of the psychodynamic
  approach

56
Strengths and weaknesses of the psychodynamic
approach

• One strength of Freuds Psychoanalysis is that
  there is recent supporting evidence for his idea
  of the tripartite personality.
• Solms (2000) used PET scans to provide support
  for the concepts of id and ego.

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Solms (2000)

• During REM sleep
• rational part of the brain (ego) appears to be
  inactive
• memory and motivation are very active (id).
• This is clear evidence for these separate parts
  of the brain working independently.

58
Adams et al support for reaction formation

• Using psychoanalysis, Adams et al assessed male
  participants for homophobia.
• two groups homophobic and non-homophobic
• showed videos of homosexual sex to the two
  groups.
• He found that 80 of those in the homophobic
  group were sexually aroused by the videos
  compared to only 33 of the non-homophobic group.
  
• This is a form of Freuds reaction formation
  defence mechanism (where someone conveys an
  attitude that is the exact opposite of their true
  feelings).

59
Refuting evidence from Fisher and Greenberg
(1996)

• They reviewed studies of anal and oral
  personalities
• good evidence to support these distinct types in
  adulthood.
• No evidence that these types related in any way
  to early experiences in childhood or so called
  fixations.

60
Further criticism of Freud

• Unreliable methodology
• Open to researcher bias (the interpretation of
  Freud )
• Freuds explanations are not falsifiable
• He cannot be wrong
• If you accept his interpretation, he is right
• If you deny his interpretation, you are using a
  defence mechanism (denial, repression etc.) and
  he is still right!

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Strengths of the approach

• Brought the exploration of the mind to the lay
  person 
• First theory of developmental psychology
• Freuds ideas are inbuilt into modern society
  (dream meaning, unconscious)
• Stressed the importance of childhood
• Idiographic approach

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Weaknesses of the approach

• Not scientific
• Reductionist
• Deterministic
• Unfalsifiable
• Very little supporting evidence
• Relies on untested observations
• Poor methodology (small number of case studies,
  non-representative sample)
• Subjective analysis (open to bias)

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Answering the question

• Remember to study TWO strengths and TWO
  weaknesses in depth (three would be better to
  make sure you can remember two)
• Explain each strength and then say WHY it is a
  strength
• Explain each weakness and then say WHY it is a
  weakness or limitation

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Possible questions

• 1. a. Explain TWO key assumptions of the
  psychodynamic approach (4 marks)
• b. Describe Freuds theory of personality
  development (8 marks)
• 2. Explain how the key assumptions can be applied
  to either Dream analysis OR Free association (12
  marks)
• 3. a. Explain and evaluate two strengths of the
  psychodynamic approach (6 marks)
• b. Explain and evaluate two weaknesses of
  the psychodynamic approach (6 marks)
• 4. Explain and evaluate the methodology of the
  psychodynamic approach (12 marks)
• 5. Compare and contrast the psychodynamic
  approach with the
• ___________ approach in terms of similarities and
  differences (12 marks)