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Discuss the psychodynamic approach in psychology.
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An essay discussing the psychodynamic approach in psychology including strengths and limitations (AO3) and knowledge of the approach (AO1).
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The psychodynamic approach focuses on the three parts of the mind: the conscious, thepreconscious and the unconscious. Freud focused on the unconscious mind which contains
information that you are unaware of such as biological instincts and repressed trauma.
Another key focus in the psychodynamic approach is the importance of childhood experiences
and in particular relationships (such as with your parents) and how these impact your personality.
The personality is made up of three stages known as the id, the ego and the superego. The id is
an unconscious factor present from birth and focuses on the pleasure principle. It’s needs are
often sel sh and, if unsatis ed, will create anxiety. The superego is conscious and works on the
morality principle meaning it acts as a conscience. This develops at the end of the phallic stage
when the Oedipus and Electra complexes are resolved, resulting in the internalisation of the
morals of the same sex parent. If the needs of the superego are not satis ed, guilt will be
experienced as you have gone against your morals. The ego (which develops at the age of two)
provides balance between the id and superego by working on the reality principle. It’s aim is to
satisfy the id and superego by coping with both of their demands in order to reduce anxiety and
guilt.
The unconscious has defence mechanisms to protect us from guilt and anxiety. Repression is
forcing a memory out of the conscious mind and into the conscious. Denial is refusing to accept
the aspect of reality. Displacement is transferring feelings from the source onto a substitute target.
These defence mechanisms are used in extreme cases of trauma or loss, for example going
through a breakup of losing your job.
Freud believed that all children go through ve stages known as the psychosexual stages. Each
stage has a focus of pleasure and a consequence if the con ict isn’t resolved (called a xation).
The stages are: the oral stage (pleasure from the mouth), the anal stage (pleasure from the anus),
the phallic stage (focus on the genitals), the latency stage and the genital stage (when sexual
desires become conscious). During the phallic stage, boys go through the Oedipus complex and
girls go through the Electra complex which leads to the internalization of the ,orals of the same
sex parent.
One strength of the psychodynamic approach is that it has practical applications to treatments
such as psychoanalysis. This form of dream therapy uses symbols in dreams to analyse the
patient's thoughts and feelings. This has a high success rate as 60% of patients say it leads to
reduced symptoms. This is a strength as it can be used to assess the unconscious to support
people with mental health issues. It is also a standardised procedure meaning it has high success
rates for the majority of clients. It can also be applied to gender development as gender identity is
established at the end of the phallic stage when the same sex parent’s morals are internalised.
One weakness however is the use of case studies as evidence. Freud used the case of Little Hans
to support his theory which can be criticised for researcher bias as Little Hans was a client of
Freud himself. Therefore, Freud could have been biased to the results he used from Little Hans in
order to support his theory. The methods used by Freud are also very subjective and therefore
aren’t reliable and can’t be generalised to others.
Another weakness is that the unconscious is an unobservable concept meaning it can not be
scienti cally tested. The inability to measure the unconscious means that the psychodynamic
approach is an unfalsi able concept as it can not be tested to be proven untrue. This is a
weakness as it makes the psychodynamic approach a pseudoscience that is not reliable
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