Exam (elaborations)
Outline and evaluate the psychodynamic approach (16 marks)
- Module
- Approaches
- Institution
- AQA
Outline and evaluate the psychodynamic approach (16 marks)
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Psychodynamic Approach 16 markerThe psychodynamic approach is an approach that was developed by Freud in the early 20 th century.
Some main assumptions of this approach are that many of our decisions are decided by our
unconscious brain, we have three personalities that produce defence mechanisms, and that we go
through psychosexual stages in our childhood that affect our later life. Our three personalities are
known as the id, the ego and the superego. The id is the innate part of our personality and
represents the pleasure principle. It thrives off of instant gratification and has no morals. The
superego is the opposite of the id. It represents our moral conscience and is who we morally should
be. The final part, the ego, is the mediator of the superego and the id, and is the primary source of
our defence mechanisms. In childhood, the id isn't developed enough to deal with traumas, so these
traumas are repressed into our unconscious. The unconscious is a part of or mind that holds
repressed memories and can't be accessed unless through the means of dreams, slips of the tongue
or impulsive behaviour .This goes along with the preconscious and the conscious, which can be
accessed. According to Freud, if these three personalities don’t work in harmony, this can cause
anxiety and abnormal personalities. This approach states that we go through 5 psychosexual stages
in our adolescence. These stages are the oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages. In of these
stages, a child had a primary source of desire and gains pleasure from this source. If the child does
not successfully ‘complete’ each stage, then there may be consequences of this unresolved conflict.
These consequences can affect our personality and behaviours in our adult lives.
A strength of this approach is that it holds great explanatory power and has scientific credibility.
Although his theory is controversial, Freud’s ideas have had a major influence in psych as a science.
Along with behaviourism this approach dominated psychological beliefs during most of the 20 th
century and can be used to explain many phenomena such as abnormal behaviours and
personalities. This approach draws links between childhood and adulthood, with the psychosexual
stages and repressed trauma, allowing us to study adulthood relationships and causes of trauma.
This helped allow psychology to be recognised further, and greatly influences a lot of psychological
beliefs today.
A weakness of this approach is that its data is based primarily on case studies, and so lacks universal
generalisability. This theory was based on intensive case studies of individuals who were in therapy
and had been recorded as having abnormal behaviours. Although Freud’s observations were
carefully recorded, critics state that these results cannot be generalised based on such a small
number of abnormal people. Another criticisation is that his interpretations were highly subjective,
so it was very unlikely that other psychologists collecting data on the same studies would get the
same results. This means that the study lacks population validity and generalisability due to the fact
that only a very selective group of people were studied.
Another weakness of this approach is that Freuds concepts are mainly untestable, and no studies
can be replicated to prove the reliability. Karl Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach
doesn’t meet the criteria for falsification. This means that it is not opened to testing OR the
possibility of being disproved. Most psychodynamic concepts happen at the unconscious level of the
mind, which is almost impossible to thoroughly test. This means that the whole concept is highly
subjective and cannot objectively be proved. For this reason, Popper calls this approach a
pseudoscience rather than a real science, as none of it can be scientifically proved.
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