Essay
Outline and evaluate the psychodynamic approach
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- Approaches
- Institution
- AQA
A level approaches 16 marker full mark essay
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Outline and evaluate the psychodynamic approach in Psychology (16 marks)The psychodynamic approach in psychology was developed by Sigmund Freud who had the
view that behaviour was largely controlled by the unconscious mind. Freud used the
metaphor of an iceberg to illustrate his idea that the conscious mind is just the tip of the
iceberg (visible and accessible), whereas the much larger, hidden part of the iceberg
represented the unconscious mind. He believed that most of our behaviour was the product
of our unconscious thoughts and desires that frequently reveal themselves in the form of
Freudian slips. These unconscious thoughts could be repressed traumatic events in our lives
in which our bodies’ defence mechanisms prevent from reaching conscious thought. These
include repression – the blocking of unacceptable thought, denial - the refusal to accept
reality to avoid dealing with painful feelings, and displacement – the redirecting of thoughts
or feelings onto helpless victims or objects.
Freud divided the structure of personality into the ‘id’, ‘ego’ and ‘superego’. The ‘id’
operates solely in the unconscious and acts according to the ‘pleasure principle’, demanding
immediate gratification regardless of the circumstances. The ‘ego’ mediates between the
impulsive demands of the id and the reality of the external world, delaying gratification until
a more appropriate opportunity. The ego compromises between the demands of the id and
the moralistic demands of the superego. The ‘superego’ is divided into the conscious and
ego-ideal. The conscious is an internalisation of societal rules, causing an individual to feel
guilt when these rules are broken. The ego-ideal is the ideal self in which a person strives
towards.
Furthermore, Freud believed the most important driving force in development was the need
to express sexual energy. He demonstrated this through his psychosexual stages, each stage
expressing energy in different ways. These stages include oral, anal, phallic, latent, and
genital, each occurring once the sexual energy is released from the previous stage.
A strength of Freud’s psychodynamic approach is its credibility. Freud’s idea of the id and
ego link with the neuroscience of the brain. For example, the limbic system is the emotion
centre and the pre-frontal cortex handles decision-making, similar to the id and ego.
Furthermore, research demonstrates a link between our right hemisphere, which links to
our procedural memories and emotional intelligence, and our unconscious mind. Divino and
Moore (2010) showed that only our right hemisphere is active at birth and remains
dominant throughout the first 3 years of life. This suggests that our crucial childhood
memories are all stored in our right hemisphere but we are unable to ‘put them into words’
due to the absence of a left hemisphere at the time of creating these memories. This ties in
closely with Freud’s idea that our unconscious influences our conscious behaviour.
Therefore, this increases the credibility of the approach as it is supported by biological
evidence.
However, a limitation of his approach is that it is not considered scientific. Features of a
science in psychology include using empirical methods of investigation and gaining objective
data, both of which Freud did not achieve. Instead, Freud relied on using case studies to
develop his approach. The lack of quantitative data collected throughout his research meant
that his findings depended on his own interpretations. Charles Whitman, a murderer who
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