Psychodynamic approach The structure of personality and psychosexual

Psychodynamic approach- The structure of personality and psychosexual stages. ‘a psychodynamic theory is a view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires and beliefs. ’ (chegg study, 20032017)

Psychodynamic approach assumptions: • Our behaviour and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives. Unconscious motives are hidden and unknown desires that are the real reasons for things that people do. (Alley dog, 1998 -2017) • All behavior has a cause (usually unconscious), even slips of the tongue. Therefore all behavior is determined. • Our behavior and feelings as adults (including psychological problems) are rooted in our childhood experiences. • Our personality made of three parts, id, ego and super-ego. • Personality is shaped as the drives are modified by different conflicts at different times in childhood (during psychosexual development).

Id, Ego and Super ego: -The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the inherited (i. e. biological) components of personality present at birth, including the sex (life) instinct -The ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision making component of personality. -The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one's parents and others. It develops around the age of 3 – 5 during the phallic stage of psychosexual development.

Freud’s Case study and theory in 1902: • Oedipus complex is the idea that in the phallic stage the boy is focused on his penis and has desire towards his mother and therefore dislikes his father. • Little Hans was a 5 -year-old boy with a phobia of horses. Like all clinical case studies, the primary aim was to treat the phobia. • The first reports of Hans are when he was 3 years old when he developed an active interest in his ‘widdler’ (penis). However for example on one occasion he asked ‘Mummy, have you got a widdler too? • The theme of his fantasies and dreams was widdlers and widdling. When he was a little older, his mother told him not to touch his widdler or else she would call the doctor to come and cut it off. This supports the phallic stage because he is focused on his penis. • Freud believed the fear of his horse was about his father.

Strengths and Limitations Strengths: • Made the case study method popular in psychology • Defense Mechanisms are useful because it can help you explain unexplainable behavior and also the treatment • Highlighted the importance of Childhood which can help in therapy. Limitations: • The case studies are subjective – unable to generalize the results • Unscientific • Too Deterministic • Biased Sample because the study only used middle aged women from Vienna – not using a range of people • Ignores Mediational Processes • Rejects Free will • Unfalsifiable (difficult to prove wrong)

Treatment • Psychodynamic therapy, also known as insight-oriented therapy, focuses on unconscious processes as they are shown in a person’s present behavior. • The goals of psychodynamic therapy are a client’s self-awareness and understanding of the influence of their past behavior which can be a result of their present. • In a simpler form, a psychodynamic approach allows the client to look for any unresolved conflicts and symptoms that had arised from past. Pychcentral, 2016

True or False 1. The boy was scared of his dad which was associated with a Zebra. 2. The three parts of our personality are ego, super ego and tremendous ego 3. No behaviour has a cause 4. What are our feelings and behaviour powerfully affected by conscious motives 5. The Freud’s study was in 1912

References: • • • Chegg study, (2003 -2017) http: //www. chegg. com/homeworkhelp/definitions/psychodynamic-theory-13 Alley dog, (1998 -2017) https: //www. alleydog. com/glossary/definition. php? term=Unconscious%2520 Motivation Simply psychology, (2017) http: //www. simplypsychology. org/psychodynamic. html Simplypschology (2017) pschodynamic. html (online) Available at: http: //www. simplypsychology. org/psychodynamic. html#critical Accessed on: 13/03/17 Pschcentral (2016) pschodynamic-therapy/ (online) Available at: https: //psychcentral. com/lib/psychodynamic-therapy/ Accessed on: 13/03/17