| Psychodynamic perspective | - Developed by Freud to explain disorders |
| Preconscious | - e.g memories
- Things in our mind we can access freely but don't currently think of |
| Unconscious mind | - Cant be seen directly
- Comes out through processes e.g therapy
- Sometimes unconscious thoughts slip through when we talk (Freudian slips) |
| Freudian slips | - When unconscious thoughts slip through when we talk |
| Unconscious drives | - Eros - life instinct
- Thanatos - death instinct |
| Life Instincts (eros) | - Drive for survival by satisfying the needs for food, water, air, sex |
| Death instinct (Thanatos) | - The unconscious drive toward decay, destruction and aggression towards others or self |
| Libido | - Psychic energy associated with sexual urges |
| Cathexis | - An investment of psychic energy in an object or person |
| Catharsis | - Releasing strong or repressed emotions, providing relief |
| Aggressive Drive | - Urge to destroy, conquer and kill |
| Freud’s ‘Iceberg’ - Hydraulic model | - Analogy of the conscious, unconscious and preconscious |
| Freud's 3 elements of personality – tripartite personality | - ID
- Ego
- Super Ego |
| ID | - Present at birth
- Unconscious instincts
- Tries to get immediate gratification
- Tries to avoid pain
- Pleasure principle |
| Ego | - Tries to satisfy the desires in an acceptable way
negotiates desires of Id with rules of Super Ego
- Reality principle |
| Super Ego | - Values and morals of the person
- Conscious
- Develops at around 5
- Causes guilt if rules broken
- Morality principle |
| Defensive mechanisms | - Ego forms that protect against Id |
| Different defensive mechanisms | - Repression
- Displacement
- Projection
- Denial
- Rationalization
- Reaction Formation
- Sublimation
- Ego anxiety
- Regression |
| Repression | - Ego blocks painful/disturbing memories from conscious |
| Displacement | - Directing feelings from one object to another e.g hit pillow not person |
| Projection | - Taking aspects of your personality and believing others have these aspects |
| Denial | - Refusal to accept a painful event, thought or feeling as if it didnt exist |
| Rationalization | - Reinterpreting our behaviour to make it more acceptable + less threatening to us |
| Reaction Formation | - Expressing an id impulse that is the opposite of the true drive of the person |
| Sublimation | - Channelling negative + unacceptable impulses into positive + socially acceptable behaviours |
| Ego anxiety | - When our ego cannot resolve conflict between super ego and id
- Inability to resolve leads to mental health problems |
| Regression | - Returning to childhood, childlike state |
| Freud's psychosexual stages of development | - Oral stage
- Anal stage
- Phallic stage
- The latency stage
- The genital stage |
| Oral stage | - Children may suck thumbs or put things in their mouth because they enjoy it |
| Anal stage | - Children enjoy holding in, and then expelling faeces |
| Penis Envy | - Females envy males because male possesses a penis, sense of loss |
| Phallic stage | - Children become aware of their genitals and sexual differences - 3-5 y/o
- Oedipus + Electra complex |
| How do boys and girls resolve the conflicts in the phallic stage? | - Boys develops strong identification with the father
- Cannot be totally resolved in girls, leads to poorly developed superegos in women |
| The latency stage | - After destruction of Oedipus complex
- Child's energies are diverted from sexual use + directed to other things i.e. sports |
| The genital stage | - During puberty, sexual instinct becomes more intense
- Child’s sexual urges are diverted away from their parents on to other people, or other people who resemble them |
| Oedipus complex | - Boys want to marry mum, kill dad |
| Electra complex | - Girls want to marry dad, kill mum |
| Psychodynamic perspective strengths | - Explains mental disorders, how their treated
- Highlights importance of the unconscious mind as an influence on our feelings + behaviour
- Abnormal behaviour could be caused by psychological factors
- Freud’s ideas used in modern forms of counselling |
| Psychodynamic perspective weaknesses | - Unscientific, theories cannot be verified nor falsified
- Case study - based on 1 person, bias, reduces validity |
