5 4 the psychodynamic approach a level only

An assumption of the psychodynamic approach is that experiences in early childhood play a key role in determining an individual's mental/emotional state and outcomes in later life.

Freud used an iceberg analogy to conceptualise the different levels of consciousness.

The preconscious mind holds dreams and 'Freudian slips' and sits just below the surface of the conscious mind.

False. The** unconscious mind is the part of the mind that holds information and feelings that the individual may be unaware of. E.g., secret fears or desires, repressed memories or emotions, the effects of trauma.**

b. Oedipus is not a component of the tripartite structure of personality.

c. The id operates according to the pleasure principle.

The superego represents an internalised sense of right and wrong, the conscience/morality/ethics/judgemental aspect of the self.

c. A strength of psychodynamic theory is that it is high in external validity. It makes sense to see the link between parental treatment of the child and conflicted behaviour in the adult.

True. Freud's theories of the unconscious mind and structure of personality are extremely difficult to operationalise, test and measure. This is because the concepts and mechanisms involved are highly subjective and open to interpretation.

Psychic determinism assumes that unconscious conflicts guide behaviour; the idea that nothing happens by chance and that mental events always have an underlying cause that can be uncovered through psychoanalysis.

a. According to Freud, the ego uses defence mechanisms to help balance the conflicting demands of the id and the superego.

c. Reproachment is not a defence mechanism.

d. 'I shout at my children because I cannot shout at my boss' is an example of displacement.

The anal phase spans the ages of 1-3 years.

If a child becomes 'stuck' at one of the psychosexual stages this is known as fixation. This happens if the child's upbringing is dysfunctional or if they have suffered some sort of trauma or adverse experience.

The Oedipus complex is the psychosexual stage in which boys initially feel an unconscious desire for closeness to their mother and hate/fear their father due to castration anxiety.

a. Neatness, perfectionism, neuroticism suggest that someone is fixated in the anal retentive stage.

False. ** Psychotherapy can enable people to come to terms with and recognise the underlying conflicts** and trauma that may result in defence mechanisms. This is highly applicable to counselling for a range of conditions, e.g., phobias, sexual fetishes, anger issues.

c. Psychodynamic theory is unfalsifiable which means that it resists hypothesis-testing and a scientific approach. It is based on subjective methods and measures which are open to interpretation.

There are alternative explanations for behaviour: someone who is conflicted may have learned this behaviour from parental role models rather than it being the result of unconscious drives.