Psychodynamic Perspective

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Psychodynamic Perspective
Sigmund Freud
Freuds Famous Couch
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Freud

• Personality set in childhood
• Psychosexual stage theory
• Believed that sexual urges were an important
  determinate of a persons personality
• Stages named for the erogenous zone involved
• An area of the body from which we receive pleasure

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Freud

• Oral phase- 0-18 months of life
• Anal phase- 18 to 24 months
• Phallic phase- 3-5 years
• Oedipus Crisis /Electra Crisis
• Penis Envy
• Castration Anxiety Identification
• Latency- 5 years-puberty
• Genital- Puberty and beyond

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Freud

• Fixations result from psychic energy, or libido,
  getting stuck at a stage
• Oral fixation
• Anal retentive
• Anal expulsive
• We either over or under compensate

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Freud's Conception of the Human Psyche
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Personality- Psychodynamic Id

• Contains instincts and
• psychic energy
• Eros/ libido, Thanatos
• Exists completely in our unconscious mind
• Propelled by the pleasure principle
• the principle that the id seeks gratification
  fails to distinguish fantasy from reality

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Personality- Psychodynamic Ego

• Partly in the conscious mind partly in the
  unconscious
• Driven by the reality principle
• The ego is aware of the real environment and the
  need to fit into it
• Delays gratification

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Personality- Psychodynamic Superego

• Partly in the conscious mind partly in the
  unconscious
• Our sense of right and wrong
• Represents the internalizing of our parents
  rules the rules of society
• Disobeying the superego causes anxiety

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• You are studying for your Psychology
  exam.
• Your id tells you, Go to
  sleep. We are tired. This isnt any fun.
  Besides, isnt Lola having a party?
• Your superego
  replies, Keep studying. You know it is the
  right thing to do.
• Your ego compromises, Well study for two
  hours. Drop by the party and then get to bed.

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Superego
Id
EGO
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Defense Mechanisms

• Part of the egos job is to protect the conscious
  mind from the threatening thoughts buried in the
  unconscious mind
• This is done with defense mechanisms or
  behaviors that protect people from anxiety

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Oedipus Complex

• Crisis of development
  (happens around 5)
• During the Phallic Stage the child desires
  opposite sex parent
• He fears punishment from same-sex parent, so he
  represses these desires into unconscious
• Boys Oedipus complex
• Girls Electra complex (Jung)

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Oedipus Complex

• Resolution is a defense mechanism called
  identification
• We become like our same-sex parent, take on their
  behaviors, values, attitudes, etc.
• Freud says this is how we learn our gender roles
  conscience.
• None of this is conscious but may surface in
  symbolism in dreams!

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Resolving the Oedipus Complex

• Boys sexual impulse
  directed at mother
• Father viewed as rival
• Boy fears father
  will retaliate (castration
  anxiety)
• Resolved by the defense mechanism identification
  with the aggressor (father)

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Tapping the Unconsciousness

• Projective tests- vague stimulus to look into the
  unconscious
• TAT- Thematic Apperception Test
• Rorschach Inkblot
• Word Association Ill say a word and you say
  the first word that pops into your head
• Analyzing Dreams and fantasies

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Neo-Freudians-Jung

• Agreed with Freud that the unconscious exerts a
  powerful influence
• Suggested that the collective unconscious is a
  shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from
  our species history.

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Neo-Freudians

• Generally placed more emphasis on the conscious
  mind in interpreting experience and coping with
  the environment
• Argued that we have more positive motives than
  sex and aggression

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Criticisms

• Little empirical evidence
• Little predictive power
• Overestimation of childhood and sex
• Sexist-Androcentric

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Problems with Freudian Psychoanalysis

• Freud didnt conduct controlled experiments. He
  assumed that case studies could establish whether
  theories are true or false. However, this is not
  true.
• Freud believed that schizophrenia was a
  disturbance in the unconscious caused by
  unresolved feelings of homosexuality. It is a
  brain disorder related to dopamine.
• Scientific research into how memory works does
  not support the psychoanalytic concept of the
  unconscious mind as a reservoir of repressed
  sexual and traumatic memories of either childhood
  or adulthood.

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Impact

• Greater on culture than on modern psychology
• Terms invented by Freud have entered our language
• Prominent role in many of the arts

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However

• Freud should be considered one of our great
  thinkers because he lead the way in our desire to
  understand people whose behaviors and thoughts
  are not considered normal.

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Modern Psychoanalysis

• Does help some people
• Focuses on affect and expression of emotion.
• Explores attempts to avoid distressing thoughts
  and feelings.
• Identifies recurring themes and patterns.
• Discusses past experience (developmental focus)
• Focuses on interpersonal relations and the
  therapeutic relationship

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Sources

• Banyard, P. And Grayson, A. (2000) Introducing
  Psychological Research Seventy Studies that
  Shape Psychology, 2nd Edition. London Macmillan
• Myers, David, Reviews, Cram101. (2009).
  Outlines and highlights for psychology by david g
  myers, isbn.
• Gross, R. (1999) Key Studies in Psychology, 3rd
  Edition. London Hodder and Stoughton
• Allpsych
• Merriam-Webster
• Skeptics Magazine