Specification: The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is ID, ego and superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages.
Assumptions
The mind is like an iceberg and the unconscious mind has a significant influence on behaviour
Early childhood experiences have an impact on later adult behaviour
Personality consists of three components: id, ego and superego, which determine our behaviour
Children progress through a series of psychosexual stages. If a child becomes fixated at any stage it can affect their later behaviour
The psychodynamic approach
The foundations of the psychodynamic approach were laid by Sigmund Freud. He proposed the notion of the unconscious, which lies at the root of his hugely influential theory. Central to the psychodynamic approach are three main assumptions: personality (psyche) has a discernible structure (ID, ego and superego); that it is constructed by the passage through psychosexual stages of development throughout infancy and adolescence; and that the unconscious conflicts in the psyche are mediated by processes called defence mechanisms.
The role of the unconscious
According to the psychodynamic approach, there are vast parts of the mind that are inaccessible to conscious awareness. The metaphor of an iceberg was used by Freud to explain this, with consciousness being the small part of the structure which we are aware of (the top of the iceberg), and the unconscious taking up a much larger proportion of the human mind (beneath the surface), even though we are not directly aware or able to access it at will.
Any traumatic events or memories from childhood are repressed into the unconscious mind and kept there, hidden from conscious awareness. However, psychodynamic theorists suggest that such events or memories are never truly forgotten and can be explored through psychoanalysis.
The unconscious mind can reveal itself in several ways including dreams, fantasies and slips of the tongue, otherwise known as ‘Freudian slips’.
The structure of the personality: id, ego and superego
According to Freud, the personality is made up of three components: the id, ego and superego.
The id is pure erotic energy and is governed by the pleasure principle. It consists of primal urges which Freud called drives and seeks nothing but pleasure and instant gratification. It operates on instinct and is the part of the personality which is present at birth.
The ego is governed by the reality principle and is tasked with taming the id and balancing the demands of the superego, much like a referee overseeing a football match. The ego is not present at birth and arises in response to control by others, specifically parents during the anal stage of development (see below), at around two years old.
The superego is governed by the morality principal: our sense of right and wrong. It is characterised by the ‘inner voice’ that tells us when we have crossed into the boundaries of unacceptable behaviour. The superego is the internalised parent and develops in response to parental discipline around five years old.
Defence mechanisms
Defence mechanisms are used by the ego in order to cope with the conflicting demands of the other two parts of the personality: the ID and superego. The ego works by distorting reality so that the individual can continue with their everyday life without unpleasant feelings or memories dominating their conscious awareness.
Psychosexual stages
According to Freud, children pass through several psychosexual stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital. During each stage, the child has its desires for bodily pleasure denied and redirected by its parents until they focus exclusively on the appropriate sexual outlet for the given stage. According to Freud, if a child fails to resolve the conflict at each of the psychosexual stages, they may develop a fixation where they display certain behaviours/characteristics in their adult life.
The driver of this process is the Oedipus complex in which boys relinquish their unconscious desire for their mother and internalise the fear of castration by their father. This process is traumatic, and cannot be confronted directly, and so the ego establishes defence mechanisms, such as repression and denial, to mediate the psychological terrors it generates.
Exam Hint: The mnemonic Old Age Pensioners Love Grannies may help you to remember the correct sequence of the psychosexual stages.
Evaluation of the psychodynamic approach
As strange as Freud’s ideas may seem now, they have been enormously influential in both the practice of psychology and in our understanding of how culture operates. The evidence for these ideas is almost entirely clinical rather than empirical, and its scientific credibility is questionable. But few would deny that there are, in fact, unconscious motives and demonstrable defence mechanisms. These existential realities have allowed Freudian theory to maintain some hold on psychotherapeutic techniques, like psychoanalysis, which is still used to treat patients with deep-seated psychological health issues today.
There is empirical research to support the effectiveness of psychoanalysis. Biskup et al., (2005) reported a naturalistic study of 36 patients that demonstrated that at the end of psychoanalytic therapy, 77% of the patients showed clinically significant improvements. Furthermore, Bachrach et al., (2000) conducted a meta-analysis of every major study of the effectiveness of psychoanalytic treatment and found that all the studies show that psychoanalysis is an effective treatment for many patients. This suggests that despite a lack of empirical support for psychodynamic theories psychodynamic treatments (e.g. psychoanalysis) are effective at treating a range of psychological disorders.
Freud’s ideas demonstrate a significant gender bias; his obsession with the Oedipus complex is intensely androcentric, and many would claim this makes them irrelevant to an understanding of women. But female psychoanalysts like Melanie Klein have shown that even gender-biased theories can be adapted to provide useful insights into female behaviour. Therefore, while Freud’s original ideas demonstrate a significant gender bias, his work has been used to develop important and influential theories that apply to women.
Psychoanalytic theory has been criticised for being culturally biased. All of Freud’s patients came from the Viennese middle-class, and his universal generalisations were based on this highly unrepresentative sample. He called his therapy “the talking cure”, and there is considerable evidence to suggest that it is only suitable for cultures where the discussion of personal problems is encouraged. This is more a practical limitation than a conceptual one, but it casts some doubt on the effectiveness of any therapeutic approach, for other cultures, based on psychoanalytic ideas.
Issues and debates
The psychodynamic approach suggests that human behaviour is governed by unconscious drives and early traumatic childhood experiences which are repressed into the unconscious mind. As such, an individual does not have free will over their behaviour and instead is under the influence of psychic determinism.
A major criticism of Freudian theory is that it is not empirically testable. For example, the human mind cannot be dissected to reveal the id, ego and superego. As a result, it is not scientific in its approach to explaining human behaviour since the understanding of behaviour relies solely on the subjective interpretation of the psychoanalyst.
Possible exam questions
Identify which of the following statements about repression is false. Only shade one box. (1 mark)
A It causes trouble for individuals trying to access unpleasant recollections.
B It can lead to unpleasant memories causing psychological suffering.
C It involves unpleasant recollections being kept in the unconscious mind.
D It involves individuals choosing to forget unpleasant events.
Identify which of the following statements is false. Only shade one box. (1 mark)
A The ID is selfish.
B The ID needs instant gratification.
C The Superego is responsible for a person’s sense of right and wrong.
D The Superego is responsible for unacceptable behaviours.
Mario often loses his temper when he becomes frustrated or angry. Most of the time he can keep his feelings under control, such as when he is at work. However, one day, after some negative feedback from his Manager, Mario stormed out of the meeting, kicking a nearby plant pot on his way so hard that it shattered.
Suggest how a psychodynamic psychologist could explain Mario’s behaviour. (2 marks)
A psychologist following the psychodynamic approach within psychology was interested in investigating the purpose of dreams. To do this, she asked four of her friends to write a journal each morning about the dreams they had the previous night, for seven consecutive days. The psychologist then set about analysing the content of the dream journals based on the assumption that they contained repressed desires.
With reference to the scenario above, explain why psychologists following the psychodynamic approach in psychology have been heavily criticised for disregarding scientific principles. (3 marks)
Explain one limitation of the psychodynamic approach in psychology. (2 marks)
Loren was very keen to pass her driving test so she could have the freedom to visit her friends whenever she wanted to. After her test, which she failed, she did not seem disappointed or upset.
Identify one defence mechanism and explain why Loren was not upset after failing her driving test. (2 marks)
Elise is out shopping and sees a bracelet that she thinks is perfect for her upcoming night out. She notices that there are no security guards or cameras and considers how easy it would be for her to take it without paying by slipping it into her handbag.
Describe the psychodynamic explanation for the development of the superego component of the personality (psyche). Explain how the superego might influence moral behaviour in Elise’s situation. (4 marks)
Outline and evaluate the psychodynamic approach in psychology, including at least one difference between the psychodynamic approach and the humanistic approach in your response. (8 marks)
Discuss the psychodynamic approach in psychology. (16 marks)
Outline the cognitive approach. Compare the cognitive approach with the psychodynamic approach in psychology. (16 marks)
Discuss the unique nature of the psychodynamic approach. In your answer, you must refer to other approaches in psychology. (16 marks)
Discuss the psychodynamic approach to explaining human behaviour. The evaluation must refer to both strengths and limitations of the approach. (16 marks)
