Evaluating psychodynamic approach

Created by: Francesca C
Created on: 17-04-19 15:21


	Evaluating psychodynamic approach
	Advantages Nature and nurture - takes into account both sides of debate. Freud claimed adult personality product of innate drives and childhood experiences. Id instictual, biological aspect of personality. Driven by eros (life drive, drive to preserve and create life) and Thanatos (death drive, motivates antisocial acts e.g. aggression). Influence of nurture - psychosexual stages, eac hstage frustration or overindulgence may lead to fixation on stage and predictable adult personality characteristics. Freud's theory considers influence of nature and nurture. Interactionist nature of approach key strength. Usefulness - psychodynamic approach proved to be useful, highlights fact childhood critical period in development, who we are and become greatly influenced by childhood experiences. Ideas put forward by Freud have greatly influenced therapies used to treat mental disorders. First to recognise psychological factors could explain physical symptoms e.g. paralysis. Psychoanalysis widely used to help people overcome psychological problems. Useful approach for helping to understand mental health problems e.g. mental health can be caused by childhood trauma and unconscious conflicts. Freud's explanations reflect complexity of human behaviour and experience. Psychodynamic approach can be seen as an approach that is holistic - recognises that human behaviour is influenced by multiple factors which cannot be separated. Approach improves on those approaches that reduce explanations for human behaviour to 1 factor. Behaviourist approach proposes that recovery from mental disorder can be achieved through re-learning and does not require any consideration of what may simply reappear again because actual cause ignored. Symptom substitution. Method of psychoanalysis seeks to uncover deep meanings and ackonlwedges understanding behaviour lengthy process.	Disadvantages Reductionist and oversimplified. 'Mechanistic reductionism' simplifies complex human behaviour to the machanics of the mid e.g. battle between the id, superego and ego. early childhood experiences (psychosexual stages). Approach ignores other important influences on behaviour - biochemistry and genetics. During the 50s and 60s one of the main explanations for autism was that some mothers were very distant from children 'refrigerator mother', autism withdrawal from lack of involvement. Such an explanation was an oversimplification of underlying processes. Deterministic - Freud saw infant behaviour as determined by innate forces (libido) and adult behaviour as determined by childhood experiences. Follow that we have no free will in who we become or how we behave. Personality shaped by forces pre-determined, cannot change or no choice about. Ad humans we have no free will when it comes to our personality and behaviour. We are able to change way we behave if we want. Plausible excuse for behaving unreasonably. Cannot be held responsible for behaviour. Cannot be proven wrong - major objection to Freud's theory - difficult to falsify. Good theory can be tested to see if wrong. Karl Popper 1934 argued falisification is only way to be certain 'no amount of observations of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion'. Can't prove a theory is right can only falisify one. Predictions 'slippery'. View that all men have repressed homosexual tendencies cannot be disproved. If do find men who have no repressed homosexual tendencies could be argued to be that they are just so repressed not apparent. Research has looked at the relationship between guilt and wrongdoing - Freud predicted inverse relationship - MacKinnon 1938 found individuals who cheated at a task tended to express less guilt questioned about life in general than those who did not cheat.
	Evaluation Psychoanalysis - theory of personality and therapy. Aim of therapy - bring unconscious feelings and thoughts into conscious awareness where can be dealt with. Key technique used to do this is free association, patients express thoughts exactly as occur, even though thoughts may seem unimportant or irrelevant. Patients should not censor thoughts in any way. Freud believed value of free association lies in fact that patients are making links or associations as express thoughts and associations determined by unconscious factors that analysis is aiming to uncover. Procedure designed to reveal areas of conflict and to bring into consciousness memories repressed. Therapist helps interpret repressed memories who correct, reject and add further thoughts and feelings. Not brief form of therapy. examine same issues over and over sometimes over years, attempt to gain clarity concerning causes of neurotic behaviour.

Evaluating psychodynamic approach

Advantages

Nature and nurture - takes into account both sides of debate. Freud claimed adult personality product of innate drives and childhood experiences. Id instictual, biological aspect of personality. Driven by eros (life drive, drive to preserve and create life) and Thanatos (death drive, motivates antisocial acts e.g. aggression).
Influence of nurture - psychosexual stages, eac hstage frustration or overindulgence may lead to fixation on stage and predictable adult personality characteristics. Freud's theory considers influence of nature and nurture. Interactionist nature of approach key strength.
Usefulness - psychodynamic approach proved to be useful, highlights fact childhood critical period in development, who we are and become greatly influenced by childhood experiences.
Ideas put forward by Freud have greatly influenced therapies used to treat mental disorders. First to recognise psychological factors could explain physical symptoms e.g. paralysis.
Psychoanalysis widely used to help people overcome psychological problems. Useful approach for helping to understand mental health problems e.g. mental health can be caused by childhood trauma and unconscious conflicts.
Freud's explanations reflect complexity of human behaviour and experience. Psychodynamic approach can be seen as an approach that is holistic - recognises that human behaviour is influenced by multiple factors which cannot be separated.
Approach improves on those approaches that reduce explanations for human behaviour to 1 factor. Behaviourist approach proposes that recovery from mental disorder can be achieved through re-learning and does not require any consideration of what may simply reappear again because actual cause ignored. Symptom substitution. Method of psychoanalysis seeks to uncover deep meanings and ackonlwedges understanding behaviour lengthy process.

Disadvantages

Reductionist and oversimplified. 'Mechanistic reductionism' simplifies complex human behaviour to the machanics of the mid e.g. battle between the id, superego and ego. early childhood experiences (psychosexual stages).
Approach ignores other important influences on behaviour - biochemistry and genetics. During the 50s and 60s one of the main explanations for autism was that some mothers were very distant from children 'refrigerator mother', autism withdrawal from lack of involvement. Such an explanation was an oversimplification of underlying processes.
Deterministic - Freud saw infant behaviour as determined by innate forces (libido) and adult behaviour as determined by childhood experiences. Follow that we have no free will in who we become or how we behave. Personality shaped by forces pre-determined, cannot change or no choice about. Ad humans we have no free will when it comes to our personality and behaviour. We are able to change way we behave if we want. Plausible excuse for behaving unreasonably. Cannot be held responsible for behaviour.
Cannot be proven wrong - major objection to Freud's theory - difficult to falsify. Good theory can be tested to see if wrong. Karl Popper 1934 argued falisification is only way to be certain 'no amount of observations of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion'. Can't prove a theory is right can only falisify one.
Predictions 'slippery'. View that all men have repressed homosexual tendencies cannot be disproved. If do find men who have no repressed homosexual tendencies could be argued to be that they are just so repressed not apparent.
Research has looked at the relationship between guilt and wrongdoing - Freud predicted inverse relationship - MacKinnon 1938 found individuals who cheated at a task tended to express less guilt questioned about life in general than those who did not cheat.

Evaluation

Psychoanalysis - theory of personality and therapy. Aim of therapy - bring unconscious feelings and thoughts into conscious awareness where can be dealt with. Key technique used to do this is free association, patients express thoughts exactly as occur, even though thoughts may seem unimportant or irrelevant. Patients should not censor thoughts in any way. Freud believed value of free association lies in fact that patients are making links or associations as express thoughts and associations determined by unconscious factors that analysis is aiming to uncover. Procedure designed to reveal areas of conflict and to bring into consciousness memories repressed. Therapist helps interpret repressed memories who correct, reject and add further thoughts and feelings. Not brief form of therapy. examine same issues over and over sometimes over years, attempt to gain clarity concerning causes of neurotic behaviour.

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Evaluating psychodynamic approach