Psychology AS WJEC

Psychodynamic Approach - 
Assumptions - The unconcious mind influences behaviour + explains the way we behave. 
Behaviour explained by the Id, Ego + Superego in the mind.
Id seeks pleasure + has agressive drive.
Ego is the conscious rational part.
Superego has a sense of right + wrong + seeks to perfect behaviour + learned through parents + others.  

Behaviour is influenced by early childhood experiences. 
Ego is not developed to deal with trauma .'. repressed + causes depression.
Developmental stages - lead to fixation if child is over indulged or frustrated e.g. potty training.

THEORY
If weak ego, whichever one is stronger will win.
Id winning - no morals. 
Superego winning - uptight, depressed.
Need strong ego to balance the 2 parts of the mind. 

OAPS Love Greens. 
Oral -  Baby feeding/sucking. Too little = smoker. 
Anal - Pleasure from pooing. Too much = messy, generous. Too little = tight, mean
Phallic - Subconciously attracted to opp. sex parent + thinks opp. parent will castrate him so S.ego uses defences mechanisms + boy bonds with Dad. 
Latency - Boys = football. Girls = friendship. 
Genital - Adult relationships. 

Defence mechanisms - Protect from anxiety when unable to balance mind. 
Repression - Ego pushing trauma into unconscious.
Denial - Ego denies fact.
Neuroses - Overusing DM, eventually expressed as anxiety/depression.  

THERAPY - Aim is to make unconscious, conscious. 
 

Dream Analysis - Unconscious mind expresses itself through dreams. Dreams are the fulfilment of wishes not done in concious. 

Latent content - Hidden impulses. Real meaning of dream transferred into :
Manifest content - What you think you dreamt. (Symbol.) 
Dreamwork - Guardians of sleep, Converts unconscious into less disturbing dream. 
Analysis - To establish real reason behind behaviour + unconscious mind. 

METHODOLOGY - 

Case Studies - E.g. Anna O.

+  True insight into behaviour, Unique info, Qualitative, Descriptive data, Ideographic, In depth. 
- Can't generalise, Quantitative, Can be biased, Small sample of population, (Gender/ cultural/ historical bias.)

Clinical Interviews.
+ Client likely to open up to therapist (good relationship), Therapist can see verbal and non-verbal behaviour, Rich qualitative data - more likely to uncover reason behind behaviour. 
- Hard to detect trends - can't generalise, Interview bias - they may direct interview to fit hypothesis. 

Psychodynamic Approach - 

+ Takes account of nature + nurture
+  Useful - childhood development
+ Greatly influences therapy + understanding of mental health problems
+ Reflects complexity of behaviour as takes into account causes of behaviour

- Reductionist - ignores biochemistry and genetics
- Deterministic - no choice of personality and childhood experiences
- Not falsifiable - can't prove theory is right scientifically

Behaviourist Approach.

Mind does not exist - Look at what we can observe so look at behaviour. 
Behaviour is learned -
Classical conditioning - association of 1 stimulus with another e.g. Pavlovs dogs or Little Albert.
Unconditioned stimulus (food) - produce reaction on own without pairing. Unconditioned response (salivation) - natural response to UCS.
Conditioned stimuli (bell) - once paired with UCS it affects behaviour + after that has some effect on own. Conditioned response (salivation) - reaction to CS.

Operant conditioning - E.g. Skinner.
Positive reinforcement (food) - behaviour followed by something pleasant.
Negative reinforcement - behaviour followed by the ending of something pleasant.
Punishment - behaviour followed by something unpleasant (e.g. Bobo/Bandura)

Social Learning Theory - observing + copying e.g. Bandura/Bobo