AS AQA Psychology- Psychodynamic approach to Psychopathology

This is the idea that abnormal behaviour results from our onconscious, and that they have psychological rather than physical causes.

It assumes our personality has 3 components, the id which is the pleasure principle and is present at birth, the ego which develops at the end of our first year, which is the reality principle and enables a child to accomodate demands of the environment.

And finally, the superego which which develops between 3 and 6 years, and is about morality principle, our conscience and sense of wrong and right. 

We have a ego defence mechanism which balances out the id and superego, however, these may get out of proportion which leads to abnormality. 

Here are three examples of ego-defence mechanisms:

• Repression: When a person prevents unacceptable thoughts and behaviours from becoming conscience, not like a guilty secret though. 
• Denial: When people refuse admit they're feeling/experiencing something, e.g. anxiety
• Projection: When someones…