Psychodynamic

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  • Created by: Ellen122
  • Created on: 15-03-21 10:58
Assumption: Influence of Childhood Experiences
Experiences in childhood shape our adult personality
Psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of key developmental stages
Psychosexual stages with each stage representing the fixation of libido on a different area of the body
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Five Psychosexual
Each stage is associated with a particular part of the body
Problems at each stage of development can result in the child getting fixated at the body part associated with that stage causing long-lasting effects on personality
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Fixations
Frustration - when the stage has not been resolved becuase needs have not been met, for example the child is understaisfied
Overindulgence - this is when the needs of the child have been more than satisfied and the result is that the child feels too comfo
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Oral
0 -18 months
Mouth: sucking, chewing, swallowing and biting
Breast feeding, weaning onto solid food
Frustration - pessismism, envy, sarcasm
Overindulgence - optimism, gulibility, neediness
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Anal
18 months - 3 years
Anus, withholding, expelling, playing with faeces
Potty training
Frustration - stubborn, possessive, overly tidy
Overindulgence - mesy, disorganised, reckless
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Phalic
3 - 5 years
Genitals, masturbation
The Oedipus complex leads to superego and gender identity
Self-assured, vain, may have problems with sexuality and difficulty building and maintaing relationships in adulthood
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Latency
5 years - puberty
Little/no sexual motivation
Acquiring knowledge and understanding of the world
No fixation as no pleasure focus
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Genital
Puberty onwards
Genitals, heterosexual intercourse
Well-developed adult personality, well adjusted (if complexes during phalic stage are resolved
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Assumption: The Unconscious Mind
The mind is like an iceberg
Much of what goes on inside the mind lies under the surface - preconscious and unconscious mind
The conscious mind is logical
Unconscious mind is rule by pleasure seeking and cannot be directly accessed but expresses itself thr
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Unconscious Mind
Determines much of our behaviour and that we are motivated by unconscious emotional drives
Contains unresolved conflicts that have powerful effects on behaviour and experience
Many conflicts show up in our fantasies and dreams
Conflicts are so threatenin
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Ego Defense Mechanisms
Conflicts between the id, ego and superego create anxiety
Ego protects itself with various ego defences
Defences can be the cause of disturbed behaviour if they are overused
A boy cannot deal with percieved maternal rejection when he has a new baby brothe
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Examples of Defense Mechanisms
Displacement - transfer of impulses from one person or object to another
Projection - indesirable thoughts are attributed to someone else
Repression - pushing painful memories deep down into our unconscious mind, so they are effectively forgotten
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Assumption: Tripartite Personality
The adult personality is structured into three parts that develop at different stages in our lives
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Id
Impulsive
Unconscious
Present at birth
Demands immediate satisfaction
Pleasure principle
Aim is to gain pleasure and gratification
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Ego
Conscious
Rational part of the mind
Develops around the age of two
Works out realistic ways of balancing demands of the id in a socially acceptable way
Reality Principle
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Superego
Forms around 4
Embodies the child's sense of right and wrong as well as their ideal self
Seeks to perfect and civilise our behaviour
Learned through identification with one's parents and others
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Conflict
Id and superego are often in conflict
Battle between right and wrong
The ego has to act as a referee and resolve the conflict
Considering consquences of a person's actions
'Structural' model
Three parts are symbolic processes
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Relationships
Emphasises the importance of forming healthy, early relationships, in order to achieve the same later on in life
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Psychosexual Stages and Relationships
Considers each of the different stages of psychosexual development and use the idea of fixation to explain the nature of relationships in adulthood
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Example of Psychosexual Stages and Relationships
Over-indulgence during the oral stage could result in an unhealthy dependency on others later on life
'Needy' in a relationship
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Phallic Stage and Relationships
Very important for Freud
The superego, conscience and ego-ideal are developing
Fixation at this stage will result in an adult who is not capable of loving another person or entering into a relationship
Successful passing through will affect the later stag
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Oedipus Complex and Relationships
Boys need to resolve this complex
Phallic stage = young boys come to desire their mother and regard their father as a rival wishing him dead creating anxiety
Resolution of this allows boys during the genital stage to develop normal, healthy friendships an
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Defense Mechanisms and Relationships
Forming relationships in adulthood may bring up unpleasant emotions from the past
People may use ego defences to help them avoid anxiety
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Example of Defense Mechanisms and Relationships
Someone in denial about their sexuality may try to form relationships which are not in line with their true feelings causing it to be dysfunctional and cause it to eventually break down
Those dishonest in a relationship may deal with their guilt through r
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Bowlby
Unhealthy experiences shaped the behaviour of some children
Young 'thieves' formed 'affectionless' characters - inability to show affection or concern for others
Affectionless thieves had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers at a young age
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Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis
The ability to form meaningful social relationships in adulthodd was dependent on a close, warm and continuous relationship with the mother in the first years of one's life
2 and half years were especially important but there is continuing sensitivity up
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Dream Analysis and Unconscious Mind
Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy that aims to make the 'unconscious conscious' so that people gain an 'insight' and can be cured
Establishing whether repression is causing the person's psychological illness
Dream analysis is a technique used with the t
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Dream Analysis and Childhood Experiences
Traumatic memories build up in the unconscious which may relate to current experiences but may also relate to childhood events
Memories may surface in dreams as a means of working through a traumatic past event
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Dream Analysis and Tripartite Personality
Demands of the id are relegated to our dreams
Dreams act out our wishes and desires in acceptable ways rather than allowing them to build up and threaten our sanity
The ego would usually block out the unacceptable demands of the id and ego defences such a
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Main Componenets of Dream Analysis
Dreams - 'the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind' Freud 1900 pg 69
Preposed that the unconscious mind expresses itself through dreams
Content of a person's dreams can be reveal the unconscious
The process of assigning mean
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Dreams as Wish Fulfilment
All dreams were the unsconscious fulfilment of wishes that could not be satisifid in the conscious mind
Dreams protect ther sleeper (primary-process thought)
Allow expression to these buried urges (wish fulfilment)
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Symbolic Nature of Dreams
Dreams represent unfulfiled wishes
Contents are expressed symbolically
The real meaning of dreams (latent content) is transformed into a more innocuous form (manifest content) that it may seem meaningless to anybody
Psychoanalysts can interpret symbols
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Example of Symbolism
A penis may represent a snake or a gun
A vagina by a tunnel or cave
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How to Understand Symbols
Necessary to consider them in the context of a person's life
A fish could represent a person's friend who is a fisherman or a friend who is a Pisces
Freud did not support dream dictionaries
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Not Everything is Symbolic
'Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar'
Freud
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Dreamwork
The latent content is transformed into manifest content through the process of dreamwork
Consists of various processes
Processes applied to repressed wishes to produce the content of the dream that is experienced
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Condensations
Dream thoughts are rich in detail and content
Condensed to brief images in a dream
One dream image may stand for several associations and ideas
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Displacement
Emotional significance of a dream object is separated from its real object or content
Attached to an entirely different one so that the dream content is not 'censored'
Censor - prevents disturbing thoughs reaching the conscious mind except in disguised th
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Representation
A though is translated into visual images
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Symbolism
A symbol replaces an action, person or idea
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Secondary Elaboration
Unconscious mindcollects all the different images and ties them together to form a logical storyline
Disguises latent content
Actual dream material may be supplied from recent events in a person's waking life
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Role of the Therapist
To reverse the dreamwork process
Decode the manifest content back into the latent content
Should not offer one interpretation of a dream
Suggest various interpretations based on the patient's feedback and knowledge of their life experiences allowing the p
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Research Evidence
Recent research supports Freud's link between dreaming and primary-process thinking
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Solms 2000
PET scans to highlight the regions of the brain that are active during dreaming
Results showed that rational part of the brain is indeed inactive during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
Centres concerned with memory and motivation are very active
The ego be
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Hopfield et al. 1983
Neural networks
Computer stimulations show that neural networks deal with an overloaded memory by conflating or condensing 'memories'
Supports Freud's notion of condensation when unacceptable desires are censored and dealt with by recombining fragments un
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Methodological Issues
Research into dreaming is conducted in sleep labratories
Questioned whethe the sleep/dream state is as authentic as when under normal conditions
The patients is wired up with vairous electrodes taking measurements
Impossible to conclude that dreaming is t
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Studies on Dreams
Conducted on humans and animals that have been deprived of sleep or particular stages of sleep
Disruption will impair important biological functions such as the secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters
Confounding Variables - any results may be due to
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Subjective Interpretation
Interpreting manifest content and comin up with its underlying meaning relies on the subjective interpretation of the therapist
The dream that is being interpreted is a subjective report of the dreamer and may not be reliable information
Dream analysis is
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Therapist-client Relationship
Potential power imbalance between therapist and patient
Therapist takes expert role offering the patient insight into their unconscious
The patient is reliant on the therapist in making progress throgh the therapy
Creates a power imbalance and also can le
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False Memory Syndrome
Person's identity and relationships are affected by strongly believed but false memories of traumatic experiences
Come to light during pscyhoanalysis when the therapist claims to have uncovered past, traumatic events
The patient is likely to succumb to th
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Toon et al. 1996
Therapists may induce false memories so that the therapy will take longer
Financial gain
Patients may experience anxiety because of 'memories' of events that didn't even happen
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Emotional Harm
A therapist may guide a client towards an insight or interpretation that proves to be emotionally distressing
Necessary for recovery, the distress caused may be greater than the distress that the client is experiencing as a result of current problems
Psyc
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Bowlby 1944 Participants
Series of case studies
Control group
Not an experiement
Final analysis looked at an association between the two groups of participants and experiences of separation
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The Thieves
44 children
Attended a child guidance clinic in London
Described as thieves - stealing was a symtpom
Only a few had been charged in Court due to their ages
31 boys and 13 girls
5 to 17 years old
Graded in terms of seriousness of their stealing
Grade IV (2
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Control Group
44 children who attended the clinic
Similar age, sex, and IQ
Emotionally disturbed but did not steal
88 children overall all had been referred to the child guidance for emotional problems
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Mothers
The mothers of the thieves and of the control group participants were also involved in the study
Interviewed in order to assess the case histories of the children
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Card 2

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Five Psychosexual

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Each stage is associated with a particular part of the body
Problems at each stage of development can result in the child getting fixated at the body part associated with that stage causing long-lasting effects on personality

Card 3

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Fixations

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

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Oral

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Card 5

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Anal

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