Psychology- Approaches

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What is the psychodynamic theory?
A theory made by Freud that suggests unconscious desires and motives shape our behaviour. Childhood trauma/conflict can also create factors that make up our personality
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What is the unconscious?
The largest part of our mind that deals with mental processes that we are not aware of. Everything in the unconscious powerfully influences our behaviour and Freud said that it is the primary source of our behaviour
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What is the preconscious?
Information which is not currently available to the mind but can be easily recalled e.g. phone number
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What is the conscious?
Everything that is currently available to our mind, everything we are aware of
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What is the ID?
Wants immediate gratification and does not take into account morality. It acts on unconscious desires and motives and is instinctual/impulsive. It is not logical and is selfish and wishful in nature
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When is the ID developed?
The ID is present immediately from birth as it is instinctual. This is a reason for the selfish nature of children
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What happens if the ID is too strong?
It can cause selfish and out of control behaviour. Mental abnormalities can occur like psychopathy.
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What is the ego?
Demand long term gratification and is our reality principle. It find realistic and logical ways to obtain pleasure whilst following morality. It works by reason and acts as the middle ground between the ID and the Superego?
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When does the Ego develop?
It develops around the age of three when children begin to learn that they cant have everything they want and become aware of others feelings.
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What happens if the ego becomes too weak?
The ID and Superego will be able to dominate the mind and increase anxiety. If anxiety increases too much then defence mechanisms can be developed to make the individual feel better.
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What is the superego?
Acts as our morality principle and wants to do what's right and follows the norms and beliefs within society. It has conflict with the ID and controls its impulses. If behaviour falls short of the ideal self then guilt is established
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When is the superego developed?
It develops at the age of five when children learn right and wrong through primary socialisation within the family
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What happens if the superego becomes too strong?
It can create strict and obsessive behaviour which can leads to mental abnormalities such as anxiety, depression and OCD
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What is a Freudian slip?
When you say something you didn't intend to which reveals your true unconscious thoughts
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What are defence mechanisms?
Where anxiety increases due to an imbalance of personality so defence mechanisms are created to protect the mind from conflict
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What is denial?
reducing anxiety through the refusal to see the unpleasant aspects of life. The complete rejection of thoughts, feelings or memories. E.g. an alcoholic may say that alcohol gives them health benefits
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What is displacement?
Redirecting emotion from a dangerous object to a safer object. Redirecting emotions to a safer outlet. E.g. if you are angry you will punch a object rather than a person
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What is rationalisation?
Constructing logical justification for a decision originally arrived through another mental process. E.g. if a student gets a bad grade they will say that grades don't matter.
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What is regression?
The movement back in psychological time when when one is faced with stress they will regress back to childhood behaviour e.g. sucking a thumb when scared of going to the hospital
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What is sublimation?
Channelling impulses into socially acceptable behaviour e.g. an aggressive person may join the army as a cover up for their violent nature
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What is the Iceberg metaphor?
An analogy made by Freud in which he compared the mind to an iceberg. The conscious was the tip, the preconscious was just below the surface of the water and the unconscious was the largest part deep underneath the water.
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What are the psycho sexual stages of development?
A theory created by Freud who suggested that childhood conflict and fixation during these stages could influence our personality later in life through libido.
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What is the oral stage of psychosexual development?
From birth the main pleasure point is the mouth- sucking and tasting. This is over come by weaning. This is shown through eating independently. The child needs to trust the parent will feed them appropriately.
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What occurs if a child becomes fixated at the oral stage?
Can create orally receptive behaviour (needy, sensitive to rejection, biting nails, smoking) or orally aggressive behaviour (sarcasm, verbally abusive or hostile). Conflict is the feeding
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What is the anal stage of psychosexual development?
From 2-3 years old where the pleasure principle focuses on defecation. It is where the child learns control over the bowels and bladder. Successful completion is shown through potty training
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What occurs if a child becomes fixated at the anal stage?
Can cause anally retentive behaviour (clean and tidy, likes order and rules) or it can cause anally expulsive behaviour (highly creative, messy and is messy/destructive)
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What is the phallic stage of psychosexual stages of development?
Between ages of 3-4 where the main pleasure principle is the penis/not having a penis. To overcome this stage the child must identify with the same sex parent
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What is the Oedipus complex?
When the boy sees the mother as the primary love object and wants the father out of the way. He develops castration anxiety as he has took the mother away from the father so identifies with him to stop the anxiety
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What is the Electra complex?
The girl also desires her mother but becomes hostile due to penis envy- mother castrated her so develops a sexual attraction to the father as she believes he can give her a child which acts as a penis substitute. girl doesn't want to lose mother so identi
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What occurs if a child becomes fixated at the phallic stage?
Fixation can decide sexual deviance's and confusion with sexual identity in the future. Freud believed that girls also may continue to have penis envy
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What is the latent stage in the psychosexual development of behaviour?
From age 4 to puberty where is a lull in sexual urges. Sexual impulses are sublimated into sports or other hobbies. There is no specific completion of this
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What occurs if fixation at the latent stage occurs?
There are no specific consequences but this stage is important for the development of communication and self-confidence
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What is the genital stage of the psycho-sexual stage of development?
When the main pleasure principle is the genitals and focuses on the development of healthy adult relationships which should happen if earlier stages have been completed successfully
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What happens if fixation occurs at the genital stage?
No problems occur, problems from earlier stages can be carried over to this stage. This stage helps us to become fully productive members of society and to sit in
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What is a case study?
A case study is an in depth method of research which studies small groups or an individual. Uses methods like observations and interviews to produce rich information
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What are the benefits of using case studies?
High ecological validity, ethical, rich information and detail, no individual differences, no manipulation
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What are the negatives of using case studies?
Low population validity, retrospective data, bias subjectivity, low replicability, low generalisability
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What is psychoanalysis?
A method of therapy to help reveal unconscious thoughts or repressed memories in order to discover an issue in the client
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What does psychoanalysis consist of?
Manifest symptoms caused by latent disturbances, causes include unresolved issues during development and focuses on bringing it into the conscious
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What are methods involved with psychoanalysis?
Ink blot tests, free association and dream interpretation
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What do ink blot tests do?
Ink blot tests are subjective and ambiguous. The client makes unconscious connections with what they see and unconscious thoughts
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What does free association do?
Therapists say out a list of terms and the client responds with the first word that come to mind in hope that is reveals pieces of repressed thoughts
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What does dream interpretation do?
Freud believed that there are universal symbols which can emerge which can represent unconscious thoughts. symbols highlight socially undesirable behaviour in more accepting forms e.g. colour, number, status
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What kind of symbols/ socially undesirable behaviour can be shown in dreams?
Vagina-circular objects:jewelry, Penis-oblong objects/number three, Castration: loss of something e.g. tooth and Coitus: action that represents sexual behaviour e.g. riding a horse
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What is the evaluation of psychoanalysis?
Can be time consuming, client has to be motivated, doesn't work for everyone and all conditions, can create a power imbalance so is unethical, discovery can cause distress
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What did Fisher and Greenberg conclude about the psychodynamic theory?
It cannot be accepted/rejected as a package. Some parts may be accepted/rejected/partially reshaped and is a complete structure containing many parts
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What are the evaluation points of psychodynamic theory?
Unscientific, cognitive theory (unconscious), humanistic (too deterministic), effectiveness of psychoanalysis is questioned, Not generalisable, although it is hard to test explanatory evidence is given
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Expand on the unscientificness of the psychodynamic theory
Many concepts of Freud theories are subjective and difficult to test scientifically e.g. how is it possible to scientifically study concepts such as the unconscious or tripartite personality? Its theories cannot be empirically investigated.
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Expand on the cognitive approach supporting the psychodynamic theory?
The theory has identified unconscious processes such as procedural memory, automatic processing. Such empirical findings have demonstrated the unconscious role in human behaviour
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Expand on the idea of hypotheses/evidence and generalisability
the theory comprises a series of hypotheses. While it is hard to test it does not mean that the theory does not have strong explanatory power. Most evidence is taken from Freud case studies but this focuses on one person so is not generalisable
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Expand on the idea of effectiveness of the psychodynamic theory?
effectiveness is questioned in comparison to patients who recover spontaneously from behaviour. It is argued that recovery is spontaneous rather than from the effects of therapy
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What did Eysenck find about the effectiveness of therapy?
he found that it worked for 66% of thousands of patients asked. However, 70% of people who had neurotic disorders who didn't receive therapy recovered. Therapy suits some people but not others
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Expand on the idea of the humanistic approach in comparison to the psychodynamic theory
Humanistic approach says that its perspective is too deterministic. Freud believes everything is determined by childhood experiences and unconscious mental process. Suggests we have no conscious free will over our behaviour (personal agency)
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What is the unconscious?

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The largest part of our mind that deals with mental processes that we are not aware of. Everything in the unconscious powerfully influences our behaviour and Freud said that it is the primary source of our behaviour

Card 3

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What is the preconscious?

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What is the conscious?

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Card 5

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What is the ID?

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