The Psychodynamic Approach
Psychodynamic Approach
Introduction
The psychodynamic approach as used in psychology, stresses on systematic study of the psychological forces influencing human feelings, behaviour, and emotions, as well as their likely association with early experience. Psychodynamics is particularly interested in the relationship between three key elements of emotional states namely, the Id, Ego, and super-ego, and how these relate to processes and development in early childhood (Calson et al 2010). Sigmund Freud was influential in the development of the psychodynamic approach which views childhood experiences as vital in shaping adult personality. The psychodynamic perspective hinges on several core assumptions. The first assumption entails primacy of the unconscious. In this case, psychodynamic theorists hold the view that most psychological processes such as motives, feelings, and memories are largely unconscious (Bornstein 2010). The second assumption of the psychodynamic approach hinges on the critical significance of early experiences. In this case, early experiences are viewed as being vital in shaping personality even at adulthood (McWilliams 2009). The third assumption entails psychic causality in which the approach maintains that the principle of psychic causality is responsible for out random motives, feelings, thoughts, and behaviour (Robinson & Gordon 2011).
Freud, courtesy of his psychodynamic theory, asserts that our subconscious mind, influence our behaviour. Freud intimated that the human mind was made up of three distinct areas: id, ego, and superego. All the three elements compete amongst themselves for control over our behaviour.
Id
The id symbolise our most untamed, and impulsive desires. It attaches little value to what is reasonable or acceptable. The id acts as a source of such innate instincts as need for food and sexual desires (Freud 2013). The id obeys the Pleasure Principle which holds that humans endeavour to avoid pain and maximise pleasure wherever possible (Freud 2014). The id controls our instinctive behaviour right form birth. The death drive, which Freud describes as a self-destructive impulsiveness is also part of the id, and acts as a driving force to the end of our lives.
Ego
The ego functions as a mediator between the outside reality and the id. It endeavours to meet the needs of the id without trying to understand why some of the demands seem quite unreasonable. The ego gives limited or no consideration to other people’s wishes or needs, and is hence self-centered (Freud 2013). It obeys the Reality Principle which is at variance with the id’s Pleasure Principle. In this case, the Reality Principle recognizes the limits to which we can obtain something form the outside world (Ashcroft 2014).
Superego
The superego endeavours to fulfil the needs of the id and feels compassion for others. However, the superego acknowledges that some of the needs of the id might end up having an adverse effect on others (Freud 2013). The superego maintains our conscience, in addition to filtering our behaviour. In this way, the superego leads to emotional guilt, in addition to enabling us understanding other people’s emotions.
Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development
This is among the earliest theories that try to explain personality development in humans. The theory Freud, through the findings of his clinical research with emotionally disturbed individuals, helped to give credence to the theory of psychosexual development. Freud viewed a person as going through a succession of developmental phases throughout their lifetime. These phases are often distinguished by discrete modes of functioning.
Oral stage
This occurs from birth up to the age of 18 months. Freud contents that the child, during the oral stage, is mainly focused on such oral pleasures as suckling sucking. According to Patel and Jakopac (2011), an Oral Personality or Oral Fixation, often characterized by a preoccupation with oral activities, can lead to too little of too much gratification.
Anal stage
This occurs between the age of 18 months and 3 years. While the child is still focused wit pleasure, the goal here is on retaining and eliminating feaces. Pressure from society, and especially parents, enables the child to control their anal stimulation (Eysenck 2004). Anal fixation could see the child develop anal expulsive (become disorganised or messy) or anal retentive (become obsessed with perfection, control, and cleanliness) behaviours.
Phallic stage
This stage occurs when the child is between the age of 3 to 5 years. The child switches to their genital as pleasure zones. Freud was convinced that a boy at the phallic stage of development starts developing sexual desires for his mother, albeit unconsciously. Accordingly, he views his father as a competitor for his mother's attention (Freuds 2013), and is fearful that his father will castrate him due to his feelings over his mother.
Latency stage
This occurs between the age of 6 years and puberty. During this phase, a child's sexual urges remains repressed. Consequently, a child plays and interacts mostly with his/her peers of same sex.
Genital stage
This is the stage beginning at puberty, onwards. During this stage, sexual urges are awakened once more (Freud 2013). Adolescents borrow from lessons learned during preceding phases and direct his/her sexual urges to their peers of the opposite sex. The main focus is to genital pleasure.
Defense Mechanisms
As a means of handling problems and conflicts in life, Freud indicated that the ego utilises various defense mechanisms. Freud described defense mechanisms as psychological strategies that we employ to keep cope with anxiety brought about by unacceptable feelings or thoughts, such as guilt or anxiety (McLeod 2009). Freud argues that the id drives the ego, while it is confine by the superego.
The Freudian psychodynamic approach identifies various defense mechanism, they include:
Repression
This refers to an unconscious mechanism that the ego uses to keep threatening or disturbing thoughts lest they become conscious. Examples of repressed thoughts include those likely to lead to feelings of guilt (Jarvis 2004). Such thoughts emanate from the superego. The defense mechanism has been faulted in that it entails compelling disturbing ideas, memories or wishes into the unconscious where though concealed, will eventually cause anxiety.
Projection
According to Jarvis (2004), this defense mechanism entails individuals projecting their feelings, motives and thoughts to another individual. Thoughts that are commonly attributed it another person are those that are likely to cause guilt such as sexual and aggressive thoughts or fantasies.
Displacement
Displacement entails redirect an impulse (often aggression) against an ineffective alternative target. This target could be an object or person who acts as a symbolic alternative. For example, a person who is not comfortable with his/her sexual desire for a real person could redirect that aggression onto a fetish (Freud 1992). In the same way, an employee who has been frustrated by her or his boss could go home and beat up a child, or kick a dog.
Sublimation
Sublimation involves redirecting an impulse onto a constructive, as opposed to a destructive, activity. For example, one may put their aggression towards sports or art. Freud viewed sublimation as the basis of civilized life. He thus perceived science and arts as forms of sublimated sexuality.
Denial
Denial entails obstructing external activities from our awareness. In case a situation proves too much to deal with, an individual might decline to experience it. This is a dangerous and primitive defense (Jarvis 2011). For example, cigarette packs comes with a warning that smoking is bad for your health, and yet smokers act in denial of this.
Regression
Kalat (2013) contends that regression as a defense mechanism involves moving back in terms of psychological behaviour when one encounters stressful situations. For example, we tend to behave in a primitive or childish behaviour when frightened or troubled.
Rationalization
Hentschel et al. (2012) opine that rationalization involves cognitive misrepresentation of “facts” to make an impulse or event less intimidating. A good example is when we make excuses if we mess or something goes wrong.
An evaluation of two types of investigation used in psychodynamic psychology
Clinical interviews
Psychoanalytic therapy utilises various therapeutic techniques with the goal of enhancing awareness and promoting insight into the client’s behaviour. One of the techniques used in psychoanalytic therapy is known as free association. Free association encourages the client undergoing therapy to report to his/her therapy without any criticism or bias whatever comes into their mind (Jarvis 2004). In this way, the therapist is in a position to expose repressed material. An analysis of concealed conflicts enables the client to gain valuable insight that is a key element of growth. Free association therefore acts as a key technique that enables both the patient and therapists to gain access to unconscious conflict.
Case Studies:
Case studies have also found widespread application in psychodynamic approach. A case study for which Freud is famous for is the one involving Hans, a five-year-old boy whom Freud uses as a case study for the Oedipal theory, affords this abstract theory a personality (Ward 2001). The case further reveals Freud’s account of the origin of phobias. Considering that the case of Little Hans is the only account of a child patient that Freud reported on, this gives his work particular importance with regards to the standard criticism levelled against his theorising, that is, Freud developed his child development theory almost based on his restricted treatment of adult patients.
Little Hans had a phobia of horses, for which be was being treated by Freud. While the primary aim of using a clinical case study was with a view to treating the phobia, nonetheless, Freud invested minimal therapeutic input in the case. He thus had a secondary aim of investigating factors that could have triggered the phobia to start with, as well as the factors responsible for its remission. The first reports of Hans reveal that he started showing active interest in his private parts (penis) and those of others at the age of 3 years and coincided with the start of his fear of horses, which caused him to experience generalised anxiety disorder. The family lived adjacent to a busy coaching inn. This fear of being bitten by a horse appears in some way related to his fear of a large penis.
An evaluation of a humanistic approach to psychology
The Humanistic Approach to psychology started as a response to concerns raised by therapists who encountered limitations while applying Psychodynamic theories during therapy, and more so psychoanalysis. Individuals like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers opined that existing psychodynamic theories did not sufficiently deal with issues such as the nature of healthy growth and meaning of behaviour. This compelled them to opt for a fundamentally new approach to psychology. The Humanistic Approach differs from other approaches to psychology in a number of ways, such as in its rejection of determinism, emphasis on subjective meaning, as well as a concern for positive growth (Berstein 2010). Carl Rogers was arguably the most influential therapists of his time, and a key founder of the Humanistic Approach. His theory on the Humanistic Approach hinges on two basic ideas: (i) a healthy development based on how a person views his/her own being and (ii) the conditions for healthy growth, and the the role of a therapist in promoting the desired healthy growth. According to Rogers, the therapist uses a person-centred therapy to provide openness, empathy, and unrestricted positive regard. This process was Rogers’ own unique approach that he used to understand human and personality relationships, and has been widely applied in such diverse domains as client-centred therapy, psychotherapy, group settings, and education.
Strengths
- Shifted behavioural focus to the whole person/individual, as opposed to the observable behaviour, or unconscious mind
-The Humanistic Approach fulfils most people’s idea of what constitutes being human as it attaches a lot of significance to self-fulfillment and personal ideas (Flanagan 2008).
- The use of qualitative data yields more holistic information and genuine insight into behaviour
-Emphasizes the importance of more idiographic and individualistic methods
Limitations
- The approach hinges on subjective, unscientific concepts
- It ignores the unconscious mind
-The approach cannot objectively evaluate self-actualization
- It is difficult to compare qualitative data (Kearney & Trull 2014).
An evaluation of two types of methods used by the humanistic approach
Qualitative research collects non-numerical form of data. Examples of qualitative methods of data collection in humanistic approach are unstructured interviews and open-ended questionnaires.
Open-ended questionnaires
Open-ended questions allow respondents to respond to the questionnaires in their own words, and in as detail as possible. There is not pre-set answers and as such, this enables respondents to give more-in-depth answers (Freeman, Felgoise & Davis 2008). This adds richness to the data collected. However, open-ended questionnaires are time consuming in terms of data collection and analysis.
Unstructured interviews
In this kind of interview, the interviewer does not have prearranged questions.
Also known as informal interviews, unstructured interview contain open-ended questions and the interviewer may ask them in any order. Unstructured interviews tend to be flexible and as such, can be changed or adapted based on the respondents’ answers. They also aid in qualitative data generation via the use of open questions (Freeman et al. 2008). This enables the respondent to choose their own words and talk in-depth. Since the interview can probe the respondents further, unstructured interviews there have increased validity. On the other hand, unstructured interviews are time consuming in terms of conducting the interviews and analyzing the qualitative data. It is also expensive to employ and trainer the interviewers as they might need certain skills.
Conclusion
The Psychodynamic Approach is concerned with a systematic study of psychological influences of human behavior and emotions. Freud used the three emotional states of id, Ego, and Superego to demonstrate how our subconscious mind influences behavior. He also used his theory of psychosexual development to explain personality development in humans. However, these stages trigger unacceptable thoughts such as guilt or anxiety, prompting us to employ defense mechanisms as a means of handling conflicts in our lives. Examples of such defence mechanism strategies include denial and repression. The Psychodynamic Approach has been widely applied in clinical therapy to promote client’s awareness of his/her behavior. In this case, a technique like free association allows the client and his/her therapist to access the unconscious conflicts. A case study such as the Hans case study that is based on the Oedipal theory helps therapists to explain client’s behaviour in relation to certain phobias. The emergence of the humanistic approach was with a view to eliminating some of the weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach, such as the inability to sufficiently deal with the issue of healthy human growth and behavior. The humanistic approach rejects determinism and emphasizes on subjective memory, ignores the unconscious mind and uses qualitative means of data collection such as open-ended questionnaires and unstructured interviews.
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