Psychodynamic Approach
Assumptions
Our childhood influences the way we behave. E.g. violent upbringing would make you an aggressive adult.
Mind consists of 3 parts, id, ego and super ego. Id seeks pleasure, ego is the common sense and super ego determines what’s right and wrong.
Theory
Explain id, ego and super ego.
Psychosexual stages:
Oral- 0-18 month’s child. Focused on biting and sucking. This can lead to fixation at smoking or drinking.
Anal- 18-3 years. Responding child. This can lead to fixation to OCD, stinginess, less organised etc.
Phallic- 3-6 years. Boys compete for mum’s affection while having murderous feeling for dad. This is called Oedipus complex. Also, little girls develop penis envy blaming there mums for not providing them with a penis.
Latency- 6 years. Nothing happens.
Genital- After puberty. Opposite gender attractions.
Therapy
Dream analysis:
Manifest content- What happens in the dream
Latent content- Hidden wish
Freud said ‘’Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious mind’’
Solms pet scan showed that the irrational (id) part of the brain is more active while asleep.
Dreamwork:
Condensation- Dream thoughts are rich in detail but condensed into brief images.
Representation- Thought translated into visual images.
Symbolism- Symbols that represents an action, person or idea. E.g. Penis may be represented by a snake or gun, vagina by a tunnel or a cave.
Secondary Elaboration- Unconscious mind collects all the different images and produces it into a story, disguising the latent content.
Strengths
Explains by using nature (genes) and nurture (environment).
Reductionist- Breaks down the process of dreams by explaining dream analysis.
Useful- Freud’s ideas have influenced the therapies used to treat mental disorders.
Weakness
Deterministic- Freud says that our adult personality is influenced from our childhood upbringing. This suggests we have no free will.
Not scientific- Approach has very little evidence and the case studies of little Hans and Anna O could be made up (no proof).
Methodology
Case studies:
Psychodynamic approach studies individuals so that the results are ideographic (in detail).
Case studies involve spending a lot of time with individuals, finding out every detail about them which involves time.
Freud looked at Little Hans ( phobia of horses-Oedipus complex) & Anna O ( fear of drinking from glass)
Strengths
Weaknesses
A true insight of the behaviour can be obtained as case studies involve spending time with the person rather than getting a snapshot of the person’s behaviour.
Case studies cannot be generalised as they only relate to a single individual. Results are only valid when applied to that case.
Qualitative data is obtained as case studies give a very detailed explanation for the person’s behaviour.
Case studies are very subjective as they rely on qualitative data. Researchers alone decide what kind of information they want to receive.
Case studies can often help generate new ideas from the information gathered.
Freud did not use a representative sample as he studied mostly middle class women.

Clinical Interviews:
Client is encouraged by the interviewer to talk about their past and emotions.
Clinical interviews are usually an unstructured format.
Predetermined questions are asked to begin with and then the questions depend on what the patient says.
Patient can ask or talk about anything they want.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Clinical interviews allow a good relationship between the client and therapist. This allows the client to open up more.
Interview bias- The therapist may guide the questions and answers given in order to support the hypothesis they have.
Clinical interviews give rich, qualitative data which gives us the knowledge of the person’s behaviour.
Difficult to summarise and detect trends as clinical interviews produce qualitative data.
Greater attention to a person’s opinion which gives well in depth data.
Distractions by the interviewer. People may have feeling for the