Psychodynamic perspective

The Psychodynamic Perspective

1. Outline the assumptions of the assumptions of the psychodynamic perspective (2)

The assumptions of the psychodynamic perspective are that behaviour is determined by different developmental stages we go through in early childhood like the phallic stage, early childhood experience and how our personality develops during these stages.  The perspective also says that we have an unconscious mind, and that many of our behaviours are controlled by the unconscious rather than the conscious part of our brain.

2. With reference to the Thigpen and Cleckley study explain how the psychodynamic perspective would explain Multiple Personality Disorder (4)

The psychodynamic perspective would say that multiple personality disorder may result because a child has experienced trauma during their early years of development.  For example Eve White saw a man cut in half in a sawmill.  During development the psychodynamic perspective says we develop our personality, which takes the form of three separate parts, the ID, Ego and Super Ego.  In a healthy person these three parts should work together as one but in multiple personality disorder the three parts have split to support three separate personalities.  The psychodynamic perspective would say this has happened in response to the trauma as a form of a defence mechanism.  The perspective also says we have an unconscious mind and that many behaviours are driven by our unconscious and this would explain why some personalities are not aware of the others and why Eve White had blackouts.

3. With reference to the Study of Little Hans explain how the psychodynamic perspective would explain the Oedipus Complex (4)

The psychodynamic perspective says that as a child we develop through distinctly separate developmental stages such as oral, anal and phallic etc.  During the phallic stage we also start to identify with our own sexuality and realise that males and females are physically different to each other.  Freud carried out a study into a child called Hans who was going through this stage of development. Freud says that the Oedipus complex happens to boys during the phallic stage of development.  As part of identifying with their own gender they want to replace their fathers and have their mother to themselves.   The boy rejects his father and wants rid of him, even to the point of wishing he was dead, and this causes an anxiety in the child as he also loves his father.  Little Hans showed this behaviour in his fear of horses.  Freud said the child was frightened of the horses as it reminded him of his father and this provoked an anxiety in the child.   As the child progresses through the stage he eventually can establish himself as a boy in his own right and becomes less jealous of the father.

4. Describe one similarity and one difference between the study on Little Hans by Freud and the Study on Multiple Personality Disorder by Thigpen and Cleckley (6)

One similarity between the study by Thigpen and Cleckley and the Study of Little Hans is that they were both longitudinal case studies.  They were looking at the behaviour of an individual over time and recording the behaviour and changes in behaviour as the person progressed.  This meant a great deal of qualitative data could be recorded and new hypothesis constructed about human behaviour.  For example Thigpen and Cleckley interviewed Eve White over 2 years and recorded her thoughts and feelings about her behaviour, Freud interviewed little Hans via his father over at least 2 years, recording the child’s thoughts, fears and anxieties and dreams etc.   Thigpen and Cleckley were able to conclude that multiple personality disorder does indeed exist as a valid condition and Freud was able to conclude that the Oedipus complex does exist in small boys when they learn to identify as a male.

One difference between the two studies was that Freud only used self report with Little Hans.  The father and occasionally Freud talked to Hans about his fears, anxieties and dreams and recorded his responses and analysed them.  On the other hand Thigpen and Cleckley used a wider range of techniques to record data.  They interviewed Eve White but also gave her psychometric tests like memory tests and IQ tests and also recorded her brain activity with an EEG monitor.  This made their data more valid as self report may be likely to be more biased through demand characteristics or through leading questions etc.  EEG machines do measure what they say they are measuring and cannot be affected by bias in this way.

5. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the psychodynamic perspective (12)

One strength of the psychodynamic perspective is mundane realism.  Although we have no scientific evidence to support Freud many of his theories do appear to relate to our own experiences or the experiences of others that we observe.  For example it does appear to be true that early childhood trauma can cause emotional problems in later life.   It also appears to be true that we do not always know why we behave in certain ways and that part of our behaviour may be determined by our unconscious mind.  Freud developed the ideal of talking as a therapy and this also appears to be true that talking about a problem does make us feel better.   Just because Freud’s ideas are difficult to study in the laboratory it does not necessarily mean they should be discarded.

Another strength of the psychodynamic perspective is that the data that is collected is very detailed and rich and includes both the nature and nurture side of the nature v nurture debate.  Freud collected large amounts of qualitative data which explored the thoughts, feelings and fears for example of Little Hans.  He said we are instinctively programmed to go through developmental stages but these are then moulded by our experience.  This type of data does represent human experience far more than studies which just collect quantitative data which may tell us how often behaviour occurs but not why, it is also more holistic and less reductionist than for example the social approach alone.   Freud was able to use this data to propose a new theory about human behaviour which changed the way we see the importance of childhood experience as well as our understanding of the causes of mental health.  

One weakness of the psychodynamic perspective is that is lacks a scientific approach.  The psychodynamic perspective tends to collect qualitative data rather than quantitative which is more difficult to measure in a scientific way.   For example we are not able to observe and record the unconscious mind in controlled laboratory conditions using a scientific measure like an MRI scanner.  They have to rely on self report which may lack validity due to demand characteristics or bias by the recorder.   We also cannot therefore infer cause and effect.  For example although Eve White appeared to have the effect of a split personality we cannot be sure that the cause was early childhood trauma this may just have been inferred by Thigpen and Cleckley.

Another weakness of the psychodynamic perspective is generalisability.  Freud used single participants in his case studies to obtain his data.  This is partly because case studies take a long time to compile.  This means Freud did not have data from a wide range of different participants and so we cannot be sure that the data he collected is generalisable or did show how all children for example will go through the phallic stage.  Thigpen and Cleckley also developed a theory about the existence of multiple personality disorder but we cannot be sure that Eve White did not have a unique set of behaviours which only apply to her.   Some people say this makes the data also very ethnocentric.  This means that it may only apply to one cultural group.  Freud only looked at white. Western families with a western family model and his theories do not account for the behaviour of children brought up in different social systems such as a commune or kibbutz etc.