This element is innate – it is present from birth. The superego, or the morality principle, is the conscience of the mind- it understands right from wrong. It is in constant conflict with the Id, and develops during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. The third element, the Ego, acts as a mediator between the two and at times uses defence mechanisms to shield the conscious from the Id and its desires. Freud also proposed a theory he understood to be the “structure of the mind”.
Describe and evaluate the psychodynamic approach Psychodynamic psychologists assume that our behaviour is determined by unconscious forces of which we are unaware. Each manifest (surface) thought, utterance or behaviour hides a latent(hidden) motive or intention. The latent motives for our behaviour reflect our instinctive biological drives and our early experiences, particularly before the age of five. Most particularly, it is the way we are treated by our parents as children that shapes our adult behaviour. Sigmund Freud developed an approach on abnormality that highlighted how human personality and psychosexual development in childhood can cause abnormality.
Psychodynamic Approach Sigmund Freud is the founder of the psychodynamic approach. This approach focuses on the unconscious mind to explain behaviour, and also to treat people suffering from mental illness. This approach also looks into our behaviour and feelings as adults, as our childhood experiences and Interpol relationships can explain this. Freud believes that what drives our behaviour is conflict that arises between three parts of our psych, the id, superego and the ego. The three personalities of the psych are usually out of sync with each other.
Describe and Evaluate the Psychoanalytical / Psychodynamic Approach to Personality Development Psychoanalytic theory originated with the work of Sigmund Freud (Gross 2010). Through his clinical work with patients suffering from mental illness, Freud came to believe that childhood experiences and unconscious desires influenced behaviour. Based on his observations, Freud developed a theory that described development in terms of a series of psychosexual stages. According to Freud (1949), conflicts that occur during each of these stages can have a lifelong influence on personality and therefore behaviour (Hayes 2000). Within this essay I am going to delve further into these principles and evaluate their validity and reliability as an approach to personality development.
Developmental theories that influenced modern psychotherapy and supervision It is accepted that relation between therapist and client, and supervisor and supervisee are analog and similar to the parent – child relation (Hans Strupp) in the way that these relations are reparative and that they can often heal in the present deficits of the past experience between child and caretakers. It's through relationships with caregivers and other people that children learn how to apply and use their emotions, expressions, and emotional understanding that influence their being in later periods of their lives. In connection with this, for gestalt therapists is very important, considering theory of gestalt therapy, to be aware that there are other important and contributing factors except infant experiences, that also strongly influences our life and that we can not put exclusive emphasize on the early experiences. We believe that life is much more than past and that it is shaping in every moment of our life with present experiences, context and supposed future. Also, in gestalt therapy we believe that contact (relation) is in the hart of healing processes.
Freud suggested that human nature was focused mainly on desire rather than reason and that it was our past experiences that determined our future behaviour and the development of our personality. With this in mind, Freud believed that our personality is all but established by the age of five. Early experiences play a large role in personality development and continue to influence behaviour later on in life. (Freud, S; Freud, A and Strachey J., 1991). Freud’s work was considered controversial for its time and we continue to debate it today, as it had a profound influence on a number of disciplines ranging from psychology, literature through to art.
Genetic inheritance theory is the inherited factors that shape our development and personality. 4. Explain Freud’s concept of the unconscious and why it is important in counselling. Freud's theory of the unconscious mind is based on his idea that there is a pool of unpleasant memories that we store outside of the conscious mind. According to Freud, even though the unconscious is hidden it still continues to sway our behaviours.
CBT 3 Cognitive behavioral therapy is generally psychotherapy and behavioral therapy combined. Psychotherapy expresses the importance of personal meaning and our thinking patterns which begin in the stage of childhood. Cognitive behavioral therapy also known as CBT is a short term psychotherapy treatment that uses a concrete approach to problem solving. Its goal is the change the process of thinking for people with difficulties and in bad situation and their behavior with is associated with distress. CBT is
The psychodynamic approach evolved from psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud, who considered that people’s behaviours are influenced by their motives or dynamics. Psychodynamics has three distinctive features or assumptions. That the difficulty a client is having has an origin in their childhood. Secondly, the client is not consciously aware of these affecting their motives and impulses, and lastly that it uses the interpretation of the transference relationship between client and councillor (McLeod, p.91). This essay will now consider these features in more depth.
It is through the understanding of the past that we may move forward into the future. In this paper we will examine more closely the origins of abnormal psychology; its limitations, challenges and its evolution. We will also examine the three main theoretical models used in the development of Abnormal psychology into a growing science. Historical Perspectives of Abnormal Psychology “The blunt realities of mental illness shatter our most deeply held convictions about the nature of human consciousness and behavior. The mentally ill are more different than us than we can imagine and more like us than we care to admit.” (Valentine, 2011) This quote paints a poignant and provocative picture of Abnormal Psychology.