WJEC A Level Psychology Psychodynamic Approach Exam Questions

About WJEC A Level Psychology Psychodynamic Approach

For WJEC Unit 1 the psychodynamic approach asks you to look beneath conscious choice. Freud argued that hidden drives, a personality split into three parts and the events of early childhood shape everything we do, including who we fall for. You need to apply one of those assumptions to the formation of a relationship, know and evaluate either dream analysis or group analysis psychotherapy, and analyse Bowlby's 1944 'Forty-four juvenile thieves: Their characters and home-life'. Questions often target Bowlby's figures, the weaknesses of a clinic-based, interview-heavy method, and how the approach's untestable concepts compare with the scientific methods of the other four approaches.

What you need to know

• The unconscious mind Freud believed the conscious mind is only a small part of mental life. Wishes, memories and fears we cannot face are pushed into the unconscious, yet they leak out in dreams, slips of the tongue and the choices we make.
• Id, ego and superego The id is present from birth and demands instant gratification; the superego forms around age five through identification with the same-sex parent and holds our internalised rules; the ego develops to manage reality and referee between them, using defence mechanisms when the pressure becomes too great.
• Childhood experiences Development passes through the oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages. Getting stuck at one (fixation) through too much or too little gratification leaves a lasting mark on adult personality.
• Applying it to relationships Using the unconscious: early bonds with parents are stored unconsciously and shape later attraction, so a person may be drawn to a partner who resembles a parent or who recreates familiar emotional patterns without realising why. Using the tripartite personality: the ego settles on a partner who satisfies the id's desires in a way the superego can accept.
• Bowlby (1944): procedure Bowlby studied 44 children aged 5 to 16 attending the London Child Guidance Clinic for stealing and a comparison group of 44 attending for emotional problems who had not stolen. Children took mental tests, Bowlby interviewed each child, and a social worker took a history from the mother.
• Bowlby (1944): findings 17 of the thieves had experienced early, prolonged separation from their mother compared with 2 of the controls. 14 thieves were classed as affectionless (lacking guilt or warmth) and 12 of those 14 had been separated; none of the controls were classed as affectionless.
• Group analysis psychotherapy Developed by S. H. Foulkes, it treats the group itself as the main agent of change. Around six to eight people meet regularly with a conductor who facilitates rather than directs; through free-floating discussion members see their own conflicts mirrored in others and gain insight into unconscious patterns of relating.
• Dream analysis Freud called dreams disguised wish fulfilment. Through condensation, displacement and symbolism the dream work turns latent wishes into a less threatening manifest dream, and the analyst uses the patient's free associations to work back to the hidden meaning.

Common mistakes in Psychodynamic Approach

• Putting the psychosexual stages in the wrong order or skipping latency. The sequence is oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital, and each is linked to an approximate age.
• Calling Bowlby's research an experiment. He compared two existing clinic groups using interviews and case histories, so separation was not manipulated and cause cannot be shown.
• Describing the group analysis conductor as a teacher who tells members what their problems mean. The conductor steps back and lets interaction within the group do the therapeutic work.
• Equating Bowlby's 'affectionless' label with a modern diagnosis of psychopathy. It was Bowlby's own character category, judged by him, not a standard clinical tool.
• Using an infant attachment example when asked about relationship formation and stopping there. Carry the argument through to how the early pattern affects the choice or quality of an adult relationship.

Try three Psychodynamic Approach exam-style questions