The Four Psychodynamic Theories

There are four main personality theories, these are the different ideas behind where individuals get there personalities from. I will explain three of

The personality theory that I have chosen to focus on will be Identity Theory. It was developed by Erik Erikson in the nineteen hundreds. Erik Erikson believed that every individual goes through a certain number of stages to reach his or her full development or potential (Erikson, 1994). He theorized that a human being goes through eight different stages ranging from birth to death (Erikson, 1994). Identity Theory focuses on eight psychosocial stages of development, and an epigenetic principle of maturation (Schultz, 2008). The stages of development are

ID, ego and superego. He said you were born with ID which was in your

The psychodynamic approach was proposed by Freud. This approach towards personality is based on the notion of underlying forces such as the id, ego and superego which are either present from birth or develop during childhood shape our behaviour and personality as such. Experiences in childhood are proposed to be the basis of human personality, according to Freud and as such Psychodynamic theory proposes that some undesirable unbalances between the id and superego can create the arising of ego defence mechanisms which explain individual differences in behaviour. Freudian theory has been adapted by neo-Freudians, however while psychodynamic

In psychology, there are four major theories of personality: psychodynamic, trait or five-factor model, humanistic, and social-cognitive. The psychodynamic theory primarily focuses on the role of the unconscious mind. The social cognitive theory focuses on the effect of the environment on behavior and is based on theories of learning. Whereas, the humanistic theory emphasizes conscious life experiences and choices. The trait or five-factor model focuses on characteristics themselves and not the roots of personality.

Psychodynamic theories of Sigmund Freud focus on how a child’s instinctual mind interacts with his or her social environment and the important people in it to produce many characteristics and behaviors. There are the structure of the mind and the structure of personality.

Freud introduced us to unconscious motivations and how they determine our behavior. The study of the unconscious mind became a base and paved the way for other therapists. Also, the psychosexual stages were introduced which explain the biological and instinctual drive of children. The structure of personality is the foundation of our impulses, behaviors, and our interactions in our mental life. These include the id, ego, and superego. The superego prevents actions the id wants to accomplish; which is important because we all have irrational impulses and the superego saves us from those. It is important to look at the weaknesses of psychoanalysis and Freud’s ideas. The psychosexual stages stop at the age of six when development happens throughout someone’s lifetime. These psychosexual stages are his main focus and there is not much of a focus on how important social factors are on our mental health and development. Psychoanalytical therapists can sometimes be seen as subjective. The therapist analyzes the dreams and that is subjective. There is no empirical research to support his psychodynamic model, although the theory does explain reasons for irregularities in development. A common criticism is he blamed for inadequate parenting on mothers while the father was not in the equation. The time

This perspective examines the patient’s motivation behind their thoughts and actions, emphasizing the individuality of the patient. Instead of using medication to treat a patient, the humanistic perspective in psychology would encourage the patient to seek out their own happiness by examining their own individual needs and focus on the positive aspects of their life rather than the negative parts.

The psychodynamic approach founded by Sigmund Freud was a lot of our behavior, is determined by unconscious thoughts, memories. Freud developed the first complete theory of mind and is the founder of a series of techniques called psychoanalysis. This aims to explore the unconscious mind by using techniques, such as free association, dream interpretation etc. and then and be used treat abnormal behavior. Psychodynamic psychology ignores the aspects of science and instead focuses on trying to get inside the head of individuals to make logic of their relationships, experiences and how they see the world. (McLeod, 2007). Freud’s theories

The psychodynamic approach to psychology is the study of human behaviour from the point of view of motivation and drives. The original beliefs of this approach were created by Sigmund Freud in the 1800s. Although it is now generally seen negatively in the common view, sometimes comically, it has provided the inspiration for a few of the current leading approaches to psychology.

The fourth theory is situational-centred views, this is different to most other personality theories, this is because they believe that behaviour depends on the situation and environment that you are in. For example someone outside of a sport may be shy but when playing a specific sport in a specific environment they may be loud and aggressive.

They are many theories in psychology that can be used to “understand” behaviour, two theories I am going to look at are; Psychodynamic approach and the humanistic approach. I will discuss these 2 psychological theories of development and explain how it accounts for the psychological development, health and behaviour of the individual.

Individuals have minimal through and through freedom to settle on decisions in life. Rather, human behaviour is dictated by the oblivious personality and childhood encounters. Freud's analysis of Psychodynamic approach is both a hypothesis and a treatment.

The contemporary psychodynamic theory focuses on the unconscious drives and forces within human functioning. The original psychodynamic theory was considered to be psychoanalysis which was created by Freud. However, now psychodynamic theory embodies ideas not only from Freud, but from many of his followers as well. Some of the assumptions that are made by the psychodynamic approach include that all behavior has a cause whether it is conscious or unconscious; adult behavior is rooted in childhood experiences; and that people are strongly shaped by unconscious motives. These assumptions are addressed in a therapeutic setting by utilizing dream analysis, free association, projective tests, and even hypnosis. The primary focus in the therapeutic process is helping the client to become more aware of the self as well as helping them to understand how their past experiences have influenced their existing behavior. The psychodynamic theory assumes that the personality is made up of three

The psychoanalytic perspective, is the outlook that behavior and personality are effected by the conflict between one’s inner dreams n and expectation of society. Most of this conflict occurs in unconscious, which is outside the knowledge of an individual. Renowned psychologist, Freud established the psychoanalytic theory as an explanation for perplexed phenomena such as the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and behavioral reflex reactions to stressful situations. The unconscious is a primary focus in psychoanalytic theory due to its typical development in childhood and the ways in which it influences nearly every detail of an individual’s life. The unconscious mind also holds unvented memories and unexpressed urges that make their process into the conscious mind through a variety of different means. However, topographical theory of the mind states that conscious, preconscious, and unconscious serve as motivating forces in human behavior. Corsin & Wedding (2011) define the conscious as mental activity which individuals are fully aware of, preconscious as thoughts and feelings that could be easily brought to mind and unconscious as thoughts, feelings, and desires of which one is unaware of.