Freud

Freuds theory of Psychodynamics is based on three levels of consciousness. The conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The conscious level is all the thoughts we are aware of, ie something you are reading or watching, something you are remembering, or your emotions. The preconscious level is not immediately available to us, but can be brought into the conscious level. A good example of preconscious thoughts are memories. The unconscious level contains a great deal of thoughts are 'repressed'. For example traumatic memories, thoughts that are emotionally harmful. The three structures of personality are the ego, superego and id. These three parts of the personality all clash and interact, and our actions are typically based on a combination of all three. The id is the primal desires of the personality. Ie, sex, food, sleep, thirst. The id is based on the pleasure principle, and demands instant gratification without even considering the consequences. The ego is the logical and 'thinking' part of the personality. It keeps the id in check, as it reasons that gratification is not always instant and considers the consequences. The super ego is the center of morality in the personality, and decides whether or not the actions induced by the ego and id are moral. The superego causes us to feel guilt over doing something wrong, and pride over doing something right. Freud wrote that during a childs psychosexual development, they would progress through seperate and distinct stages, all based on an area of the body that provide the focus of pleasure (The erogenous zones). These stages are the oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stage. Freud also theorised that an individual can become fixated on one of the stages, leading to neurosis related to the stage in question. The oral stage occurs from birth to approximately 1 to 2 years of age. During this stage the Id is dominant, and the child operates solely on the pleasure principle, however the ego is in formation during this stage as the child becomes self-aware. During this stage the erogenous zone is the mouth, ie; breast feeding, chewing on objects, sucking on pacifiers. They key experience in the oral stage is weaning, where the baby loses an extent of intimate contact with its mother. This also teaches the child that gratification is not always immediate, which in turn helps develop the ego. Fixation can lead to passivity, gullibility, immaturity and blind optimism, and also the formation of a manipulative personality due to ego being improperly formed (Focus on the pleasure principle). The anal stage occurs from approximately 15 months of age up to 3 years of age. In this stage the erogenous zone is the anus, and the key experience is that of toilet training, specifically the clash of the id and the demands of the childs parents. If too much focus is put on toilet training the child may develop into an anal retentive individual, obsessed with cleanliness and order, and if not enough focus is given the child may develop to be anal expulsive, messy, careless, defiant and disorganized. The phallic stage occurs from approximately 3 to 5 years of age. The erogenous zone of this stage is the genitals, though not in a sexual way. Children of this age often are curious about their own and others bodies, and Freud observed that children in this stage often 'play doctor' among other things. The key experience in this stage is the oedipal conflict, where in boys the father is seen as a rival for the mothers attention, and jealousy arises over the fathers sexual relationship with the mother. In girls the desire of the mother is replaced witht he father as the girl cannot physically have sex with the mother, and thus turns to the father. During this stage the girl develops a feeling of penis envy driven by the id, as the girl is jealous of a males ability to have sex with her mother. The Oedipal conflict is very important for the development of the super-ego , since by relating to the parents, morality becomes independant, and compliance with rules is no longer the result of the fear of being punished. Fixation on this stage can result in the oedipal conflict being unresolved. The latency stage is the end result of the previous stages, and occurs from age six up to the year the child begins puberty. In this stage the drive to pleasure is latent, and pleasure is gained through personal achievments, ie friendship, schooling, hobbies. It is during this stage the id becomes hidden, and works from a subconscious level. The genital stage occurs all the way through puberty. The focus in this area is the genitals again, however it is in the terms of adult sexuality. While the genitals are the focus in this stage, the ego is sufficiently developed to allow the individual to fulfill this desire abstractly, for example relationships and love. Weaknesses Freud's theories overemphasized the unconscious mind, sex, aggression, and childhood experiences. Many of the concepts proposed by psychoanalytic theorists are difficult to measure and quantify. Strengths While most psychodynamic theories did not rely on experimental research, the methods and theories of psychodynamic thinking contributed to experimental psychology. Many of the theories of personality developed by psychodynamic thinkers are still influential today, especially psychosexual stage theory.