Explore the work of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud is known as the great pioneer of exploring the human unconscious mind. His many theories on the workings of the human mind changed the way many people thought about human nature and led to new ways of treating illnesses. Sigmund Freud was born on May 6th 1856 in Pribor, Czechoslovakia. He managed to study and research medicine at university, even thought he came from an extremely poor family. He was able to earn money to pay for his education by translating and teaching. Freud's name was destined to be deeply associated with posterity, as he founded what was to be known as the "first Viennese school of psychoanalysis." Freud always considered himself first and foremost a scientist rather than to the practice of medicine, which he received a degree in, in 1881. He married in 1886 which gave him six children. Freud also set up a private practice in the treatment of psychological disorders, giving him much of the clinical material on which he based his theories and his pioneering techniques. After a life of remarkable vigour and creative productivity, he died of cancer while exiled in England in 1939. One of the most significant contributions Freud has made to modern thought is his conception of the dynamic unconscious. Freud suggested that declarations of free will are delusions, and that we are not entirely aware of what we think and often act for reasons that
Theories from the psychodynamic approach have helped to explain how mental health issues may be dealt with. Discuss how mental health issues are tackled by the psychodynamic approach
Theories from the psychodynamic approach have helped to explain how mental health issues may be dealt with. Discuss how mental health issues are tackled by the psychodynamic approach The psychodynamic approach highlights the importance of the unconscious mind and early childhood experiences, therefore practitioners of this approach will attempt to deal with the mental health issues of their patients by incorporating these ideas and creating 'therapies' using these bases. The basic concept behind psychoanalysis is that a patient that suffers from mental health problems such as depression can address any regressed feelings thus, the patient gains insight of and can learn to work through their emotional 'baggage'. It is a generalised notion that if the cause of the symptoms were tackled it would only be logical that the symptoms would desist. The psychodynamic approach is mainly comprised of ideas and notions suggested by Sigmund Freud, based partly on his psychosexual development theory. In essence, the child passes through stages such as oral and the anal. Major conflicts or excessive gratification at any of these stages can lead to fixation, therefore if an adult experiences great personal problems, he or she will tend to show regression (going back through the stages of the psychosexual development) to the stage at which he or she had previously been fixated. Thus
Personality, is the deeply ingrained and relatively enduring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior.
Personality, is the deeply ingrained and relatively enduring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior. Personality usually refers to that which is unique about a person, the characteristics that distinguish him or her from other people. Thought, emotion, and behavior as such do not constitute a personality, which is, rather the disposition that underlies these elements. Personality implies predictability about how a person will act or react under different circumstances. Theorists emphasize different aspects of personality and disagree about it's organization, development, and manifestation in behavior . One of the most influential theoretical systems is the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and his followers. Freud believed that unconscious processes direct a great part of a person's behavior . Although a person is unaware of these impulses and drives, they strive to assert themselves. Sigmund Freud developed the theory of psychoanalysis, which is referred to as a therapy and as a personality theory. Personality in this theory is viewed as unconscious and occurring in stages. According to him in order to understand one's personality, one has to explore the symbolic meaning of behavior and deep inner working of the mind. This just goes to show that to really get to know some one you have to look deeper than what the eyes can see. Thus when someone says to you that
Should Freudian theory be abandoned?
IP1/E3/1 Should Freudian theory be abandoned? Sigmund Freud was a Viennese psychiatrist who collected a body of data from his patients about their feelings and emotional experiences, especially relating to their childhood. He then developed his ideas to explain human behaviour into a theory: Psychoanalytic Theory, and a form of therapy: Psychoanalysis. His psychoanalytic theory is the best-known psychodynamic approach today. He believed that unconscious internal forces controlled an individual's behaviour. Psychoanalytic theory seeks to explain human development and behaviour in terms of an interaction between innate drives (such as the desire for pleasure) and early experiences (the extent to which early desires were gratified)(Eyesenck & Flanagan, 2000). Freud assumed that the mind is made up of three parts. All three parts are used for most behavioural decisions. First, there is the id. The id is made up of natural biological instincts and urges. These instincts and urges lie in the unconscious and are thought to be sexual and aggressive. They are all self-serving, impulsive, and irrational. The id runs according to the pleasure principle, with the emphasis being on immediate satisfaction. Second, there is the ego. This develops during the first two years of life and is the rational and conscious part of the mind. The ego works on the reality principle, taking account
Outline and compare the cognitive and behaviourist approach in psychology
Outline and compare the cognitive and behaviourist approach in psychology (12 marks) This essay will outline and compare the cognitive and behaviourist approach to psychology. It will refer to various therapies and practical uses of each approach. I will also refer to the case study of Kohler. I will then outline the similarities and conclude with the differences. The behaviourist approach is deterministic as it argues all behaviours are determined by past events and that all human behaviour is controlled by external events which means that humans do not have freewill. It supports empiricism and argues that only behaviour that can be observed, measured and recorded should be classed as scientific. It also supports reductionism as complex human behaviour is reduced to simple component parts. Environmentalism is another assumption of the behaviourist approach as behaviourists believe that all learning comes from experience and that heredity has no play. The cognitive approach believes that mental process can be studied scientifically. It argues that mental processes can be regarded as information processing. The mind operates in a similar way to a computer and introspection can be classed as a valid scientific method of studying cognitive process. The aspects of the organism including conscious and unconscious thought act as a meditational process between stimulus and
Gognitive psychology essay
Cognitive psychology is study of how people perceive, think, remember, speak and solve problems. It is rather new discipline in psychology, than the behavioral psychology. The main aim of Cognitive Approach is to explain people's behavior with reference to their internal mental processes. Until the 1950s, behaviorism was the dominant school of thought in psychology. Between 1950 and 1970, the tide began to shift against behavioral psychology to focus on topics such as attention, memory, and problem solving. Often referred to as the cognitive revolution, this period generated considerable research including processing models, cognitive research methods and the first use of the term cognitive psychology. Early psychologist in the 19th century, such as Wundt, used subjective methods to explain behavior. He believed that psychology was the science of conscious experience and that trained observers could accurately describe thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Behaviorist as Watson and Skinner rejected his view, because for them the content and workings of the human mind were private and personal. It relies to the time they lived in, because it was not easy to conduct and understand the scientific work in cognition. Later on the 1st half of 20th century cognitive psychology developed. New computer technology was introduced and this processing of information was proposed by
Outline the key features of the psychoanalytic and humanistic perspectives, and briefly compare and contrast their views on conscious experience, a person as an integrated whole, and the role of therapists in arriving at changes.
Question - Option B Outline the key features of the psychoanalytic and humanistic perspectives, and briefly compare and contrast their views on conscious experience, a person as an integrated whole, and the role of therapists in arriving at changes. Answer In explaining and predicting animal behaviour, different schools of psychology are of different perspectives; e.g. cognitive approach focuses on the mental processes, behaviourism is based on external stimuli and reinforcement, biological approach is concerned with the relationship between the mind and body and the influence of heredity. However, they are only cope with a specific part of people, but neglect human as a whole. To supplement such deficient, both psychoanalytic and humanistic psychologies have provided their perspectives on it. Psychoanalytic Perspective Psychoanalytic approach was advocated by Sigmund Freud, a private practitioner who construct his theory through therapy and self-experience. In his theory, there are three major ideas; they are consciousness, psychosexual stages of development and psychodynamics as well. Freud split the consciousness into three levels; they are conscious, preconscious and unconscious respectively. The conscious level contains information of which we are aware, alert and awake at the moment, e.g. you can easily answer the question of "What is your name?". The
Autobiography - creative writing.
Autobiography On Saturday the 28th of December, I was born in Guernsey. I don't know what happened, apart from the fact that I was born prematurely by a month. The first memory I can really remember is when my Dad first took me dinghy sailing. I was only four so in a way the sea was scary. My Dad got the boat ready and helped me with my lifejacket. Then we were off; it was amazing we went so fast. My Dad showed me what to do; he even let me steer. We zoomed around the harbour looking at all the boats. We tried to guess where they came from by looking at their flags. From that day, I have loved sailing. My next memory that I can call to mind is when I was seven. It was Christmas time. My auntie and two cousins came for a holiday from Australia. It was a hilarious Christmas. The best part was waking up on Christmas morning. Ben the youngest cousin woke me up at five in the morning to say that Santa had delivered our stockings. He was so excited I thought he was going to burst. I got up and went with him to wake up his brother, Peter. We took our stockings and sat on my bed opening the treasures inside. It was brilliant we received everything we wanted. Afterwards we played with our new toys until our parents woke up. It was the best Christmas ever. My third memory is when I got my fish when I was ten. I hadn't any other pets so having fish was going to be a treat. I had
formation of relationships
Discuss and research theories/ studies relating to the formation of relationships There are many theories relating to formation of relationships. These include the filter theory, the matching hypotheses, social-biological theory and the reinforcement-affect theory. Kerckhoff and Davis came up with the filter model of attraction. They believed that we rely on social and personal factors to filter potential relationships from the field of eligibles. There are five criteria; proximity, similarity, physical attractiveness, complementarity of needs and competence. We narrow down the people whom we may form a relationship with, through a series of selection filters. The criteria tend to be used a different stages. In initial attraction, proximity is the obvious filter; we form relationships with those who live close by, this is how we may become aware of the person. Similarity is important because the people who we share the same ethnicity, background and occupation we are more likely to talk and come in contact with. Once this stage of filtering has taken place, people then consider weather we share the same attitudes as the other person. Duck and Gillmor believed if we do share similar attitudes then the relationship is more likely to be pursued. Caspi and Herbener carried out a survey which found that married couples who were more similar were more satisfied with their
Describe and evaluate Bowlby's theory of attachment.. 10 marks
Describe and evaluate Bowlbys theory of attachment (10)… Bowlby believed that babies have a biological need for an attachment with an adult carer (most often the mother), this is a biologically mechanism as it keeps the baby close to the mother for survival this would be done by both parent and child. The attachment instinct promotes survival in three ways: keeping the baby close for food and protection; to provide a safe base for exploration; also to help form future relationships with stranger (e.g. by introducing the baby). Bowlbys theory came under five sections, Firstly ‘Monotropy’ this is the belief that infants form one very special attachment with their mother. This special intense attachment is called Monotropy, if the mother is not present the infant could bond with another ever present adult (mother-substitute) an example of this is when the child is in any social situation, it will only smile and make contact with the person it has this intense bond with. Secondly the ‘Critical Period’ this is when babies have to form the attachment with their caregiver during a critical period, this is between birth and 2 ½ years old. Bowlby said that if this didn’t happen the child would be damaged for life socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically, an example of the child not being able to bond is neglect, if the child is constantly left alone or
