Outline and Evaluate the Psychodynamic Approach to Abnormality

Outline and evaluate the psychodynamic approach to abnormality (12 marks)

The psychodynamic approach highlights what drives what drives individuals to behave in different or strange ways.

A main principal of the psychodynamic approach is that mental disorder results from psychological rather than physical causes, and mental illnesses that are are caused by conflicts between the three personality structures, the id, ego and super ego, and these conflicts are due to them all having different motives. These conflicts are what cause anxiety.

Another concept is that unconscious motivations cause mental disorders because ego defences exert pressure through unconsciously motivated behaviour because the unconscious mind contains memories that are impossible to bring to the conscious mind and because the unconscious mind exerts a powerful pressure on behaviour and this causes distress because the individual doesn’t understand why they are acting like this.

Support comes from Freud's case studies of anna o and little hans.

Limitations of the psychodynamic model include that terms like the id, ego and superego are difficult to research and define because they are so abstract. Freud’s theory was developed in Victorian times and so his theories were sexist and developed in favour of men. Another limitation is that there is a lack of research evidence and the theory is difficult to prove or disprove experimentally because if an individual behaves in one way it could be said to prove the theory, however if not it could be blamed on defence mechanisms. Because of this it cannot be falsified so there is no credibility in the theory.