Psychodynamic Approach: Causes Of Mental Disorder

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The First Approach: Causes of Mental Disorder
Psychodynamic Approach Developed by Freud
1) Briefly describe two assumptions that the approach would make about the cause of abnormality, and explain how the assumptions described relate to the approach.
1. Forces within the mind.
This assumption relates to the approach by concluding our mind is like an iceberg and what we are conscious of is the tip of the iceberg and the rest is either in our preconscious or totally inaccessible in our unconscious. Most of our thoughts are in the unconscious part of our mind (Gross, 2005).
Freud believed the mind was made up of three parts: the ID, in the unconscious part of the mind and is driven by destructive instincts; the super ego, in both the conscious
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Defence mechanisms.
There are a lot of defence mechanisms, but three examples taken from Grosses chart (2005):
• Repression- forcing a distressing memory to remain in the unconscious.
• Denial- failing to acknowledge some aspect of reality.
• Sublimation- find an activity such as sport to redirect aggression.
These defence mechanisms protect us from threats or traumas of the unconscious mind and help us cope and behave in a way that fits society. Gross said (2005, p.748) “… as short-term measures, they’re advantages, necessary and normal, but as long-term solutions to life’s problems they’re usually regarded as unhealthy…,” not confronting these unconscious issues could lead to psychological problems.

The Second Approach: Causes of Mental Disorder
Behaviourist Approach Watson-Classical and Skinner-Operant
2) Briefly describe two assumptions that the second approach would make about the cause of abnormality, and explain how the assumptions described relate to it.
1. Classical
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Science aims to produce a more measurable explanation of things. A science must have: subject matter-theory-prediction-evidence (Cross, 2005). A more scientific approach may use quantitative data which can be: analysed through stats; generalise and give clear results. Having a scientific proven theory does still have negative aspects, it could be argued that results may give a false impression of indisputable finding and they do not give the complete picture of an individual and can ignore contributing factors that may have influenced the result. A less scientific approach will use qualitative data that does not produce results in measurable numbers and is subjective in nature, which is a huge criticism of non-scientific methods. There are positives to non-scientific methods which could include: being more authentic if the studies are carried out well and they can be more specific to the individual taking part (Coolican, 2006). Taking all the factors into account it would be hard not to agree that adding scientific evidence to psychology is crucial due to the fact it gives psychology the same credibility as other sciences such as biology and chemistry. Theories are less open to interpretation and more subject to proven

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