Psychology has had many different definitions throughout history, the word psychology derives from Greek roots and means the study of the soul. In modern times this word has come to mean the scientific study of the mind. The first psychological experiment dates back to ancient Egypt in the 7th century BC in ancient Egyptians were attempting to figure out which of the two spoken languages at that time was the innate language and which of the Egyptian or Phrygian civilisation is older. In more modern times there has been a more scientific approach to psychology Wilhelm Wundt opened the first scientific psychology laboratory in 1979 and is recognised as the establishment of scientific psychology. Wundt largely disagreed with Freuds theories as he considered them to be not to be scientific.
In the early 20th century Freud developed a number of theories which form the psychodynamic approach, he theorised that the mind had three separate levels the conscious the part of the mind we are aware of, preconscious the interplay between the conscious and the unconscious, and the unconscious drives our everyday life and instincts without us being aware. Freud suggested the unconscious was the most important part of the mind as it has a much bigger role in our everyday lives than people suspect. Freud also broke down the personality into three parts to personality the id, ego and super ego.The id lies in the unconscious and is impulsive its what drives our pleasure principle Freud believed that we are born with the id as the soul personality, he suggested that all babies are selfish as their personality is all id. The ego lies in all three states of consciousness it develops later and drives our reality principle the ego works to realistically satisfy the ids unrealistic demands. The super ego like the ego lies with all states of the conscious it arrives at the age of 3-5 its function is to control the id and the superego to society’s morals and standards.Freud believed that the id, ego and superego are in constant conflict with each other he gave this as the reason for mental disorders.
5 psychosexual stages that Freud theorised moulded our personality started at birth 0-1 years old with the oral stage. Then on to the Anal stage 1-3 years old, next is the Phallic stage 3-5 years where Freud believed that boys went through the Oedipus complex where the boy desires his mother and wants to kill his father. Girls go through the Electra complex where the girl briefly desires the father, but then developed penis envy and the wish to be a boy, the girl also blames the mother for the lack of penis and want to kill their mothers. The next stage is the latency stage 5 to puberty and the last stage everyone has to go through according to Freud is the genital stage.
Freud used the case study of Little Hans to support the 5 psychosexual stages. Hans was a five year old child with a phobia of horses which lead to anxiety attacks and nightmares. Hans was brought to Freud by the boys father who was a supporter of Freuds work. Believed that Hans was in the phallic stage of the psychosexual stages and had the Oedipus complex toward his father.
Freud suggested that the phobia of horses was a direct link to this stage and Hans was really scared of his father as the black mouths the horses had were really the fathers moustache, the blinkers the horses had on were really his fathers glasses and the horses in Hans eyes had both had large penises.
Anna O was a woman who suffered from a number of different symptoms including visual disturbances, hallucinations, partial paralysis, and speech problems. She was diagnosed with hysteria by a physician Josef Breuer. Breuer later discussed her case with Freud, he demonstrated that her symptoms had a psychological cause and insisted the hysteria started from sexual abuse in childhood. Freud continued to treat as he saw fit and develop his talk therapy treatment. Anna O now had the opportunity to turn her unconscious thoughts conscious and with this her aliments deceased.
Strengths in this theory are that it has everyday life applications even today psychoanalysis is used in treatment of mental illness. His theory explains early development although extremely far fetched in present times he was the first person to link childhood events to how people act in adult life.
The case study looked at are non-scientific and unfalsifiable as you cannot test or measure the unconscious.Freud was extremely deterministic in his views and theories he believed everything could be explained by the unconscious for example defence mechanisms lie in the unconscious and protect the three personalities from anything that would be unpleasant.