I wrote the essay below as an example essay for a psychology course I was tutoring. It is designed to demonstrate structure, an evolving argument, flow and other bits and bobs. While it indicates where references may be useful it is not a correctly, or even fully, referenced essay. It is composed of information gathered from reading the related coursebook, Cervonne and Pervin's Personality: Theory and Research. In many respects it could be considered to be a brief summary of the first chapter on Freud.
If you are a student and you are considering submitting it elsewhere, be warned, it has already made its way into plagiarism checkers such as Turnitin.com
The essay:
Psychodynamic theory is one of the most well recognised theories in personality psychology. Proposed and used by Sigmund Freud it has had a profound impact on psychology as a whole through the decades. This essay will discuss what the psychodynamic theory says about the structure of personality by rebuilding the theory from the ground up. Freud’s view of the mind itself will lead into his view of the creation of a personality through progressive psychosexual stages. Once the structure has been established key strengths and weaknesses of the theory will also be identified.
To understand personality as viewed by psychodynamic theory it is important to first understand how Freud saw the mind. He saw it as being divided into the conscious, pre-conscious, and unconscious (ref). The conscious mind contains the information that we are currently aware of. The preconscious contains information that can easily be brought to mind while the unconscious is where the theory truly focuses.
Unlike current models that see the mind as a computer, largely dormant and simply waiting for user input, Freud saw the unconscious as having a mind of its own (ref). It was a motivated system composed of energy that needed to flow freely. Three subcomponents of the unconscious, the id, ego, and supergo, were responsible for this flow of energy and, in tandem with the 5 psychosexual stages, drove the development of an individual’s personality.
The first subcomponent, the id, is often described as a newborn child (ref) and in the first of the psychosexual stages, the oral stage, the id alone is what creates personality (ref). The Id obeys the gratification principle (ref), it wants what it wants when it wants it. There is no self control. What the id wants is the satisfaction of its two drives, one sexual, one aggressive (ref). These two drives provide the outlet for the energy of the unconscious at this and all subsequent stages of personality development yet it is rare to see them expressed in their pure form. This is because pure expression of sex or aggression is largely unacceptable in society (ref). Freud argues that the id’s relationship with the super ego and the ego are what helps keep the id in check (ref).
The super ego represents the very rules of society (ref). It is the voice in your head that tells you right from wrong. Freud (ref) believed that children ‘learnt’ these rules when they identified with their mother or father during the resolution of the Oedipus/Elektra complex during the phallic stage.
The ego develops earlier and comes to act as the go between (ref). Unlike the id and superego, which seek to satisfy themselves, the ego obeys the reality principle meaning it tries to please the id and superego as much as it can within any given situation (ref). This often involves the use of defence mechanisms which block unpleasant thoughts in the unconscious mind, as in the case of repression, or allow them to escape in more socially acceptable (sublimation) or personally acceptable ways (denial, projection) (ref).
The id, ego, superego, and defence mechanisms combine to create functional personalities at each of the psychosexual stages. Importantly though the stages themselves also play a role in the development and expression of personality.
According to Freud there are five stages of psychosexual development which form a natural progression from oral to anal to phallic to latency to genital (ref). Mentally healthy adults have progressed though all five while less healthy adults may have become stuck or fixated in a certain stage (ref). If this is the case their behaviour and personality will be heavily influenced by the characteristics of this stage of development.
The oral stage is the first stage and, as has already been mentioned, is all id. Individuals who become fixated in this stage are said to be needy, impulsive, and preoccupied with their mouths (ref). They may smoke, eat, or similar (ref).
The anal stage is the second stage and is where the primary focus of stimulation moves to the anus. It is associated with the development of the ego and self control, in particular control over bowel motions. People who become fixated in this stage are said to be anal and tend to be focussed on control and/or may b very tight with money (ref).
The Phallic stage was seen as a crucial stage in the development of personality by Freud (ref). This is the stage where children go through the Oedipus/Elektra complex. Here they desire the love and attention of their opposite sex parent but feel threatened by the same sex parent (the competition) (ref). To overcome this they should identify with the same sex parent alleviating the threat and causing them to take on an appropriate gender role/sexuality (ref). If the Oedipus/Elektra complex is not resolved correctly Freud believed that this could lead to homosexuality (ref). More generally fixation at this stage can lead to a personality typified by reckless, narcissistic personalities who tend to be incapable of or afraid of close love (ref).
Latency follows the phallic stage and is typified by a lack of sexual desire (ref). This stage is typical of pre-teen children (ref). Typically they are very productive in other areas such as sport, music etc (ref). Fixation at this stage is associated with a lack of interest in sex and high productivity in other such areas (ref).
The final stage is the genital stage. Here sexual desires are reawakened (ref).
As has probably become clear psychodynamic theory is very comprehensive. In fact this is often seen as its key strength. It covers the unconscious through to the conscious and our development from infants through to adults in a single, logically interconnected theory. In this regard it is unmatched by any other personality theory in psychology today. While theories such as Trait theory are mere descriptions of personality (ref) psychodynamic theory provides an explanation of what personality is, how it develops, and where it comes from.
Yet psychodynamic theory is not only a theory of personality, it is also a therapy. In fact Psychodynamic theory was designed as therapy first and personality theory second (ref). Despite controversy over the validity of the techniques, and even the theory itself, such therapy does achieve positive results (ref). Such results can be seen in Freud’s own work as well as the work of others around the world over the following years and must be considered as a strength of the theory.
However, psychodynamic theory is not without its limits and it is commonly criticised for its lack of scientific evidence and testability (ref). Unlike later theories psychodynamic theory was developed solely from case studies and theorisation about processes that might be involved (ref). Freud did not personally test his theories and subsequent studies have only had limited success, indicating that we do have a subconscious mind but not really being able to demonstrate that it is motivated. Evidence of the fixated personality types covered earlier, arguably the simplest of Freud’s ideas to demonstrate, is also thin (ref).
Finally the theory itself is inherently untestable. If anyone were to test Freud’s theory and produce a result opposite to what Freud would have predicted the finding could still fit the theory. This is because on the defence mechanisms, reaction formation, which essentially creates the opposite reaction to what would otherwise be expected. This inability to disprove the theory makes it weaker in the eyes of science.
Ironically though these perceived weaknesses could be viewed as strengths in that they helped spur many other great psychology theories into being. In particular Rogers (ref), Beck (ref), and Skinner (ref) all cite psychoanalysis’ unscientific approach as a key factor in the development of their own theory. As such the weakness of psychoanalysis has made psychology as a whole stronger.
Overall then it is clear that, at the very least, psychoanalysis holds an important place in the history of personality psychology. It provided a very comprehensive base for future theorists to expand upon and covered personality and, in its own way, provided a logical structure for personality and its development. Yet while this theory was very comprehensive its lack of modern scientific principles has caused it to fall out of favour over the years. In this way psychodynamic theory moved from simply being a theory of personality to being an anchor point or driving force for the development of better theories in the years that followed.
