Cognitive Psychology
February 12, 2025
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Conflict arises when individuals opine in dissimilar ways or have varied interests, attitudes and even perceptions. Misunderstandings among individuals and ego clashes also result in a conflict. Conflict can arise any time and at any place when individuals are not willing to adjust with each other and are adamant on their views and thoughtprocesses. One […]
Trust, But Verify! Decision Making in an Information Overload Scenario From the time we wake up to the time we finish for the day, we are bombarded with all kinds of facts, opinions, news, and views. In this context, the key imperative is to how to decide on anything to do with our daily lives […]
The Psychodynamic Perspective: As per the Psychodynamic approach, human behaviour is an outcome of the role played by various psychological forces and early childhood experiences. The theory lays a lot of stress on the dynamics of relationship between the unconscious or conscious mind and also asserts that behaviour is an outcome of internal conflicts regarding which people have least awareness. The theory was propounded by a medical student Sigmund Freud in the year 1874. He expanded the concept of Psychoanalysis in which he suggested that psychological processes occur as a result of the flow of psychosexual energy called Libido in complex brain. Later, during the mid 1940s and 1950s, the theory of psychoanalysis was well established with contributions from eminent psychologists and researchers like Carl Jung, A. Adler and others.
Freud’s Psychoanalysis theory is based on two prominent assumptions:
The theory which was postulated by Freud was based on his research findings and observation of the behaviour of his patients suffering from hysteria. According to him, our unconscious mind or repressed thoughts, affect our day to day behaviour and what we feel about ourselves as well as others.
Freud categorized personality into three distinct parts-Id, ego and superego. The id relates to the unconscious element, the ego relates to both unconscious and conscious elements i.e. reasonable and rational parts of the personality. Whereas, the superego relates to the conscience which is developed during the early stages of life and imbibed from parents, social network and teachers. Like ego, superego too has both unconscious and conscious parts.
According to Freud, an individual is expected to be in a state of mentally stable when all the 3 elements are in a stage of equilibrium. When the ego is in a state of clash or conflict with the id and superego, the outcome will be psychological stress or disequilibrium. As per him, we human beings just know very little about the mind or our thought process and rest remains hidden from us or is present in our unconscious mind.
Swiss Psychotherapist expanded the theory of Psychodynamics which was postulated by Freud in 20th century. He attempted to integrate the opposites, while still maintaining their individual entities. His version of Psychodynamics gave less attention to the conflict between the Id and the Superego; instead his focus was more on integrating different parts or shades of the personality.
In the present context, psychodynamics theory is considered as a multidisciplinary field which is in a continuous stage of evolution. The focus is on analysis and investigation of factors influencing human thoughts, pattern of responses and various other factors.
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