Essay Sample on Dynamic Psychology

Dynamic theories focus on the unconscious mind of an individual (Pine, 2005). They involve some explanations of how psychic energy is transformed as it passes back and forth between the working rational everyday states of consciousness at the unconscious within the daily life of an individual, an aspect that makes it dynamic. Psychodynamic theories of psychology focus on motivation.

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Theories of dynamic psychology

Sigmund Freud applied psychological theory to understand the nature of human behavior. According to Sigmund Freud, our actions are geared by unconscious motives. Our history, which is stored in the unconscious mind, determines our practices. Sigmund Freud uses an example of a slip of the tongue to indicate that this is a way in which the unconscious mind escapes a human being. The concept is used by the theory of a Freudian slip of the tongue

Sigmund Freud's personality theory relies on the stages of development, which are three parts that are, the ID, the ego, and the superego. The ID is primitive and ingrained, making it purely biological. The ID controls a person's sexual desires and aggressive instincts called Thanatos. The ego has a role in mediating between the unrealistic and the external real world. The ego is essential in making decisions. The superego applies moral values that a person learns from Society.

Sigmund Freud interpreted the nature of dreams and how they are essential in revealing someone's internal predispositions. He called ideas wishful fulfillment of what humans desire in real life. Many scientists critic Freud's theories because they say that they are not empirical and that they did not have a scientific background.

Sigmund Freud developed various mechanisms that the ego uses in self-defense. Identification with the Aggressor is a defense mechanism whereby the victim adopts the behavior of the oppressor as a survival mechanism. When the victim internalizes the actions of the aggressor, it becomes a defense mechanism to evade abuse, as it is evident in Stockholm syndrome.

Regression is also another form of an unconscious defense mechanism that the ego applies to suppress undesirable thoughts from becoming conscious. Ideas that could result in guilt or anybody's feelings are avoided at all costs, and they May manifest themselves through dreams or a slip of the tongue, an example being the Oedipus complex.

The displacement defense mechanism is redirecting emotions to an object or a person. Weaker people are always targets for the displacement of victims. When the ID wants to do something but the ego cannot allow the superego to come up with a mechanism releasing the Psychic energy of the ID, which leads to transferring energy to a different acceptable object. For example, a person may feel uncomfortable with engaging in a sexual relationship with a person of the opposite sex and opt for homosexuality.

Sublimation is a defense mechanism that makes an individual displace their unacceptable emotion into constructive behaviors. For example, a musician may have a feeling of doing something wrong but resorts to writing a song about that thing and singing it out to relieve themselves. Also, when fixation occurs at the oral stage, a grown-up man may opt to smoke or thumb-sucking.

Denial is a defense mechanism whereby the victim refuses to accept reality when it is undesirable. A person may employ denial when they do not want to accept painful experiences, such as the loss of a loved one.

Rationalization is a defense mechanism that involves individual distorting facts to make the impulses less threatening. An individual will find excuses for his actions and will try to convince others that what they did is right. For instance, when something disastrous has happened, a believer made up to say that it is God's will.

Jung's Analytic Theory

Jung believed that the future shaped a human's behavior. In his analytical psychology, Jung argues that a person's personality can either be introverted or extroverted. He defines introverts as people who receive stimulation from between while extroverts receive motivation from their external environment. When introverts are withdrawn, extroverts are sociable individuals. According to Jung, there are eight types of personalities and serve four functions that are; feeling, sensation, thinking, and intuition.

The human psyche originates from the mind and involves the conscious and the unconscious. The ego is the reservoir of consciousness. Jung argues that the ego comprises unrepressed perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. On the other hand, the personal unconscious fetches experiences and memories that are unique to a person but are readily available to the conscious mind. The collective unconscious represents the form of the psyche, which is common to all individuals and originates from the inherited structure of the brain.

Social psychology

Social psychology theories deal with the feelings, beliefs, intentions, and goals of people and how they are constructed into the social context (Erikson, 1980). The field is scientific and endeavors to understand the nature of human behavior in social settings. The three theoretical perspectives in this school of thought are referred to the cognitive and the intrapersonal, the symbolic interactionist, and structural theories which represent diverse origins and intellectual association. There are many theories in this school of thought, such as attribution theory, cognitive dissonance theory, and attachment theory. All these theories describe human behavior in the social context.

References

Erikson, E. H. (1980). Elements of a psychoanalytic theory of psychosocial development. The course of life: Psychoanalytic contributions toward understanding personality development, 1, 11-61.

Pine, F. (2005). Theories of Motivation in Psychoanalysis.