Freud's Psychodynamic Theory Of Personality
Psychodynamic Theory: Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
To Freud, the mind was a mechanistic energy system that derived mental energy from the physical functioning of the body and constantly attempted to moderate this physical effort or tension by restoring it to a quiet steady (quiescent) state. This energy is not evenly distributed to all human purpose or functioning, and if blocked from expression will manifest itself as anxiety, which through cathartic release, prescribes a least resistant path of action. Because anxiety is painful, the mind attempts to cope with this state through a range of defence mechanisms that alter reality and supress feelings that stimulate this state. The mind and its energies (derived from drives or …show more content…
Lilenfield et al (2000) (p121) question the relevance of the majority of Rorschach indexes to outcomes of interest- in other words the test itself may not be particularly relevant to everyday life and a diversity of scoring schemes has limited their applicability and this could also account for poor inter- judge reliability, however Groth-Marant (2009) suggest the appeal of one projective test (the Rorschach) could be its’ non-technical nature (decoding responses to ambiguous shapes), its’ ability to by-pass conscious resistance, resistance to faking and ease of administration. That said, Groth-Marant (2009) note about the tests’ psychometric properties – overall demonstrated reliabilities between .80 and .85 (Parker, 1983 as cited in Groth-Marant, 2009), median inter-scorer correlations of .82 to .97 depending on data set used, and that recent meta-analyses support its’ validity – for example, meta-analyses by Atkinson, Quarington, Alp and Cyr (1986), Parker (1983), Parker, Hanson and Hunsley (1988) and Weiner (1986) indicated validity ranging from .4 to .5. Ultimately, the contribution of psychodynamic theory may be not what it brings to personality assessment as a mainstream (diagnostic) tool but as an alternative that through psychoanalysis works beyond question ( Galatzer-Levy, Bacharach, Skolnikoff, & Waldron,
To Freud, the mind was a mechanistic energy system that derived mental energy from the physical functioning of the body and constantly attempted to moderate this physical effort or tension by restoring it to a quiet steady (quiescent) state. This energy is not evenly distributed to all human purpose or functioning, and if blocked from expression will manifest itself as anxiety, which through cathartic release, prescribes a least resistant path of action. Because anxiety is painful, the mind attempts to cope with this state through a range of defence mechanisms that alter reality and supress feelings that stimulate this state. The mind and its energies (derived from drives or …show more content…
Lilenfield et al (2000) (p121) question the relevance of the majority of Rorschach indexes to outcomes of interest- in other words the test itself may not be particularly relevant to everyday life and a diversity of scoring schemes has limited their applicability and this could also account for poor inter- judge reliability, however Groth-Marant (2009) suggest the appeal of one projective test (the Rorschach) could be its’ non-technical nature (decoding responses to ambiguous shapes), its’ ability to by-pass conscious resistance, resistance to faking and ease of administration. That said, Groth-Marant (2009) note about the tests’ psychometric properties – overall demonstrated reliabilities between .80 and .85 (Parker, 1983 as cited in Groth-Marant, 2009), median inter-scorer correlations of .82 to .97 depending on data set used, and that recent meta-analyses support its’ validity – for example, meta-analyses by Atkinson, Quarington, Alp and Cyr (1986), Parker (1983), Parker, Hanson and Hunsley (1988) and Weiner (1986) indicated validity ranging from .4 to .5. Ultimately, the contribution of psychodynamic theory may be not what it brings to personality assessment as a mainstream (diagnostic) tool but as an alternative that through psychoanalysis works beyond question ( Galatzer-Levy, Bacharach, Skolnikoff, & Waldron,