Psychology Essay: Discuss at least two contributions of Freud to Psychology

Discuss at least two contributions of Freud to Psychology

(10 marks)

4 A01 marks = describe / name the contributions
6 A02 marks = criticise Freud

Note: the more assumptions you name, the more AO2 marks you can achieve by criticising.

Freud’s made contribution to psychology is the recognition of the importance of the unconscious mind. Other approaches in psychology have not effectively dealt with unconscious influences on our feelings and behaviour (A01). Freud believed that the unconscious mind determined a person’s behaviour, people have no free will. Behaviourism does not believe that the unconscious mind exists as it cannot be directly observed and cannot be measured (A02). Humanism disagrees with Freud because they believe that people have free will to make their own decisions in life. This is called personal agency (A02).

Another contribution is Freud’s psycho-sexual stages and how they affect adult personality (A01). The fives stages are oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital (A01).

Freud also illustrated the importance of case studies as a research method (e.g. Little Hans), influencing the Humanistic approach (A01). Freud can be criticised for researcher bias. He subjectively interpreted the Little Hans case study to “fit” his theory of the Oedipus Complex (A02). Little Han’s phobia could also have been explained using classical conditioning. Another problem with Freud’s case studies is that they are based on one person and cannot be generalised to the wider population (A02).

Another contribution is the tripartite theory of the personality. This means that the personality is made up of 3 different parts: the id, ego and superego (you cannot get any more A01 marks – the maximum is 4 AO1 marks).

Freud also contributed the idea that people are born with instincts, called Eros and Thanatos (you cannot get any more A01 marks – the maximum is 4 AO1 marks). The behaviourist approach disagrees with the idea of innate behaviour such as instincts, as Skinner and Watson think that people are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and that all behaviour is learned from the environment (A02).

Behaviourism also criticise the psychodynamic approach as it is unscientific and does not have any empirical evidence to support its ideas and theories (A02). Also, the behaviourist approach believes that a person’s environment affects their behaviour and not their unconscious mind as Freud stated. Freud ignored the importance of reinforcement and conditioning (the environment) on behaviour (A02).