Freud (Individual Differences) Flashcards
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development
The study focuses on the phallic stage where children become aware of their genitals and their sexual differences. Between 3 and 5 years old. At this stage children develop a sexual desire for their opposite gender parent and are fearful of their same sex parent, Freud called this the Oedipus Complex
Freud Aims
Freud aimed to both document the case of Little Hans’ and provide support for his Psychoanalytic theory, especially to provide support for the phallic stage of his stages of psychosexual development
Freud Method and Design
Hans’ father wrote letters to Freud about Hans’ behaviour and he acted as a proxy to Freud and observed Hans’ and asked him questions all of which were the relayed to Freud via the letters.
The study is a longitudinal case study
Freud Sample
Freud was a study of one Austrian Boy
Procedure
The study describes Han’s fear from when he was 3 years old until 5. He was 5 at the time of the study and qualitative data was gathered by Little Han’s father through observations and conversations with his son.
Hans’ father reported the information about his on to Freud:
Before the age of three, Hans developed an active interest in his ‘widdler’ this caused his mother to threaten to send for Dr to cut it off.
At 3 1/2 Hans’ sister Hanna was born and he resented her and hoped she would drown in the bath
After Hans developed a fear of white horses and being bit by them. This relates to two key incidents. Firstly overhearing a man say to his child “don’t put your finger to the white horse or it will bit you”; secondary seeing a horse that was pulling a carriage fall down and as a result his phobia was generalised to carts and buses
Hans was anxious that his mother would leave and he experienced fantasies including one about a giraffe, two plumber fantasises and a parenting fantasy. The investigation of Little Hans ended soon after the final fantasy when the phobia stopped due to the help he was given by Freud
Freud Results
Hans’ was experiencing the Oedipus Complex (a sexual desire for his mother and rivalry with his father) he was subconsciously scared of his father. The fear was manifested in a fear of horses those with dark around mouth (fathers beard) and blinkers (glasses).
Hands obsession with his ‘widdler’ was a sign of being in the phallic stage of development and experiencing the Oedipus complex
Other behaviours relating to the Oedipus complex include the giraffe fantasy which represented the desire to take his mother away from his father: the plumber fantasy was interpreted as him identifying with his father as was the fantasy of becoming a father.
Freud Conclusions
Freud concluded that his study of Hans provide support for:
- his theory of psychosexual development
- suggestion that boys in the phallic stage of psychosexual development experience the Oedipus complex
- his concept of unconscious determinism which holds that people are not consciously aware of the causes of their behaviour
