Freud's study Flashcards
What was the aim of Freud’s study?
He wanted to provide evidence of his inferences, rather than just guessing at the reasons for his adult patient’s ‘symptoms’
What perspective is Freud’s study?
Psychodynamic
How many levels of consciousness did Freud believe we have? Describe each
2 different levels
The unconscious mind consists of hidden thoughts, desires and impulses/memories
The conscious mind is our present thoughts and feelings.
What did Freud this drives the unconscious mind?
The pleasure principle
Libido - instinctual drive to survive
According to Freud, what are the three parts of the personality? What are they?
Id - unconscious primal desires
ego - conscious mind
superego - conscience
What was the sample of Freud’s study?
One participant - Little Hans
What was Freud’s sampling method?
He asked his friends for help and Hans’ father volunteered Hans
Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for little Hans’ phobia of carts falling over
Freud: Desire for his father to die so that Hans could have his mother to himself (when the horse fell down did you think of your daddy? Perhaps, yes its possible)
Alternative explanation: He had seen a bus-horse fall down and kick out its feet which would have been a traumatic experience for a child.
Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for little Hans’ phobia of horses biting him
Freud: The horse represents Hans’ father and the horse represented his fear of his father taking his mother away.
Alternative: He was fearful of horses due to overhearing someone in the street say ‘don’t put your finger to the white horse or it’ll bite you’
Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for little Hans’ phobia/obsession with lumf (poo)
Freud: this combined with the fear of carts represents his fear of a heavily loaded stomach as his mother getting pregnant and him having further competition for his mother’s affections.
Alternative: Could be explained due to him having troubles with his stools - suffering constipation until food intake was reduced under medical guidance.
Describe the giraffe fantasy
Hans had a dream in which there were two giraffes, a crumpled one and a big one. He tried to take the crumpled one away but the large one called out, then Hans sat on the crumpled one.
Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for the giraffe fantasy
Freud: The crumpled giraffe was his mother’s vagina and the large one was his father’s large penis. Therefore the fantasy suggests the desire for Hans to take away his mother from his father.
Alternate: He had visited the zoo 5 days earlier so could be due to him remembering seeing animals there.
Describe Freud’s explanation for little Hans’ plumber fantasy
It suggested that the bigger widdler and behind represented his father’s and Hans’ desire to be like his dad - belief that Hans had overcome his castration complex.
Describe the Plumber fantasy
The plumber took a big borer and stuck it into his stomach. He also admitted that when he was in the big bathe he was afraid his mother would let him go and his head would go under the water and his widdler being taken away with a pair of pincers and replaced with bigger parts
Describe Hans’ family with his imaginary friends
Hans was playing with his imaginary friends, explaining he was the children’s daddy, that his mother was the children’s mummy and that his dad was their granddaddy
Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for little Hans’ family fantasy with imaginary friends
Freud: suggesting a satisfactory conclusion to the Oedipus complex, with happy solution which allowed him to be with him mother, but without having to put his father out of the way
Alternate: Young children have imaginary friends as part of their normal development
Outline Three advantages of the sample used in Freud’s study
Able to get lots of in depth data about one person
As they were friends they had aligned ideas so they would get the desired results
Easy to get the sample.
Outline one disadvantage of the sample used in Freud’s study
Low population validity - difficult to generalise to other people as there was only one participant so no other people to compare the sample with.
Outline one advantage of collecting self report data from little Hans
Quick and easy to collect
Outline one disadvantage of collecting self report data from little Hans
Demand characteristics as the father may have deliberately falsified his responses due to social desirability bias.
What were the conclusions of Freud’s study?
Little Hans was sexually attracted to his mother
He fantasized about taking his mother away
He was jealous of his father, but also frightened of him. He was jealous of his sister taking time away from his mother
Freud claimed that he learned nothing new from this study as little Hans was a normal child going through a usual Oedipus
Was Freud’s study ethnocentric?
The experiences of a middle class child in Vienna are unlikely to be typical of children in less privileged parts of the world
What ethical guidelines did Freud break?
Privacy/confidentiality - photos of little Hans
possible psychological harm as they could have created a sort of self fulfilling prophecy in Hans
What ethical guidelines did Freud uphold?
Deception - father knew exactly what the study was - fully informed parental consent.
was given the option to withdraw from the start
Was there any reliability in Freud’s study?
No
Did Freud’s study have external population validity?
No - could not be generalised to - focused on only one case study and so is unlikely to represent the whole population of children
Did Freud’s study have Internal validity?
no - Hans was asked leading questions and there were much more simple and more obvious explanations for what was going on
