Freud's study

Question 1

What was the aim of Freud’s study?

Answer 1

He wanted to provide evidence of his inferences, rather than just guessing at the reasons for his adult patient’s ‘symptoms’

Question 2

What perspective is Freud’s study?

Answer 2

Psychodynamic

Question 3

How many levels of consciousness did Freud believe we have? Describe each

Answer 3

2 different levels
The unconscious mind consists of hidden thoughts, desires and impulses/memories
The conscious mind is our present thoughts and feelings.

Question 4

What did Freud this drives the unconscious mind?

Answer 4

The pleasure principle

Libido - instinctual drive to survive

Question 5

According to Freud, what are the three parts of the personality? What are they?

Answer 5

Id - unconscious primal desires
ego - conscious mind
superego - conscience

Question 6

What was the sample of Freud’s study?

Answer 6

One participant - Little Hans

Question 7

What was Freud’s sampling method?

Answer 7

He asked his friends for help and Hans’ father volunteered Hans

Question 8

Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for little Hans’ phobia of carts falling over

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for little Hans’ phobia of horses biting him

Answer 9

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’

Question 10

Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for little Hans’ phobia/obsession with lumf (poo)

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Describe the giraffe fantasy

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for the giraffe fantasy

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

Describe Freud’s explanation for little Hans’ plumber fantasy

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Describe the Plumber fantasy

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Describe Hans’ family with his imaginary friends

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Describe Freud’s and the alternative explanations for little Hans’ family fantasy with imaginary friends

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Outline Three advantages of the sample used in Freud’s study

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Outline one disadvantage of the sample used in Freud’s study

Answer 18

Low population validity - difficult to generalise to other people as there was only one participant so no other people to compare the sample with.

Question 19

Outline one advantage of collecting self report data from little Hans

Answer 19

Quick and easy to collect

Question 20

Outline one disadvantage of collecting self report data from little Hans

Answer 20

Demand characteristics as the father may have deliberately falsified his responses due to social desirability bias.

Question 21

What were the conclusions of Freud’s study?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Was Freud’s study ethnocentric?

Answer 22

The experiences of a middle class child in Vienna are unlikely to be typical of children in less privileged parts of the world

Question 23

What ethical guidelines did Freud break?

Answer 23

Privacy/confidentiality - photos of little Hans

possible psychological harm as they could have created a sort of self fulfilling prophecy in Hans

Question 24

What ethical guidelines did Freud uphold?

Answer 24

Deception - father knew exactly what the study was - fully informed parental consent.
was given the option to withdraw from the start

Question 25

Was there any reliability in Freud’s study?

Answer 25

No

Question 26

Did Freud’s study have external population validity?

Answer 26

No - could not be generalised to - focused on only one case study and so is unlikely to represent the whole population of children

Question 27

Did Freud’s study have Internal validity?

Answer 27

no - Hans was asked leading questions and there were much more simple and more obvious explanations for what was going on