Individual Differences Flashcards
Freud psychosexual stages
Oral stage- put things in their mouth (suck thumb)
Anal stage- enjoy holding in and expelling feces
Phallic stage- become aware of genitals and sexual differences. Develop Oedipus complex (3-5)
Freud aim
To document little Hans (a boy going through phallic stage) to confirm his theory of unconscious and Oedipus complex
Freud research method
Longitudinal case study over 3 years
Freud sample
Volunteer from a supporter
Nearly 3 at start, from Vienna, Austria
Freud procedure
Father recorded Hans’ behaviour and conversations and made interpretations, sent weekly letters to Freud
Freud replied with his interpretations and guided the father on what to discuss with Hans and behaviours to look out for
Freud only met Hans once
Freud findings
Desire for mother: dream of two giraffes represented how he wants to take his mother away from his father (crumpled giraffe is mother, other giraffe represents father long neck is big penis)
Jealous and frightened of father: horse phobia displacement of fear for father (thought his father woukd castrate him) (horse blinkers looked like father’s glasses)
Jealous of sister taking away mother: fear of baths because he thought he would drown her
Resolution of Oedipus complex:
Identification with same sex parent- plumber replaces bottom and widler with bigger ones
Freud conclusion
Individual
Case study provided support for psychosexual stages, boys during phallic stage develop Oedipus complex, phobias result of unconscious anxieties displaced into external objects
Freud individual/situational
Looks at what causes phobias unique to each individual (Hans phobia of horses)
Individual differences area- looks at what caused differences in behaviour
Sample of 1 boy
Freud Psy as science
Unscientific
Objective- Freud interpreted dreams and behaviour using his own theories/opinions (qualitative data) eg. Interpreting crumpled giraffe as representing his mother in his dream
Falsifiable- can’t prove to be incorrect as it’s opinion
Replicable- longitudinal case study hard to repeat strictly and standardised eg. Parental attitudes which may have affected behaviour or cultural differences in Vienna
Freud free-will/determinism
Phobias determined by life experiences or unconscious displacement eg. Horse collapsing
Freud ethics
Protection from harm- Hans may feel humiliated by accusation of attraction to mother
Confidentiality- at the time referred to as ‘Little Hans’ instead of real name
Consent- parental consent gained
Privacy- invaded private conversation with parents
Freud validity
Ecological: throughout childhood in home environment so true to life scenario
Internal: results may be biased (type of bias) behaviour reported by supporter of Freud who would want this study to give results which please Freud
External: a sample only consist of male gender, young child, Vienna, not generalisable
Freud reliability
Internal: not many controls as Hans went about his daily life- may have been exposed to many extraneous variables and procedure is not standardised
External: sample of 1 not enough to show consistent effect
Freud research method
Longitudinal case study:
Yerkes aim
Produce valid and reliable measure of intelligence
Prove psychology can be as objective and quantifiable as other sciences
Yerkes sample
1.75 mill US army recruits
Yerkes method
Alpha- literate recruits (written test)
Beta- illiterate/failed Alpha (picture based test)
Individual interview- failed Beta (spoken test)
Yerkes findings
- Av mental age white American 13, just above moron
- Av Polish 10.74, Av Russian 11.34
- Black 10.41 (high score when skin lighter)
Yerkes’ findings applies
Used to support eugenics argument
Led to Immigration Restriction Act which prevented immigrants coming into USA
Gould’s conclusions
Systematic errors in design of test:
Questions Christy Mathewson is famous as a… (culturally biased) and in second language
And administration of test:
Test carried out in disorganised way which led to incorrect results leading to catastrophic consequences
B-C aims
Investigate whether adults with autism or AS would be impaired on a test of theory of mind
- investigate whether females would performed better than males
B-C research methods
Quasi - IV autism
Design- independent measures/matched pairs
B-C sample
Group 1: autistic (16) mostly male
Group 2: no psychiatric disorder (50)
Group 3: diagnosed Tourette’s (10) mostly male
B-C procedure eyes test
Individually at home/uni/Cambridge Photo shown for 3 seconds
2 words (semantic opposites)
Experiment or said ‘which word best describes what this person is thinking or feeling’
All photos same size, black and white
B-C how eyes task constructed
Target word determined by 4 judges and selected foil word
Tested on 8 judges
B-C procedure strange stories
Read a story concerned with ways of saying things which are not really true and match up phrases like ‘double bluff’ and ‘sarcasm’
B-C Eyes task findings
Autism: 16
No diagnosis: 20
Tourette’s: 20
Eyes task findings gender difference
Female: 22
Male:19
B-C conclusion
Similar mistakes made by autistic on eyes and strange stories task (concurrent valid)
Adults as well as children with autism find it difficult to attribute mental states to others
Hancock aim
Examine language characteristics of psychopaths (when describing their crime)
Hancock sample
52 male murderers (Canadian prison)
14 psychopaths
38 normal
Hancock method
Assessed psychopathy using PCL-R Asked to describe homocide as much detail as possible Narratives turned into transcripts Analysed using - WMatrix (% language features) - DAL (emotional language)
Hancock results
1.82% of speech had more subordinating conjunctions
Talked more about basic needs, less higher needs
33% more disfluencies
No sig diff emotional words
More verbs past tense
Hancock conclusion
Psychopaths use different language when explaining emotional event
Operate on lower emotional needs
