Individual Differences Flashcards
Hancock - aim
To investigate whether psychopaths use language in ways that are different from non - psychopaths use language
Hancock - sample
52 males being held in prison in Canada for murder :
- 14 were classed as psychopaths
- 38 were classes as non - psychopaths
Hancock - procedure
All participants were interviewed individually and asked to describe what happened during the murder. These interviews were typed up as transcripts - every detail typed
2 computer programs - w matrix - corpus of all the serial killer trans scripts against the others
- DAL - individually assessed pleasantness and intensity of emotional language
Hancock - findings
Dysfluncies - 33% more um and ah - effort to be more positive
Psychological distancing - more words in the past tense - distancing from the crime
Baron - cohen - aim
To investigate whether adults with autism still experience a deficit of theory of mind
To develop a new advanced way of testing theory of mind - appropriate to adults - no ceiling effect
Baron - Cohen - sample
16 adults with either autism or Asperger’s - 13 male , 3 female
50 ‘normal’ adults - 25 males , 25 female - Cambridge Uk - control group
10 adults with Tourette’s syndrome- 8 male , 2 female
Baron- Cohen - procedure
Reading the mind task - 25 pairs of eyes - pick from 2 semantically opposite words/ phases to best describe what the person was thinking or feeling - also HAPPES strange stories - developed for 8-9 year olds - ceiling effects
Autistic participants were also asked to identify the gender of the people in the people in the eyes task and recognise the 6 basic emotions from photos of whole faces
Baron - Cohen - findings
Adults with autism did worse in the eye task - mean 16.3/25 than either normal adults -20.3/25 or adults with Tourette’s -20.4/25 - suggesting theory of mind persists into adulthood for people with autism
Freud - background
The oral stage
The anal stage
Freud - key terms
Oedipus complex
Freud - aims
To document the case of ‘little hans ‘ , a boy who was going through the phallic stage of development , and confirm Freud’s theory
Freud - research methods
Case study , self report - longitudinal- only involved one participant who was studied in detail over 3 years
Freud - findings - horses biting him
Hans has a concern his widdler let would be cut off - castration anxiety- mothers threats to cut it off
Fearful of horses due to over hearing some say - don’t put your finger in the white horse or it’ll bite you
Freud - findings - fearful of horses
The horse represents Hans father
Freud - findings - fearful of carts
Hans father asked him - when the horse fell down did you think of daddy ? - Hans replied - perhaps . Yes it’s possible - seen as desire for his father to die so he can have his mum to himself
Freud - findings - baths / drowning
Interpreted as arising from a death wish against his sister - Hans hoped that his mum would drown her so he would have his mum to himself
Young children can be scared of water
Gould/ Yerkes - Background
Yerkes wanted to show intelligence could be measured scientifically
Yerkes aim
Wanted psychology to be considered a science - interested in the field of mental testing
Yerkes sample
1.75 million men in the US military - opportunity
Yerkes mental tests
Alpha - English as a first language
Beta - English as a second language
Problems with the mental tests
American / western life based questions / ethnocentric
Few skills / aspects of intelligence tested , length of time in us would influence the score
Many had never seen or held pencils
How Yerkes mental tests were meant to be administered
Men who were defined as illiterate took the beta test
Those that failed the alpha test took the beta test
Problems with how the test were administered
Illiterate definition changed across camps
Beta queues were too long - some never completed them and there alpha tests counted as 0
Stressful / rushed situation for all
Findings for Yerkes
Average mental age of white American adult was 13 - black people scored the lowest
Yerkes interpretation
Prove innate native intelligence
How Yerkes finding could have been interpreted
Culturally biased questions - unfamiliar equipment - black people - poorer schooling, lower social class
What Gould would conclude about Yerkes research
Misuse of science
Major harm to soldiers and people fleeing persecution
Yerkes failed to see alternative explanations for the facts
