individual differences Flashcards
background to Freud’s study
stage 1 (oral) - child is fascinated with putting things in their mouth
stage 2 (anal) - children keep their excrement inside them until they feel contractions
stage 3 (phallic) - child sees difference in male and female bodies
stage 4 (latency) - sexual feelings dormant
stage 5 (genital) - mature sexual feelings develop
what is Oedipus complex
incestuous feelings felt by a son towards his mother, as well as jealous towards a father
what is castration anxiety
a boys fear that he will lose his penis
aim in Freud’s study
provide evidence for psychosexual development theory using psychoanalysis of dreams and fantasies of a child with nervous disorder
what is a case study method
a small group of participants are studied in depth
what was the sample and location in Freud’s study
-Little Hans
-1906-1908 3-5 years old
-from Vienna, Austria
-lively cheerful baby
sampling method in Freud’s study
self selecting- Little Hans dad volunteered his child
procedure in Freud’s study
1) Hans’ father records details of Hans’ behaviours and conversations and made his own interpretations. He would send these in a weekly letter to Freud.
2) Freud replies with his own interpretations of the behaviours, and would give guidance on what Hans’ father should be discussing with Hans, and which behaviours to look out for
data collection method
self report
3 findings in Freud’s study
1) Hans has a phobia of horses biting him - castration anxiety due to his mum’s threat to get the Dr to cut off his penis due to him handling it
2) Hans was fearful of horses particularly their blinkers and the black mouths- horse represents Hans’ father- glasses and moustache
3) Hans dreamt of there being a big giraffe in the room next to a crumpled one, sat on crumpled one - crumpled giraffe is Han’s mother, shows desire for her genital organ
background to Gould/Yerkes study
a key debate at the time was whether intelligence was inherited or if it could be learnt
Binet-Simon test - tested school children for inferior intelligence to put them in special schools
intelligence definition
an inferred characteristic of an individual, usually defined as the ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge / think abstractly
what are psychometric tests
tools that seek to provide numerical measures of human personality traits, attitudes and abilities
what is eugenics
the belief that it is possible to breed a superior group of people and inhibiting the growth of those groups deemed inferior
what is hereditarianism
belief that genetic inheritance is more important than environmental factors in determining intelligence
overall aim of Gould/Yerkes study
-produce a reliable and valid measure of intelligence
-prove that psychology could be as objective and quantifiable as the other scientific disciplines
what research method and data collecting method were used in Gould/Yerkes study
quasi experiment
self report
sample and location in Gould/Yerkes study
-1.75 million men
-US military
-white Americans, blacks, immigrants
-varying education levels
procedure of Gould/Yerkes study
1) The Army Alpha Test
-written exam for literate recruits
-8 parts, took less than an hour
-number sequences and unscrambling sentences
2) The Army Beta Test
-illiterate recruits/ those that failed Alpha
-maze running, cube counting
-instructions written in English and 3/7 parts required written answers
3) Individual Exam
-spoken exam for those that failed Beta
-1/5 failed Beta so rarely done
findings from Gould/Yerkes study
-black recruits scored lowest of all (10.41)
-darker people of Southern Europe were less intelligent than people from Northern Europe (Russians=11.34 , Poles=10.74)
what is a review study
a process of subjecting an authors work, research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field
strength and weakness of a review study
strength- able to reassess research, offers a fresh perspective of what was found originally
weakness- may miss important data
-reviewer could be biased
problems with design of Gould/Yerkes tests
alpha- criteria to sit the test was not consistent across camps
beta- still required reading and writing
bias- many questions culturally biased
problems with administration of tests in Gould/Yerkes study
-extremely chaotic conditions
-only 1/5 was allowed to take spoken exam
background in Baron- Cohen et al’s study
autism affects social communication, interaction and imagination
Sally- Anne test in 1980 - Theory of Mind - ability to recognise what another person is thinking/feeling
aim of Baron-Cohen’s study
to investigate whether adults with autism still experience a deficit in Theory of Mind.
to develop an advanced way of testing Theory of Mind that is appropriate for adults
sample and location of Baron-Cohen’s study
-16 adults (13 male) with autism or Asperger’s syndrome
-recruited via advert in national Autistic Society’s magazine
-50 ‘normal’ adults (25 male) from Cambridge
-10 adults with Tourette’s (8 male) from referral centre
procedure in Baron Cohen’s study
1) participant took the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes task’ which involved them being shown 25 pairs of eyes in black and white for 3 seconds each, and had to say from two opposite words what the person was thinking or feeling
2) to help confirm it was Theory of Mind he was testing, participants also completed the ‘Strange Stories’ task
3) the autistic participants were also asked to identify gender of people in photos and to recognise the six basic emotions from photos of whole faces
findings in Baron-Cohen’s study
adults with autism did worse in eyes task (16.3/25) compared to normal adults (20.3/25)
normal females scored higher (21.8/25) compared to normal males (18.8/25)
background to Hancock Et Al’s study
psychopathy is typically seen as a personality disorder, rather than a mental illness, and the standard way to test was for a specialist to complete Robert Hare’s psychopathy checklist
aim in Hancock’s study
to investigate whether psychopaths use language in ways that are different to how non-psychopaths use language
sample and location in Hancock’s study
-52 males in prison in Canada for murder:
-14 classed as psychopaths
-38 classed as non-psychopaths
procedure in Hancock’s study
all of the participants were interviewed individually and asked to describe what happened during the murder they committed, these were typed up in transcripts
Wmatrix- analysed the whole corpus of 14 psychopath transcripts compared to 38 non-psychopath transcripts (words and tense used)
DAL- applied to each transcript individually, assessing the intensity of emotional language used
findings in Hancock’s study
-psychopaths used more subordinating conjunctions eg because/since
-psychopaths used more words associated with satisfying low level needs eg food/shelter/sex whereas non psychopaths used higher level words eg family/religion
-psychopaths had 33% more um and ah phrases
