Individual Differences Area Flashcards
What are the theories behind freuds study?
- According to Freud’s theory, sexuality isn’t confined to physically mature adults, but is evident from birth. However different parts of the body
are particularly sensitive at different times during childhood. - The sequence of the psychosexual stages are determined by maturation (nature) and how the child is treated by others (nurture).
- The Oedipus complex for boys and the Electra complex for girls forms part of the phallic stage.
what is the background to freuds study?
- Hans was described as a cheerful and straightforward child, but when he became ‘ill’ (developed his phobia) it was obvious that there was a
difference between what he said and what he thought. Freud thought this was because things were going on in Hans’ unconscious mind of
which he was unaware. - Little Hans was referred to Freud by his father, a keen supporter of Freud’s work. Freud therefore decided to help Hans by interpreting his
behaviour and telling him why he was thinking and behaving as he was. This is a process known as psychoanalysis. - Freud used this study to support his ideas about the origins of phobias, his theory of infantile sexuality and the Oedipus complex, and his belief
in the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy
what is the research method of freuds study?
- This was a longitudinal case study.
- A case study gathers detailed data of either a single individual or a very small group of individuals, an institution or an event. Here, in-depth,
detailed data was gathered on one individual – Little Hans – in relation to his fantasies, fears and phobias. - The study is considered longitudinal as it documents developments in Hans’ fears from when he was three years old until he was five. This
allowed Freud to link the evidence gathered to his developmental theory of sexuality. - Data was gathered by Little Han’s father (a firm believer of Freud’s ideas) regularly observing and questioning Hans. He then sent records of the
events and conversations to Freud who interpreted the information and replied to Little Hans’ father with advice on how to proceed
what was the sample to freuds study?
- Little Hans (Herbert Graf ) was five years old at the time of this study.
- Historical evidence starting from when Little Hans was three years old is used by Freud to support his theory of psychosexual development and
the Oedipus complex.
outline the procedure of freuds study?
- Just before he was three, Hans started to show a lively interest in his ‘widdler’ and the presence/absence of this organ in others – human and
non-human. - At this time he had a tendency to masturbate, bringing threats from his mother to send for Dr A. to cut it off.
- When he was three and a half, Hans gained a baby sister, Hanna, whom he resented and subsequently, subconsciously, wished his mother
would drop in the bath so she would drown. - Later Hans developed a fear of being bitten by white horses. This seemed to be linked to two incidents:
(i) Overhearing a father say to a child, “Don’t put your finger to the white horse or it will bite you.”
(ii) Seeing a horse that was pulling a carriage fall down and kick about with its legs. - His fear was then generalised to carts and buses.
- Both before and after the development of the phobias (of the bath and horses), Hans was both anxious his mother would go away and prone to
fantasies and daydreams. These included: - The giraffe fantasy.
- Two plumber fantasies.
- The parenting fantasy.
- Having received ‘help’ from his father and Freud, after the parenting fantasy, both the ‘illness’ and analysis came to an end.
what were the key findings to freuds study?
- Little Hans’ fear of horses was considered by Freud as a subconscious fear of his father. This because the dark around the mouth of a horse + the
blinkers resembled the moustache and glasses worn by his father. He was fearful of his father because he was experiencing the Oedipus complex. - Hans’ fascination with his ‘widdler’ was because he was experiencing the Oedipus complex.
- Hans’ daydream about giraffes was a representation of him trying to take his mother away from his father so he could have her to himself –
another feature of the Oedipus complex. - Hans’ fantasy of becoming a father again linked to his experiencing the Oedipus complex.
- Hans’ fantasy about the plumber was interpreted as him now identifying with his father and the final family fantasy was interpreted as the
resolution of the Oedipus Complex
What are the conclusions to freuds study?
- Freud concluded that his study of Hans provided support for:
(i) His theory of psychosexual development / infant sexuality.
(ii) His suggestion that boys in the phallic stage of psychosexual development experience the Oedipus complex.
(iii) The nature of phobias and his theory that they are the product of unconscious anxiety displaced onto harmless external objects.
(iv) His concept of unconscious determinism which holds that people are not consciously aware of the causes of their behaviour
how does freud link to the individual differences are?
it focuses on trying to explain a way in which people may differ- having a phobia
what are the theories behind baron cohens study?
The most influential theory of autism in recent years maintains that what all autistic people have in common (the core deficit) is mind-blindness
(Baron-Cohen,1990), a severe impairment in their understanding of mental states and in their appreciation of how mental states govern
behaviour. They lack a ‘theory of mind’ (TOM).
* Because autistic individuals fail to develop the ability to attribute mental states to other people, fundamental implications arise for
communication, where making sense of other’s intentions enables the listener to understand what is being said (inferred/intended).
(Baron-Cohen, 1995a).
* Individuals diagnosed with autism show a tremendous variation in the degree to which they are affected. To address this issue a ‘spectrum of
autism’ was devised. Difficulties experienced by children, judged in relation to set criteria, allow them to be placed within the spectrum
what was the background to Baron-Cohens study?
- Some evidence suggests that a TOM deficit is not a core cognitive deficit in autism. However no conclusive evidence has yet shown that individuals
such as adults with ‘high-functioning autism’ or Asperger Syndrome (AS) have an intact TOM. This is because usual tests to assess TOM have a ceiling
in developmental terms corresponding to a mental age of about six years. Therefore, although existing TOM tests are challenging for six-year-olds,
they are far too easy for adults who all pass even though they may not have a fully functioning TOM. - Happé (1994) tested adults with autism or Asperger Syndrome on an ‘advanced’ TOM task and found her participants had more difficulty with her
mental state stories (Happé’s Strange Stories) than matched controls. - Baron-Cohen et al built on Happé’s research by using an adult test to assess theory of mind competence in high-functioning adults with autism
or AS
What was the research method to Baron-Cohens study?
- This was a quasi/natural experiment because the independent variable (IV) – the type of person likely to have TOM deficits (adults with
high-functioning autism/AS, normal adults and adults with Tourette Syndrome) – was naturally occurring so could not be manipulated or
controlled by the researchers. The dependent variable (DV) was the performance – score out of 25 – on the Eyes Task; measured by showing
each participant 25, black and white, standardised photographs of the eye region of faces (male and female) and asking them to make a forced
choice between two mental state words (target and foil) to best describe what the person in the photograph was feeling or thinking.
What was the sample to Baron-Cohens study?
Three groups of participants were tested:
- Group 1: 16 individuals with high-functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome (HFA = 4, AS = 12). The sex ratio was 13:3(m:f ). All were of normal
intelligence and were recruited through an advert in the National Autistic magazine and a variety of clinical sources.
- Group 2: 50 normal age-matched adults (25m:25f ), drawn from the subject panel of the university department compromising of the general
population of Cambridge (excluding members of the university).
- Group 3: 10 adults with Tourette Syndrome also age-matched with groups 1 and 2. The sex ratio was 8:2 (m:f ). All were of normal intelligence
and were recruited from a tertiary referral centre in London.
outline the procedure to Baron-Cohens study?
The Eyes task, the Strange Stories and the two control tasks (Gender Recognition of Eyes Task, Basic Recognition Task) were presented in
random order to all participants.
* The Gender Recognition Task involved identifying the gender of the eyes used in the Eyes Task. The task controlled for face perception,
perceptual discrimination and social perception. The Basic Emotion Recognition Task involved judging photographs of whole faces displaying
basic emotions identified by Ekman (1992). The task was done to check whether difficulties on the Eyes Task were due to difficulties with basic
emotional recognition. The Strange Stories Task was used to validate the results from the Eyes Task.
* Participants were tested individually in a quiet room either in their own home, in the researchers’ clinic or in the researchers’ laboratory at
Cambridge University.
what were the findings to Baron-Cohens study?
- The mean score for adults with TS (20.4) was not significantly different from
normal adults (20.3) but both were significantly higher than the autism/AS
mean score (16.3). - Normal females performed significantly better than normal males on the
Eyes Task (mean 21.8 versus 18.8) but the normal males were significantly
better than the autism/AS group (mean 18.8 versus 16.3). - The autism/AS group made significantly more errors on the Strange Stories
task than either of the other groups. - On the Gender and Emotion control tasks, there were no differences between the groups.
- Within the autism/AS group there was no significant correlation between IQ and performance on the Eyes Task.
- On Happé’s Strange Stories, no participants with TS made any errors but those with autism/AS were significantly impaired, making many errors
What were the conclusions to Baron-Cohens study?
- Contrary to previous research with adults, these results seem to provide evidence that adults with autism/AS do possess an impaired theory of
mind. - As some of the autism/AS group hold university degrees and were all of normal intelligence, it is reasonable to suggest that TOM deficits are
independent of general intelligence
How does Baron-Cohens study link to the individual differences area?
it tries to focus on understanding a way in which people differ- through being diagnosed with autism
how does Hancock link to individual differences.
it focus on trying to measure
differences – in this case, text analysis tools are used to examine the crime narratives of 14 psychopathic and 38 non-psychopathic homicide
offenders and the findings demonstrate how the two groups differ.
What is the background to handcock
Hare (2003) found that psychopaths exhibit a wholly selfish orientation and profound emotional deficit.
-Researchers such as Raine et al (2003, 2004) and Oliveria-Souza et al (2008), have found that the psychopath’s diminished capability for neural
sensibility appears to have biological underpinnings
what were the theories behind handcocks study?
*Language communicates directly an individual’s thoughts to another person.
*The relationship between language and thought has been the subject of much debate among philosophers and psychologists. Views fall into
four main categories:
(i) Thought is dependent on, or caused by, language e.g. Watson’s‘peripheralist’ approach, the Sapir-Whorf linguistic relativity hypothesis (LRH).
(ii) Language is dependent on, and reflects, thoughts e.g. Piaget (1959), Pinker (2010), Everett (2009).
(iii) Thought and language are initially quite separate activities e.g. Vygotsky (1962).
(iv) Language and thoughts are one and the same.
*Words can reveal significant insights about psychological functioning e.g. Pennebaker, Mehl & Niederhoffer (2003)“Psychological aspects of
natural language use: Our words, our selves.”Annual review of psychology
what was the aim of handcocks study?
-Their aim was to examine whether the language of psychopaths reflected, as predicted, an instrumental/predatory world view, unique
socioemotional needs and a poverty of effect
what was the research method to handcocks study?
*Psychopathy was measured using Pschopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991, 2003).
* This study used semi-structured/open-ended interviews (a self-report method) which employed the Step-Wise Interview technique to gather
data in relation to the language of psychopaths and non-psychopaths who had committed murder.
*The narratives were subsequently transcribed and analysed through content analysis using the Wmatrix and the DAL
What was the sample to handcocks study?
- 52 male murders (14 psychopathic, 38 non-psychopathic) incarcerated in Canadian correctional facilities who admitted their crime and volunteered
for the study. - 8 convictions (16%) were for first-degree murder, 32 (64%) of convictions were for second-degree murder and 10 (20%) of convictions were for
manslaughter. - There were no differences between the type of crime (manslaughter, second-degree murder, first-degree murder) and psychopathy versus control
(non-psychopathy).
*Mean age at the time of their current homicide was 28.9 years (SD = 9.2, range of 14-50 years). - The two groups did not differ on age (psychopaths: M = 39.71 years, SD = 7.53; controls: M = 39.91 years, SD = 9.76, t(50) = .06, ns.
*The two groups did not differ in the amount of time since the homicide was committed (psychopaths: M = 11.87 years, SD = 7.78; controls: M =
9.82, SD = 6.78, t(50) = .93, ns.
outline the procedure to handcocks study?
interested individuals of the study undertook a psychopathy assessment. Ppts were then interviewed and purpose of the study (to examine the manner in which homicide offenders recall their homicide offence) and the procedure were verbally explained. They were then taped whilst being asked to describe their homicide in as much detail as they could using standardised procedure of step wise interview. interviewers were two senior psychology graduate students and one research assistant, all of whom were blind to the psychopathy scores of the offenders. interviewed lasted around 25 minutes
what were the key findings to handcocks study?
- Psychopaths produced more subordinating conjunctions than controls e.g. because, since, as, so that
-Psychopaths used approximately twice as many words related to basic physiological needs, including eating, drinking and monetary
resources when describing their murders than controls. - Controls used significantly more language related to social needs, including family, religion and spirituality than psychopaths.
-The degree to which the psychopaths had physiologically distanced themselves/were simply detached from their homicide was examined
through the use of the past and present form of verbs and the rate of articles
what were the conclusions to handocks study?
- Psychopaths are more likely than non-psychopaths to describe cause and effect relationships when describing their murder.
- Psychopaths are more likely to view their crime as a logical outcome of a plan than non-psychopaths.
- Psychopaths focus more on physiological needs than higher level social needs than non-psychopaths.
- Psychopaths are focused on a lower level of necessities in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs than non-psychopaths.
- Psychopaths will linguistically frame their homicide as more in the past and in more psychologically distant terms than non-psychopaths.
- Psychopaths give less emotionally intense descriptions of their crimes and use less emotionally pleasant language than non-psychopaths
What was the theories behing Goulds review of yerks?
*Intelligence can be seen as essentially a system of living and acting operations i.e. a state of balance or equilibrium achieved by the person
when he is able to deal adequately with the data before him. But it is not a static state, it is dynamic in that it continually adapts itself to new
environmental stimuli (Piaget, J 1960 Psychology of Intelligence, Patterson, NJ: Littlefield, Adams.).
*Biological definitions see intelligence as related to adaptation to the environment.
*Intelligence is an innate, general cognitive ability (Burt, C.L. (1955).“The Evidence for the Concept of Intelligence,”British Journal of Educational
Psychology, 25, 158–177).
*Intelligence is the ability to deal with cognitive complexity (Gottfredson, Linda S 1998 The general intelligence factor.Scientific American,
Incorporated).
*Theories of intelligence include:
-Psychometric (factor-analysis) theories e.g. Spearman’s two-factor theory (1904), Burt (1949) and Vernon’s (1950) hierarchical model,
Thurstone’s primary mental abilities.
- Fluid and crystallised intelligence e.g. Cattell, 1963; Horn & Cattell, 1967, 1982.
- Information-processing approach e.g. Sternberg, 1979; Fishbein, 1984.
- Gardner’s (1983, 1998) theory of multiple intelligence
what was the background of goulds reveiw of yerks?
*In 1904, Binet and Simon were commissioned by the French government to devise a test which would identify those children who wouldn’t
benefit from ordinary schooling because of their inferior intelligence. The result was the Simon-Binet test (1905), generally accepted as the first
intelligence test.
*In 1910, Terman at Stanford University began adapting the Simon-Binet test for use in the USA. The test became known as the Stanford-Binet
test. It has been revised and modified numerous times since.
*Wechsler developed the most widely used test of adult intelligence, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) in 1944. This has also been
revised numerous times since it was first used.
*The Stanford-Binet and Wechsler tests are individual tests, given to one person at a time; whereas group tests are administered to several people
at once. A major impetus to the development of group testing was America’s involvement in WW1. A quick and easy method of selecting over
one million recruits was needed, and the result was the Army Alpha and Beta tests.
What was the aim of Goould review of yerks?
This Core Study aimed to examine the early history of intelligence testing as conducted by Yerkes on army recruits in the USA during WW1.
Gould aimed to identify the following issues in psychology:
-The problematic nature of psychometric testing in general and the measurement of intelligence in particular.
-The problem of theoretical bias influencing research in psychology, in particular how psychological theories on the inherited nature of
intelligence and the prejudice of a society can dramatically distort the objectivity of intelligence testing.
-The problem of the political and ethical implications of research, in this case the use of biased data to discriminate between people in
suitability for occupation and even admission to a country.
what was the research method of goulds reveiw of yerks?
- The Gould study is not a piece of empirical research. It is important to be aware that the article is an edited extract from Gould’s (1981) book,
‘The Mismeasure of Man’ in which he traces the history of the measurement of human intelligence from nineteenth century craniology (the
measurement of skulls) to today’s highly technical and sophisticated methods of IQ testing. - The study is therefore a review article that looks at the history of Robert M. Yerkes’ intelligence testing of recruits for the US army in WW1, and his
attempt to establish psychology as a scientific discipline.
what was the sample of goulds review of yerks
- 1.75 million army recruits in the USA during WW1. The recruits included White Americans, ‘Negroes’ and European immigrants
outline the procedure of goulds review of yerks
ARMY ALPHA-This was designed for literate recruits. It consisted of eight parts. It included items with which we are totally familiar as part of intelligence
testing: analogies, filling in the next number in a sequence etc. It required a good basic understanding of English language skills and literacy.
Although the tests were considered by Yerkes to measure ‘native intellectual ability’(intelligence that is not influenced by education and/or
culture), they were in fact extremely biased. After all, how could someone who was unfamiliar with American culture achieve a decent score?
The following examples give some idea of the type of question “Washington is to Adams as first is to..?”
ARMY BETA-* The pictures were again culturally specific and would have been extremely difficult to complete if participants had no knowledge of some
of the items. There were also maze tests, counting the number of cubes, finding the next in a series of symbols and translating numerals into
symbols using a code to work from.
*The instructions were written (in English), in three of the seven parts the answers had to be given in writing, yet this was a test for illiterates who
may never have held a pencil beforehand!
INDIVIDUAL EXAMINATION-If recruits failed on the other two tests, they were supposed to be given an individual spoken examination, this however rarely happened.
* Every individual was given a Grade from A to E, with plus and minus signs e.g. C- indicated a low average intelligence, suitable for the position
of ordinary private in the army; D indicated a person rarely suited for tasks requiring special skill, forethought, resourcefulness or sustained
alertness.
* Administration of the tests caused numerous problems:
* Recruits who were illiterate should immediately have been assigned to the Beta Test, or given it if they failed the Alpha test, but this only
happened in some camps. Therefore illiterate or immigrant recruits often sat the Alpha Test and came out scoring next to nothing.
* In fact the levels of literacy amongst Americans, especially black Americans, were much lower than Yerkes anticipated and this confounded
the problems further
what are the findings of goulds review of yerks
*The following‘FACTS’emerged:
* The average mental age of white, American, adult, males stood just above the edge of moronity at a shocking and meagre 13. (Terman had
previously set the standard at 16.) This indicated that the country was‘a nation of morons’and as such was taken by the eugenicists to show
that the poor, Negroes and feeble-minded had been interbreeding and lowering the overall intelligence of the population.
* The data also showed that European immigrants could be graded by their country of origin with the darker people of Southern Europe and
the Slavs of Eastern Europe being less intelligent than the fair people of Western and Northern Europe.
* The tests had a large impact on officer screening. By the end of the war, two thirds of the men who had promoted were those who had taken
the tests and achieved good test results. According to Yerkes there was also a‘steady stream of requests from commercial concerns, educational
establishments and individuals for the use of army methods of psychological examining or for the adaptation of such methods for special needs’
what are the possible conclusions of goulds review of yerks
*IQ tests are culturally and historically biased.
*IQ tests do not measure innate intelligence.
*IQ testing is often unreliable.
* IQ tests may not produce valid results.
*Inappropriate, poorly administered IQ tests can lead to tragic consequences.
* Nations can be graded by their intelligence.
how does gould review of yerks link to the individual differences area?
focus on an attempt to develope a test to measure a way in which people differ- levels of inntelligence
