Individual Differences studies Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the main assumptions of the psychodynamic approach

A
  • Behaviour is caused by both NATURE and NURTURE - a combination of innate tendencies and life experiences
  • We are strongly controlled by our UNCONSCIOUS mental processes. Which is why we often don’t know why we think and feel the way we do.
  • Psychopathology (psychological disorders) occur when there is an unresolved unconscious CONFLICT
  • To treat disorders or change behaviour, we need to access what is in the unconscious mind so that we can RESOLVE any conflicts
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2
Q

Why do we still pay attention to the controversial ideas of Sigmund Freud today

A
  • Freud was a founding father of psychology - before him no-one thought it was important to study the mind and its links to behaviour
  • Invented ‘talking therapy’ - before him, no-one thought you should talk about your problems/anxieties
  • Was the first to link childhood experiences and adult well-being
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3
Q

What did Freud believe the personality was split up into

A

Id

Ego

Superego

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4
Q

What did Freud believe the id was about in the personality

A

Key principle = pleasure

  • innate (born with it)
  • selfish
  • aggressive
  • impulsive
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5
Q

What did Freud believe the ego was about in the personality

A

Key principle = reality

  • mediates between the id and superego
  • finds a compromise
  • decision maker of socially acceptable behaviour
  • develops around 2-3 years
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6
Q

What did Freud believe the superego was about in the personality

A

Key principle = guilt

  • works on basis of morality
  • tells us right from wrong
  • often prevents us from doing what we would want
  • moral conscience
  • develops around 3-4 years, learn through parents
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7
Q

What were the 5 stages called Freud mentioned as we grow up and what are they

A

The psychosexual stages –> these explain how the mind develops along with the body

Oral (0-1 years)

Anal (1-3 years)

Phallic (3-5 years)

Latency (5-12 years)

Genital (12-18 years)

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8
Q

What do the psychosexual stages help to develop

A

The psychosexual stages help us to develop particular aspects of your pesonality

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9
Q

What is a fixation stage in the individual differences

A

During the psychosexual stages if a conflict is not resolved we develop a fixation at that stage. This means the conflict at that stage is going to affect our personality and a psychoanalysis would be able to identify which stage the problem occurred in.

It does not mean we get ‘stuck’ at that stage - we still continue through the rest of the stages

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10
Q

What did Freud use as a model for the personality and the conscious/unconscious mind

A

An ice berg

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11
Q

Where does the main conflict happen in our mind

A

Where the ego is not present

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12
Q

What is it called when information is forced from our conscious mind down to our pre-conscious and unconscious mind

A

Repression

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13
Q

What are the two studies in the individual differences area

A

Freud (1909)

Baron-Cohen et al (1997)

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14
Q

What is the key theme for both the individual studies

A

Understanding disorders

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15
Q

What is the key theme of the Freud study

A

Analysis of a phobia

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16
Q

What is the key theme for the Baron-Cohen at al study

A

Autism in adults

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17
Q

What is the definition of a phobia

A

An extreme or irrational fear if a certain stimulus, which often has a negative impact on the daily life of the sufferer

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18
Q

What happens during the phallic stage in the Freud study (both genders)

A
  • Attention and pleasure focused on the penis
  • Attraction to the opposite sex parent (oedipus complex)
  • Boys experience castration anxiety
  • Girls experience penis envy (elecra complex)
  • Conflict resolved by identifying with same sex parent this:
    a) Teaches gender roles
    b) Reassures opposite sex and same sex parent that child is not attracted to them
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19
Q

How easily can we test the psychodynamic perspective

A

Can not easily be tested because there is no physical evidence/part of the personality as it is in the unconscious mind

Not falsifiable

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20
Q

Does it suggest negative behaviour can be easily changed in the psychodynamic perspective

A

Through psychoanalysis ‘talking therapy’ this helps the conflict in the mind to be resolved

Although very difficult to do as it is in the unconscious mind

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21
Q

Are the treatments effective and useful in the psychodynamic perspective

A

It is effective for certain disorders (like depression, phobias and anxiety)

It is NOT effective for more complex disorders (like schizophrenia)

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22
Q

Who does it blame for negative behaviour

A

Mainly blames the parents due to nurture and how they influenced their children at the different psychosexual stages

  • -> this could be bad due to the blame being taken away from the individual
  • -> this could be good as it could teach us about child care
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23
Q

How was the psychodynamic perspective developed

A

Developed his theories on the basis of evidence first (‘a posterior’) - he analysed his patients THEN worked out the details of his theories using the experience of his patients.

But he mainly analysed:

  • women
  • in vienna
  • who were rich/upper class
  • who already had psychological problems
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24
Q

What are some of the debates for the psychodynamic perspective:

Nature/nurture
Individual/situational
Holism/reductionism
Socially sensitive research

A

Nurture = childhood experiences and how they were brought up

Nature = everyone goes through the psychosexual stages

Individual = shows how everyone goes through the stages differently

Holism = not just influenced by one single factor

Socially sensitive research = can be very sensitive for parents to hear and acknowledge

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25
Q

What are the aims of the Freud study

A
  • To analyse the phobia of a 5 yer old boy

- To investigate the oedipus complex and how it could be resolved by psychoanalysis (therapy)

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26
Q

What was used in the Freud study

Experiment or case study

Longitudinal or observation

Qualitative or quantitative

Primary or secondary

A

Experiment or case study. —> case study

Longitudinal or observation. —> Longitudinal

Qualitative or quantitative. —> Qualitative

Primary or secondary. –> primary data collected for this study but from a secondary source

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27
Q

Why was the Freud study not an experiment

A

Because there was no Independent variable and Dependent variable

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28
Q

What was the sample for the Freud study

A

1 boy between ages of 3-5 years (studied for 2 years)

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29
Q

What was the target population for the Freud study

A

Whole population of boys between ages of 3-5

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30
Q

What sampling method was used to obtain the participant in the Freud study

A

Self selected (because Hans’ father volunteered him)

Opportunity (family friend of Freud)

31
Q

Breifly describe the procedure of the Freud study

A
  • Hans’ father was a friend of Freud and follower of his theories
  • Hans’ father recorded events and conversations with Hans, then told Freud about them in interviews and letters
  • Took place when Hans was 3 until 5
  • Freud met Hans once during his time
  • Freud psychoanalysed Hans’ responses, using his own interpretations
32
Q

What was the early years (Hans’ and his ‘widdler’) and what were Freud’s conclusions from this

A
  • Hans realised he has a ‘widdler’ - phallic stage
  • Realise big animals have big ‘widdlers’ (horses)
  • Enjoys ‘widdling’ - fiddling with ‘widdler’
  • Dreams about having children wiping their bum and helping with their ‘widdlers’
  • Mum said she’d “cut off Hans’ ‘widdler’ if he kept touching it”

Freuds conclusions

  • phallic stage = interested in penis
  • Hans links horses to dad (because whiskers = beard, blinkers = glasses)
  • Developing sexual attraction to mother (oedipus complex)
33
Q

What was the early years (Hans’ death wish for his family) and what were freud’s conclusions for this

A
  • Hans spent lots of time with hismother when dad was away in vienna.
  • When dad returned, Hans was upset. Not to be with mum as much
  • Often hit dad, then kiss him and say sorry

Freud’s conclusions

  • Hans wishes dad was dead so he could take place as mum’s sexual partner
  • Hans has castration anxiety (so has to apologise to dad)
34
Q

What was the phobia (Hans’ phobia starts) and what were Freud’s conclusions from this

A
  • Hans hears man say to daughter horse will bite her if she touches it
  • Hans shows strong fear of horses (particularly white)
  • Hans’ mum tells him it’s not proper for her to touch his ‘widdler’

Freud’s conclusions
Hans links his (unconscious) fear of castration to (conscious) fear of hoses (sublimation)
-More anxiety caused by mum’s sexual rejection of him

35
Q

What is the phobia (further horse anxieties) and what are Freud’s conclusions from this

A

1-Hans saw horse with cart fall over - linked this to father dying
2-Linked sound of horse falling over to going to the toilet. ‘Lumf’ = poo
3-Linked horse pulling cart to pregnant woman (falling = giving birth) (also a death wish for his sister)
4-Horse falling over and kicking legs is linked to Hans sitting on the toilet

Freud’s conclusions
-All Hans’ anxieties are being linked in his mind to horse pulling cart (mum’s pregnancy, sister competing for mum’s attention, death wish for father)

36
Q

What are the fantasies (giraffe dream) and what were Freud’s conclusions

A
  • Hans dreamt big giraffe squashing the crumpled giraffe - big giraffe would call out when Hans tried take crumpled giraffe away
  • Hans sat on crumpled giraffe anyway
  • Real life;Hans goes into parents room in mornings. Dad tells him to leave but gets on bed with mm anyway

Freud’s conclusions

  • Big giraffe = dad and crumpled giraffe = mum
  • Hans able to have mum in dream because stays with crumpled giraffe
37
Q

What are the fantasies (the plumber) and what were Freud’s conclusions

A
  • Hans dreamt he was sitting in the bath, plumber came and unscrewed bath and stabbed him with ‘boring tool’
  • Dreamt that plumber came back and removed his widdler and bum and replaced them with bigger ones

Freud’s conclusions

  • Hans is afraid that dad wants to stop him spending time with mum (and will use big penis to get rid of him)
  • Hans starting to realise he can resolve his conflict when he grows up and becomes more like dad (and get bigger penis)
38
Q

What are the fantasies (Hans becoming a daddy) and what were Freud’s conclusions

A
  • Hans dreamt about having children (he was mum)
  • Then he realised he could be the dad and his mum could be the mum of his children
  • He dreamt they were a family with his dad as the grandad

Freud’s conclusions
-hans has resolved the conflict because he had worked out how they could all be a family and he wouldn’t have to kill his dad

39
Q

Internal validity - Freud

A
  • Can’t know that we are actually testing what is in unconscious mind
  • Conclusion depend on how Freud chose to interpret them
  • All Findings depend on how Hans’ father reported them
40
Q

External validity - Freud

A
  • Case study = only one person, can’t be generalised to anyone (e.g. Girls)
  • This is the only child, Freud did a case study of (yet his theories focus heavily on childhood)
41
Q

Internal reliability - Freud

A
  • No standardised procedures/controls

- Information gathered in various ways including letters, interviews, conversations

42
Q

External reliability - Freud

A

-Can’t be replicated because it’s a case study - Freud’s interpretations could vary and interpretations by different psychoanalysts could vary significantly

43
Q

What was concluded from a previous study Baron-Cohen did

A

People with autism have a common deficit: theory of mind (TOM)/ mind blindness and social interactions

44
Q

What is the definition of theory of mind (TOM)

A

Mental ability to understand mental states and the mental stage of other people

45
Q

What are the aims of the Baron-Cohen study

A
  • To find out if individuals on the autistic spectrum had deficits with theory of mind
  • To find out if there were gender differences in theory of mind
46
Q

Which of these was the Baron-Cohen study:

Laboratory or Quasi

Quantitative or qualitative

Primary or secondary

Independent or matched pairs

A

Laboratory or Quasi. —> Quasi

Quantitative or qualitative. —> Quantitative

Primary or secondary. —> Primary

Independent or matched pairs. —> Matched pairs

47
Q

Whats the Independent variable in the Baron-Cohen study

A

The type of person likely to have TOM deficits

48
Q

Whats the Dependent variable in the Baron-Cohen study

A

Performance out of 25 on the eye task

49
Q

What were some of the controls in the Baron-Cohen study

A

Quiet environment

Randomised order of tasks

50
Q

What was the sample of group 1 in the Baron-Cohen study

A

16 participants with high functioning autism (4) or Aspergers (12)
13 male and 3 female
Self selected sample

51
Q

What was the sample of group 2 in the Baron-Cohen study

A

50 normal adults
25 male and 25 female
Random sample

52
Q

What was the sample in group 3 in the Baron-Cohen study

A

10 Tourette syndrome
8 male and 2 female
Snowball sample

53
Q

Briefly describe the procedure of the Baron-Cohen study

A
  • tested in a quiet environment either their own home or in a laboratory setting
  • Presented the eye task, strange stories, basic emotion recognition task and the gender recognition task in a randomised order, participants would therefore not be exposed to same order of tasks
54
Q

What is the eye task in the Baron-Cohen study

A

Photographs were coupled with two words to describe the mental state, one word was correct and the other one was a ‘foil’

55
Q

What is the gender recognition task in the Baron-Cohen study

A

Participants were asked to identify the gender of each photograph like the ones in the eye task

56
Q

What is the basic emotion recognition task in the Baron-Cohen study

A

Emotions used = Happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgusted, surprised

Required to identify the emotion of full faces (considered basic)

57
Q

What is the strange stories in the Baron-Cohen study

A

Participants having a short story and then being asked questions about the story

58
Q

What were the findings from the eye tests

A

(Out of 25)

Mean scores
Group 1 = 16.3
Group 2 = 20.3 —> males = 18.8 and females = 21.8
Group 3 = 20.4

59
Q

What were the findings from the gender recognition test

A

Mean score on gender recognition test

Group 1 = 24.1
Group 2 = 23.3
Group 3 =23.7

60
Q

What were the findings from the strange stories task

A

The autism group made significantly more errors on the strange stories task compared with other groups

61
Q

What were the conclusions from the Baron-Cohen study

A
  • Results seem to provide evidence that adults with autism do posses an impaired theory of mind
  • Theory of mind deficits are independent from general intelligence
62
Q

Internal validity - Baron-Cohen

A

+ very well controlled and standardised

+ Throughout the different groups, they were age matched

63
Q

What was the aim of the Freud study

A

Freud aimed to document the case of Little Hans and provide support for his psychoanalytic theory, especially to provide support for the phallic stage of his stages of psychosexual development

64
Q

What elements of method are there in the Freud study

A

longitudinal case study
observation
interviews

65
Q

Who did Freud actually communicate with during the study

A

Little Hans’ father actually wrote letters to Freud about the behaviour of Hans’. Hans’ father observed and asked questions that were sent from Freud to Hans’ and then relayed the information back to Freud via letter

66
Q

What was Freud’s sample:
age
gender

A

Little Hans’ = 1 Austrian Boy who was 5 years old throughout the whole study. Although Hans’ father had documented Hans’ behaviour from the age of 3

67
Q

External validity - Baron-Cohen

A

-Small number of participants used in study = low generalisability

+ True and relatable to people with autism and Aspergers

68
Q

Internal reliability - Baron-Cohen

A

+High number of controls, standardised

69
Q

External reliability - Baron-Cohen

A

+Images were appraised by a group of judges

70
Q

How does the Baron-Cohen study relate to these debates:

Nature vs Nurture
Determinism vs Free-will
Reductionism vs Holism
Individualism vs Situaltional

A

Nature = Born with deficit to theory of mind or not

Determinism = Due to theory of mind people can not control their theory of mind

Reductionism = All cam down to theory of mind instead of a range of factors

Holism = Variety of tasks were tested on the participants

Individual = Having autism/ theory of mind is very individual/ individual differences

71
Q

How does the Freud study apply to everyday life

A

Psychoanalytic therapy does use these theories to treat people with phobias and other disorders - seems to work well for particular disorders (e.g. mood disorders like depression and anxiety disorders like phobias)

72
Q

How did Freud comply with the ethical guidelines

A

Freud gained fully informed consent from parents which is fine due to Hans being too young to give consent.
Parents had the right tot withdraw and Hans’ name was confidential (Little Hans = not his real name)
Hans and his parents were not deceived

However, even though Freud was a competent professional psychoanalyst, Hans’ father also made suggestions and he wasn’t qualified

73
Q
What debates does the Freud study link to:
Nature/Nurture
Free-will/Determinism
Individual/Situational
Reductionism/Holism
additional debates
A
Nature = Everyone goes through the psychosexual stages
Nurture = Resolution through upbringing

Determinism = Can’t control unconscious mind thoughts or change them (without professional help)

Reductionism = Only takes into account Freud’s views on Little Hans’ dreams

Individual = Doesn’t depend on situation. Depends on Hans’ individual experiences, focusing on how he’s different

Psychology is a science = Does not prove this due to a lack in objectivity, control and quantitative data (Also lacks falsifiability)

Usefulness of research = Helped to develop psychoanalysis as a treatment for phobias and other disorders

Socially sensitive research = Suggests we ALL have some socially unacceptable desires (attraction to parent). Also, suggests there are ‘correct’ ways for each gender to behave - Single parent or same sex parent will cause problem - Homosexuality is a result of a fixation at the phallic stage