Indiviudal Differnces Area- Freud

Question 1

Background:

Answer 1

Freud beloved as children develop they explore different body parts and get pleasure

Oral stage- enjoy putting things in mouth and sucking
Anal- enjoy holding in and then pooing
Phallic- aware of genitals and gender differences

Oedipus complex- develop a desire to have sexual relationship with opposite gender parent and fearful of same sex parent

Question 2

Aims:

Answer 2

To document case of little hans, a boy going through the phallic stage of development, and confirm whether the Oedipus complex was true or not

Question 3

Research method

Answer 3

Longitudinal case study- took place over 3 years

Question 4

Sample and sampling method

Answer 4

Little boy- hans
Age 3

Hans father was good friends with Freud
Volunteered hans to be studied

Question 5

Procedure

Answer 5

Hans father recorded hans behaviour and conversations
He sent these in letters to Freud
Freud then told hans father what he should be discussing with hans and giving guidance
Freud only met hans 1 time in the 3 years

Question 6

Widlers interpretation

Answer 6

At zoo he payed interest to animals widlers and drew pictures
He asked his mum why she didn’t have a widdler, and she told him to stop playing with his or she would chop it off

His father said he had castration anxiety that his mother would chop his off, he was Oedipal when she cleaned his widdler showing an attempt of hans to seduce her

Question 7

Horses interpretation

Answer 7

He became afraid of horses because he saw a father saying to another child don’t touch the horse it will bite you

His father said it was connected to the fear of his father taking his mother away

Question 8

Giraffe interpret ion

Answer 8

Had a dream about giraffes, the crumpled one represented mum and one with big neck represented father and big penis. The crumpled one is taken away

Giraffe being taken away represented mother being taken away from him

Question 9

Plumber interpretation

Answer 9

Plumbed would remove his penis and give him a new bigger one

This suggests that he wanted a bigger widdler like his father

Question 10

Hans as father and dad as grandad interpretations

Answer 10

Hans has fantasies about having his own children, his mum was his wife and dad was the grandad

Question 11

Conclusions

Answer 11

Freud claimed he hasn’t learnt anything new from study
Hans displayed evidence from Oedipus complex- wanted father out of the way
Hans able to resolve Oedipus complex through acceptance of his father and desires to have his own children

Question 12

Ads and dis ads of sample

Answer 12

Ads- Freud says everyone is faced with Oedipus complex so hans is entirely normal

Dis ads- cannot base theories on a study of a boy on girls

Question 13

Ads and dis ads of self report

Answer 13

Allowed Freud to gather lots of data about little hans he wouldn’t have been able to collect himself

Leading questions caused hans to respond in a particular way
Father could have falsified responses due to demand characteristics

Question 14

Ethnocentrism

Answer 14

Ethnocentric because experiences of a middle class child in Vienna are unlikely to be typical of less privileged kids in other parts of world

Phobias common in children across world, so findings can be applied

Question 15

External reliability

Answer 15

In order to conclude all children Progress through all 5 stages of development the sample must be much larger

Question 16

Internal validity

Answer 16

Much more obvious explanations for hans behaviour: eg phobia of horses explained by classical conditioning and hearing an adult say they could bite, so therefore fearful

Question 17

Internal validity- could questions affect what hans said

Answer 17

Leading questions- hans giving socially desirable answers

Question 18

Population validity

Answer 18

The experiences of a middle class child in Vienna diff to less privileged children

Cannot generalise a girl