Paper 2 - Freud on Little Hans

Question 1

What is Freuds theory on child development ?

Answer 1

Adult personality is shaped by childhood events. Children go through various stages of child development. At each stage the childneeds to resolve certain conflicts for healthy psychological development

Question 2

What did Freud belive that the 3 rd stage of child developeent was ?

Answer 2

Phallic stage - At age 4-6 the child focuses on their genitals.
During this stage boys experience the Oedipus complex: Boys desire their mothers, they see their fathers as rivals,(wishing them dead) - a desire that is repressed and it is eventually resolved when a boy identifies with his father.

Question 3

What is psychoanalysis ?

Answer 3

It refers to Freuds theory of personality development and also a form of therapy ‘talking cure’. As a form of therapy it aims to help patients become consciously aware of their unconscious repressed feelings . By consciously acknowledging these feelings, the patients can accept them and recover.

Question 4

What is the aim of this study ?

Answer 4

Freud was allowed to test his theory on…
Child development and the oedipus complex,
The origins of mental health disorders such as phobias.
The value of psychoanalysis for tresting mental disorders

Question 5

What was the sample in this study ?

Answer 5

An Austrian boy little Hans between the ages of 3-5 years old. Other mian poeple involved were his father, mother and younger sister. The family was selected because Hans’ father was one of Freuds main follwers and wanted to give Freud an opporutinury to explore his theories.

Question 6

How was Little Hans’ data collected ?

Answer 6

Hans’ father recorded events and conversations with Hans. Both Freud and Hans’ father offered interpretations of Hans’ bahviour. On one occasion Hans met Freud.

Question 7

How did concerns of Hans originally rise ?

Answer 7

When little Hans was 3 he started to show interest in his ‘widdler’, he observed that large animals like horses had big ones and thought that his parents also did. He got pleasure from touching his ‘widdler’ and from excretion. He imagined that when he had children he woukd help them with those things. Hans’ mother caught him playing with his ‘widdler’ and threatened to go to the doctor to get it cut off. Hans also felt a sexual desire for his mother which was repressed and expressed as an interest in girls and kissing them.

Question 8

Explain Hans’ death wish towards his father

Answer 8

Hans aw his father as a rival for his mothers love and wished him dead, however he also loved him which gave him confliciting anxieties. During his sumemr holidays Had spent lots of time with his mother. When his father returned from Vienna Hanss wished for him to be away permanently and would hit his father then kiss where he hit.

Question 9

Explains Hans’ anxieties towards his little sister

Answer 9

Hans wished Hannah would be dropped by his mother and drown , leading him to fear that his mother would drop him.

Question 10

Explain Little Hans’ fear of white horses

Answer 10

When Hans was 4 and a half, he heard a man warn his daughter that a white horse might bite her if she touched it. This was linked to Hans’ mother telling him it would not be proper for her to touch his penis and feared it would be chopped off.
In order to cope with this Hans unconsciously transfered his anxiety to white horses, and therefore became afraid of them.

Question 11

What happened when Hans visited Freud ?

Answer 11

Freud proposed that a white horse might be a symbol of his father because the blinkers and the black around its mouth reminded hans od his fathers mustache and glasses; symbols of manhood. Freud told Hnas that he was afraid of his father because he was so fond of his mothrt. This revelation enabled Hans to deal more directly with his phobia - he could walk to the park again. This is an example of psychoanalysis transfering unconscous thoughts to subconscious ones.

Question 12

What was Freuds explanation for Hans’ fear of horses pulling heavy laden carts ?

Answer 12

Hans saw a horse pulling a cart fall over and kick its legs about - Hans thought the horse was dead
A heavy laden cart was seen to be like a pregnant woman, so when the heavy laden cart tips over, it represents giving birth. This anxiety was linked to Hans’ baby sister and wanting his mother’s love.

Question 13

Explain Hans’ dream about giraffes

Answer 13

Hans said that in the night there was a big giraffe in the room and a crumpled one, the big one cakked out because he took the crumpled one away from it. Then it sat ontop of the crumpled one. This represented Hans’ parents and Hans’ father’s disaporval of Hans’ desire for his mother.

Question 14

Explain Han’s criminal fantasies

Answer 14

Hans dreamt about going onto a train with his father and smashing windown before being taken off by a police officer. This represented that Hans wanted to do things with his mother that his father was doing which is seen as forbidden.

Question 15

Explain Hans’ fantasy about the plumber

Answer 15

Hans has a dream that a plumber took his bottom away with a pair of pincers then gave him another, the plumber did the same with Hans’ ‘widdler’. This represented that Hans was identifying with his father as he wanted a bigegr bottom and widdler like his father.

Question 16

Explain how Hans’ fear of heavy laden carts was resolved

Answer 16

His parents told him that babies came from storks and called laden carts stork box carts . His parents finally explained where babies came from, allowing him to overcome his fear and play outside again.

Question 17

Explain Hans’ fantasy about becoming the father

Answer 17

Hans had always had a on going fantasy about having his own children, and how he was going to look after them. One day his father asked “are your children still alive ?” Hans replied that boys couldnt have children, he was the mother but now he was the daddy and his father was the grandaddy.
Hans managed to workout a solution where his father was apart of the family and they both had relations to Hans’ mother. Freud had concluded that Hans overcame his oedipus complex as he had identified with his father.

Question 18

Explain how this study supported Freuds theories?

Answer 18

• If Hans’ behvaoiur was abnormal, we cannot apply these theories to normal child development.
• The recordings and some analysis was carried out by Hans’ father making it bias and subjective.
• Freud stated that such anxieties in childhood are normal, meaning it is reasoinable tp use this study to relate to normal child devlopment.
• Freued concluded that his theories was supported by his ideas about infant sexuality. It also supported the oedipus thory - the child has a death wish for his father.

Question 19

Explain how Freud used this stidy to understand phobias

Answer 19

Freud explained phobias as a continuous expression of repressed anxieties in the unconscious mind. Freud aimed to hint at these anxieties during his therapy talks so the unconscious thoughts would become conscious thoughts. Then they could understand their anxieties and overcome them (Psychoanalysis)

Question 20

Evaluate the research methods used in this study

Answer 20

Strengths:By focusing on one individdual lots of information can be collected. This is a lomgitudinal study over 2 years so the researchers can see how Freud’s behaviour, dreams and fantasies changes over time.
Weaknesses: Data was collecetd by Hans’ father and interpreted by him and Freud, this means there was a lack of objectivity. Also his father may have asked him leading questions. Another problem his that his father’s observaitions bay be biased by his expectations.

Question 21

Evaluate the sampling bias in this study

Answer 21

Strengths: A study of just one individual and his family allows for a unique opportunity to observe a child in the phallic stage who developed phobias. It also allowes for detailed qualitative data
Weaknesses: Only one individual was studied meaning this may not be a common occurance during development.

Question 22

Evaluate the validity of this study

Answer 22

The study lacks population validity and concerns whether one abnormal boy can tell us about normal child development. The results lack objectivity as validity as his father was recording and interpreting them and he may have been biased. Also Freud is only one opinion.

Question 23

Evaluate the ethnocemtrism of this study

Answer 23

Freud studied a middle class Austrian, educated family. This culture may experience life very differently to other cultures. Also attitudes about sex were repressed and more rigid so they don’t relate to the present era

Question 24

Evaluate the data used in this study

Answer 24

Qualitative data was collected which provided rich details into Hans’ behaviours and phobias. Howeever, it is sujective and difficult to draw conclusions from

Question 25

Evaluate the ethics in this study

Answer 25

Hans’ father gave informed consent however Hans himself didnt.
Private details about their life were exposed and published.
The level of questioning by Hans’ father may have been intense causing psychological harm for Little Hans

Question 26

Evaluate the reliability in this study

Answer 26

This is a case study which is unique to Little Hans so it cannot be replicated to test for reliability

Question 27

How doess this study relate to the Nature/Nurture debate ?

Answer 27

Nature - Freud suggests that the ID part of our personality is innate and that we are biologically programed to go through the stages if psychological development, e.g. the phallic stage

Question 28

How doess this study relate to the Psychology as a science ?

Answer 28

It is not scientific.
There are no standradised procedures that can be replicated and the results are subjective. Freud’s theory is unfalsifiable.

Question 29

How doess this study relate to the Freewill/Determinism debate ?

Answer 29

Psychic determinism - our behaviour is shaped by our unconscious thoughts, desires and instincts in our unconscious mind. Because the ID part of our personality is innate, we have no control / freewill over it and death insticts within it shape our behaviour.

Question 30

What is the chronological stages of psychosexual develpment ?

Answer 30

Orall, anal, phallic, latent and genital.

Question 31

What psychosexual stage was Litlle Hans in ?

Answer 31

Little Hans was in the phallic stage with an oeddipus complex.

Question 32

What are the 2 instincs in Freudian theory ?

Answer 32

Eros - the life instinct, sexual instincts and basic impulses.
Thanatos - the death instict, self destruction and aggression.