Psych Overview: U5 Test Flashcards
How Mesmer and Gall were alike
i. The both started out scientific.
ii. They both ended up promoting a pseudoscience
How Mesmer’s explanation of his results is like some modern-day treatments.
Mesmer came up with a rationale for his use of magnetics. This is very similar to Chiropractic and occupational therapy (magnetic treatment).
Nancy School
Claimed that hypnosis had nothing to do with the hypnotist but on the suggestibility of the person being hypnotized. All humans have a trait of suggestibility. People are points on a continuum of suggestibility. This school prevailed
Salpêtrière School
Hypnosis and hysteria were very similar. They had symptomology that was common. Fancher states that it was just coincidental that those two were similar. Charcot believed that hysteria had underlying causes and that hypnosis can be used to address that.
Alfred Binet’s role
Although Binet was nearly written out of the history of psychology due to critical review. He came back with his experiments on suggestibility.
i. For example, he conducted an experiment where kids were shown a number of lines of different length and were asked to label the shortest line. Only one child was not briefed on the experiment and eventually conformed to the confederates who were choosing the wrong answer. 1. Binet would then ask the kids about their answers, “Are you sure?”
Implications of Binet’s study for modern day:
Serious implications have to do with eyewitness testimony. That if you want an accurate answer, you should not ask leading questions.
Social conformity, WWII, Line study, why did they change their answers.
Asch
Studied with Kurt Lewin and developed the theory of cognitive dissonance.
Festinger
Obedience, most famous psychology test
Milgram
Stanford Prison experiment; Abu Graif prison in Iraq where Americans were abusing Iraqi prisoners;
Zimbardo
Be able to describe Freud’s seduction theory of hysteria
Freud believed that all people who presented hysteria were sexually abused as child.
Why did Freud modify his seduction and how (i.e., what was the new theory),
Freud’s original seduction theory was not received well by the medical and scientific community. Freud admits publicly that he made an error in his seduction theory, that all hysterics were seduced by their parents and sexually abused.
b. Freud’s resolution to the problem was not that the parents abused their children but rather that the children wanted to be sexually engaged with their parents. This went over worse then the original seduction theory.
The role that dreams played in forcing Freud to make the change.
c. Freud did not come up with his revised seduction theory until he began to be interested in dreams. Freud saw a relationship between dreams and hysteria. Freud divided dreams into manifest and latent content. All Freud cared about was just their report of the dream (manifest). But the latent content is the meaning to the dream. Once he identified that dreams represented the fulfillment of wishes is when he revised his reduction theory. If dreams were the fulfillment of wishes and dreams similar to hysteria, then what is it that hysterics want? Sex with their parents.
Be able to describe why I said that Freud’s theory, derived as it was based only on a small sample of female patients with hysteria in Victorian Europe, had such appeal for so many people
Freud’s theory was so appealing to so many people because it allowed people to relate to his explanations on a human level. We are faced with things that we want right now whether or not they are available to us (like an infant crying out) and we are also faced with the reality that we can’t have certain things at certain times. The way Freud crafted his theory was an extremely compelling and intriguing view of human nature. Freud crafted a method and explanation that appealed to what it is like to be human. It was influential to anyone.
Freud’s influence over artists and writers, despite the fact that the theory has never gained scientific respectability.
Freud’s influence stretched across many fields of study. His influence was similar to Christianity. Structures, music and writings would not be present without his influence. It is clear that certain writers have been heavily influence by Freud’s general theory. Despite the lack of scientific evidence there were many artists and writers that would not have made such an impact without Freud’s influence.
