Psychodynamic Approaches to Individual Differences Flashcards
What are the limits of Rorschach?
Lack of standardisation
Limited empirical support
Subjectivity and interpretation
Cultural and individual bias
Limited diagnostic utility
Overemphasis on content and neglect of process
Lack of standardised scoring systems
Limited cross-cultural applicability
What are the implications for reliability and validity in Rorschach?
No clear convergent validity - quite difficult to see a similarity in peoples responses
Inter-rater, how can people come to an objective idea of what the construct is or being portrayed
Test-retest - very subjective, people may change overtime
What are the broad limitations of the thematic apperception test?
variability of responses and troubles for coding
Prompting leading bias
Cultural sensitivity
Gender cultural norms
Very time consuing and costly to administer
Test-retest - same narrative can be created
very time consuming
Replication is a problem
40s and 50s research has disappeared from the literature
In Karen Horney’s theory, explain Needs for safety.
Childhood dominated by the safety need, the need for security and freedom from fear
Parents can act to undermine and induce hostility
In the Karen Horeny’s theory, explain Basic anxiety.
An insidiously increasing all-pervading feeling of being lonely and helpless in a hostile world
The basis for neurosis
How do we protect oursleves from basic anxiety according to Horeny?
Securing affection and love
being submissive
Attaining power
Withdrawing
What are the three dimensions of neurotic tends in Horney?
Moving towards other (compliant personality)
Moving against others (aggressive personality)
Moving away from others (the detached personality)
What are the descriptors associated with Compliant personality?
Intense continuous need for affection and approval
Urge to be loved wanted and protected
These needs show to everyone
Seems unusally considerate, appreciative or endearing
Concerned with meeting other peoples expectations
Never assertive, critical or demanding
Do what is necessary
What are the descriptors associated with aggressive personality?
Move against people
Everyone is hostile
Life is a jungle
Supremacy, strength and ferocity are paramount
Judge others in terms of potential beliefs
Driven to be the best
What are the descriptors associated with detached personality?
Driven to maintain emotional distance
Self-sufficiency
Desire for privacy
Sensitive to influence, coercion, obligation
Suppress and deny feelings for others
Great reason on logic and intelligence
What are the basic contributions of Bowlby?
Historically focused on the mother as primary caregiver
Psychological characteristics of the caregiver are crucial
Positive and gratifying experiences lead to internal working model of others as giving, caring, responsiveness , basically good
Leads to a secure base from which to explore the work without fear and with a feeling of safety and self worth
Negative, unpredictable responses from a caregiver - insecure, aloneness, feeling of separateness and safety in being alone
What are the basic ideas of Ainsworth?
the strange situation
Three patterns of behaviour
Insecure-avoidant - avoid significant others
Securely attached - positive reunions and return to play
Insecure-ambivalent - contact seeking and anger
You can find out about a persons attachment style by exploring their family experiences, their current couple relationship history, and by questionnaires
People with secure attachment styles report high scores on a range of measures
What were the basic methods of the coolidge paper?
Horney-Coolidge tridimensional inventory Administered to 302 children
What reliability and validity ideas need to be considered in the Coolidge paper?
Could be biased as all questionnaires and results interpretations were done by Coolidge.
The test-retest reliability was too short of a time period and CFI indices were reflective of this
