the individual difference area Flashcards
freud-gould
4 defense mechanisms freud
repression- the ego blocks painful memories from our conscious
displacement-directing feelings from an object to another
projection- taking aspects of your personality you don’t like and believing that other people have those aspects
denial- the refusal to accept a painful event, thought or feeling as if it didnt exist
freud psychosexual development background
(psychosexual development)
theory of psychosexual development of children in 5 stages:
1. oral- child is fascinated by putting things in their mouths as a replacement for breastfeeding
2.anal- children keep their excitement in them until they feel contractions in potty training
3.phallic- child starts to see differences in male/female bodies-boys feel girls were castrated for playing with their penis. the eodipus complex arises
4.latency-childs interest is diverted to sports, friendships, hobbies ect
5.genital-the intensity of their sexual desire increases but moves to other people who resemble their parents
oedipus complex freud
incestuous feelings supposedly felt by a son towards his mother as well as jealousy towards the father who is felt as a rival
castration anxiety/complex
a boys fear, after seeing a naked female for the first time, that he will lose his penis
phobia
an anxiety disorder caused by persistent fear out of proportion to the danger + a compelling desire to leave the situation
psychoanalysis
an intensive and long term form of therapy in which the aim is to alienate distress by giving a patient insight into unconscious mental processes
aims of freuds study
to provide evidence for his psychosexual development theory by using psychoanalysis of dreams and fantasies of a child ‘little hans’ with nervous disorder
how is freuds study a case study method
a very small sample of one boy was used and studied in depth. The participant was unusual in the fact that he had nervous disorder
sample of freuds study
a single boy ‘little hans’ from vienna,austria.
brought up with ‘minimal force’
studied from 3rd bday for approx 2 years
freud sampling method
self selecting: put out a call asking for friends and supporters to share info on their childs development
hans’ father was a supporter who volunteered his son ‘little hans’
procedure of freud
1.letters-hans father recorded details of hans behaviour+convos and made his own interpretations in a weekly letter to freud
2. replies- freud replied with his own interpretations, and would give guidence on what hans father should be looking out for and discussing with hans
freuds findings
phobias:
1. phobia of horses biting him- castration anxiety due to his mums threat of his doctor cutting off his widdler due to him having his hand on it
2. fear of horses- represent father as blinkers are glasses and muzzle as mustache
fantasies:
1. asked his mother ‘why dont you put your finger there’ when powdered around his penis- his desire for his mother and seduction attempt
2. dream of big giraffe calling out as the crumpled one was taken away, then hans sat on top of the crumpled giraffe- hans father as big giraffe due to penis, hans sexual desire for mother.
3.hans playing with imaginary friends and explaining that he was childrens daddy, his mum was their mummy, and his dad was grandaddy- overcome oedipus complex by having mother without killing father off
freud 3 conclusions
- psychosexual stages of development theory
- oedipus complex
- phobias come from the unconscious
yerkes background
binet simon test-first intelligence test identifying children that needed to be placed in ‘special school’ and later adapted to test children in the usa
debate on if intelligence was inherited or learned- yerkes argued it was genetically determined
eugenics
the belief that it is possible to breed a superior group of people by encouraging those deemed superior to reproduce while inhibiting the growth of those deemed inferior
hereditarianism
the belief that genetic inheritance is more important than environmental factors in determining intelligence and behaviour
yerkes aims
to produce a reliable and valid measure of intelligence
to prove that psychology (intelligence testing) could be as objective and quantifiable as the other scientific disciplines
yerkes research method
quasi experiment as IV is ethnic origin
self report as recruits would answer questions during intelligence testing
yerkes sample
1.75 million men within US military, including white americans, black americans and european immigrants
yerkes sampling method
opportunity sampling- used those present at the camps visited by researchers
design and administration of yerkes tests
army alpha test- written for literature recruits, tasks including number sequences, unscrambling sentences and analogies
army beta test- for illiterate reruits and those that failed alpha, instructions written and 3/7 answers had to be written
individual exam- for those who failed beta, rarely ever done due to chaos and demand
findings from yerkes mental tests
- white american adults average mental age was just above that of a moron
- the darker people of southern europe and the slavs of eastern europe were less intelligent than the fair people of western and northern europe
- black recruits scored lowest of all with an average mental age of 10.41. lighter individuals scored higher when ranked based on intensity of skin colour
problems gould indentified with yerkes design of tests
alpha- the criteria to sit alpha were lowered but not consistently across campus
beta- still required reading, wrriting and number knowledge
many of the questions were culturally biased
problems gould identified with yerkes administration of tests
extremely caotic conditions ‘scared shitless’
spoken exam: only 1/5 of those who failed beta would take individual examinations
black recruits and immigrants were most likely taking wrong tests as they couldnt read/write but had to take whatever test available
beta: many individuals taking alpha shouldve taken beta
results of yerkes findings
used to suggest that some racial groups were better than others so used as ‘evidence’ to restrict immigration
meant that people trying to enter america were denied e.g jews trying to leave europe in ww2
what did gould conclude about yerkes research
there were ‘systematic errors’ in the design and administration of tests which led to black recruits and immigrants scoring lower
intelligence testing of this kind is culturally biased and if interpreted incorrectly can lead to racial discrimination
quantitative data collected by yerkes
number of correct answers in tests+ grade given by army psychologists to yield an average mental age
qualitative data gould collected in his review of yerkes work
‘yerkes had overlooked or consciously bypassed something of importance’
recruits would have been ‘either utterly confused or scared shitless’ by the conditions of the tests.
principles of the area of individual differences
- seeks to explain why people behave differently to each other
- this area often focuses on ‘abnorma’ behaviours such as mental illnesses
concepts of the area of individual differences
- psychosexual development theory
- theory of mind- the capacity to understand other peoples mental states
how does freuds study link to the principles of the indiivudual differences area
little hans had a nervous disorder
freud aimed to investigate why hans experienced the phobias he did using psychoanalysis
how does goulds study link to the principles of the individual differences area
yerkes research aimed to investigate why people had varying levels of intelligence by focusing on ethnic origin as an explanation
strengths of the individual differences area
construct validity- asking about things you cant test in any other way- self report used
can be useful for suggesting treatments for health conditions
weaknesses of the individual differences area
both self report can reduce validity of results
lacks internal validity
using case studies limits generalizability
baron-cohen background
autism is a spectrum disorder including difficulties in 3 areas:
social communication, social interaction and social imagination. these traits usually appear before age 3, making it a childhood onset disorder.
baron-cohen was interested in if there was any ‘core deficit’ all people with autism had, and established that ‘theory of mind’ was an area children with autism show a weakness in
baron-cohen sample
16 adults with austism or aspergers
50 normal adults
10 adults with tourettes
baron-cohen aims
to investigate whether adults still experience a deficit in theory of mind
to develop a new advanced way of testing theory of mind that would be appropriate for adults and not vunerable to a ceiling effect
baron-cohen procedure
participants took the ‘reading the mind in the eyes task’ where they were shown 25 pairs of eyes and said which of 2 semantically opposite words described how they were feeling
They also did the ‘strange stories task’ which had already been validated as a test of the theory of mind, which showed both tasks measuring the same construct if they scored similarly.
the autistic participants were also asked to identify the gender of people in photos from the eyes task and recognise the 6 basic emotions from pictures of their faces. If they failed these they wouldnt do the eyes task
baron-cohen findings
adults with autism did worse in the eyes task (16.3/25) than normal adults (20.3/25) or adults with tourettes (20.4/25)
this suggested that deficit in theory of mind persists into adulthood for people with autism and the eyes task can pick this up
females performed better than males on the eyes task with normal participants, supporting folk psychology.
hancock background
psychopaths- people who lack empathy beneath the surface and are self centered and manipulative.
this is a personality disorder
the standard way of assessing someone is for a specialist to complete the robert hares psychopathy checklilst on them, containing 20 items scored from 1-20. 8 relate to personal traits. 12 to anti social ways of behaving. a score of 30+ is required for someone to be classed as psychopathic
hancock aims
to investigate if psychopaths use language in ways that are different from how non-psychopaths use language
hancock sample
52 males being held in canadian prison for murder
14 classes as psychopaths
38 classed as non psychopaths
hancock procedure
interview participants individually where they descirbe what happened during the murder that led them to be convicted. these interviews followed the step-wise approach, and were then typed up as transcripts of everything the prisoners said.
the transcripts were subjected to 2 forms of computer analysis:
Wmatrix- analysed the whole of the psychopath transcripts and compared to the non-psychopath transcripts, analysing words used as well as tense,ect
DAL(disctionary affect of language)- applied to each transcript individually to assess the pleasantness and intensity of emotional language used
hancock findings
differences in psychopath and non psychopath language when describing murder:
instrumental language- psychopaths used more subordinating conjunctions, suggesting premeditated acts aimed at achieving specific goals
hierarchy of need- psychopaths used words associated with satisfying low level physiological and material needs when non-psychopaths used words relating to higher level emotion or spiritual needs
emotional expression- psychopaths contained more disfluencies to try and come accross positively, more past tense suggesting psychological distancing, less pleasant emotion language.
