The Individual Differences Area Flashcards
What core studies are in Individual differences?
- Freud
- Baron-Cohen
- Gould (Yerkes)
- Hancock
What are the strengths of individual differences?
Improves understanding of mental disorders & suggesting treatments
Helps to inform freewill/determinism debate
What are the weaknesses of individual differences?
Tends to be socially sensitive
Measuring tools used are not always valid
What are the defining principles of individual differences?
What makes people unique, often investigating those whose behaviour is abnormal
Measuring differences between people through psychometric tests
What are concepts of individual differences?
Measuring differences
Understanding mental disorders
Native intellectual ability
Theory of mind
What are some applications of individual differences
Teaching children with autism about theory of mind and how to recognise different emotional states
Developing effective psychodynamic ( personality ) tests which can be used in recruitment
Developing psychological treatments for disorders
Psychometric ( personality ) tests to determine sporting success
How does freud relate to individual differences?
Investigated a case study of a boy experiencing a phobia of horses and getting in the bath ( abnormal behaviour)
Freud tried to explain this through his theory of the Oedipus complex - the phobia was a result of an unconscious desire for his mother and fear of his father
How does Baron-Cohen relate to individual differences?
Investigated differences in people with autism in their ability to recognise complex emotions ( as a result of their deficit in theory of mind )
Participant with autism found it difficult to identify complex emotions from peoples eyes.
Autism is an example of a disorder that causes people to act different and struggle with social interactions
How does Gould/Yerkes relate to individual differences?
Yerkes had developed the alpha and beta tests of intelligence to measure differences between US army recruits.
He suggested that people differ in native intellectual ability ( i.e. people from some cultures are less intelligent than others due to genetics
Gould was criticising the validity of these tests due to cultural bias in how they were developed
How does Hancock relate to individual differences?
It measured differences in people with psychopathy in how they use language.
These findings showed that psychopaths who have committed murder tended to use more disfluencies (hesitations in speech), subordinating conjunctions (because, since etc.) and refer more to basic level needs.
The results indicated they operate on a lower level of emotional development
