understanding disorders: freud and baron-cohen et al

Question 1

freud sample?

Answer 1

little hans (actually herbert graf), only child studied by freud

studied between the ages of 3-5

son of max graf, freud’s friend and supporter

Question 2

freud method?

Answer 2

longitudinal case study

data collected by little hans’ father and sent to freud via letters

freud only met hans twice

reported in 100 page book

Question 3

freud book structure?

Answer 3

introduction: hans’ early life, sources of anxiety

case history: phobia, fantasies, cure

discussion: support for psychosexual development, origin & development of phobias

Question 4

freud case history part 1?

Answer 4

has goes from being obsessed with ‘lumf’ to his ‘widdler’ at the age of 3

observed animals had big ones and expected this from both of his parents

Question 5

freud oedipal leanings?

Answer 5

at 4.5, expressed sexual desire for mother, wanting her to touch his widdler

mother initiated castration anxiety when she found him touching his widdler and threatened to have it cut off so has to repress feelings for her

Question 6

freud, hans competing with father for mother?

Answer 6

had holidays away with mother

wished father was permanently away

physically aggressive towards father, but conflicted as he also loves him

Question 7

freud, giraffe fantasy?

Answer 7

little hans fantasized that there was a big giraffe (dad/his genitals) and a crumpled one (mum/her genitals)

big warns crumpled not to let him in bed, crumpled lets him in anyways and he sits on her

reveals sexual nature of hans’ desires

Question 8

freud, hans competing with sister for mother?

Answer 8

at 3.5, hans gets little sister hanna

resents the attention given to her and wishes his mother would let her drown

leads to internal conflict between resentment and love

turns into desire for mother to let him drown

Question 9

freud, the phobia starts?

Answer 9

at 4.5, hans develops fear of white horses biting him on the street

anxieties were repressed into the subconscious and have reappeared as a phobia

Question 10

freud explains how?

Answer 10

the phobia is partially based on a real event of over hearing a father warn a girl not to touch a horse

links to mother’s refusal to touch his widdler and her disapproval of his ‘self-manipulation’

a coping strategy for the fear of his mother leaving him, libido is now connected to anxiety

freud claims anxiety became worse at realisation women don’t have widdlers, assuming they were castrated

Question 11

freud, one phobia replaced with another?

Answer 11

freud discusses reasoning for phobia with hans

then able to go out onto the street

until he develops a fear of horses pulling heavy laden carts

Question 12

freud, link phobia horse and carts?

Answer 12

linked to real event of seeing a horse and cart fall and thrash about, where hans feared the horse was dead

represents repressed anxieties of wishing his father dead, laden cart represents pregnancy and anxieties of sister

Question 13

freud, plumber 1 fantasy?

Answer 13

in bath, plumber unscrews it and pushes hans with a big borer

interpreted as dad taking away mum and pushing him with his big penis

Question 14

freud, plumber 2 fantasy?

Answer 14

plumber comes, takes away hans with a pair of pincers and replaces his widdler

interpreted as hans getting a new, bigger widdler, resolving feeling towards father

Question 15

freud, final fantasy?

Answer 15

fantasy of becoming a father

seen as resolving oedipus complex as he is relating to his father

Question 16

freud conclusions?

Answer 16

freud sees evidence for:

psychosexual development (oedipus complex during phallic stage)

explaining phobias as repressed anxieties

unconscious determinism

effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy

Question 17

freud research method evaluation?

Answer 17

can gain deep knowledge of the situation

but may lose objectivity and cannot be generalised as on participant

Question 18

freud data collected evaluation?

Answer 18

highly detailed qualitative data, but need to draw subjective conclusions

Question 19

freud ethicality evaluation?

Answer 19

no deceit or procedure that could cause harm

issue with consent as max was dad and lead investigator

attempt to maintain confidentiality but it failed as known max graf was dad

herbert (hans) appeared to come out of it unharmed

Question 20

freud validity evaluation?

Answer 20

leading questions coming from a friend and supported of freud reduces validity

freud’s conclusions were also subjective interpretations of second hand data

Question 21

freud link to theme?

Answer 21

links to understanding disorders as it gives an explanation for phobias

they come from repressed anxieties, however the means in which he found this are questionable

Question 22

freud link to area?

Answer 22

assumption: all individuals differ in their behaviour and personal qualities, so no one can be considered the ‘average person’

investigates the ways in which people’s behaviour differs, particularly through phobias and their origins in little hans

Question 23

baron-cohen method?

Answer 23

quasi-expt, mpd

Question 24

baron-cohen ivs?

Answer 24

the nature of Ps

and for neurotypical condition, the gender of the Ps

Question 25

baron-cohen sample, group 1?

Answer 25

16 adults, 4 with high functioning autism and 12 with aspergers

13 male, 3 female

18-49, mean of 28.6

iq normal

volunteers from adverts and doctors referrals

Question 26

baron-cohen sample, group 2?

Answer 26

non-clinical controls

50 age-matched controls (18-48, mean 30)

half male, half female

no history of psychiatric illness (self-report)

iq presumed normal

selected from volunteer panel of cambridge public

Question 27

baron-cohen sample, group 3?

Answer 27

10 adults with tourette’s syndrome

age-matched (18-47, mean 27.8)

8 male, 2 female

iq normal

volunteers from referral centre in london

Question 28

baron-cohen, why tourettes?

Answer 28

normal iq

developmental disorder

disrupts schooling and peer relationships

involves disruptions in frontal cortex

evidence of a genetic cause

affects more males than females (4:1)

Question 29

baron-cohen procedure?

Answer 29

eyes task

happe’s strange stories

control tasks: gender recognition and basic emotion recognition

Question 30

baron-cohen eyes task?

Answer 30

magazine photos of 24 faces eye regions

all 15cmx10cm, black & white, midway down nose to just above eyebrow

forced choice between target and foil word, randomised for each pair of eyes

shown for 3 seconds and asked ‘which word best describes what this person is thinking or thinking?’

basic (friendly) and complex (hostile) states used

Question 31

baron-cohen strange stories task?

Answer 31

used to check validity of eyes task as a ToM task

if performances match up between the two tasks, likely to be valid

concurrent validity

Question 32

baron-cohen control tasks?

Answer 32

used to check if errors in eyes task came from other factors

gender recognition: Ps identified gender of photos from eyes task
tests facial perception, perceptual discrimination and social perception

basic emotion recognition: identify emotions of whole faces
happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgust, surprise

Question 33

baron-cohen results first iv?

Answer 33

hfa/as: 16.3, 13-23

neurotypical: 20.3, 16-25
ts: 20.4, 16-25

only half of the hfa/as scored better than chance

all other ps did better than chance

Question 34

baron-cohen results second iv?

Answer 34

neurotypical males: 18.8
neurotypical females: 21.8

females outperform males, but males still outperform hfa/as

Question 35

baron-cohen conclusions?

Answer 35

hfa/as struggled with theory of mind despite having normal intelligence

tourettes group showed impairment is specific to autism

eyes task is a valid test for ToM as it tests not just emotions but states of mind, the results match happes strange stories and the control tasks show the results weren’t due to perceptual problems

females performing higher could be due to genetics or socialization

Question 36

baron-cohen method evaluation?

Answer 36

highly controlled lab expt, can determine cause and effect, standardised

quasi expt may mean groups are poorly matched

Question 37

baron-cohen data collected evaluation?

Answer 37

quantitative data allows for easy comparisons

however lacks detail of knowing what is being thought when looking at the eyes

Question 38

baron-cohen data collected evaluation?

Answer 38

quantitative data allows for easy comparisons

however lacks detail of knowing what is being thought when looking at the eyes

Question 39

baron-cohen ethicality evaluation?

Answer 39

volunteers mean consent

no deceit

no distress

Question 40

baron-cohen validity evaluation?

Answer 40

lacks ecological validity
(static black and white images of the eyes isolated with a lack of context is unlike everyday life)

task both simpler and harder than everyday interactions

however it proved the eyes task as a valid test for theory of mind

Question 41

baron-cohen sampling bias evaluation?

Answer 41

clinical groups are small, with 16 in as/hfa and 10 in tourette’s

trouble with generalising to all sufferers

heightened by volunteer nature of the samples

Question 42

baron-cohen link to theme?

Answer 42

links to understanding disorders as it gives us insight into people with autism and asperger’s syndrome experiences when it comes to their theory of mind, or lack thereof

Question 43

baron-cohen link to area?

Answer 43

assumption: people differ in their behaviour and personal qualities

is studying the ways in which people with a disorder (autism/asperger’s syndrome) differ to the neurotypical average person

Question 44

freud and baron-cohen differences?

Answer 44

sample size: baron-cohen had 76 Ps in total and freud had 1

disorder being explored: baron-cohen looked into autism and freud looked at phobias

Question 45

baron-cohen adding to understanding of the theme?

Answer 45

baron-cohen uses a controlled, standardised, experimental method to add to our understanding of disorders, unlike freud who uses self-report from the participant’s father

this shows us that studying individual differences can be done in a reliable and less holistic way than freud’s psychoanalysis (which for many is considered pseudo-science)