Individual Differences Study - Freud

Question 1

Background - What are the different levels of consciousness?

Answer 1

Conscious - immediate awareness
Preconscious - accessible memories
Unconscious - repressed trauma

Question 2

Background - How the unconscious reveals itself?

Answer 2

Slips of the tongue, free association (lay on the couch and encouraged to speak out loud all of their thoughts), predictive tests (e.g. inkblot in the Rorschach tests)

Question 3

Background - What are the drives?

Answer 3

Eros - life (surviving, pleasure, and reproduction)

Thanatos - death (aggression)

Question 4

Background - What are the three parts of the personality?

Answer 4

Ego - reality (reality principle)
Id - instance (pleasure principle) - devil on shoulder
Superego - morality (moral principle) - angel on shoulder

Question 5

Background - What is the significance of ‘ego anxiety’?

Answer 5

This occurs when the ego cannot resolve the conflict of the superego and the id, this can result in mental health problems

Question 6

What is the Psychosexual Development Theory?

Answer 6

These describes how sexual impulses are present in the new born child and they seek satisfaction through their own body.

Question 7

What is the first stage of the Psychosexual Development Theory?

Answer 7

Oral

Question 8

What is Oral?

Answer 8

This can manifest through thumb sucking as a replacement for the sensation breastfeeding.

Question 9

What is the second stage of the Psychosexual Development Theory?

Answer 9

Anal

Question 10

What is Anal?

Answer 10

This manifests usually during potty training when children keep their excrement inside them until they fee contractions.

Question 11

What is the third stage of the Psychosexual Development Theory?

Answer 11

Phallic

Question 12

What is Phallic?

Answer 12

2-5 years - Start to see difference in male/female bodies - boys fear girls were castrated for playing with their penis

Question 13

What is the fourth stage of the Psychosexual Development Theory?

Answer 13

Latency

Question 14

What is Latency?

Answer 14

Interest diverted to sports, friendships, hobbies etc.

Question 15

What is the fifth stage of the Psychosexual Development Theory?

Answer 15

Genital

Question 16

What is Genital?

Answer 16

On set of puberty - intensity of sexual desire increases and they move their desire onto other people who resemble them.

Question 17

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 17

Sexual desire for mother and father is a rival they wish would disappear

Question 18

What is the aim?

Answer 18

Provide evidence for Psychosexual Development Theory using psychoanalysis of dreams and fantasies of a ‘Little Hans’ with nervous disorder

Question 19

What is the research method and why?

Answer 19

It is a longitudinal case study. Longitudinal is because it happens over long period of time (around 3 years). It is a case study because the research into the behaviour of one person over a period of time.

Question 20

What is Action Research?

Answer 20

Research conducted in the course of your occupation in order to improve practise.

Question 21

What is the sample?

Answer 21

Little Hans, 3-5 years old, brought up with ‘minimal force’ - lively and cheerful baby, from Vienna, Austria

Question 22

What is the sampling method?

Answer 22

Self-selecting - Freud put call out to friends and supporters - send info about child’s development - Hans’ father was a supporter

Question 23

What was the procedure?

Answer 23

Hans’ father recorded details of Hans’ behaviour and conversations, made his own interpretations. Send weekly letters to Freud. Freud replied with his own intentions of the things given by Hans’ father - give guidance - what father should ask Hans and what to look out for - Freud only met Hans once

Question 24

What was the Data collection method?

Answer 24

Both observation + self-report

Question 25

What was Hans scared of?

Answer 25

Horses, carts and baths

Question 26

What was the dream about giraffes?

Answer 26

A big giraffe was in his room and a crumpled one; the big one called out because he took the crumpled one away. Then it stopped calling out, and he sat on top of the crumpled one. - Father believed it linked to his penis

Question 27

What data was collected?

Answer 27

Qualitative

Question 28

What were the conclusions?

Answer 28

Freud claimed that he had learned nothing new from studying Little Hans’ case and that the study provided support for:

• his Psychosexual stages of development
• that boys during this stage develop on Oedipus complex (LH wanted his father out of the way to have his mother)
• that phobias are the result of unconscious anxieties which have been displaced onto external objects

Question 29

Advantages of the sample used in this study.

Answer 29

Freud could collect lots of detailed information about how Hans’ phobias developed and were then resolved by studying his case in depth. Freud suggested that Hans was a family typical child.

Question 30

Disadvantages of the sample used in this study.

Answer 30

By only studying one boy from Vienna, it is difficult to generalise the results to all children (as he had developed unusual phobias). As Hans’ father was a friend of Freud’s the interpretations and information reported might be biased

Question 31

Advantages of collecting data in this way from Little Hans

Answer 31

Freud and Hans’ father was able to find out much more information about Hans’ thoughts, fantasies, dreams and phobias which would not be possible through other methods.

Question 32

Disadvantages of collecting data in this way from Little Hans

Answer 32

Little Hans’ father may have asked deliberately leading questions and only reported certain conversation which supported Freud’s theory (or Hans may have lied himself)

Question 33

Advantages of the data collected in this study

Answer 33

Much more detailed which provided evidence that Freud could use in support of his theory.

Question 34

Disadvantages of the data collected in this study

Answer 34

Qualitative data can be subjective and therefore less specific. Freud interpreted the behaviour to match his theory when there were more obvious explanations.

Question 35

What ethical guidelines did Freud uphold?

Answer 35

Consent - the parents were the ones to enter the study
Confidentiality - use of alternative name
Right to withdraw - able to stop sending letters
Deception - dad was told everything

Question 36

What ethical guidelines did Freud break?

Answer 36

Protection from harm - psychological damage and embarrassment

Question 37

Is this study applicable only to the culture in which the research was carried out, or could the findings apply elsewhere?

Answer 37

Only carried out in Austria, phobias are common in churn across the world, can be applied world wide.

Question 38

External Reliability - Was the sample large enough to check for consistency?

Answer 38

No because they only had one child, can’t assume that all children will progress through the PSSOD like Little Hans did, sample is too small, Freud would argue the findings are consistent with those from his adult patients.

Question 39

Internal Validity - Was Freud correct in his interpretations of Little Hans’ phobias and fantasies?

Answer 39

There are some much simpler and more obvious explanations for the behaviour shown, that are not sexual, and so more acceptable. E.g fear of getting bitten by horse - heard warning of parents

Question 40

Internal Validity - Could the way in which the questions were asked have affected what Little Hans said?

Answer 40

The use of leading questions, which could have influenced Hans’ responses. E.g. ‘When the horse fell down, did you think of Daddy?’

Question 41

External Validity - Did the study have population validity?

Answer 41

The study focused on only one child, Hans, and so in unlikely to represent the how all children develop, particularly not for girls.