Ind. Differences

Question 1

Freud

Answer 1

Background:
Oedipus complex = sexual desire for mothers, rivalry of father, castration anxiety
- phallic stage - all in unconscious mind
- all young boys go through it

Aim: find evidence for support of the oedipus complex and to use talking therapies to cure phobia

Sample: little hans, aged 3-5, Austrian, opportunity sampling as recruited by his father who was a friend of Freuds

Method: longitudinal case study (over 2 years to track development) , gathered qual data which was sent to Freud via correspondence, based on convos about dreams, fantasies and phobias with his parents

Results: interest in his widdler started at the start of the phallic stage, main phobia was of a white horse, symbolic of his father and fear of castration anxiety (blinkers and black bits representing appearance of father) - resolved by the end of the 2 years when he started to identify with his father (plumber fantasy), giraffe dream represents parental exchanges in bed and wanting mother all to himself

Conclusion: support for oedipus complex and resultion of phobias via talking therapy

Question 2

Baron Cohen

Answer 2

Background:
Theory of mind (TOM) is ability to understand emotions and mental states from another’s perspective
- previous research only focused on child appropriate test of TOM

Aim: validate the eyes tests as an appropriate measure of an adults TOM

Sample: 3 groups (Tourette’s, control and autistic) randomly selected from Cambridge

Method: quasi (IV disorder or not, DV performance on eyes task)
- 3 tasks presented in random order: happens strange stories, control task, eyes task

Results:
Eyes: 16.3 (autistic), 20.3 (Tourette’s), 20.4 (normal) - this correlated with happes = valid

Conclusions: adults do possess an impaired TOM, there are no intelligence differences, deficit is specific to autism

Question 3

Similarities and differences between Freud and baron cohen

Answer 3

Similiar:
Ethics - both good
Freud = little hans experienced no trauma
Baron cohen = parts were volunteers + knew purpose of study

Differences:
Freud: qual - in depth descriptions of dreams, fantasies and phobias
Baron cohen: quant - score out of 25 on eyes task compare between 3 groups

Question 4

How does Freud link to the key theme of understanding disorders?

Answer 4

Phobia (irrational fears) of little Han’s during Oedipus complex
- unique example of how psychoanalysis has offered a detailed interpretation of a young boys phobia and building up a detailed case history to help understand individual experiences of a disorder

Question 5

How does baron cohen link to the key theme understanding disorders?

Answer 5

High functioning adults with autism
- offered possibility to measure and quantify disorders using objective tools to help us understand them
- those with the disorders suffer a lack of TOM which could explain there struggles with the interpretation of social situations as they can’t accurately understand mental states like normal people

Question 6

How has baron cohen changed our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity?

Answer 6

• changes understanding of individuals by showing the difference between people with autism and their ability to understand emotions and clinically normal people
• shows why these individuals struggle in a social setting

Question 7

How does contemporary study increase our understanding?

Answer 7

Baron cohen takes a scientific approach to understanding disorders further increasing our understanding using a quasi exp
- found groups with autism had impaired TOM compared to other groups in eyes test
- shows disorders can vary in a controlled way

Question 8

How does Freud link to the areas?

Answer 8

1: individuals unique
- phobias unique + due to unique personal experiences of passing through the Oedipus complex which all boys biologically predisposed to

2: Ind. differences come from biological factors and/or experiences
- biological factors such as age/gender which influence psychosexual development + childhood experiences for little hans

Question 9

How does baron cohen link to the areas?

Answer 9

1: individuals unique
- tries to understand how normal and autistic differ
- autistic have impaired TOM which changes how they interaction with people

2: Ind. differences come from bio factors and/or experiences
- autism could be biological disorder which creates bio deficit in cog processes but influences in the womb + childhood could influence spectrum disorder

Question 10

Yerkes and Gould

Answer 10

Background:
Intelligence = ability to deal with cognitive complexity
- Piaget believed intelligence achieved when individual is adequately able to deal with multiple pieces of data
- focused don testing not defining

Goulds Review = review article looking at the history of intelligence testing and the problematic nature, objectivity and implications of this

Cultural biases: often based in American culture (pics of shotguns or brands)

Administrative problems:
- didn’t always get opportunity to do relevant test (when protocol followed scores increased massively)
- queues led to lower standards
- always in written English (recent immigrants may not be able to speak English/language barriers)

Conclusions:
- IQ tests = culturally bias and do not measure innate intelligence
- can lead to tragic consequences

Yerkes original study:
Aim/Sample/Procedure:
- 1.75 million male US army recruits
- 3 tests: alpha, beta and individual spoken
- 160,000 cases marked by boring

Findings:
- average age of white American = 13
- European immigrants graded by country
- lowest mental age = black Americans

Impact of findings:
- impact on officer screening
- racial propaganda
- immigration act

Question 11

Hancock

Answer 11

Background: Maslows hierarchy of needs, language processed in unconscious which can indicate differences ie psychopathic personality disorder

Aim: see if language differed between non psychopaths/psychopaths on narratives of murder

Sample: 52 male, Canadian murderers (14 psycho, 38 non), all volunteered + knew purpose of study
- did Hare psychopathic checklist (cut off point reduced to 25 for research)

Method: self report, step wise interview by ‘blind’ interviewers as a control
- quasi as naturally occurring IV of psycho or not, DV language used
- audio taped describing their crime in as much detail as possible
- transcribed and then put into DAL (emotions) and Wmatrix (word usage)

Results:
- psychos more likely to use cause + effect descriptions with more subordinating conjunctions
- used 2x as many words focussed on basic needs (sex/food)
- psychos used more past tense and were less fluent with language use

Conclusions:
- psychopaths more likely to view crime as logical outcome of a plan described in past tense with less emotional distinctiveness

Question 12

Similarities and differences between Gould and Hancock

Answer 12

Similar:
- Both all male sample
Gould: US army recruits in Yerkes study
Hancock: 52 male murderers from Canadian prison

Differences:
- research method
Gould: review article of Yerkes original study, highlighting issues with intelligence testing
Hancock: self report on murderers describing crime in detail with interviewers using stepwise technique

Question 13

How does Gould link to the key theme of measuring differences?

Answer 13

Found IQ tests reflect cultural practices rather than measuring innate intelligence
- Yerkes study favoured western culture which resulted in people from southern or Eastern Europe performing poorly

Question 14

How doe hancocks study link to the key theme of measuring differences?

Answer 14

Revealed language can be used to measure differences between psychos and non-psychos using language analysis tools
- psychos found to use certain word patterns and appear to have lack of fluency

Question 15

How does Hancock change our understanding of individual, cultural and asocial diversity?

Answer 15

• allowed us to see how language use may reveal 1 aspect of individual diversity
• psychos tend to use more past tense language to try and distance themselves form their crimes
• language differences suggest that psychopathic tendencies may stem from lack of empathy towards others and an increased ability to detach themselves from their actions

Question 16

How does the contemporary study (Hancock) improve our understanding?

Answer 16

• Gould showed measuring differences can be biased heavily by cultural expectations
• Hancock enhanced this as he demonstrated how it’s possible to measure behaviour objectively allowing factors that cause individual differences to be identified

Question 17

How does Gould link to the individual differences area?

Answer 17

1: all individuals unique
Attempts to develop a test to measure a way in which people differ suggesting everyone’s unique

2: comes form bio factors and/or experiences
Yerkes believed in native intelligence proposing that differences in intelligence stem from bio factors

Question 18

How does Hancock link to the individual differences area?

Answer 18

1: all individual are unique
Trying to identify whether psychopaths display unique language qualities that distinguish them from non-psychos

2: from bio factors and/or experiences
Psychos focus on lower level necessities in maslows hierarchy of needs compared to non psychos
- idea that these biological factors to survive drive the individuals actions