Individual Differences in Sec A

Question 1

Describe the assumption, the theme and the studies in individual differences.

Answer 1

Assumption: should focus on dispositional explanations of behaviour, where behaviours is caused by you as an individual, rather than situation you are in, by studying quantitative and qualitative diffs between people rather than things we have in common.

Theme: UNDERSTANDING DISORDERS

• classic study: Freud (1909)
• contemporary study: Baron-Cohen (1997)

Question 2

Describe a brief overview of Freuds theories.

Answer 2

• his approach was called ‘psychoanalysis’
• viewed mind in 3 parts: conscious, precocious, unconscious
• came up with psychoanalytic theory (1909):
  this was three parts of personality, ID, ego and superego, (where ego mediates between good (superego) and the bad (ID))
• said we go through five sexual stages of development:
  Oral: 1yrs
  Anal: 1-3yrs
  Phallic: 3-6yrs
  Latent: 6-puberty
  Genital: adulthood
• then had Oedipus complex (for boys sexual desire for their mother so jealousy of father) and Electra complex (same but for girls sexual desire for their father so jealousy of mother)

Question 3

Describe the aim of Freud.

Answer 3

• to give an account of a boy who was suffering from a phobia of horses and other symptoms, and to use this case to illustrate existence of Oedipus complex.

Question 4

Describe the method of freud in terms of participants.

Answer 4

• one Jewish boy from vienna, Austria.
• 5 years old at start of study, but some evidence recorded from a couple years earlier.
• called ‘little hans’ in study, but real name was Herbett Graff.
• suffered from a phobia of horses.
• Hans’ father was already a fan of Freuds work so referred case to Freud and provided much of case information.

Question 5

Describe the method of Freud in terms of the design.

Answer 5

• was a clinical case study, meaning pp is a patient undergoing therapy, but in this case, Freuds direct input in therapy v limited
• accounts of how often Freud saw hans vary, but almost certainly not more than twice
• hans father conducted regular sessions w hans and then passed on to Freud who analysed them in line with his theory
• results consist of Freuds analysis

Question 6

Describe the method of Freud in terms of the case history.

Answer 6

• hans developed great interest in penis / ‘widdler’ from around age of 3
• played with it regularly, so much that mother became so cross she threatened to have a doctor cut it off if didn’t stop
• Hans then disturbed, and developed fear of castration
• saw a horse collapse and die in street around same time and was v upset as a result
• baby sister born when he was 3.5
• by 4 fear of horses developed specifically to white ones biting him, father reported this to Freud and noted it seemed to relate to their large penises that remind him of dissatisfaction with size of his own
• conflict between Hans and father developed at around same Time at this age
• father began to object and hate Hans’ long habit of getting into parents bed in morning and cuddling mother
• Hans phobia worsened to extent he would not leave family house, also suffered from general anxiety attacks now
• by age of 5 phobia lessened, initially becoming limited to white horses w thick harness pieces + eye blinkers, Freud likened this to Hans fathers moustache and glasses, but phobia then disappeared altogether
• end of phobia marked by two fantasies:
  Hans fantasised he had several children with own mother, but told his father he could be granddaddy
  Hans then fantasised a plumber had come and removed his bottom and penis and replaced them with larger ones

Question 7

Describe the results of Freud.

Answer 7

Freud interpreted case as example of Oedipus complex, specifically:

• horses represented Hans father
• Hans anxiety was castration anxiety triggered by mothers threat and fathers banishment from bed
• giraffes in fantasies represent parents, large one that cried out is father objecting to Hans and smaller crumpled one represents his mother and her genitals, larger ones long erect neck could have been penis symbol, Hans took crumpled giraffe away from large one which represents his jealousy of father and wanting mother
• children fantasy represents relatively friendly resolution of Oedipus complex in which Hans replaces father as mothers main love object, but father still gets role as grandfather
• plumber fantasy represents identification with father, as Hans could see himself growing large penis like his fathers and becoming more like him.

Question 8

Describe the conclusions of Freud.

Answer 8

• Hans suffered phobia of horses because he was suffering from castration anxiety and going through Oedipus complex
• dreams and fantasies helped express this conflict and eventually resolved Oedipus complex by fantasising himself taking on fathers role and placing father as role of grandfather

Question 9

Evaluate the research method and sampling bias of Freud.

Answer 9

• case studies have particular problems with their sample
• use v small no’s of pps and these pps are unusual enough to be sufficiently interesting to be worth writing about
• small samples of unusual people are a problem as hard to generalise from them to pop

Question 10

Evaluate the data in Freud.

Answer 10

• exclusively qualitative data in this study, so had strengths of qualitative data
• a large vol of rich info in Freuds account of little Hans’ case
• Freud recorded v detailed info and this allowed later researchers to offer alternative interps of case
• but, compared to use of quantitative data, this method gives v little concrete info about Hans.

Question 11

Evaluate the ethical considerations in Freud.

Answer 11

• no deceit in this study, although Hans did not give formal consent to take part, his father did
• Hans not put through any experimental procedures that may cause harm or distress
• issues with confidentiality and privacy as Freud did use name ‘little Hans’ but boys real name was well known anyway
• no known whether being subject of Freuds study ever caused him later problems, but is questionable that his identity is public knowledge when he was linked to something so socially sensitive as Oedipus complex.

Question 12

Evaluate the validity in Freud.

Answer 12

• study raises particular probs with validity
• way data was collected could have affected validity as Hans father was fan of Freuds work so hard to know if this distorted his perception of events
• making of theoretical interps is also another validity issue as involves going way beyond info available to an observer, which is subjective, and good science requires an attempt at objectivity

Question 13

Evaluate the reliability.

Answer 13

• always a prob with reliability in clinical case studies as they are one offs and can’t be replicated, so cannot assess test retest reliability, nor can we assess inter rater reliability as Freud carried out analysis alone.

Question 14

Evaluate the ethnocentrism in Freud.

Answer 14

• is a serious problem with study
• Freud looked at a single child from v particular cultural context: middle-class Austrian society, and generalised Oedipus complex from this to development of all boys in wide range of cultural contexts
• this not just sampling bias, as parenting practices and cultural meanings of child-parent interaction vary massively between people living in diff cultural contexts
• Freud ignored this and proposed Oedipus complex as universal phenomenon based purely on a European interp of events
• highly ethnocentric

Question 15

Evaluate the practical applications of Freud.

Answer 15

• little Hans case been extensively used as an illustration of Oedipus complex by psychotherapists for training purposes
• so study has an important practical application
• a related strength of study is its theoretical importance
• hard to study the Oedipus complex but this case gives some evidence, however imperfect, so has good theoretical importance.

Question 16

Describe the aim of baron-Cohen et al’s study.

Answer 16

• to test whether high functioning adults with autistic spectrum disorders struggle to identify emotions from photographs of eyes, in Eyes Task
• this a test for theory of mind.

Question 17

Describe the method of baron Cohen et al in terms of participants.

Answer 17

• an autism group of 16 consisting of 13 men and 3 women, all of normal intelligence + with a diagnosis of high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome.
• sample here was volunteer sample recruited by doctors in response to ad in National Autistic Society’s magazine
• a control group of 25 men and 25 women with no autism diagnosis and assumed normal intelligence
• in addition: 8 men and 2 women with Tourette’s took part in study as a second control group, all with normal intelligence too
• this important as Tourette’s has several elements in common with autism
• so if theory of mind deficit is a prob with autism, the autism group would be expected to do worse on ‘eyes task’ than Tourette’s group
• was a quasi experiment as has a naturally occurring IV, autism.

Question 18

Describe the method of baron Cohen et al in terms of design and procedure.

Answer 18

• pps shown 25 black and white photos of eyes for 3 secs each
• asked to choose between two mental states represented by photos for e.gs: concerned/unconcerned, relaxed/worried, interested/disinterested

Question 19

Describe the method of baron Cohen et al in terms of control tasks.

Answer 19

• to eliminate poss that autism group just had visual problem meaning they could not process photos, all pps asked to complete two control tasks:
• one was a gender recognition task (identified gender of the eyes)
• other was a basic emotion recognition task (identified basic emotions shown in photos of whole faces)

Question 20

Describe the validation of the eyes task in baron Cohen et al.

Answer 20

• is believed this task actually measures theory of mind ability
• tested this by giving pps with autism and Tourette’s another difficult test, the Happe’s Strange Stories Task
• if ‘eyes task’ really measures theory of mind ability, then those who struggle with it should also score less on strange stories task.

Question 21

Describe the results of baron Cohen et al.

Answer 21

• on control tasks all groups performed normally
• but in ‘eyes task’ autism pps did significantly worse than two other groups (16.3 / 25 being their average score)
• this may seem reasonable score, but must note pps had 50% chance of guessing each right anyway, so could have scored most points that way
• no pps in Tourette’s group were incorrect in their strange stories responses, but autism group struggled
• fact that same group, autistics, struggled with both eyes task and strange stories is evidence for validity of eyes task

Question 22

Describe the conclusions of baron Cohen et al.

Answer 22

• even High functioning adults with autism struggle to recognise mental states in others
• eyes task is a valid test of theory of mind suitable for High functioning adults with autism.

Question 23

Evaluate the research method of baron Cohen et al.

Answer 23

• carried out in a controlled setting so environmental conditions well controlled, this is a strength
• poor ecological validity as situation was so diff from an everyday life one, and judging emotions through just eyes is diff from judging them from full faces in real life
• this a quasi experiment, not a true one, as three naturally occurring groups being compared, so groups may not have been well matched for all relevant variables
• control group of pps without any diagnosis were not tested to make user they were compatible with autism and Tourette’s group, so again may not have matched groups well

Question 24

Evaluate the data in baron Cohen et al.

Answer 24

• data gathered in this study was quantitative, this a strength and a weakness
• strength: numbers allow easy comparison clearly showing theory of mind is worse in autism group
• weakness of it is that there was no opportunity for pps to comment on what they experienced when looking at eyes in pictures, or on what they found difficult about task
• such qualitative data may have added to completeness of findings

Question 25

Evaluate the ethical considerations in baron Cohen et al.

Answer 25

- studies like this have to meet v high ethical standards due to use of vulnerable adults as pps - pps were volunteers , not deceived, and experienced no distress beyond what they could expect in daily lives so ethically good

Question 26

Evaluate the validity in baron Cohen et al's study.

Answer 26

- can be seen as a weakness of study - eyes task carried out under controlled conditions and experience of judging emotion by looking at isolated pair of eyes is v diff from real life when judging emotions on whole moving faces providing additional info - but, researchers did include s test for validity with 'strange stories task' which supported validity of eyes task, so this is strength of study

Question 27

Evaluate the reliability of baron Cohen et al.

Answer 27

- all pps shown same sized, same pictures for same amount of time under same conditions with same standard instructions, so this good - so had a consistent experience giving good internal reliability - procedure is straightforward to replicate, so external reliability should also be good - but no testing of external reliability was reported in paper

Question 28

Evaluate the sampling bias in baron Cohen et al.

Answer 28

- sample of adults in autistic spectrum was quite small (16 and only 3 female), makes it hard to assume this is a representative group of high functioning adults w autism, so generalisability is a problem - made worse with fact they were a volunteer sample, generally one of less representative sampling methods - sample of Tourette's pps = even smaller (10) so samples and sampling methods were weaknesses of study.

Question 29

Evaluate the practical applications of baron Cohen et al.

Answer 29

- results from study could open up practical ways forward in helping high functioning people w autism to manage their condition - for e.g. May be poss to teach people on autistic spectrum to make use of diff visual cues to judge emotion, or teach those interacting w people on spectrum to give clear cues to signal they're feelings obviously.

Question 30

Compare the similarities between Freud and Baron Cohen et al.

Answer 30

- both concerned with individual diffs specifically in relation to psychological disorders and helping us understand them - both useful in training therapists in theoretical and practical ways

Question 31

Compare the differences between Freud and Baron Cohen et al.

Answer 31

- F was a clinical case study of one boy but BC was a quasi experiment with controlled diff conditions and an independent measures design - F had single male sample but BC had a mixed sample - F produced qualitative data and measurement of DV was researcher bias, but BC produced quantitative data and was a standardised procedure for measurement of DV