1
Q
assumptions of the individual differences area?
A
- everyone is genetically unique, therefore everyone behaves differently
- no one is the ‘average’
- ideographic view on behaviour
2
Q
what do we mean by an idiographic view?
A
the assumption that individuals are unique
3
Q
why do individual differences psychologists believe we should have an idiographic view?
A
they believe that it is worth studying individuals in detail to understand their individual behaviour, as human behaviour is so complex, we can not assume that all Individuals act in the same way
4
Q
give some examples of idiographic characteristic
A
- aims to understand the constructs and structures of concepts such as personality and abnormality
- aims to develop an in depth understanding of the individual
- often uses qualitative methods to produce detailed case studies
5
Q
what is the individual differences key theme?
A
understanding disorders
6
Q
what does Freud believe are the origins of mental illnesses?
A
- a weak ego: if either the id or the superego overpower the ego then they will dominate personality
- unchecked id impulses: if the id is not stopped and dominates personality, it will cause self-destruction and immoral acts e.g. Psychopathic behaviours of
- too powerful superego:if the superego dominates personality, and is ultimately too harsh and inflexible in it’s moral values, creating feelings of neurosis e.g anxiety etc.
7
Q
THE CLASSIC STUDY
FREUD 1909
A
8
Q
What is the background to freud’s classical study?
A
Little Hans developed phobias, became ‘mentally ill’, which according to freud was because of things going on in his unconscious mind, freud then, due to the help of little hans father, was able to interpret this behaviour and tell him why he was thinking and behaving as he was - psychoanalysis.
freud uses the study to support his ideas about the origins of phobias, and the oedipus complex
9
Q
what were freud’s hypothesis/aims for his classical study?
A
freud’s aim was to support his ideas on:
- sex-role identification
- psycho-sexual stages (phallic stage = oedipus complex)
- origins of phobias
10
Q
what was freud’s sample for his classical study?
A
Little Hans, was five years old, and evidence started from 3 year old (direct age for the phallic stage)
11
Q
freud’s classical study was a longitudinal case study, what does this mean?
A
a study that was done over time, ages 3 to 5, that collects in-depth detail
12
Q
what data on little hans did freud gather from his case study?
A
data on little han’s fantasies, fears/phobias and dreams
13
Q
what was used to gather freud’s data on little hans?
A
self reports = diaries and letters
14
Q
little hans fears/phobias
A
- just before Hans was three, he started to show particular interest in his ‘widdler’ and the presence/absence of this organ in others, this led to his mother threatening to get a doctor to cut it off
- when he was three, Hans gained a baby sister, Hanna, whom he resented and subsequently wished his mother would drown, ultimately he ended up fearing the bath himself.
- Little Hans developed a fear of being bitten by white horses, which occurred from 2 incidents:
- overheard a father say to a child “don’t put your finger near the white horse or it will bite you”
- seen a horse pulling a carriage that fell and began to kick about with its legs
15
Q
what did freud say about little hans fears/phobias?
A
- little hans had a fear of castration
- the bath was symbolic of the womb, he wished hanna’s head would go under the water, a desire that she would go back in the womb and be unborn = wanted his mother for himself
- the white horse symbolised his father = punishing hans by castrating him = castration anxiety
= black on the horse’s mouth = father’s moustache
= black around the horse’s eyes = fathers glasses
symbolised his unconscious oedipus complex
16
Q
what were little hans dreams/fantasies and how did freud interpret them?
A
- the giraffe fantasy
= Little Hans had a drawing of a smaller giraffe and a larger giraffe, he crumpled up his smaller giraffe and sat on the drawing, and threw out the picture of the larger giraffe
= larger giraffe resembled his father whilst the smaller giraffe resembled his mother
=symbolic of him being possessive over his mother and getting rid of his father - plumber dream
1. plumber came and stuck a big borer into little han’s stomach
2. plumber used pincers to take away Han’s ‘widdler’ and replace it with a bigger one like his fathers - fantasy of becoming a father to his mother’s child, and married to her, with his dad as the grandad
17
Q
what were freud’s findings?
A
that both the giraffe and the family fantasy, resembled Hans directly in his oedipus complex, as he tried to be possessive over his mother and resemble with his father
the plumber fantasy, resembled him now identifying as his father, and the resolution of the oedipus complex
18
Q
what were possible conclusions for freud’s study?
A
- supporting his ideas on psychosexual development / infant sexuality
- supported his ideas on boys in the phallic stage undergoing the oedipus complex
= which is how boys acquire their sex-role identity - phobias are the product of unconscious anxiety displaced onto harmless external objects
- the use of practical applications, psychoanalysis, to treat disturbed thoughts, feelings and behaviours
- his concept of unconscious determinism which holds people not accountable, as they are ‘not consciously aware’ of the causes of their behaviours
19
Q
what are the strengths of freud’s research method (longitudinal case study)
A
+ we have an in depth-understanding of the phallic state of development
+ we are able to see change in behaviour over time
20
Q
evaluate freud’s validity in his classical study?
A
+ high in ecological validity
= conducted in little hans home
- secondary data
= came from hans father
= subject to interpretation
21
Q
what was a weakness of freud’s reliability on his study on little hans?
A
no standardised procedure
= lacks replicability
= gathered his data from unique diaries and letters
22
Q
what was a weakness of freud’s sample?
A
extremely biased sample
= results are based on one viennese, middle class boy (also makes it ethnocentric)
23
Q
evaluate freud’s types of data
A
he used qualitative data
+ high in validity
- had to be interpreted, subjective
24
Q
evaluate freud’s ethical considerations
A
+ confidentiality (little hans nickname)
+ informed consent from parents
+ no deception
- Hans was unable to give his own consent
- psychological harm
= invasion of privacy
25
THE CONTEMPORARY STUDY
BARON-COHEN
1997
26
what was the first order ToM test? what happened?
the sally anne test
sally places her marble into her basket, then leaves to play, whilst she is gone, anne moves her marble from her basket to her own box, sally comes back, the child is then asked, where would she look for her marble?
27
what was the second order ToM test?
Happè’ strange stories test
where children were to judge the mental/physical state of a character in a short story
28
why could both the sally anne test and happè strange stories task, not be used in adults?
they both had a ceiling effect, sally anne (age 4/5) and happè (age 8/9) as both tests only shown a basic understanding of other peoples thoughts and feelings, only shown a basic ToM
29
what was the background on the contemporary study?
evidence was to show that ToM deficit may have been a core cognitive deficit in autism, the inability to recognise others mental state, however, previous ToM tests had a ceiling effect, and could not generalise to autistic adults
30
what was the sample for Baron-Cohen’s contemporary study?
the 3 different groups
GROUP 1: 16 individuals with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome (HFA=4, AS =12)
13 males, 3 females, all were of normal intelligence
recruited through an advert in an autistic magazine, and a variety of clinical sources/doctors
self-selected
GROUP 2: 50 ‘normal’ age-matched individuals (25males, 25 females)
randomly selected from Cambridge University
GROUP 3: 10 adults with Tourette syndrome (8males, 2females)
B-C used this group, as they have similar features to autistic people, however, he wanted to prove that a ToM deficit was unique to autistic people only
self-selected from a referral centre in London
31
what was the hypothesis/aims for Baron Cohen’s contemporary study?
- to investigate if autism in adults is caused by a core cognitive effect - an impaired ToM - by using a more challenging ToM test
= all participants in group 1 and 3, must have been able to pass the first and second order ToM tests.
32
what was the contemporary study’s research method?
quasi experiment, where the IV occurs naturally and can not be manipulated or controlled by the researchers, whether or not an individual has autism
33
what was the contemporary study’s experimental design?
matched pairs design
34
outline the procedure of the eyes task
the dependent variable was the performance of the individual - score out of 25 - on the eyes task, which consisted of showing the participant 25 black and white standardised photographs of the eye region of faces, both male and female, and asking them to make a choice between two mental state words (target and foil) and asking them which most resembled what the person in the photograph was feeling or thinking
35
what were they key findings of the contemporary study?
mean scores:
group 1: autistic adults = 16.3
group 2: ‘normal adults’ = 20.3
group 3: TS = 20.4
36
what were possible conclusions for the contemporary study?
the results provided evidence that adults with autism/AS do possess an impaired theory of mind
some of the autism/AS group hold university degrees and were all of ‘normal intelligence’
37
evaluate baron-cohen’s research method for his contemporary study
+ IV occurs naturally
= impossible to do a lab experiment
= impossible to allocate people into groups otherwise
- low levels of control
= impossible to control whether people have autism or not
- no cause and effect
38
evaluate Baron-cohen’s validity on his contemporary study
+ high in internal validity
= high levels of control
= able to measure what we intend to (ToM)
- low levels of ecological validity
= lacks mundane realism
= artificial tasks
39
what are the positives to Baron-cohen’s reliability on his contemporary study
+ standardised photographs
= black and white, same size, same eye region etc.
40
evaluate Baron-cohen’s sample
+ randomly selected control group
= likely to be representative of the target population
- self selected sample (G1 and G3)
= only a certain type of person may put themselves forward
- small sample size
= may be unrepresentative
41
how is Baron-cohen’s study ethnocentric?
results to explain ToM deficits were only researched in the UK, and may not be able to be generalised to other cultures
42
what data was used in Baron-cohen’s study? why was this positive?
+ quantitative data
= easy to compare results between groups
= provides a useful cut off point (18)
43
evaluate the ethical considerations of Baron-cohen’s study
+ informed consent
= put themselves forward
- psychological harm
= being diagnosed with autism and getting a low score
44
how has the contemporary study changed our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity?
individual diversity = a lot
= able to analyse specific characteristics that lead to changes in behaviour over a more sustained period, in comparison to freud
social diversity = not at all
cultural diversity = not at all
45
how has the contemporary study changed our understanding of the key theme?
a lot
= showed that there are more ways than psychoanalysis to study individual differences, such as using the experimental method.
Baron-cohen, allowed us to understand more about AS and how the issues, is not how they feel, but their thought processes that structure the way they experience the world
46
PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
freud vs baron-cohen
freud
- studied the unconscious mind, which can not be studied or observed
- diaries and letters were used, subjective to interpretation
- qualitative data
- deductive method
- non falsifiable
B-C
+ standardised procedure
+ standardised task
+quantitative data, score out of 25, objective
+ inductive method
+ falsifiable
47
SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH
freud vs baron-cohen
freud
- sexualises children, suggests they have a libido
- parents are the ones to blame if their children have issues later in life
B-C
- highlights a difference between people, discriminative
- recognises a ‘vulnerable’ group of people in society
48
USEFULNESS
freud vs baron-cohen
freud
+ produced psychoanalysis, which helps to treat disorders
B-C
+ helped create a new ToM test, that was able to diagnose autism in adults
49
FREE WILL/DETERMINISM DEBATE
freud vs baron-cohen
freud
= soft deterministic, freud suggest that behaviours are a result on intra-psychic conflicts, however, how we are brought up can impact this as we may react in response to our environment and upbringing, which alters our own choices (free will)
B-C
= deterministic
= having autism causes people to have a defect in their theory of mind
50
similarities between freud’s classic study and baron-cohen’s contemporary study?
- both ethnocentric
- both can be viewed as a biased sample
- both use self-reports
- both socially sensitive
- both useful
51
differences between freud’s classical study and baron-cohen’s contemporary study?
BC=reliable, standardised procedure that is replicable
F=not reliable, no standardised procedure
BC=high in internal validity
F=low in internal validity
BC=low in ecological validity
F=high in ecological validity
52
strengths of the the individual differences area
+ provides individual explanations which gives useful insights into the differences between people’s behaviour
= cause and effect
= psychology as a science
+ often uses the scientific method
= gives high control over extraneous variables
= high in internal validity
+ useful, produces practical applications
= psychoanalysis, which may help people to overcome issues and allow them to live a more fulfilling life
53
weaknesses of the individual differences area
- can produce socially sensitive findings
= can lead to individuals feeling discriminated or marginalised from others in society
- can use less scientific methods e.g self reports or case studies
= production of non-falsifiable hypothesis, which are less useful
54
BOOKLET 2
55
what is booklet 2, individual differences key theme?
measuring differences
56
THE CLASSIC STUDY
GOULD STUDY
1982
57
what is the background to Gould's study?
The Stanford-Binet intelligence test
became the basis for intelligence tests, even those that are still in use today
a major process to the development of group testing was America's involvement in WW1, a quick and easy method of selecting over 1 million recruits was needed
58
what was Yerkes aims?
- demonstrate that intelligence was largely innate (genetic) rather than influenced by education or upbringing
- classify army recruits so they could be placed into suitable roles based on mental ability
- support the idea of eugenics by showing differences in intelligence between groups, which he believed could guide immigration and reproduction policies
59
what was Gould/Yerkes research method?
an extract/review article from Gould's 1981 book, 'the mismeasure of man'
60
what was Yerkes sample?
1.75 million army recruits in the different USA army camps during WW1
included white Americans, people from Europe and African descents
61
how many tests were there?
3
62
who was the Army Alpha Test for?
literate recruits, those who can read
63
outline the procedure of the Army Alpha test?
it consisted of 8 parts, including the same questions in the same order
included analogies, filling in the next number in a sequence etc.
64
what was the issues of the Army Alpha test?
Yerkes argued the tests were to measure 'native intellectual ability', however the tests were extremely culturally biased, as they were focused around America's culture e.g. sportspersons etc.
65
who was the Army Beta Test for?
illiterate recruits, those who cannot read
66
outline the procedure for the Army beta test
it consisted of 7 parts, and consisted of picture completion tasks
67
what were the issues of the Army Beta Test?
- the pictures were again culturally significant
- 3/7 parts had instructions written in English
68
what was the 3rd test?
the individual spoken examination
69
when did recruits take the individual spoken exam?
if they failed the previous 2 exams
70
what were individuals given as result of the test?
grades A to E with + and - signs
71
however what were some issues overall with the test?
recruits who were illiterate should immediately have been assigned the Beta Test, but this only happened in some camps (unreliable)
and when queues for the Beta Test began to line up, this led to an artificial lowering of standards by the administrators to relocate more men to the Alpha Test
72
what were some key findings of Yerkes study?
- the average mental age of a white American adult was 13 years old (the standard had previously been set at 16)
- black men had an average mental age of 10.41, Yerkes said 'the lighter the skin colour, the better the score'
- the Europeans also got a significantly lower score
73
what were subsequent developments from Yerkes study?
due to racial ideologies, the immigration restriction act was introduced in 1924, people from eastern Europe and Alpine and Mediterranean nations (those who scored badly on the test) were no longer welcome, it was decided only 2% of immigrants were allowed into the USA
these immigration restrictions meant that many Jews attempting to escape from their homeland during WW", could not flee to America, it was calculated that 6 million people from across Europe were denied entry
74
possible conclusions of Yerkes study
- IQ tests are culturally and historically biased
- IQ tests do not measure intelligence
- IQ tests are often unreliable
- IQ tests may not produce valid results
= if not done properly can have devastating results
75
evaluate Gould’s research method
+ provides an ethical way to review work on intelligence testing
- secondary data
= subjective opinion
= may have only selected the ‘negative aspects’ for his book
76
evaluate Yerkes/Gould's validity
+ high in population validity
= representative, large sample from a diverse background, of social classes and ethnic backgrounds
(1.75 million recruits)
- low ecological validity
= tasks are artificial and not representative of real life scenarios
= identifying famous people don't reflect how day to day intelligence is shown
77
evaluate Yerkes/Gould's reliability
+ reliable
= standardised procedures, standardised tests
e.g. set parts, set questions in the same order
= can be administered same way to all recruits
- not reliable
- administration issues
= as the tests were conducted in several camps
= cannot ensure standardisation
e.g. may be different test conditions e.g. noise, rushed timings etc.
- both tests were supposed to provide equal levels of intelligence (they did not)
78
evaluate Yerkes/Gould's sample
+ large sample
1.75 million recruits
+ very diverse sample
= many different nationalities
- androcentric
= only included male, army recruits
- cultural bias
= many recruits had limited English skills, which would have limited their scores
79
evaluate Yerkes/Gould's ethnocentrism
+ not ethnocentric sample
= different nationalities
= highly diverse sample
- ethnocentric
= tests were culturally dependent on America's culture e.g. naming famous Americans
= disadvantaged those from different cultural backgrounds
80
evaluate Yerkes/Gould's data
+ quantitative data
= gave recruits a grade from A to E
= easy to compare amongst over recruits
81
evaluate Yerkes/Gould's ethics
- unethical
= may cause psychological harm, their score determined their life
= no protection from harm (life or death)
= no consent regarding the way the data was used
82
THE CONTEMPORARY STUDY
HANCOCK (2011)
83
what was the background to Hancock's study?
psychopathy is a personality disorder
previous research (e.g., Hare, 1991) identified two main factors of psychopathy:
- affective/interpersonal traits (e.g. superficial charm, lack of remorse, manipulativeness)
- lifestyle/antisocial traits (e.g. impulsivity, criminal versatility)
Hancock believed their language would reflect these two factors, as he believed our words can reveal our cognitive and emotional processes, and give us psychological insight
84
what was Hancock's aims?
to examine how psychopaths use language when describing their crimes, and to see if their word choices differ systematically from non-psychopathic offenders
85
what was Hancock's research method?
he used semi-structured interviews where participants were asked by two senior psychology graduates and one research assistant to describe the day of their homicide offence in detail
86
interviews were transcribed and analysed using what text analysis tools?
W-matrix and DAL
87
what was Hancock's sample?
52 male murderers in Canadian prisons
14 psychopaths
38 non-psychopaths
88
how did they determine whether or not the murders were psychopaths or not?
using PCL-R
which gave them a score (up to 40)
Hancock used 25 as the cut off point
89
how long did the interviews last?
approximately 25 minutes
90
participants were prompted with follow up questions, with what standardised procedure?
step-wise
91
what did the W-matrix analyse?
the number of times certain themes were found in their language e.g. causation words (because, since) and social words (he, she, family), as well as Maslow's hierarchy of basic needs
92
what did the DAL analyse?
providing a score of pleasantness and intensity of emotional language
93
what were key findings in the instrumental language analysis?
psychopaths used more subordinating conjunctions than non-psychopaths
(1.82%) vs (1.54%)
this may be because psychopaths are more likely to view their crime as a logical outcome of a plan
94
what were key findings in the hierarchy of needs analysis?
psychopaths used approximately twice as many words related to physiological needs, e.g. eating or drinking than non-psychopaths
this may be because they have a lack of empathy and see psychological needs as more important than emotional needs
95
what were key findings in the emotional expression of language?
the speech produced by psychopaths contained 33% more disfluencies (um or uh) than non-psychopaths
this implied they found describing such an emotional event quite difficult, suggesting they are working hard to try to appear normal
psychopaths also used significantly higher percentage of verbs in the past tense e.g. stabbed or killed
suggesting psychopaths saw their crimes as more psychologically distressing and as a result had a greater detachment from the incident
96
evaluate Hancock's research method
+ produces a lot of rich data,
due to follow up questions that can be asked about each crime
+ use of computerized text analysis
- social desirability bias
= self-reports rely on honesty
= may exaggerate or underplay what happened the day of the murder
- every interview is unique
= makes the interviews hard to be compared to one another
97
evaluate Hancock's validity
+ high in internal validity
= measures what it intends to
e.g. the language of psychopaths vs non-psychopaths
- low in population validity
= conclusions generalises all psychopaths, however, Hancock only studied murders?
98
evaluate Hancock's reliability
+ testing remained standardised
e.g. same objective, computerised tests e.g. W-matrix and the DAL, as well as the PCL-R before the test was conducted
- every interview is unique, due to the nature of semi-structured interviews
= reduces the reliability of results and procedure
99
evaluate Hancock's sample
+ would be difficult to conduct a study on these people otherwise
- volunteer sample may affect the type of people who volunteered to be interviewed e.g. these people might feel more comfortable and willing to retell a distressing day
- relatively small sample of psychopaths (14)
100
evaluate Hancock's ethnocentrism
+ ethnocentric
= all were Candian (individualistic culture) males
101
evaluate Hancock's data
+ qualitative data
= interviews produced detailed, rich qual. data
+ data was analysed into quantitative data
= good to compare
e.g. the DAL provided a score for the intensity of emotional language in each statement
102
evaluate Hancock's ethics
+ consent
+ right to withdraw
+ anonymity
+ protection from harm
- however, not always told everything (deceptive nature)
- may have felt pressure to take part as they were in prison (do what they're told mentality)
103
PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
Gould/Yerkes
supports:
- falsifiable
- objective
- valid
- replicable
HWR Gould's research is subjective to his own opinion
104
PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
Hancock
supports:
- falsifiable
- objective
- valid
- replicable
HWR semi-structured interviews aren't very scientific
105
NATURE/NURTURE
Gould/Yerkes
nature
= Yerkes believes intelligence is based purely on genetics and our biological processes
= the idea that intelligence is innate
106
NATURE/NURTURE
Hancock
more nature
= he claims psychopathy is 'somewhere in the mind'
= he claims language happens due to our mind
= deterministic approach, as he claims our speech is automatic
107
SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH
Gould/Yerkes
Yerkes's study is highly socially sensitive as it allowed ideas on genetic superiority
= justifies segregation
108
SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH
Hancock
may be used to 'single out' psychopaths
= claims they are a 'different group' within society
109
similarities between Gould/Yerkes study and Hancock's study
+ both use quantitative data
+ both have an androcentric sample
+ both ethnocentric
+ both reliable, HWR have non-reliable aspects
110
differences between Gould/Yerkes study and Hancock's study
G: high in population validity
H: low in population validity
G: no qualitative data
H: used qualitative data as well as quantitative data
G: large sample (1.75 million)
H: small sample (52)
G: unethical
H: more ethical
111
psychology
flashcards
Decks in class (20)
# Cards
-
mathematical skills45
-
research methods62
-
experiments38
-
self reports29
-
observations20
-
correlations15
-
inferential statistics25
-
inferential tests15
-
how science works5
-
psychological debates38
-
the behaviourist perspective34
-
the psychodynamic perspective49
-
the developmental area117
-
the individual differences area111
-
the social area117
-
the cognitive area110
-
the biological area105
-
metal illness138
-
crime220
-
sport232
