Freud

• Background: introduce the theory and outline the structure of the mind

  Freud's psychodynamic theory suggests that the unconscious mind contains unresolved conflicts that shape our personality from early childhood experiences. He said that the mind has three parts, the most influential being the unconscious mind where our unresolved conflicts and childhood traumas are stored.
• Background: outline the structure of the personality

  He also suggested that we have 3 parts to our personality that develop as we pass through different psychosexual stages. the id is the pleasure principle, the ego balances conflict between this and the superego which is the morality principle
• Background: outline defence mechanisms

  The unconcious mind will use defence mechanisms to protect the ego e.g. repression or displacement
• Background: outline psychosexual stages focusing on the phallic stage

  Finally, Freud believes healthy personality development can be linked to the psychosexual stages of development. this is where the child's libido is focused on different parts of the body e.g. the phallic stage (3-5 years) where children are fixated on the opposite sex parent. for boys, this is the oedipus complex in which they have an unconscious desire for an exclusive relationship with their mother
• Background

  There is lots and lots more about the background idk whether will be asked about or whether it's part of the psychodynamic perspective which we do next year so maybe look over more of background at some point
• Aim

  to report the findings of the treatment of a five year old boy of his phobia of horses and to find evidence for Freud's theories of psychosexual development and the Oedipus complex

  (bias - his own theory = unscientific as subjective)
• Sample

  • one boy called Little Hans
  • from Vienna, Austria
  • aged 3-5 years old (in the phallic stage)

  Little Hans was referred to Freud by his father, Max Graf. his father was a music critic + early supporter of Freud + member of the psychoanalytic society. therefore, Freud used opportunity sampling to gain his participant, as he was making use of his existing relationship with Hans' father
• Background to case study

  • Hans was described as a straightforward + cheerful child but when he became 'ill'/developed his phobia it was obvious there was a difference between what he said + what he thought. freud thought this was because things were going on in Hans' unconscious mind of which he was unaware
  • Freud decided to help Hans by interpreting his behaviour + telling him why he was thinking/behaving as he was - this process is known as psychoanalysis
  • Freud therefore documented the case of Little Hans to show his fears, dreams and fantasies were symbolic of his unconscious passing through the phallic stage of psychosexual development
  • Freud used this study to support his ideas about origins of phobias, his theory of infantile sexuality, the Oedipus complex + his belief in the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy
• Research method

  a longitudinal (+ tracks development of Hans' behaviour through the phallic stage = increased insight = high IV ) case study
• Features of a longitudinal study + how these features are shown in Freud's research

  1. tracks the development of behaviour overtime -> Freud was able to track how Hans progressed through the oedipus complex (his struggles + how he resolved it) + documents developments in Hans' fear during the phallic stage (from when he was 3 years old until he was 5)
  2. collects numerous sets of data on the same individual/group(s) -> observations + conversations of one boy (Hans) were made from the age of 3-5
• Features of a case study + how these features are shown in Freud's research

  1. investigates a unique case of behaviour in one individual or small group (+ examine unique cases of behaviour otherwise unable to study) -> Hans unique phobia of white horses
  2. collects in-depth, detailed, insightful data - often qualitative (+ increased IV) -> data collected from numerous interviews + observations of Hans with father, then sent to Freud via letters to be interpreted
• How was the data collected

  The study is longitudinal as it documents development's in Hans' fears from when he was 3 years old until he was 5. this allowed Freud to link the evidence gathered to his development theory of sexuality. data was gathered by Little Hans' father regularly observing and questioning Hans. he then sent records of the events + conversations to Freud via letters (bias -interprets letters to match his theories) who interpreted the information and replied to Little Hans' father with advice on how to proceed. Freud only met the boy once for an interview, there4 Freud's data is classed as secondary data
• 2 forms of bias in the way the data was collected

  -bias from Hans' father = the Dad was an early supporter of Freud so would want to find evidence for + prove Freud's theories = reduced IV

  -bias from Freud = Freud recieved letters of events from Hans' father + wanted to find evidence for his theories (reduced objectivity)
• Procedure

  
• Findings pt1

  
• Findings pt2

  
• Summary of findings

  
• Conclusions - Freud concluded that his study of Hans provided support for:

  • his theory of psychosexual development/infant sexuality
  • the nature of phobias + his theory that they are the product of unconscious anxiety displaced onto harmless external objects
  • his concept of unconscious determinism which holds that people are not consciously aware of the causes of their behaviour
  • his use of psychoanalytic therapy to treat disturbed thoughts, feelings + behaviours by firstly identifying the unconscious cause(s) of the disturbance and them bringing them into the conscious so they can be discussed and resolved
• Post study - Hans at 19 years old

  
• Factors that Freud didn't consider

  
• Research method evaluation

  
• Data evaluation

  
• Longitudinal research evaluation

  
• Ecological validity evaluation

  
• Sample evaluation

  
• Sampling bias

  
• Link to key theme answer

  
• Link to approach answer

  
• Exam Qs

  
• Exam Qs

  
• Exam Qs

  
• Exam Qs