Freud, Baron Cohen and pyschodynamic and indivudual differences

What is the ID

Impulsive part of the personality that seeks immediate gratification of desires - focuses on wants and needs. Present at birth

What is the ego

This develops in childhood out of the id, as the child learns that immediate gratification is not always possible and pain cannot be avoided. It works on the reality principle. It tries to balance the demands of the id and the superego.

what is the superego

This consists of the values and morals of the child, and develops at the age of 5. It is the child’s conscious and ego – ideal, a model of what the child would like to be.

what is the oedipus complex

When a little boy going through the phallic stage wants to posses the mother and kill the father

What were the aims of little Hans experiment

Give an account of a boy who had a phobia of horses and use this to show the existence of the Oedipus complex. To demonstrate how phobias can be treated.

Design and method of little hans

Clinical case study, with data collected via observation, self report and interview, longitudinal

what is a libido

primary pleasure-seeking energy

Oral stage

Ages 0-1. libido focuses on the mouth. Through sucking, biting, and nursing, infants explore the world and bond with caregivers. The primary conflict is weaning, which introduces issues of trust and dependency. Because the infant is dependant upon caretakers, the child develops a sense of trust and comfort.

Adult traits with oral fixation

Freud believed the individual would have issues with drinking, eating, smoking or nail biting.

Anal stage

Occurs from 1-3, erogenous zones are the bowel and bladder, key experience is toilet training - results in conflict with the id and the ego. positive experiences during this stage served as the basis for people to become competent, productive, and creative adults. Adult traits with this fixation are that you can become anal retentive (uptight ‘anal’) or anal expulsive (messy)

Genital stage

Happens age 3-6. Primary focus of libido is on the genitals. children also begin to discover the difference between males and females. 

Boys view their fathers as a rival for their mother’s affections. The Oedipus complex describes wanting to possess the mother and replace the father. Child fears he will be punished by the father for these feelings and leads to a fear called castration anxiety. 

Child begins to identify with same sex parent as a means of possessing the other parent. For girls penis envy was never fully resolved and all women remain somewhat fixated. Karen Horney disputed this theory calling it both inaccurate and demanding to women. Instead, men experience feelings of inferiority because they cannot give birth to children, a concept she referred to as a womb envy.

Latency stage

Ages 6-puberty during this stage, the superego continues to develop while the id’s energies are suppressed. Children develop social skills, values and relationships with peers and adults outside of the family. The development of the ego and superego contribute to this period of calm. The stage begins around the time that children enter into school and become more concerned with peer relationships, hobbies, and other interests.

sexual energy is repressed

communication skills

Adulthood traits with latency stage

If you get stuck you become immature and not good at adult relationships.

Gential stage

Puberty to death - maturing sexually. Libido is active again. Strong sexual interest in the opposite sex. Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest and welfare of others grows. The goal of this stage is to establish a balance between the various life areas.

Unlike the many of the earlier stages of development, Freud believed that the ego and superego were fully formed and functioning at this point. Younger children are ruled by the id, which demands immediate satisfaction of the most basic needs and wants. Teens in the genital stage of development are able to balance their most basic urges against the need to conform to the demands of reality and social norms.

Baron Cohen sample

16 autistic - 13M 3F - volunteer sample

50 neurotypical 25M 25F - random (age matched)

10 tourettes - 8M 2F snowball (age matched)

all had normal IQ

BC aims

To test whether high functioning adults with ASD struggle to identify emotions of eyes using a new test for Theory of Mind- the eyes test

BC experimental design

Quasi, independent measures

2 control tasks in BC

gender and basic emotion, ppts with AS did average on these tasks

2 non control tasks in BC

eyes and strange stories. Eyes: 25 photos of eyes shown for 3 seconds at a time in black and white - given foil words such as happy or melancholy

BC results

Control 20.3 + 20.8 / 25 on the eyes task Autism 16.3/25 - no relationship between iq and performance. Strange stories ASD did worse. NT control group women did significantly better 21/25 F 18/25 M

Freud Experimental design

longitudinal clinical case study, quasi

Freud sample

Little boy from Vienna, Austria called Herbert Graf

Freud Case study

When Hans was 3 he took an interest in his ‘widdler’ - his mother threatened him by saying she would cut it off if he would not stop playing with it - developed castration anxiety

At this time he saw a horse die in the street

Hans saw that horses had larger penises than he did and assumed both his parents must have large ones

His sister is born when hans is 3.5 and he comments on the fact that she has a very small widdler

At 4 he was under the impression that a horse would bite him - his fear seemed to relate to the size of the horse's penis and the dissatisfaction with the size of his own penis

Hans wanted to climb into bed and hug his mum but his father was opposed to the idea, giving Hans great anxiety

Hans Fantasy (girrafes)

2 girrafes one was big and one was crumpled. The big one resembled his father and the crumpled one was his mother. Hans took the crumpled one away from the big one and sat on it - oedipal as he is replacing the father

Hans fantasy (plumbers)

A plumber came and took of Hans’ penis and bottom and screwed on new larger ones

Hans fantasy (children)

he fantasised he had several children: when his father asked who the mother was, Hans’ replied “Mummy, and you’re the Granddaddy”.

Freud conclusion

His study of Hans proved that boys in the phallic stage of psychosexual development suffer from the oedipus complex, His use of psychoanalytic therapy to treat disturbed thoughts, feelings and 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.