Freud

What was the aim of Freud’s research?

• To document the case of Little Hans who suffers from a phobia

• To test the value of psychodynamics for testing for mental disorders

What is the background for Freud’s study?

• Freud’s psychodynamic theory

• Stages of Psychosexual development

• Oedipus complex

What is Freud’s psychodynamic theory?

• Behaviour is driven by unconscious desires

• Individuals employ mechanisms to protect themselves and their conscious minds

What is Freud’s theory of the Stages of psychosexual development?

• Each stage is marked by a different conflict a child must overcome in order to successfully progress to the next stage of psychosexual development

• Little Hans was said to be in the phallic stage of psychosexual development

What is the Oedipus complex?

• Boy desires for his mother

• Boy becomes jealous of father

• Boy sees father as competition

• Boy develops fear of his father

• Boy has to identify with his father

• Complex resolved

What is the method and design of this study?

• Longitudinal case study

• Data gathered in semi-structured interviews

• Observation (by Han’s father)

What data is gathered?

Qualitative data

What is the sample for this study?

• Herbet Graf (Little Hans)

• 3-5 years old

• LH is from Austria

What happened in the “Widdlers” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• Hans becomes curious of his sexuality

• Often discusses his ‘widdler’ with his parents- interested in size and tries to compare

• Hans observed that large animals had large widdlers that were correspondingly larger than his so his mother must have a widdler ‘like a horse’

• Freud saw LH was interested in his genitalia showing that his is in the phallic stage of psychosexual development

What happened in the “Seduction attempt” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• Hans has a fascination with his widdler

• He is being washed in the bath by his mother and wants her to touch his widdler

• She refuses saying it’s ‘priggish’

• LH also masturbated every evening

• More evidence LH is in the phallic stage

• Supports the Oedipus complex- LH desires for his mother

What happened in the “Fear of the bath” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• LH reveals he is afraid of the bathtub as he is now using a larger one

• He is afraid his mother might let go of him and he’ll drown

• LH reveals he wants his little sister Hanna to drown

• Hans is jealous of his sister- rival for mother’s attention

• More acceptable to admit you’re afraid of water than admitting you want your sister dead

What happened in the “Fear of horses” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• Hans was walking down the street one day and had an anxiety attack

• He could not be consoled by his father, only his mother

• Later Hans expressed that “a white horse would bite him”

• Worry that the horse will bite him links to his fear of being castrated- castration anxiety appears in the Oedipus complex

• The horse reminds Hans of his father

• Hans displaces the fear of his father onto horses

What happened in the “Fantasy of the crumpled giraffe” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• Hans reveals to his dad he had a fantasy about 2 giraffes

  • One is a huge giraffe and one is a crumpled giraffe

  • Hans held the crumpled giraffe and sat on top of it

  • The big giraffe was annoyed that LH had taken the crumpled giraffe away

• Crumpled giraffe- mother

• Large giraffe- father

• Interpreted as evidence for the Oedipus complex

• When LH sits on the crumpled giraffe, he claims it as his own

What happened in the “Real Fear” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• LH actually fearful of his father

• Horse reminds Hans of his father

  • The black on the horses mouth resembles a moustache, blinkers resembles glasses

• Phobia is an example of displacement (defence mechanism)

• Fear of father displaced onto horse

What happened in the “Fantasy of the plumber” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• Hans dreams of a plumber who asks to see his widdler

• The plumber gave him a larger widdler and bottom

• Hans reveals he wants to have a moustache like his father

• Hans starts to identify with father

• Necessary for resolution of Oedipus complex

• Therefore no longer fearful of father or horses

What happened in the “Resolution?” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• Hans reveals he has a dream about becoming a father himself

• He is saying he wants his mother to be their mother

• Dreaming about adopting roles of his own father

• Hans no longer want him to die and sees him as a grandfather for his own children

• He acknowledges his father as a senior part of the family

What happened in the “A problem?” event and what was Freud’s analysis?

• Hans went on a walk with his mother

• Saw a horse fall and Hans became terrified as he though the horse had died

• Hans is still fearful of horses

• Freud’s explanation is flawed

• Oedipus complex should have been resolved so why is he still scared of horses?

• Freud will ignore this of course

What conclusions can be drawn from Freud’s study?

• Support for the theory of psychosexual development

• Supports the Oedipus complex in the phallic stage of psychosexual development

• Support of how phobias are produced by unconscious displacement of anxieties onto harmless objects

What is a strength of the research method?

• Case study

• Focus on LH for 3 years- more insight gained

• A lot of information is gathered abut his fears, dreams, etc. which improves validity- e.g. crumpled giraffe dream

Weakness of the research method

• Case study

• Low internal validity- no IV and no control over variables

• No control over Little Hans and what questions/activities went on inside of the home- something else like leading Qs may affect LH’s answers

Strength of data collected?

• Qualitative

• In depth detail gathered over two year about fears, dreams and fantasies- improved validity

• For example, LH describing himself sitting on the crumpled giraffe as if to own his own mother shows signs of the Oedipus complex

Weakness of the data gathered?

• Qualitative

• Lacks numerical data- not objective, harder to analyse and compare

• We cannot compare other people’s experiences to Little Hans and his are unique

Good ethics?

• Hans less stressed as his father is doing the talking- protection from psychological harm

• Confidentiality- Uses a pseudonym for Herbert Graf (Little Hans)

• Consent from his father

Bad ethics

• Pretty much everything

• Embarrassment which would cause distress for LH in the future (Lack of Protection from harm)

Weaknesses in reliability?

• Lack of standardisation

• Little Hans parents use leading questions

• For example, ​

  • you were watching Mummy giving Hanna her bath, perhaps you wished she would let go of her so that Hanna should fall in?​

  • Hans: Yes.

Strength of the sample?

• Freud was able to conduct an in depth study

• Case Study focused on one person (Little Hans)
  In depth information found supporting the Oedipus complex

Weakness of the sample?

• Case study on one boy (ethnocentric, androcentric)

• Lacks population validity

• Cannot generalise findings outside of the study, to other sexualities, to other cultures, to females

How does Freud’s study relate to the principles of the individual differences area?

• Principle: area suggests that individuals differ in their personality, thinking and behaviour, so everyone can be considered unique​

• Aim: to analyse Hans’ phobia of horses and used his theory of the Oedipus complex to do so. The method used was a case study and a longitudinal design was used to study Hans from the age of 3-5​

• Findings: Freud suggested that the horses’ blinkers represented the fathers glasses and the black bit around the horses mouth represented his fathers moustache​

• Link: Little Hans was the only individual studied in Freud’s study, so it can be assumed that everyone displays unique behaviours/personalities – Hans unconscious mind use displacement as a way of dealing with his anxieties ​

How does Freud’s study relate back to the key theme of understanding disorders?

• The key theme of understanding disorders refers to studying explanations for mental health disorders. This study focuses on analysing LH’s fear of horses

• Freud analysed LH’s dreams and behaviour over two years through observation and questioning by his father

• Freud suggested that LH had displaced the fear of his father due to the Oedipus complex onto a horse as LH sees his father as a rival for his mother’s attention

• This shows us that disorders such as phobias can be understood as defence mechanisms that our unconscious mind uses to protect our conscious mind, for example displacing a fear onto a harmless object