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Freud's study of Little Hans (1909) - Coggle Diagram
Freud's study of Little Hans (1909)
EVALUATIONS
many say this study is highly subjective (dad collected data, Freud was aiming to prove his theory)
METHOD - followed Hans through childhood so we can follow his development through the stages, however, very small sample so hard to generalise
DATA - subjective however rich in data as it was all qualitative
ETHICS - ethical as Freud did not intervene and Hans was not left with any memories etc - no withdrawal or deception needed as they were aware of the study
VALIDITY - data subjective etc, but face validity high as it set out to explore the aims. Ecological validity also high as Hans was going about his normal life
RELIABILITY - not very reliable as it would be impossible to replicate as all children will go through the stages differently. Not very scientific and had no set variables
ETHNOCENTRISM - study focused on one middle-class family and therefore ethnocentric as we cannot generalise it to other countries and cultures
REDUCTIONISM/HOLISM - reductionist as Freud tried to narrow down to the Oedipus complex - we cant see the bigger picture. However, the psychodynamic approach is often seen as holistic because it looks at whole experiences and tries to resolve them in terms of stages
STORY
3 years old = started showing interest in his "widdler", one day his mother said "if you keep doing that, I'll send a doctor to cut it off"
First letter sent after Freud had a panic attack after seeing a horse (had seen a father say to a girl "don't put your fingers near the white one, it will bite you")
Freud believed this was a projection of his fear of masturbatory indulgence
3 and 1/2 = Giraffe Fantasy (Freud thought that Hans sitting on the crumbled giraffe was a fantasy of him having sex with his mother)- severe Oedipus complex - projects onto fear of horses as he links father and horses
also becoming preoccupied with his poo (had a friend named Lodi) and had problems with going to the toilet- he had regressed back to the anal stage
4 and 1/2 = scared of the bath and wants his sister dead (jealous). Bath Fantasy - plumber came in and unscrewed his "widdler", Freud saw this as Hans understanding where his sister had come from. Starting to identify with his father
Hans later got through the complex and the phallic stage successfully and shows that in order to get rid of a phobia, we have to find the route (basis of Freud's psychotherapy)
STUDY
AIM - To find supporting evidence for Freud's theories
METHOD - Case study (longitudinal)
DATA - Observation and self-report from Mr Graf
PARTICIPANTS - one boy ("Little Hans")
ALTERNATIVE VIEWS
FROMM (1970)- time of study very patriacal and suggests Freud couldn't accept that Hans was scared of his mum (potentially abusive) because she was a woman
BOWLBY- believed fears stemmed from abandonment issues
PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE (behaviour is determined by unconscious drives)
WEAKNESSES - low generalisability, low reliability, subjective
STRENGTHS - detailed data to collected from case studies, holistic, useful as therapies have been evolved