Developmental psychology.pdf

Investigating Behavior 43
Tests in Research When tests are used for research purposes, many subjects are
usually involved, and the aim is to understand human functions in a broader sense, as
they occur in the general population. In one investigation of dreams, for example, 41
adults kept dream logs, which were then rated according to how much feeling was
expressed and how much displacement occurred in time and space. Thus a dream about
yesterday in the kitchen involved much less displacement than a dream of childhood
in some distant country. Afterward, all subjects were administered a test of personality
concerning aggression, spontaneity, and depth of feeling.
When the dream ratings were compared with the test data, no association was
discovered between expression of feelings in dreams and expression of feelings in waking
life. There was, however, a significant relationship between the amount of displacement
in the dreams and the expression of feelings in daily life. The more removed
the dream setting, the greater was the expression of feelings. These results were regarded
as supporting the hypothesis that during dreaming human beings are integrating
recent events with more remote memories. Dreaming, in other words, appears
to involve the interpretation of current and prior life experiences (Kuiken & Powell,
1980).
Case History
This use of tests for individual assessment and clinical research brings us to the case
history, which is a detailed statement of the most relevant background and current
factors in an individual's life. Used in individual assessment, it is the study of one
person from a retrospective viewpoint, emphasizing family life, schooling, work history,
personal relationships, and so forth. A psychologist, social worker, or physician assembles
all information that may be useful in understanding a troubled individual. This
information, the case history, is used in diagnosis and treatment, and its preparation
requires the work of well-trained persons (Schwartz, 1974).
Idiographic and Nomothetic Analyses Clinical and counseling psychologists are
usually more interested in understanding a given individual than in drawing broad
generalizations. Many of them engage in idiographic research, which means that any
individual's behavior is best described in terms of his or her own special lawfulness.
Uniqueness is emphasized in the idiographic investigations; uniformities among
individuals are of lesser concern. Clinical work, in this way, often has a different
emphasis than the other methods (Donnellan, 1978).
The other research methods—naturalistic observation, the survey, and also
the experimental method—are concerned chiefly with formulating universal statements
about people. Their aim is to establish principles that apply to the general population,
insofar as possible. These studies are called nomothetic research, from the Greek
root nomos, meaning "law." The purpose of nomothetic research is to discover general
laws.
Case of Dora Sometimes general laws can be discovered from a series of case si udies,
which has been the claim in Freud's work. He developed his broad ideas about human
personality and unconscious motivation from analyses of several individuals with
adjustment problems. One such case involved a woman named Dora, who came to see
him after her parents discovered her suicide letter. At the time, she was 18 yesrs old
and lived with her parents and older brother.
At the age of eight, Dora began to show puzzling physical illnesses. Thi; most
pronounced symptom was sudden attacks of laborious breathing, for which there was
no apparent explanation. The family physician diagnosed a nervous condition and prescribed
rest, but the problem continued intermittently. At about age twelve, Dora began
to experience severe migraine headaches, coupled with attacks of nervous coughing,
and these, too, persisted irregularly.