A03 Psychologists for Issues and Debates Flashcards
Psychological research about women’s ability has led to lower self-esteem, when findings may not be universal.
A03: Gender Bias in Psychology
✩ Judgements about an individual women’s ability are made on the basis of average differences between the sexes or biased sex-role stereotypes, and this also had the effect of lowering women’s self-esteem; making them, rather than men, think they have to improve themselves.
(Tavris, 1993).
Taking a feminist approach to reduce Gender Bias which attempts to restore the imbalance in both psychological theories and research.
A03: Gender Bias in Psychology
✩ Dweck’s research ‘Math’s is a gift, and how this poses a risk to females’ found that girls who viewed maths as a more natural gift that cannot be controlled performed significantly worse than boys in mathematics throughout their lives.
✩ This had led to interventions being developed that address this factor shrinking this percieved gender difference (an eight-session intervention for junior high school tudents that taught them the idea that intellectual skills can be developed)
✩ Thus rearch into gender bias in psychology has positive applications in creating a more equal and fair society.
Dweck et al
Distinction between individualism and collectivism is blurring due to globalisation
A03: Cultural Bias
✩ Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14 out of 15 studies comparing the US and Japan found no evidence of a distinction between the two types of culture
✩ This is a weakness because it could suggest that this form of cultural bias is less of a an issue than it once was
Takano and Osaka
Measures have been put in place to protect individuals and the wider community from socially sensitive research.
A03: Ethical Implications of Research Studies and Theory
✩There is some evidence that socially sensitive research is more likely than non-sensitive research to be rejected by institutional ethical committees.
✩ Ceci et al found that the rejection rate was about twice as high which suggests that university ethics departments are mindful of socially sensitive research and appropriate measures are put into place at an institutional level to protect individuals and the wider community from socially sensitive research.
Ceci et al
Skinner, argues that free will is an illusion, insisting that our behaviour is in fact environmentally determined, even if we are unable (or unwilling) to admit it. Recent evidence provides some support for Skinner’s claim.
A03: Free Will & Determinism
✩Libet et al. (1983) found that the motor regions of the brain become active before a person registers conscious awareness of a decision, demonstrating that the participants’ decision to move the finger was actually a pre-determined action of the brain.
✩This strongly suggests that many responses are biologically determined and that although we may believe that we have free will, Skinner’s claim that free will is an illusion, may be correct.
Libet et al
Research support suggests that people who have an internal locus of control believing that they have a high degree of influence over events and their own behaviour, tend to be more mentally healthy.
A03: Free Will & Determinism
✩Roberts et al demonstrated that adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism (belief that their lives were ‘decided’ by events outside of their control) were at significantly greater risk of developing depression.
Roberts et al
Why does taking a ‘free will approach’ have face validity?
A03: Free Will & Determinism
No psychologist, but rather an extention of the previous flashcard…
✩ This suggests that, even if we do not have free will, the fact that we think we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour and thus has face validity.
What did research find about the belief regarding ‘total determinism’?
A03: Free Will & Determinism
✩Dennett argues that that there is no such thing as total determinism.
✩The Chaos Theory proposes that very small changes in initial conditions can subsequently result in major changes, sometimes called the ‘butterfly effect.’
✩Deterministic explanations tend to oversimplify human behaviour and while they may be appropriate for non-human animals, human behaviour is less rigid and influenced by many factors including cognitive as well as biological impulses.
✩This means that the idea of finding a simple deterministic formula from psychological research is unrealistic and thus has low external validity.
Dennett et al
Case studies support the nurture debate
A03: The Nature-Nurture Debate
✩ A study done by Raine on Donta Page who brutally murdered a woman supports nurture. His upbringing involved being beaten and shaken, as well as being tied up and tortured with electrical cords.
✩ This supports the nurture argument as it shows how the environment someone was brought up in can influence their behaviour in later life
Raine et al
Interactionist approach to these practical applications still are more effective; research support from OCD?
A03: The Nature-Nurture Debate
✩ The most effective treatment for OCD often combines SSRIs with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as noted by Connor et al, indicating the advantages of taking an interactional treatment approach that considers both nature and nurture.
Perhaps taking an interactionist approach by taking both an idiographic and nomothetic approach to psychological investigations, rather than separating them is better.
A03: Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches to Psychological Investigations
✩ Millon & Davis suggest that research should start with a nomothetic approach, and once general laws have been established, the focus should switch to an idiographic approach to develop our understanding and theories.
✩ Thus, using both approaches together allows us to acquire the best of both worlds.
✩ This could in fact have implications for future research in drug therapies which might entail using individualised ‘recipes’ based on a mix of genetic and environmental insights.
Millon & Davis
Why may hidden behaviours be overlooked when taking a reductionist approach?
A03: Holism and Reductionism
✩ Wolpe, for example, developed systematic desensitisation. Treated one woman for a fear of spiders, only to find that the woman did not improve from this behavioural (low level) method of therapy. He later found out that the woman’s husband (whom she was experiencing marital problems with) had been given an insect nickname.
✩ The woman had gained a fear not because of conditioning but rather as a way to demonstrate her marital problems unconsciously, a defence mechanism of sorts.
✩ These issues raise an important problem for reductionism and that is that the hidden meaning of a behaviour as a sum of multiple components is often overlooked when explaining in terms of reductionism.
Wolpe et al
