Controversies Flashcards
(101 cards)
1
Q
Define the term ‘science’ in psychology.
A
This is the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through experiment and observation. The criteria used to be a science is that it must have a paradigm, it must be objective, falsifiable, controlled, reductionist and have testable hypotheses. Science generally works by creating a hypothesis, testing it and then making a conclusion from the results.
2
Q
What does empirical mean?
A
You gain knowledge through direct observation, it is seen and not theorised.
3
Q
What does objective mean?
A
It is fact and not opinion, it is not affected by bias in anyway.
4
Q
What approaches include testable hypotheses and conclusions gained empirically and objectively?
A
The biological and cognitive approach.
5
Q
How are conclusions gained in the biological and cognitive approach?
A
Through direct observation and control.
6
Q
What is an example of the biological approach having testable hypotheses and being empirical and objective?
A
Bocke and Goode.
7
Q
What is an example of the cognitive approach having testable hypotheses and being empirical and objective?
A
Peterson and Peterson.
8
Q
Why isn’t psychology objective?
A
It is humans studying humans which means we cannot be completely objective.
9
Q
Who said that nothing could ever be completely objective?
A
Popper because we always have some idea of what we are looking for.
10
Q
What is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?
A
This is when, in physics, if you observe subatomic particles they act differently to when they are not being observed, meaning that physics cannot be completely objective either.
11
Q
What does falsifiable mean?
A
This is when you try to disprove a theory rather than proving the truth of it. E.g black swan.
12
Q
What approach is completely falsifiable?
A
The biological approach as it is all based around physicality which means we can directly and empirically test something to try and disprove it.
13
Q
What did Popper say about falsifiability?
A
It is important to seek to disprove something.
14
Q
What is an example of psychology being falsifiable?
A
After WW2 Adorno et al theorised that Germans were different to everyone because of who they obeyed to such horrific orders. Milgram tested this and ended up proving Adorno wrong as he tested on American students and found the majority of them obeyed to electrocuting someone.
15
Q
What part of psychology is unfalsifiable?
A
Freud’s psychodynamic approach is very unfalsifiable as it is based around things we cannot see, the unconscious mind.
16
Q
What example of Freud is heavily unfalsifiable?
A
Repression, as we cannot actually see the process of moving memories into the unconscious therefore we cannot empirically test it to prove it wrong.
17
Q
What example of cognitive psychology is unfalsifiable?
A
Trace decay as we cannot actually empirically test the engram fading in our brain as we cannot see this process happening therefore we cannot prove it wrong either.
18
Q
How does psychology make something replicable and generalisable?
A
By using standardised procedures and large representative samples with naturalistic settings.
19
Q
What is an example of psychology being replicable and generalisable?
A
Most of cognitive psychology is this for example Millers study on the capacity of the multi store model.
20
Q
What problem arises from lab experiments?
A
It can produce researcher bias, demand characteristics and low ecological validity.
21
Q
What is another problem which often arises from psychology studies?
A
Psychology uses animals a lot which means that we cannot generalise the results to humans as we are qualitatively different so we don’t know we would react in the same way.
22
Q
Why can psychology not be a science?
A
But it can never repeat something that is completely true to life and able to be generalised to everyone.
23
Q
Why is it good to be reductionist in science?
A
It allows you to produce theories which are easy to empirically and objectively test. This helps us to produce valid and reliable results and is similar to all other sciences.
24
Q
What is an example of psychology being reductionist?
A
The biological approach found that a lack of serotonin can make someone depressed, therefore they created SSRI’s to help people with depression. This is similar to biology and chemistry which are both sciences as they make medicines all the time to treat people.
25
What is an example of psychology not always being reductionist?
Therapies like PCT and psychotherapy are not reductionist they are holistic and these therapies are widely accepted by many had have evidence to say they work.
26
What did Laing say?
They said that medication can sometimes miss very important things about an illness, for example it can miss the distress caused by schizophrenia which therapies target.
27
Is psychology a science and should it be one?
It seems that it probably could be a science as even though people argue it cannot be completely objective, it has been shown that nothing actually can. However some think that psychology shouldn't be a science as this is not always the most effective way of dealing with mental illness. For example, people tend to mix therapies with medication for things like depression. Miller said that psychology is just dressing up as a science, so it is fooling itself into thinking it is a science.
28
Define the term 'scientific benefit' in psychology.
This is a benefit in terms of knowledge and understanding gained from scientific research. This could be something we did not know before or could be an improvement to existing knowledge. We can also describe it in terms of practical gains, like treatments discovered for things like schizophrenia. An example of this in psychology would be Little Albert.
29
Define the term 'ethical cost' in psychology.
This is the cost to participants in a particular study. This could be in terms of psychological or physical harm, a breach of confidentiality or privacy, a lack of informed consent, the use of deception or the lack of the right to withdraw from the study. These can be major or relatively severe. For example, Milgram.
30
What did Gross say?
He said that ethical costs arise because of the fact that humans and animals are sentient thinking beings who can all feel harm and stress. This creates the double obligation dilemma.
31
What is the double obligation dilemma?
This is when firstly the psychologist has the obligation to his participants and to keep them from harm, but secondary they also have the obligation to seek and share knowledge to better the human race.
32
Why is it good for lab experiments to use deception?
Because this means that we avoid things like demand characteristics and eliminate extraneous variables which makes results moe valid as we can be more sure that the IV caused the change in the DV which demonstrates a cause and effect relationship.
33
What is an example of psychology needing to use deception in a lab study?
Milgram's study on obedience as he told participants that they had to electrocute someone in another room if they got a question wrong. The participants thought they were genuinely electrocuting someone, but they were not. If they hadn't been deceived they would not care about obeying as they knew they were not really hurting someone, therefore the study wouldn't have produced naturalistic behaviour.
34
Why is Milgram's study good?
It produced very useful findings for us which told us that behaviour is governed by our social environment. They also helped us to realise that actually the Germans were not evil people, they were completely normal.
35
Why was deception ok in Milgram's study?
People are usually ok with a bit of deception if the results have been shown to be very useful in every day life. Christensen said that it is ok to use deception as long as it is not extreme, which it generally is not.
36
Why is deception a problem?
Society quite commonly sees deception as immoral and unacceptable, so why is psychology allowed to use it if we wouldn't deceive someone in our day to day lives. Deception has to potential to cause some real harm and stress.
37
What is an example of psychology causing participants harm and stress?
The majority of participants came out of Milgram's study with major psychological problems as they believed they were electrocuting people to death. This also ended up causing some people to have heart palpitations and seizures even though none of it was real.
38
What other problem can deception cause?
It can mean that some people do not give fully informed consent to the psychologist and it also quite often removes their right to withdraw.
39
What is an example of psychology removing someones right to withdraw and not gaining fully informed consent from use of deception?
Zimbado's prison study is a prime example of this as if they had told participants what was really going to happen it is unlikely any of them would have taken part, as who would want to become a prisoner. It is also highly debatable as to whether they really got the right to withdraw as many of them were physically abused but no one withdrew during.
40
What is a way of dealing with ethical issues that arise from deception?
Debriefing is one way which is when the purpose of the study is told to all participants afterwards and they are offered free therapy if any harm has been caused. However many don't like this and feel it doesn't deal with deception at all as it cannot undo any damage caused. There is also presumptive consent which is when you give people not in the study all aims and ask them if they would be happy to take part. However we cannot predict the ethical costs of a study always e.g Milgram.
41
Why are naturalistic and covert observations scientifically beneficial in psychology?
Because they produce naturalistic behaviour which is not affected by demand characteristics as they don't even know they are being observed. This therefore produces much more valid results as we know this is how they would usually behave.
42
What is an example of naturalistic, covert observations being beneficial in psychology?
Hofling's study on conformity used a confederate doctor which essentially asked nurses to break hospital rules to treat a patient. A lot of the nurses conformed even while knowing they were breaking hospital rules. If they knew they were being watched it is highly unlikely they would have actually done this.
43
Why is Hofling's study good?
It gets around the artificiality of lab experiments therefore making results moe ecologically valid, so we can generalise them to real world phenomena. Many feel that very eye opening and natural results like this are worth a bit of embarrassment as they help our understanding.
44
What is wrong with the use of naturalistic, covert observations?
Many people find it as an invasion of privacy to be observed where they wouldn't usually be observed, so why do psychologists do this? It is generally acceptable to be observed in places like Cafe's but many psychologists have gone far beyond this.
45
What is an example of psychology using observations to invade someones privacy?
Middlemist observed people peeing in public toilets to see how being watched would change how they peed.
46
What is another problem with naturalistic and covert observations?
This means that deception is used which we already know is very unethical and it also means that their right to withdraw is removed, because if psychologists gave them the right to withdraw they would know they were being observed.
47
What is a way of dealing with problems raised from naturalistic and covert observations?
We can get ethical committees to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. This is when they predict the scientific benefits and the ethical costs and the way them against each other to decide whether they are balances or is scientific benefits outweigh the costs.
48
What is a problem with cost-benefit analysis?
We know we cannot predict the ethical costs that come from a study sometimes e.g Milgram, which means that we could think something is ok and then it could end up going horribly wrong. There is also the problem that sometimes studies have gone ahead even though there aren't really any scientific benefits e.g Middlemist.
49
Can we justify studies when weighing the scientific benefits against the ethical costs?
It is very difficult to be sure if a study is acceptable or justified. Ethical committees can be very helpful in this as they are supposed to be impartial, however because it is humans studying humans it is pretty much impossible to be completely objective. Maybe we should look at how helpful something will be rather than looking at scientific benefits as this will mean we only do research when it will produce useful applications.
50
What do biological psychologists believe?
That our behaviour is purely influenced by our genes.
51
What kind of studies do biological psychologists use to test heritability estimate?
Twin studies.
52
What is heritability estimate?
This is the extent to which differences between people are due to a genetic influence.
53
Define the term environmental influence in psychology.
This refers to influences outside a person which affects their behaviour. This can be things like diet, family, friends and the media which make you act in a certain way. For example,if i see my mum being aggressive then i may choose to be aggressive myself.
54
Define the term genetic influence in psychology.
This is when our biology determines how we behave. This could be something evolutionary, like babies suck on anything small and round to get milk. Or this could be something which is passed on from our parents like a genetic mental disorder.
55
What did Joseph find which supports a big impact from genetics?
They found that MZ twins have a 40.4% concordance rate and DZ twins have a 7.4% concordance rate which shows the big difference and how Genes have a big impact on our behaviour.
56
What did Tienari et al find which contradicts Joseph?
Found a lot of evidence which suggests schizophrenia has a diathesis-stress cause which highlights the importance of an interaction between genes and environment.
57
What is a problem with Twin studies?
It is hard to test whether something is completely genetic as twins do not have exactly the same environment as they can be treated differently, go to different schools or even end up have a different environment in the womb.
58
What modern method has shown intelligence to have a genetic basis?
Gene mapping
59
What did Chorney et al find?
Individual genes linked to IQ.
60
What did Turkheimer find?
That socio-economic status accounts for most of the variance in IQ scores.
61
What is a problem with Turkheimer?
Peoples parents don't usually grow up wealthy and then become unwealthy meaning their economic status tends not to change, so maybe it is genetic and just seems like its to do with the economic status. However this is all only correlational, we cannot draw cause and effect.
62
What do behaviourist psychologists believe?
That our behaviour is purely due to our environment.
63
What study is an example of environmental influence?
Bandura's bobo cool as this found the importance of vicarious reinforcement on aggressive tendencies in children.
64
What did Cocarro find which refutes a purely environment influence?
He conducted twin studies which found that 50% of aggressive tendencies were due to genetics. This therefore shows there must be an interaction between the two. However this could just be due to the fact that they share their environment.
65
What study supports an environmental influence on our biology?
Maguire et al's study on the london taxi drivers as they have to learn all the roads in London. After doing so they found that their hippocampi and significantly enlarged. However this could also just be due to a change in hormones and not to do with the learning of information at all.
66
What have recent psychologists accepted?
That behaviour is due to a strong interaction between genes and our environment.
67
What shows an interaction between our genes and environment?
Epigenetic's and the differences between our genotype and phenotype. For example, twins who are reared apart will have the same genes and genotype however the environment could change their phenotype e.g diet and it does this by activating certain genes. This will then be passed onto their offspring.
68
What did Polmin et al find?
That children with aggressive tendencies tended to create their own microenvironment which made them more aggressive.
69
What is alpha bias and why can this be a problem when it comes to gender?
This is when the differences between Genders are exaggerated. This means that similarities are ignored making it easier for people to justify inequalities, which can become sexist.
70
Why is Freud an example of alpha bias?
He viewed femininity as a failed masculinity and felt that males and females were not in equal positions of worth. He said that because females could not undergo the oedipus complex they could not form morally. He also felt that the lack of a penis was a deficiency.
71
What did Eagly and Johnson find?
They looked at lab experiments which were looking at the difference in leadership skills between men and women. They found the lab experiments showed differences which were not found in field experiments which shows how lab findings should not be generalised.
72
Why might Freud not be biased?
He was around at a time when society held strong gender stereotypes which were normal back then.
73
What do feminist psychologists suggest to do to get around alpha bias?
We should move away from these biological assumptions of our differences and realise that they are just socially constructed. (However this could cause beta bias). We could also swap the alpha bias to males which would change how people view differences.
74
What is a theory for this large amount of alpha bias?
Psychologists want to publish significant findings, not non-significant findings. Differences between genders tend to be significant findings compared to similarities meaning there may be a lot more similarities then it seems.
75
What is beta bias and why is it a problem in terms of gender?
This is when the similarities between genders are exaggerated meaning important differences are ignored and viewed as a deficiency.
76
What is an example beta bias with gender in psychology?
Kholberg's experiment on moral development. They assumed that males and females developed the same attitude towards morals. They created a scale which used males on and the moral dilemma was centred around a male.
77
What did Gilligan say Kholberg did wrong?
They used the male way of thinking (moral of justice) and applied it to females who don't think in the same way they have the moral of care which sort of ignores justice.
78
What did Gilligan say we should do?
View differences in a positive light.
79
What did Hare-Mustin and Maraceck say we should do?
We should acknowledge females special needs to identify where we need to support them e.g maternity leave.
80
What did Eagly say we should to to avoid beta bias?
To redress the balance we need to make women look inferior in places, this means we will then get extra help. However this could create a new problem.
81
Why is it good to sometimes minimise the differences?
This means that we may be seen as more equal and therefore get equal opportunities in places like education and employment.
82
So how is psychology gender biased and how can we deal with it?
It is both alpha and beta biased in certian areas. E.g Freud and Kholberg. Feminist psychologists believe we should deal with this by identifying where the bias is.
83
What did Tokana and Osaka find?
They did a meta analysis of 15 studies and found that 14 out of 15 didn't support the common view that America is a collectivist culture and Japan is an individualist culture.
84
What does Tokana and Osaka show about psychology?
That peoples common views can be exaggerated.
85
Why does alpha bias come up often in psychology?
Because results that show differences tend to be significant findings and psychologists don't want to publish non-significant findings. This means there are probably more similarities than differences.
86
What is an emic?
This is a subtle difference between cultures.
87
What is an etic?
This is something universal across all cultures.
88
What does the emic/etic distinction help with?
Stopping imposed etics being made.
89
What is an imposed etic?
This is when you assume that something is universal when in actual fact it is not and you miss out vital differences between cultures.
90
What are two examples of beta bias in psychology?
Eysenck created many IQ tests, however they were German which is a Western culture which means that non westerners would be at a disadvantage. Kholberg's research into moral development used a scenario where the correct answer involved the moral of justice. This was an imposed etic as collectivist cultures have the justice ethic and individualist cultures use the care ethics. This means that individualist cultues will look like they are morally underdeveloped when actually they are just different.
91
What does Eysenck and Kholberg show about culture bias?
That exaggerated similarities can cause imposed etics. This means that tests and findings produced become invalid as they are not showing true life. This causes incorrect theories to be made which are generalised when they really shouldn't be.
92
How do we deal with culture bias?
We need to try and identify and appreciate the emics of cultures and we can do this by using indigenous psychologists.
93
What is an indigenous psychologist?
This is a psychologist that researchers their own culture instead of western psychologists studying the culture.
94
Why are indigenous psychologists good?
They are able to better identify emits of their own culture meaning that imposed ethics are reduced.
95
What is an example of where indigenous psychologists should be used?
In South Africa 90% of the psychologists are white but the majority of the population are black which means key emics could be ignored.
96
What is an example of an imposed etic in psychology that can be common?
Cole et al created an IQ test. This involved choosing the odd word out of log saw and hammer. The majority of people would say log as it is not a tool, however the Kpelle tribe categorises things differently and would therefore choose a different word. Because of the imposed etic, this makes their IQ score and makes them look unintelligent when actually they are just different. This is also ethnocentric.
97
What does ethnocentric mean?
This is when a culture believes their way of doing things is right and anyone who does it differently is wrong.
98
What is a way of dealing with imposed etics to avoid ethnocentrism?
We need to use a derived etic approach.
99
What is a derived etic approach?
This is when you look across cultures to universalise something rather than assuming something is universal.
100
What is an example of psychology using the derived etic approach?
Buss conducted cross cultural research on mating preferences. Rather than looking at Western societies preferences and then universalising them, they went to many different cultures to find out what their mating preferences were.
101
Why can psychology never be completely non culture biased?
Because there will always be problems with translation and problems with identifying certain variables in other cultures which we may not think of.
