Controversies Flashcards
Define the term ‘science’ in psychology.
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.
What does empirical mean?
You gain knowledge through direct observation, it is seen and not theorised.
What does objective mean?
It is fact and not opinion, it is not affected by bias in anyway.
What approaches include testable hypotheses and conclusions gained empirically and objectively?
The biological and cognitive approach.
How are conclusions gained in the biological and cognitive approach?
Through direct observation and control.
What is an example of the biological approach having testable hypotheses and being empirical and objective?
Bocke and Goode.
What is an example of the cognitive approach having testable hypotheses and being empirical and objective?
Peterson and Peterson.
Why isn’t psychology objective?
It is humans studying humans which means we cannot be completely objective.
Who said that nothing could ever be completely objective?
Popper because we always have some idea of what we are looking for.
What is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?
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.
What does falsifiable mean?
This is when you try to disprove a theory rather than proving the truth of it. E.g black swan.
What approach is completely falsifiable?
The biological approach as it is all based around physicality which means we can directly and empirically test something to try and disprove it.
What did Popper say about falsifiability?
It is important to seek to disprove something.
What is an example of psychology being falsifiable?
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.
What part of psychology is unfalsifiable?
Freud’s psychodynamic approach is very unfalsifiable as it is based around things we cannot see, the unconscious mind.
What example of Freud is heavily unfalsifiable?
Repression, as we cannot actually see the process of moving memories into the unconscious therefore we cannot empirically test it to prove it wrong.
What example of cognitive psychology is unfalsifiable?
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.
How does psychology make something replicable and generalisable?
By using standardised procedures and large representative samples with naturalistic settings.
What is an example of psychology being replicable and generalisable?
Most of cognitive psychology is this for example Millers study on the capacity of the multi store model.
What problem arises from lab experiments?
It can produce researcher bias, demand characteristics and low ecological validity.
What is another problem which often arises from psychology studies?
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.
Why can psychology not be a science?
But it can never repeat something that is completely true to life and able to be generalised to everyone.
Why is it good to be reductionist in science?
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.
What is an example of psychology being reductionist?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
