Debates

Question 1

What are the four broader ethical principles?

Answer 1

respect
competence
responsibility
integrity

Question 2

What are the six specific ethical guidelines?

Answer 2

Informed consent
Right to withdraw
Confidentiality
Debrief
Protection from harm
Deception

Question 3

Which specific ethical guidelines are within the respect guideline?

Answer 3

Informed consent
Right to withdraw
confidentiality

Question 4

Which specific ethical guidelines are within the responsibility guideline?

Answer 4

Protection from harm

debrief

Question 5

Which specific ethical guidelines are within the Integrity guideline?

Answer 5

Deception

Question 6

What are the three benefits of psychological research being ethical?

Answer 6

It is good that participants are treated well: we wouldn’t like it if we were treated with a lack of respect.
It enhances the reputation of psychology as an academic discipline
Researchers are more likely to get other participants for psychological research in the future if they can see participants are treated well.

Question 7

What are the three drawbacks of psychological research being ethical?

Answer 7

It can place limits on the sort of research carried out (preventing research that might be really worthwhile from being done)
It can reduce the validity of research if participants know the aim of a study (as this can lead to them not behaving as they normally would)
Sampling bias can be a problem if participants are able to withdraw (i.e. you get left with a sample that isn’t as representative as it should be

Question 8

What is the situational explanation?

Answer 8

It suggests that behaviour is best explained by reference to the situation or circumstances a person is in. At its most extreme, this explanation would suggest that anyone put in a particular situation would behave in the same way

Question 9

What is the individual explanation?

Answer 9

It suggests that behaviour is best explained as arising from a person’s own personality or characteristics. At its most extreme, this explanation could suggest that a person’s behaviour wouldn’t change no matter the situation they’re in.

Question 10

What are two strengths of the individual explanation?

Answer 10

It helps us to understand why people behave the way they do

It is useful - we could try placing people in jobs on the basis of their personality characteristics.

Question 11

What are two strengths of the situational explanation?

Answer 11

Helps us to understand why people behave the way they do

It is useful - we can alter behaviour by altering the situations that create it

Question 12

What are two weaknesses of the situational explanation?

Answer 12

It is socially sensitive - Could be used as an excuse to explain away bad behaviour
Reductionist - misses out individual factors as an explanation

Question 13

What are two weaknesses of the individual explanation?

Answer 13

It has limited usefulness - if a person’s personality is the reasin why they behave the way they do, then this will not be easy to change
Reductionist - misses out situational factors as an explanation.

Question 14

What does the nature position suggest?

Answer 14

That we are the product of our genetic inheritance, such that how we behave is due to factors innate within us

Question 15

What does the nurture position suggest?

Answer 15

That we are the products of our upbringings, such that how we behave is due to your personal encounters and experiences

Question 16

What are two strengths of the nature position?

Answer 16

Could potentially be useful, albeit only by pointing towards genetic modification or other biological interventions
Probably not ethnocentric as biological factors will affect people the same way anywhere

Question 17

What are three weaknesses of the nature position?

Answer 17

It has limited usefulness: it may not be possible to do anything to change a person’s nature
Reductionist: it can mean missing out the impact of nurture
Could be socially sensitive if identifying a problem that someone can’t change about themselves.

Question 18

What are three weaknesses of the nurture position?

Answer 18

Reductionist: it can mean missing out the impact of nature
Might be ethnocentric as cultures will vary in how people are brought up within them
Could be socially sensitive, leading children to blame their parents for how they were brought up.

Question 19

What is a strength of the nurture position?

Answer 19

Can be useful, suggesting ways to change behaviour by changing how a child is brought up.

Question 20

What does research being useful mean?

Answer 20

It has practical application

Question 21

What are three benefits of psychological research being useful?

Answer 21

It can have positive applications that can improve the quality of people’s lives
If research is likely to have practical applications then it is more likely to attract funding, making it more likely that the research will actually be carried out
It can improve the reputation of psychology as an academic subject

Question 22

What are four drawbacks of psychological research being useful?

Answer 22

Research which is useful can be put to bad uses too
if two people on opposite sides (e.g. Lawyers) both make use of the same psychological insight, then the usefulness of the research is cancelled out
If it is implied that research ought to be useful then psychologists might not do ‘pure’ research that isn’t useful now but could be useful in the future
If it is all important that research is useful, then this could put preserve on researchers to breach some of the ethical guidelines

Question 23

According to the reductionist approach, how can human behaviour be explained?

Answer 23

arising from simple processes (e.g. because of hormones, or because of which behaviour has been rewarded in the past

Question 24

According to the holistic approach, how can human behaviour be explained?

Answer 24

It should be viewed s the product of different influences which all interact

Question 25

According to the reductionist approach, how should research be conducted?

Answer 25

By isolating variables one at a time to establish cause and effect

Question 26

According to the holistic approach, how should research be conducted?

Answer 26

Psychologists should develop multi-factor models or conduct case studies hat capture all the different influences on a person’s behaviour

Question 27

What are three strengths of the reductionist approach to psychology?

Answer 27

It allows psychological research to be more scientific
Studies which take this approach make it possible to draw more detailed conclusions about cause and effect because they tend to be more highly controlled
As studies which take this approach are often more replicable, enabling researchers to repeat studies to see if there is a reliable effect

Question 28

What are three weaknesses of the reductionist approach to psychology?

Answer 28

Human behaviour is often too complex to be reduced down to single-factor explanations
Focusing in on one factor at a time can result in other variables being left out
Studies which take a reductionist approach are often highly controlled experiments and, as such can lack ecological validity

Question 29

What are two strengths of the holistic approach to psychology?

Answer 29

It gives a more complete explanation
Research is not limited to single area or perspective so can consider different explanations for the behaviour being investigated

Question 30

What are two weaknesses of the holistic approach to psychology?

Answer 30

It can be difficult for researchers to pin don which, out of many different factors, is having the causal effect.
Holistic explanations can only be verified by separating out the different elements within them and testing them one by ne to confirm that all the different factor withing them do actually play a part in explaining the behaviour in question.

Question 31

What does the freewill position propose?

Answer 31

that our behaviour is the product of our own choice such that we are able to choose how we behave

Question 32

What does the determinist position suggest?

Answer 32

that our behaviour is caused by factors outside of our control. factors that determine hoe we behave cold be genetic or to do with our upbringings or physical or social circumstances

Question 33

What are two strengths of the free will position?

Answer 33

Not socially sensitive - people will often like to feel that they have control over their behaviour
Useful - people can be held accountable for the behaviours they carry out.

Question 34

What are two weaknesses of the free will position?

Answer 34

Unscientific - is free will just the way we explain behaviour that we can’t explain in any other way?
Socially sensitive - people may find it uncomfortable being told that they are responsible for how they choose to act.

Question 35

What are three weaknesses of the determinism position?

Answer 35

Reductionist - maybe behaviour isn’t so easily explained
Open to negative uses - for example, lawyers could use determinist explanations to get guilty people acquitted
Socially sensitive - people may find it uncomfortable being told that they are not in control of how they behave

Question 36

What are two strengths of the determinism position?

Answer 36

Open to positive uses - if we know what causes a wanted behaviour, we can make the behaviour occur again
Scientific - determinist explanations often arise from controlled experiments in which cause and effect has been established

Question 37

What does socially sensitive research mean?

Answer 37

When the research could lead to prejudice or discrimination against the class of people represented by those in the study

Question 38

What are two benefits of psychological research being socially sensitive?

Answer 38

It can answer important questions that improve our understanding of human behaviour
It can lead to practical applications that can improve the quality of people’s lives

Question 39

What are two drawbacks of psychological research being socially sensitive?

Answer 39

It can lead to people beyond the study being stigmatised

The insight it provides can be used for negative purposes

Question 40

What are the three features of a science?

Answer 40

replicability
Falsifiability
Objectivity

Question 41

What does replicability mean?

Answer 41

Research should be able to be repeated again on different participants, but the results should remain the same.

Question 42

What does falsifiability mean?

Answer 42

Claims that are made by researchers should be able to be scientifically tested and proven wrong

Question 43

What does objectivity mean?

Answer 43

Research should be based on facts that can be scientifically recorded rather than personal opinions and beliefs.

Question 44

What are four benefits of psychological research being scientific?

Answer 44

Quantitative data us often gathered which can be analysed to see significant effects
Scientific research is less vulnerable to being affected by researcher bias
Scientific research typically involves the use of laboratory experiments that enable cause and effect to be inferred
Controlled laboratory experiments can be replicated to see if findings are reliable.

Question 45

What are three drawbacks of psychological research being scientific?

Answer 45

Scientific research is often lacking in qualitative data (and therefore its explanatory power is reduced)
The research is often reductionist because it tries to test the impact of a single factor; such as, it can miss out other factors that might be involved
Scientific studies are often conducted in tightly controlled laboratory settings, which can reduce the ecological validity of the findings