debates and issues; evals- 3 Flashcards
considering the ethical implications of research- less research
p- there are issues with considering the ethical implications into research
e-according to one study by ceci, ethical committees in the US are twice as more likely to reject ethical approval for research is it was socially sensitive
e- it is not clear whether this is a good or bad thing, preventing research into some controversial areas is good for society, however it can be said that preventing research into specific topics raises issues with free speech, and also prevents psychologists from producing knowledge that could be helpful
limitation of ethical guidelines- adequacy
p- in their current form, ethical guidelines may not be adequate
e- ethical guidelines, such as the BPS code of conduct, focus on protecting the needs of the participant
e- however, as sieber and stanley have shown, the ethical implications of research go beyond the participant themselves.
- currently ethical guidelines dont require the researcher to consider their research topics impact on society
-it may be wise to empower regulatory bodies like the BPS to oversee the wider ethical implications associated with socially sensitive research and theories.
limitation of nomothetic/ strength of idiographic- predictions around an individual
p- a limitation of the nomothetic approach, compared to the idiographic approach, is its inability to make predictions about an individual
e-in nomothetic research, researchers collect large amounts of data based off wide sample sizes, and use them to make general laws, which should predict how the average person should behave/ think/ feel
e- however not everyone is ‘the average person’ meaning we cannot use these laws to accurately predict how an individual will think/ feel/ behave
- this means to make predictions at the level of an individual we must use the more precise techniques of the idiographic approach- qualitive research methods
strength of nomothetic/ limitation of idiographic- scientific credibility
p- a relative strength of the nomothetic approach/ weakness of the idiographic approach is their scientific credibility
e- key features of science include conducting empirical and objective research , replicability and falsifiability
e- although both use empirical methods of collecting data, they are not equally objective in their research methods
- the nomothetic approach’s collection of quantitate data and its statistical analysis, helps reduce the interpretation by the researcher and makes the research more objective
-in comparison the idiographic approach makes use of qualitive data which requires a high level of interpretation
- nomothetic is more replicable with controlled methods and operationalised variables (lab experiments)
-idiographic approach- case studies are unique and cannot be replicated
- nomothetic creates genreal laws that can be tested using nomothetic methods- falsifiable
-idiographic describes the uniqueness of a person- non-falsifiable
strength of nomothetic approach- application
p- the nomothetic approach has been applied to help large populations
e-the nomothetic approach establishes general laws that can be applied to help understands, explain and predict the behaviour of many people
e-this means the nomothetic approach is suited to developing interventions that help many people , e.g. CBT developed from general law that irrational thought processes lead to depressive thinking, or SSRIs being used to treat OCD because of general laws that establish the role of low serotonin in compulsive behaviour
-such treatments could be criticised from and idiographic approach as not all individuals with the same diagnosis will have their illness manifest in the same way, meaning these nomothetic interventions dont work on the individual scale
gender bias- implications for women
p- all forms of gender bias are socially harmful to women
e- the dangers of alpha bias are obvious, but the dangers of beta bias can be just as harmful, e.g. some have argued women are less likely to be able to receive a schizophrenia diagnosis since the symptom list was created based on men
e- clear example of beta bias, minimising the differences between men and women- socially harmful as it means less women are likely to be diagnosed and therefore cannot receive treatment/ help they need
- gender bias leads to false knowledge
gender bias- implications for men
p- gender bias can also cause social harm to men
e- Chodorow viewed and stated that women were more relational and caring then men
e- if untrue, this would be an example of alpha bias, as it distorts/ exaggerates the differences, this can harm men as it shows women having greater abilities in some areas; this could limit men access to caring professions
-also harmful to women as it can be used to justify social behaviour that disadvantages women, such as encouraging women to take on caring roles or careers
- alpha bias doesnt always present women as inferior but that doesnt lessen the potential social harm
androcentrism in psychology- leading to gender bias
p- androcentrism may be a widespread problem in psychology
e-it can be found throughout the stages of psychological research, for example when designing research (using entirely male participants- zimbardo) or when performing the study (researchers expectations of how gender will determine outcome- investigator effects)
e- androcentrism is the root of gender bias, if androcentrism can impact every step of psychological research then eliminating it will be difficult
- its clear androcentrism is a widespread problem in psychology, but understanding this problem is an important step as it informs how we address gender bias
cultural bias- implications
p- cultural bias is a widespread problem in psychology
e-Henrich found that a randomly selected American collage student is was 4000 times more likely to be a participant in psychological research than a random non- westerner
e-shows most research is based on a culturally biased sample, raises issues with universality- research based on culturally biased samples cannot be universal
-temporal validity- decade old research- debatable how true this is for current psychologists
