essay plans Flashcards
gender bias AO1
Gender bias is when psychological theories or studies do not represent the experiences and behaviours of a gender
Alpha bias is when psychological research exaggerates gender differences, usually heightens the value in relation to boys / men - related to Freud as excluded girls from psychosexual stages also argued that girl’s identification with same-gender parent is weaker, so weaker superego - girls and women morally inferior
Beta bias is when psychological research minimises gender differences, assuming that findings derived from one gender apply to everyone - related to fight or flight as male animals used to form theory while women believed to use tend and befriend instead
Androcentrism is when normal behaviour is equated with men’s behaviour so women’s behaviour is judged as abnormal or deviant
gender bias AO3
- Biological al vs social explanation
- Sexism in research
- Gender-biased research
culture bias AO1
- Culture bias is when you interpret behaviour through the lens of your own culture, so the behaviour of non-weird (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) cultures are seen as abnormal or unusual
- Ethnocentrism is when you see the world only from one’s own cultural perspective, and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct
- Cultural relativism is that one cannot judge a behaviour properly unless it is views in the context of the culture in which is originates
- E.g. Ainsword’s SS
- Emic is something that applies only in one culture eg culture-bound syndromes
- Imposed etic is a technique or theory that is developed in one culture and is used to study the behaviour of another culture
culture bias AO3
classical studies
cultural psychology
ethnic stereotyping
free will AO1
Free Will: assumes humans are free to choose their behaviour and that influences can be rejected at will
- Humanist Approach
Types of Determinism:
- Hard Determinism - all behaviours have causes and these are internal and external events outside of our control - fatalism
• Biological Determinism (Biological Approach) - behaviour caused by biological influences we cannot control eg genes
• Environmental Determinism (Behaviourist) - behaviour caused by environmental factors we cannot control eg conditioning
• Psychic Determinism (Psychodynamic) - behaviours are caused by unconscious factors we cannot control eg repressed conflicts and innate drives
- Soft Determinism - behaviours are predicted because they have internal or external causes but influenced by personal choices
• Cognitive Approach
• Social Learning Theory
free will AO3
practical value
the law
brain evidence
counterpoint
nature nurture AO1
- Define nature - heredity - characteristics are innate
- Define nurture - experience - environment shapes the mind
- Define interactionism - how nature and nurture influence each other because it makes no sense to try to separate the two
- Define diathesis stress - genes create a vulnerability and stressors in the environment trigger behaviours
- Define epigenetics - a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code events switch genes on
- Define constructivism - our nature affects our nurture - niche-picking
nature nurture AO3
- Biological approach as example of nature -> explains OCD concordance rates (Nestadt)
- Behaviourist approach as example of nurture -> explains dental anxiety percentages
- Interactionism as more complete explanation for behaviour as it fully accounts for above findings
Epigenetics research
idiographic and nomothetic AO1
- Definition of idiographic - focuses on uniqueness of the individual, in-depth details using qualitative methods
- Definition of nomothetic - focuses on groups of people to establish general laws of behaviour using quantitative methods
- Approaches for idiographic humanistic approach - roger’s concept of unconditional positive regard
- Approaches for nomothetic biological approach and Sperry’s split-brain research
- The type of data collected using each approach
- The way of collecting the data for each approach
idiographic and nomothetic AO3
Complete account
Counterpoint
Scientific credibility
Losing the person
holism and reductionism AO1
- Definition of Holism - to understand a system we should study it as a whole
- Definition of Reductionism - behaviors best understood by breaking it down to its constituent parts
- Levels of explanation -the idea there are several ways that can be used to explain behaviour - increasingly reductionist - socio-cultural - psychological - physical - environment - physiological - neurological
- Examples of reductionism e.g. biological, environmental
- Biological reductionism - explain behaviour at lowest biological level eg genes, hormones
- Environmental reductionism - explain behaviour through stimulus-response links learned through experience
holism and reductionism AO3
Practical value
Scientific approach
Counterpoint
Higher level
