Evaluations

Question 1

Evaluations for gender bias

Answer 1

Feminist psychology can counter androcentrism, eg recognise the differences such as being less effective leaders and developing support programmes

Biased methods - differences result from research methods eg lab experiments disadvantage women because they tell us little about real experiences, real studies of leadership = judged more similarly

Biological psychology (incorrect view of fight or flight)

Question 2

Evaluations of culture bias

Answer 2

Development of indigenous psychologies such as Afrocentrism

Consequences such as the US army IQ test which led to enduring stereotypes concerning certain ethnic groups and their IQ

Bias in RM - need samples from different groups, found that randomly selected US student 4000 times more likely to be pp than random non westerner

Question 3

determinism evaluations

Answer 3

Genetic determinism - never 100% concordance rates

Environmental cannot entirely determine behaviour either

So no total determinism, simplify human behaviour

Question 4

Free will evaluations

Answer 4

Culturally relative - not collectivist culture concept

Illusion of free will proposed by BF Skinner, eg brain areas activated before a conscious decision is even made (eg movement of finger)

Question 5

Idiographic evaluations

Answer 5

Not scientific, humanistic psychology is not sufficiently evidence based so findings are essentially meaningless

More time consuming, collecting a lot of data on one individual

Question 6

Nomothetic evaluations

Answer 6

False separation between the two , many combine the two together

Less time consuming as a questionnaire is devised and data can be generated and processed quickly

Question 7

Reductionism and holism evaluations

Answer 7

Biological reductionism has led to drug treatments

Behavioural approach developed due to experiments with animals, appropriate to explain their behaviour in simple components but not for more complex human behaviour

Holism provides a more complete understanding of behaviour

Question 8

Socially sensitive research evaluations

Answer 8

May disadvantage marginalised groups

Research has important applications

Inadequacies of current guidelines eg doesn’t ask researchers to consider how their research may be used by others

Question 9

Nature nurture evaluations

Answer 9

Diathesis stress model

Nurture affects nature eg neural plasticity and maguires taxi driver study

Cannot be separated eg the inherited disorder that prevents a amino acid being metabolised can be prevented through a diet change, shows their influence together