I&D Flashcards
1
Q
Gender bias:
A
Different treatment/representations of males and females based on stereotypes.
2
Q
Universality:
A
- Believing some behaviours are the same for everyone, no differences in different cultures.
- Psychology attempts to be ‘objective’ and ‘value free’ , however, psychologists possess beliefs and values that are influenced by the social and historical contexts they live in.
- This may influence their research, findings and conclusions eg: because they gather p’s from a particular culture/gender etc.
- Can be fixed through diversity.
3
Q
Androcentrism:
A
- Theories that are of used on males.
- Eg: most conformity studies
4
Q
Alpha bias:
A
- Theories that exaggerate differences between males and females/ overemphasises differences.
- Eg: Freud
5
Q
Beta bias:
A
Theories that minimise differences between males and females.
6
Q
Culture bias:
A
When you judge people in terms of your own cultural assumptions.
7
Q
Ethnocentrism:
A
- Seeing the world from your own cultural perspective, emphasising the behaviour of one’s own culture.
- Ainsworth and Strange Situation, attachement
8
Q
Cultural relativism:
A
Behaviour can only be understood if the cultural context is taken into consideration.
9
Q
The Chitling Test (1968):
A
- Designed to demonstrate differences in understanding and culture between races, specifically between African American and Whites.
- In determining how smart streetwise someone is, the Chitling Test may have validity, but there have been no studies demonstrating this.
- Face validity, but no evidence of predictive validity.
- A demonstration of his cultural content on intelligence tests may lead to culturally blissed score results.
10
Q
Emic approach:
A
Use indigenous researchers in different cultural relationships/settings.
11
Q
Reducing cultural bias:
A
- Don’t extrapolate findings/theories to cultures that aren’t represented in the research sample.
- Use researchers who are native to the culture being investigated.
- Carry out cross cultural research rather than research with a sole culture.
- Don’t assume universal norms across different cultures.
- Be sensitive to cultural norms when doing research.
- Emic approach
12
Q
Alpha based theories:
A
- Freud: electra + Oedipus complex
- men more moral than women
13
Q
Beta based theories:
A
- ForF
- women: tend and befriend, react more softly to stress compared to men.
- Milgram
Johanson et al - sawmill men in Sweden
14
Q
Nature:
A
The view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors.
15
Q
Nurture:
A
Behaviour is the product of environmental influences.
16
Q
Heredity:
A
Genetic inheritance is the process in w hi traits are passed down from one generation to the next.
17
Q
Interactionist approach:
A
The view that both nature and nurture work together.
18
Q
Nature examples:
A
- Lorenz goslings: imprinting attachment Bowlby’s theory.
- Bouchard’s twins studies: IQ similarities, biological influence of IQ.
- Relationships: natural/sexuel selection.
- OCD: neural and genetic, Nestadt
19
Q
Nurture examples:
A
- Bowlby MDH: later in life
- Behaviourism: Pavlov’s dog, CC - phobias and Little Albert
- SLT: Bandura’s Bobo doll
- Conformity, majority influence
- Adult romantic relationships
- Learning Henry of attachment
20
Q
Idiographic:
A
Studying individual cases.
21
Q
Nomathetic approach:
A
Understanding behaviour though developing general laws that apply to everyone.
22
Q
Idiographic examples:
A
- Little Albert: behaviourist
- Clive Wearing, HM, KF - cognitive
- Little Hans: psychodynamic
- Humanistic approach: no universal laws of behaviour
23
Q
Nomathetic approach:
A
- Biological approach
- Behaviourist
- Cognitive
- SLT: Bandura
24
Q
Idiographic overview:
A
- Rejects scientific method
- Should study the individual and not groups
- Behaviour must be understood in terms of subjective experience
- A detached observers explanation in worthless
- Qualitative data
25
Idiographic approach, humanistic approach:
- Argue that objective reality is less important a person’s subjective perception and understanding the world.
- The personality is studied from the point of view the individual’s subject experience.
- For Rogers the focus of psychology is not behaviour (Skinner), the unconscious (Freud), thinking (Wundt), or the human brain but how individuals perceive and interpret events.
- Roger is therefore important because he redirected psychology towards the study of the self.
26
Idiographic approach, psychodynamic approach:
- Idiogrpahic approach when explaining behaviour, using case studies to support the theories.
- They typically pinpoint factors relating to the development of the personality, the Id, the Ego and the Superego or psychosexual stages of development including the use of defence mechanisms.
- The case study of Hans also starts out as an idiographic approach for explains the Oedipus complex.
27
Idiographic approach, evaluation:
- Can’t généralise to wider population due to the use of case studies.
- Methods are subjective, flexible and unstanderised so replication, prediction and control of behaviour is difficult.
- Gain detailed and informative descriptions of behaviour.
- Can uncover causes for behaviour not identified using nomathetic methods.
- Develops a holistic understanding of individual
- Can provide hypotheses for the future scientific study.
- Some idiogrpahic approaches, do use an evidence based approach and seek to be objective and attempts are made to ensure validity.
- Reflexivity in interviews: the researcher reflects critically during the respect process about factors that might affect the researcher and the participants.
28
Nomothetic approach overview:
- Tries to identify similarities between people and laws governing behaviour, by studying large groups in order to generalise.
- Uses scientific methods and qualitative data.
- Group averages are statistically analysed and predictions are made.
- A nomothetic approach involved studying (large) sample.
- Use the findings to generate general laws of behaviour.
- Makes inferences about the wider population.
29
Nomothetic approach, methods of investigation:
- Experiments
- Correlational research
- Psychometric testing
30
Nomothetic approach, biological approach:
- Nomothetic approach when explaining psychological disorders.
- They typically pinpoint biological factors, such as neurotransmitters that are responsible for such disorders and use biological therapies to treat all patients.
31
Nomothetic approach, behaviourist approach:
- Pavlov + Skinner conducted experiment with animals in order to establish laws of learning (CC or OC) that could be generalised to humans and non human animals.
32
Nomothetic approach, cognitive approach:
- Atkinson and Shiffrin, developed general laws, such as MSM of memory, which they believed could be generalised to all.
33
Nomothetic approach, evaluation:
- Can generalise to wider populations when suitable sample are used and are representative.
- Methods are objective, measurable and can be verified so replication, prediction and control of behaviour is easy.
- Generalised laws and and principles may not apply to an individual.
- Understanding is often superficial.
34
Determinism:
- Traits and behaviours are outside our control; an individuals behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces.
- This means that our behaviour should be predictable.
35
Determinism, psychic determinism:
- Suggests that adult behaviour are caused by childhood experiences: so no free will.
- Specific links between behaviours and psychosexual conflicts e.g: addictions related to oral fixation; tidying to anal retentive mess (OCD).
36
Determinism, biological determinism:
- Internal forces i.e: hormones, genes, NT, NS, physiology of brain.
- We cannot override our biology.
37
Determinism, environmental determinism:
- Traits are governed by external factors such as experiences, up bringing, learning, schools, peers, parents etc.
- Differential association theory of offending behaviours.
- Sutherland blamed associations with other criminals/like minded people.
- Said offending people/behaviour was learned through the environment.
- Behaviourism and SLT: aggression (Bandura), we’re all born with our mind as a blank slate
- Authoritarian personality: strict parents/upbringing
- Phobias
38
Scientific emphasis on causal explanation - Determinism in science:
- A causal explanation is based on the scientific notion that behaviour is determined by internal or external factors: there is a cause and error relationship.
- Causality/ causation = the IV has an effect on the DV.
- One of the basic principle of science is this principle of causality that every event has a cause and every cause has an effect.
- Loftus and Palmer: manipulated the verb (IV), to measure the effect on the pp’s estimate of the speed (DV).
39
Hard determinism:
- Biological - behaviourist
- Our lives are governed by forces that out of control
- Assumes both internal and external forces determine our behaviour
- Biological determinism is an example of hard determinism
- Environmental determinism is a type of hard determinism
- A type of hard determinism e.g: biological explanations of OCD
- Environmental determinism is a type of hard determinism e.g: behavioural explanations of phobias.
40
Soft determinism:
- Behaviour are to an extent dictated by internal/external factors
- SLT is an example
- Psychic determinism as it believed the mind determines behaviour but also influenced by experiences
- Cognitive: can only remember info that we’ve payed attention to.
41
Free will:
- Believes that human beings are self determining ie: they’re in control of their lives.
- Free to choose:
- how we think
- how we behave
- what we want out of life
- Doesn’t mean we’re not also influenced by biology, culture, environmental etc., but we can reject these things and choose alternatives if we so wish.
42
Free will, humanistic psychology:
- Humanistic psychologists claim that humans have free will.
- They argue that people have a choice over their behaviour, and they denied that people’s behaviour is at the mercy of outside forces.
- Self determination is a necessary part of human behaviour.
- Without self determination, self actualisation isn’t possible.
- Humanistic psychologists argue that regarding human behaviour as determined by external forces is dehumanising and incorrect.
- When people regard their behaviour as being determined by forces beyond their control, they will not take responsibility for, and therefore be able to change their behaviour.
43
For free will:
- Robert et al (2000) demonstrated that adolescents with a strong sense of ‘fatalism’ were more likely to suffer from depression than those who don’t have this out look.
- What this means, is that, even if we don’t actually have free will, the belief that we can have a positive impact on our behaviour and well being.
44
Against free will:
- Soon et al demonstrated brain activity indicated an action predated our conscious knowledge of having made the choice.
- The researchers found that the activity related to where participants pushed a button with their left or right hand occurred in the brain up to 10 seconds before participants reported being consciously aware of making the decision.
45
Reductionism:
Breaking someone down into their constituent parts (components of a person) to study a person internally that could influence behaviour.
46
Biological reductionism:
- OCD explanations (NT/ genes/ physiology of brain) each took a reductionist approach, with only considering one part and disregarding the rest as explanations.
- Has validity and objectivity (features of science) as people have been used as research.
- Has advantages with treatment (drugs or surgery).
- On the flip side it may miss out on other important factors: there could be a combination of more than one. Also ethical approach for treating mental disorders.
- One disadvantage is that there must be other factors due to the concordance rate of MZ twins never being 100% and so showing that biological reductionism is not the only answer. Treats the symptoms, not the cause.
47
Environmental reductionism:
- Comes from behaviourism SLT
- The premise is there’s a stimulus - response.
- Reducing behaviour to a stimulus.
- Phobias are initiated through CC and maintains through OC - nothing to do with our biology.
- Little Albert shows this through him developing a fear/phobia of rats.
- Scientific - under controlled circumstances.
- Treatment - flooding and systematic desensitisation.
48
Levels of explanation (1):
- Different ways of viewing the same phenomena in psychology.
- Explanations vary from those at a lower/ fundamental level focusing on basic components or units to those at a higher, more holistic multi variable level.
49
Levels of explanation (2):
Highest level: Cultural and social explanations of how our social groups effect our behaviour
|
Psychological explanations of behaviour (cognitive + SLT)
|
Lowest level: Biological explanation (underpins our behaviour)
50
Holistic:
Looks at everything
51
Holism, humanistic psychology:
- Individual acts as a whole person and not in components.
- Unified sense of identity is important.
- Lack of ‘wholeness’ leads to mental disorders.
- Emphasis on ‘free will’ and self actualisation.
52
Ethical guidelines:
Principles set out by BPS to help psychologists behave honestly and with integrity.
53
Ethical issues:
Issues that arise when there is conflict between the rights of the participant and aid of the researcher(s).
54
Ethical implications:
The impact or consequences that research has on the right of other people in the wider context, not just the participants in the research.
55
Socially sensitive research meaning:
Any research that might have direst social consequences for the participants in the research or the group that they represent eg: leading to discrimination and prejudice.
56
Socially sensitive research overview:
- Some areas of study in psychology are likely to be more controversial than others.
- Socially sensitive research often confronts taboo topics, such as aspects of race, sexuality. They attract a lot of attention from other psychologists and from the media and general public.
- However, just because research is socially sensitive doesn’t mean it should be conducted. Aronson, 1999, states psychologists have a ‘social responsibility’ to conduct socially sensitive research.
57
Research question:
Consider research question carefully.
58
Methodoloy used:
Treatment of participants and the right to confidentiality and anonymity.
59
Institutional context:
Researcher should be mindful of how the data is going to be used and consider who’s funding the research.
60
Interpretation and application of findings:
Consider how their finding might be interpreted and applied in the real world.
