Issues and debate - Synoptic paper

Question 1

gender bias

Answer 1

Gender bias refers to the tendency to favour one gender over another in psychological research, theory, or practice.

Question 2

Alpha gender bias

Answer 2

Research focuses on differences between men and women and therefore tends to present a view that exaggerates these differences.
- upholds gender stereotypes

During the phallic stage of development, both boys and girls develop a strong desire for their opposite-gender parents. In a boy, this creates, a very strong castration anxiety (father will cut his penis off). The anxiety is resolved when the boy identifies with his father. But a girl’s eventual identification with the same-gender parent is weaker, which means her superego is weaker because it develops as a result of taking on the same-gender moral perspective. Therefore girls/women are morally inferior to boys/men.

Question 3

Beta bias

Answer 3

Research that focuses on similarities between men and women, and therefore ignores and minimises differences.
Moscovici 1969 study on minority influence only used female participants.

Question 4

Androcentrism

Answer 4

Male-centred -where normal behaviour is judged according to a male standard (meaning female behaviour is often judged to be abnormal or deficient by comparison.

Question 5

Universality- applies to all

Answer 5

Any underlying characteristic of human beings that can be applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. Gender bias and cultural bias threaten the universality of findings in psychology.

Question 6

Culture bias

Answer 6

A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of one’s culture, ignoring the effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour

Question 7

Ethnocentrism

Answer 7

Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture. In its extreme form it is the belief in the superiority of one’s own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards the other cultures.

Mary Ainsworth and Silvia Bell’s 1970 strange situation is an example of this, criticised as reflecting only the norms and values of Western cultures. - Germany had the highest amount of insecure-avoidant behaviour, and german moms encouraged independence.

Question 8

Richard

Answer 8

uses intelligence tests as an illustration of the concepts of ethnocentrism and imposed etic. Such tests often involve completing
tasks against the clock. However, Brislin asks about the validity of this notion of mental quickness in relation to intelligence. The Baganda people of Uganda characterise intelligence as slow, careful and deliberate thought. They make view the speed as thoughtlessness or rashness.

Question 9

Cultural relativism
Sternberg 1985 - coordination
skills
Ainsworth and Bells research

Answer 9

The idea that norms, values, ethics, and moral standards, can be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts

Question 10

Etic approach

Answer 10

looks at behaviour from outside and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal. An example of imposed etic can be considered about how we define abnormality.

Question 11

Emic approach

Answer 11

Considers behaviour from the inside of a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture.

Berry argues that psychology has often been guilty of an imposed
etic approach - arguing that theories, models and concepts are universal when they come about through emic research inside a single research.

Question 12

Ethical issues
deception - Arsh

Answer 12

Ps should not be misled during an investigation. However, sometimes participants need to be unaware of the aims of an investigation or even that they are participating in a study to yield results that are considered valid. Ps need to be debriefed at the end of the study.

Question 13

Informed consent - Zimbardo

Answer 13

Ps must be debriefed on the objectives of the investigation and what will be required of them if they take part. They must accept these conditions to proceed and need to be put under no pressure to do so.

Question 14

privacy and confidentially

Answer 14

ps should remain anonymous so that data cannot be identified as theirs.

Question 15

Psychological and physical harm

Answer 15

Research must ensure that those participating in research will not be caused distress. They must be protected from physical and mental harm. They shouldn’t be embarrassed, frighten, offend or harm Ps.

Question 16

Socially sensitive research

Answer 16

Studies in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the research - consequences for the broader social groups the participants represent.

Question 17

Sieber and Stanley 1988

Answer 17

warn that how research questions are phrased and investigated may influence the way in which findings are interpreted

Question 18

Cyril Burt +11

Answer 18

11+ education in the UK determines what school a child will go to grammar, secondary modern, and technical school.

After Burt’s research was used after the fraud was exposed. The 11+ continued to be used. Therefore any research on socially sensitive topics needs to be planned with the greatest care too ensure the findings are valid because of the enduring effects on particular groups of people.

Question 19

Bowlby MDH
Research into attachment and maternal deprivation and became an advisor for WHO.

Answer 19

he influenced the government’s decision not to offer free healthcare places to children after 5. Indirectly affects the legal norm that mothers are granted custody of children in divorce and separation whereas previously it would have been fathers.

Hypothesis - proposed a warm intimate & continuous relationship with a mother figure is necessary for healthy, psychological/ emotional development. Mother love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins & proteins for physical health.

Question 20

Goddard IQ tests
Moron 51-70
Imbecile 26-50
Idiot 0-25

Answer 20

definitions for a system for classifying individuals with intellectual disability on IQ.
Morons according to Goddard were unfit for society and should be removed from society through institutionalisation, sterilisation or both.
Goddard established an intelligence testing program on Ellis Island in 1913, on immigrants who were arriving to the US. The purpose of the program was to identify “feeble-minded” people, which he
identified as the Jews, Hungarians, Italians and Russians.

Question 21

Levels of explanations = Reductionism / Holistic

Reductionism

Answer 21

R seeks to analyse behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts. It is based on the scientific principle of parsimony - that all phenomena should be explained using the simplest (lowest level) principles.

OCD may be understood as a:
Socio-cultural level - OCD interrupts social relationships
Psychological level - the person’s experience of anxiety
Physical level - movements e.g washing one’s hands
Environmental/behavioural level - learning experiences
Physiological level - abnormal functioning in the frontal lobes
Neurochemical level - underproduction of serotonin

which of these provides the best explanation of OCD is a matter of debate, but each level is more reductionist than the one before.

Question 22

Experimental Reductionism

Answer 22

Reducing complex behaviour to a form that can be studied (variables which can be manipulated and measured to determine cause and effect. - An experimental approach

• The attempt to explain behaviour in terms of stimulus and response links that have been learned through experience.

For example, the learning theory of attachment reduces the idea of love (between baby and the person who does the feeding) to a learned association between the person doing the feeding (neutral stimulus) and food (unconditioned stimulus) resulting in pleasure (conditioned response)

Question 23

Machine reductionism

Answer 23

The cognitive approach uses the principle of machine reductionism.
Information processing uses approaches that have analogy of machine systems and the simple components of such machines, as a means to describe behaviour and explain behaviour.

Question 24

Biological reductionism

Answer 24

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level( in terms of the actions of genes, hormones, etc)

For example, drugs that increase serotonin are effective in treating OCD. Therefore, working backwards, low serotonin may be the cause of OCD. We have reduced OCD to the level of neurotransmitter activity.

Question 25

Methodological reductionism

Answer 25

Reduces behaviour to a set of variables that can be measured/ controlled

Question 26

Holism

Answer 26

The holistic approach looks at a system as a whole and sees any attempt to subdivide behaviour or experience into smaller units as inappropriate.

Humanistic psychology focuses on the individual’s experience, which is not something that can be reduced to, for eg biological units. Humanistic psychology uses qualitative methods to investigate the self where themes are analysed rather than breaking the concept into component behaviours.

Question 27

Free will

Answer 27

The notion is that humans can make choices and their behaviour/thoughts are not determined by biological or external forces.

Question 28

Determinism

Answer 28

the view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individuals will to do something

Question 29

Hard determinism

Answer 29

Hard determinism - The view that all behaviour is caused by something (internal or external factors, so free will is an illusion.

Question 30

Soft determinism

Answer 30

The view that behaviour may be predictable (caused by internal/external factors) but there is room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities.(restricted free will)

James 1890 - whilst it may be the job of scientists to explain what determines our behaviour, this does not detract from the freedom we have to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations.

Question 31

Biological determinism

Answer 31

The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control.
the influence of the ANS on the stress response

Question 32

Environmental determinism

Answer 32

the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and punishment) that we cannot control.

BF Skinner described free will is an illusion and argued that all behaviour is the result of conditioning. Although we might think independently, our experience of choice is merely the sum of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives.

Question 33

Psychic determinism

Answer 33

The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we cannot control.

Freud also believed that free will is an illusion but he emphasised the influence of biological drives and instincts. He saw human behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood. There is no such thing as an accident, according to Freud, and even something as seemingly random as a ‘slip of the tongue’ can be explained by the influence of the unconscious.

Question 34

Idiographic approach

Answer 34

An approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour, rather than aiming to formulate general laws of behaviour (the nomothetic approach)

Research Method
- case studies
- Unstructured interview
- Qualitative

Examples - The idiographic approach is most associated with the humanistic and psychodynamic approaches. For eg, Carl Rogers sought to explain the process of self development including the role of unconditional positive regard. This was derived from in-depth conversations with clients in therapy. Sigmund Freud’s careful observations of individuals were the basis of his explanations of human nature, for example, the case of Little Hans was used to explain how a phobia might develop.

Question 35

Nomothetic approach

Answer 35

NA aims to study human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws.

Research Methord
Quantitative research
structured Questionaire

Example
The behaviourist and biological approaches are nomothetic even though they sometimes use quite small samples. For example, BF skinner studied animals to develop the general laws of learning. His research method looked at one aspect of behaviour in a few animals but the main aim was to establish general laws. Similarily, biological psychology may use a small sample, such as Roger Sperry’s split-brain research which involved repeated testing and was, in part, the basis for understanding hemispheric lateralisation.

Question 36

Nature/ Nativists

Answer 36

Human characteristics are innate hereditary - passed from one generation to another
- biological and genetic factors
Anatomy is destiny

Question 37

Nurture/ Empiricist

Answer 37

Behaviour is a product of environmental factors
Physical and social world
Experiences before birth (pre-natal)
Mother psychological and physical state/ health
Culture
Historical context

Question 38

Interactionist approach - diathesis stress model / epigenetics

Answer 38

Nature and nurture both contribute to behaviour and characteristics.

Psychological evidence : Twin studies - high concordance rate, difficult to separate environmental and genetic factors

Cardno et al - investigated the genetic hypothesis as an explanation for SZ. Found a 40% concordance rate in MZ twins, compared with 5.3% in DZ twins

Diathesis stress model
Diathesis - vulnerability
Stress model - negative psychological experience

Tienari et al 2004 - investigated combination of genetic vulnerability and parental cycle. Children adopted from 19000 Finnish mothers with SZ between 1960 - 1979 were followed up. Adoptive parents were assessed for their child rearing styles. Raters of SZ we’re compared with the control group. ( Adoptees without any genetic risk)

Findings - child rearing styles characteristics by : conflict, criticism and low levels of empathy- triggered the onset of SZ for children with a genetic vulnerability and not in the control group

Epigenetics
Nurture affecting nature. Change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code, caused by interaction with the environment/life styles and events we can encounter.
Marks are left on our DNA