issues and debates

Question 1

what is gender bias?

Answer 1

gender bias, psychological research or theory may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men and women (usually women)

Question 2

what is androcentrism?

Answer 2

male centred; when normal behaviour is judged according to a male standard (meaning that female behaviour is often judged to be “abnormal” or “deficient” by comparison)

Question 3

what is alpha bias?

Answer 3

physiological theories that suggest there are real and enduring differences between men and women. These may enhance or undervalue females.

Question 4

what is beta bias?

Answer 4

theories that ignore or minimise differences between the sexes

Question 5

what is universality?

Answer 5

an underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. Gender bias and culture bias threaten the universality of findings in psychology

Question 6

what are some positives of alpha bias?

Answer 6

Alpha bias in psychological research has led to a lot of criticism when “male” qualities are valued more highly than female ones. Examples of these include seeing dominance and aggression as desirable

Question 7

what are some criticisms of alpha bias?

Answer 7

it is difficult to distinguish between actual gender differences and culturally created gender differences.

Question 8

what are some positives of beta bias?

Answer 8

minimising the differences between men and women can lead to equal opportunities especially in the workplace

Question 9

what are some negatives of beta bias?

Answer 9

androcentrism can result in a misleading understanding of human behaviour because research is mainly focused on male patterns, behaviours and interests. This means that similar research for females is not pursued in the same way

Question 10

what is cultural bias?

Answer 10

the tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions. Thai can distort or bias your judgement

Question 11

what is ethnocentrism?

Answer 11

seeing things from the point of ourselves and our social group. Evaluating other groups of people using the standards of our own culture.

Question 12

what is cultural relativism?

Answer 12

the view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originated from.

Question 13

what is an etic approach?

Answer 13

looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal

Question 14

what is an emic approach?

Answer 14

functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture

Question 15

what is an imposed etic?

Answer 15

occurs when an observer attempts to generalise observations from inside one culture to another.

Question 16

what does WEIRD stand for?

Answer 16

westernised, educated people from industrialised, rich ,democracies

Question 17

how does WEIRD relate to cultural bias?

Answer 17

if the norm/ standard is set for WEIRD people, then the behaviour of non westernised, less educated, agricultural and poorer cultures is inevitably seen as “abnormal” or “inferior”

Question 18

what is the classical studies evaluation point for cultural bias?

Answer 18

• many of the most influential studies are culturally biased
• replications of classic studies (e.g milgram, asch) who used mostly white, middle class students, produced different results

Question 19

what is the IQ studies evaluation point for cultural bias?

Answer 19

• During the first world war, Yerkes used IQ tests to screen recruits for US army
• some of whom were recent migrants to the country
• knew very little about American culture and may not have spoken English
• Designed 3 tests → alpha, beta, stanford- binet

Question 20

what is the ethnic stereotyping evaluation point for cultural bias?

Answer 20

• Gould (1981): the first intelligence tests led to eugenic social policies in the US
  psychologists used the opportunity of WW1 to pilot their first IQ rests on 1.75 million army recruits
• many items on the tests were ethnocentric e.g knowing the names of US presidents
• south eastern europe and black people received the lowest scores
• not sees as a sign of inadequate tests, but used to inform racial discourse about genetic inferiority of a particular culture and ethnic group

Question 21

what is the cultural psychology evaluation point for cultural bias?

Answer 21

• cultural psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and conducting research from inside a culture
• modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it

Question 22

what is the relativism vs universality point for cultural bias?

Answer 22

• cross cultural research challenges dominant individualist ways of thinking and viewing the world
• e.g facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the world and animal world (Ekman, 1989)

Question 23

what is free will?

Answer 23

the notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces

Question 24

what is determinism?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

what is hard determinism?

Answer 25

implies that free will is not possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal and external influences that we cannot control

Question 26

what is soft determinism?

Answer 26

all events, including human behaviour, have causes, but behaviour can also be determined by our conscious choices in the absence of coercion. In contrast with hard determinism.

Question 27

what is biological determinism?

Answer 27

the belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal and evolutionary) influences that we cannot control

Question 28

what is psychic determinism?

Answer 28

the belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control

Question 29

what is environmental determinism

Answer 29

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

Question 30

what is environmental determinism?

Answer 30

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

Question 31

what are the main 3 biological mechanisms?

Answer 31

genetics, brain psychology and biochemistry

Question 32

what does genetics say about biological determinism?

Answer 32

• evolution and genetics: no gene has been identified that means behaviour will definitely occur
• twin studies have not shown 100% concordance in aggression and schizophrenia
• therefore a hard determinism standpoint cannot be proved
• therefore soft determinism has to be accepted

Question 33

what does brain psychology say about biological determinism?

Answer 33

• areas of localisation: suggest that certain areas in the brain affect behaviour therefore damage could affect behaviour
• a girl who had a tumour in her limbic system became increasingly violent and once the tumour was removed, her aggression subsided
• this supports hard determinism

Question 34

what does biochemistry say about biological determinism?

Answer 34

• the dopamine hypothesis in schizophrenia have shown a relationship between biochemistry and behaviour
• however, determinism can be reduced through medication (choice to take)

Question 35

what does SLT argue about environmental determinism?

Answer 35

you are more likely to imitate the behaviour but your cognition allows for choice. it does not automatically occur

Question 36

what did BF Skinner argue about environmental determinism?

Answer 36

BF Skinner described free will as an “illusion” and argued that all of our behaviour is a result of conditioning. OUR experience of choice is because of reinforcement that has acted upon us. We might think we are acting independently, but our behaviour has been shaped by environmental events as well as agents of socialisation

Question 37

what is classical conditioning an example of?

Answer 37

hard determinism

Question 38

what is operant conditioning an example of?

Answer 38

soft determinism

Question 39

what does Freud argue in terms of psychic determinism?

Answer 39

• that free will is like an “illusion” but placed more emphasis on the influence of biological drives and instincts than behaviourists

Question 40

what is scientism?

Answer 40

• the use of method from the natural sciences to find causal mechanisms for behaviour and thought
• looks at the probability of something happening rather than deterministic

Question 41

what is a criticism of the scientific emphasis on causal explanations?

Answer 41

may be appropriate for non humans but human behaviour is less rigid and influenced by many factors the idea of ever finding a simplistic determinist formula from psychological research is unrealistic

Question 42

why do scientists much prefer determinism?

Answer 42

Determinism assumes that behaviour has a cause - it is determined by something else. Free will is much harder to measure and control

Question 43

what is a strength of free will?

Answer 43

• even if we only believe we are exerting free choice can improve mental health
  Robert et al (2000):
• adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism are at a significantly greater risk of developing depression

Question 44

what is one limitation of free will?

Answer 44

• Brain scans do not support free will
  Libet (1983):
• participants had to choose a random movement to move their wrist while brain activity was measured
• participants had to say when they felt the conscious will to move their wrist
• the unconscious brain activity leading to the conscious will to move around half a second before the participant moved

Question 45

what is the counterpoint for the limitation of free will?

Answer 45

• Libet’s finding showing the brain is involved in decision-making is not surprising and is actually what you would expect
• just because the action comes before the conscious awareness of the decision to act doesn’t mean there was no decision to act

Question 46

what is a limitation of determinism?

Answer 46

• position of the legal system on responsibility
• hard determinism = individual choice is not the cause of human behaviour
• this is not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates
• in a court of law, offenders are held responsible for their actions

Question 47

what is the interactionist approach with reference to the nature-nurture debate?

Answer 47

the view that the processes of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposite

Question 48

what is the epigenetics view?

Answer 48

• a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic coding which is caused by our environment
  -things we do leave “epigenetic marks” on our DNA

Question 49

what is an example of the interactionist approach?

Answer 49

• diathesis-stress model

Question 50

what is the genetic explanation for behaviour?

Answer 50

• family, twin, and adoption studies show that the closer two individuals are, the more likely the both of them is to develop the same behaviors
• e.g the concordance rate for schizophrenia is about 40% for MZ and 7% for DZ twins

Question 51

what is the genetic explanation for behaviour?

Answer 51

• family, twin, and adoption studies show that the closer two individuals are, the more likely the both of them is to develop the same behaviours
• e.g the concordance rate for schizophrenia is about 40% for MZ and 7% for DZ twins

Question 52

what is the evolutionary explanations for behaviour?

Answer 52

• based on the principle that behavior promotes survival and reproduction
• These behaviours are adaptive therefore the genes will be passed to subsequent generations
• Bowlby’s 91969) theory of attachment

Question 53

what are some examples of the influence of nurture?

Answer 53

• behaviourism - BF Skinner, classical conditioning
• social learning theory
• david reimer

Question 54

who is david reimer?

Answer 54

• born a twin
  -botches circumcision which meant his twin did not get the surgery
• the parents contacted dr money and they decided to raise him as a girl
• he would shoe more “masculine” traits
• embracing his life as a man made his life hopeful
• they opened up about their abuse from dr money
• he ended up taking his own life

Question 55

what did Hebb argue?

Answer 55

that nature/ nurture can not be separated

Question 56

what do adoption studies show?

Answer 56

• they separate the competing influences of nature and nurture
• studies by Soo Rhee and Irvin Waldman found that genetics influence 41% of the variance in aggression

Question 57

what are the real world implications of nature/nurture?

Answer 57

• research suggests that OCD is a highly inheritable mental disorder
• Gerald Nestadt et al (2010) put it as a heritability rate of .076

Question 58

what is holism?

Answer 58

an argument that proposes that it only makes sense to study individual systems as a whole

Question 59

what is reductionism?

Answer 59

the belief that human behaviour is best understood by understanding smaller constituent parts

Question 60

what are the levels of explanation?

Answer 60

1. sociocultural
2. psychological
3. physical
4. environmental/behavioural
5. physiological
6. neurochemical

Question 61

what is biological reductionism?

Answer 61

a form of reductionism which attempts to explain behaviour at the lowest biological level

Question 62

what is parsimony?

Answer 62

complex phenomena should be explained by the simplest underlying principles possible

Question 63

what is environmental reductionism?

Answer 63

the attempt to explain all behaviours in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learnt through experiences

Question 64

what is the evaluation for biological reductionism?

Answer 64

+ scientific
+ easy to replicate in studies
+ allows for successful treatments
- too simplistic
- ignores learned behaviours
- ignores social factors

Question 65

what is the evaluation for environmental reductionism?

Answer 65

+ parsimony: the simplest explanation is often the best
+ successfully explains behaviours like phobias
- too simplistic
- focus is on learned associates and ignores other factors

Question 66

what is experimental reductionism?

Answer 66

reducing complex behaviours to an isolated variable is a useful strategy for conducting research

Question 67

what is the evaluation for experimental reductionism?

Answer 67

+ able to identify the effect of the independent variable
- can’t be applied to real-life findings

Question 68

how does humanistic psychology support holism?

Answer 68

lacking identity or a sense of “wholeness” can lead to mental health disorders

Question 69

how does cognitive psychology support holism?

Answer 69

connectionist networks are described as holistic because the network as a whole behaves differently than the individual parts

Question 70

what is the idiographic approach?

Answer 70

• Numbers are small, often a single case (single individual or group/institution)
• Some research might include information from family, friends or others, but the focus is on detail
• This does not mean generalisations are not made - but the initial focus is about understanding the individual

Question 71

what is the nomothetic approach?

Answer 71

• Main aim is generalisation in order to create ‘laws’ e.g general principles of behaviour
• These can then be applied to individual situations, such as drug therapy

Question 72

Idiographic Approach - Qualitative Data

Answer 72

• Most research is qualitative
• E.g research on depression would be biassed on first-hand accounts from a small number of people (case study)
• Participants would be interviewed in depth and the focus may be on a particular facet of human behaviour, such as how the participants coped with their experiences (using unstructured interviews)
• Such data is analyzed and emergent themes are identified
• Conclusions may help with people going through similar experiences, or more widely, may help mental health professionals determine best practice

Question 73

Idiographic Approach - Qualitative Data

Answer 73

• Most research is qualitative
• E.g research on depression would be biassed on first-hand accounts from a small number of people (case study)
• Participants would be interviewed in depth and the focus may be on a particular facet of human behaviour, such as how the participants coped with their experiences (using unstructured interviews)
• Such data is analyzed and emergent themes are identified
• Conclusions may help with people going through similar experiences, or more widely, may help mental health professionals determine best practice

Question 74

Idiographic Examples - Psychodynamic Approach

Answer 74

• Uses case studies to focus on individuals’ experiences e.g the Wolfman, Little Hans, (gathering qualitative data)
• Freud argued that human behaviour is governed by universal processes that apply to everyone, but he also said that the ways in which these processes manifest themselves in the individual is unique

Question 75

Idiographic Examples - Psychodynamic Approach

Answer 75

• Uses case studies to focus on individuals’ experiences e.g the Wolfman, Little Hans, (gathering qualitative data)
• Freud argued that human behaviour is governed by universal processes that apply to everyone, but he also said that the ways in which these processes manifest themselves in the individual is unique

Question 76

Idiographic Examples - Humanistic Approach

Answer 76

• All individuals are unique and are motivated to achieve their potential
• A proper understanding of human behaviour can only be achieved by studying humans - not animals
• Psychology should study the individual case (idiographic) rather than the average performance of groups (nomothetic)

Question 77

Idiographic Examples - Allport (1961)

Answer 77

• He believed that the idiographic approach can tell us more about human behaviour and that personality tests that provide quantitative data are not as insightful

Question 78

Idiographic - Subjective

Answer 78

• Tends not to believe that objectivity is possible
• It is people’s individual experiences of their unique context that is important, rather than some underlying reality ‘out there’

Question 79

Nomothetic Approach - Quantitative Data

Answer 79

• The researcher most closely fits traditional models of the ‘scientific method’ in psychology
• Hypotheses are formulated, samples of people/animals are assessed in some way e.g structured questionnaires or using psychological tests
• Numerical data is produced and analysed for its statistical significance
• Nomothetic approaches seek to quantify (count) human behaviour

Question 80

Nomothetic Examples - Behaviourist Approach

Answer 80

• It views all behaviour governed by the same laws of conditioning, so all behaviour is just a response to environmental stimuli

Question 80

Nomothetic Examples - Biological Approach

Answer 80

• Biological psychologists typically pinpoint biological factors, such as neurotransmitters, that are responsible for such disorders and use biological therapies (e.g. drugs) to treat all patients
• Don’t take the individual into account

Question 81

Nomothetic Examples - Cognitive Approach

Answer 81

• Focuses on establishing theories on information processing that apply to all people
• E.g Beck’s negative triad - its generalised to all people

Question 82

Nomothetic Examples - Eysenck’s Theory of Personality

Answer 82

• Allows comparisons between people
• Personality is understood according to where an individual falls along a spectrum of these three factors - extraversion vs introversion, neuroticism vs emotional stability, and psychoticism vs self-control
• It is a common personality across all of society, determining our personality

Question 83

Nomothetic - Objective

Answer 83

• Laws of behaviour are only possible if methods of assessment are delivered in a standardised way
• Ensures true replication across samples and removes the contaminating influence of bias

Question 84

Evaluation (Strength of Idiographic) - Focus on the Individual Level

Answer 84

• Humanistic psychologists and qualitative psychologists in the latter half of the last century believed there was too much emphasis on measurement and that psychologists had lost sight of what it was to be human
• Allport argued that a drastic reorientation was needed and that’s precisely what the idiographic approach did
• Allport argued that it is only by knowing the person as an individual that we can predict what the person will do in any given situation
• This suggests that focus on the individuals can provide us with a more complete understanding

Question 85

Evaluation (Limitation of Idiographic) - Time consuming

Answer 85

• Both approaches are based on large amounts of data
• Idiographic = large data about one person
• Nomothetic = large data from a number of people
• Collecting large amounts of data from a group of people takes time but, relatively speaking, is quicker because once you’ve devised a questionnaire or psychological test, data can be generated and processed quickly
• This means that the idiographic approach is less efficient when it comes to data collection

Question 86

Evaluation (Limitation of Idiographic) - Scientific Basis

Answer 86

• Criticism of the idiographic approach is that it is not very scientific
• This is one of the reasons for the recent growth in positive psychology whose view is that humanistic psychology was not sufficiently evidence-based and therefore any ‘findings’ were essentially meaningless - the positive approach aims to be more evidence-based
• The same criticisms can’t be made about other idiographic approaches (case studies/qualitative research) which do use an evidence-based approach and also seek to be objective (another important criterion of science)
• For example, qualitative approaches use reflexivity to identify the influence of any biases
• Reflexivity refers to the process where the researcher reflects or thinks critically during the research process about the factors that affect the behaviour of both researchers and participants

Question 87

Evaluation (Limitation of Idiographic) - Ability to Make Predictions

Answer 87

• The idiographic approach may be scientific, but the inability to produce general predictions about behaviour is limiting
• Such general predictions can be useful, for example in producing drugs to treat mental illness
• It would be far too time-consuming to produce personal therapies for unique individuals and therefore we need to make predictions about the most likely therapeutic solutions
• However, Allport argued that the idiographic approach does enable predictions
• Once a researcher has built up extremely detailed observations of a few individuals, this can be used to make generalisations and formulate theories
• Hall and Lindzey (1970) argue that this stance makes Allport’s approach basically nomothetic rather than idiographic

Question 88

Evaluation (Limitation of Idiographic) - Ability to Make Predictions

Answer 88

• The idiographic approach may be scientific, but the inability to produce general predictions about behaviour is limiting
• Such general predictions can be useful, for example in producing drugs to treat mental illness
• It would be far too time-consuming to produce personal therapies for unique individuals and therefore we need to make predictions about the most likely therapeutic solutions
• However, Allport argued that the idiographic approach does enable predictions
• Once a researcher has built up extremely detailed observations of a few individuals, this can be used to make generalisations and formulate theories
• Hall and Lindzey (1970) argue that this stance makes Allport’s approach basically nomothetic rather than idiographic

Question 89

Evaluation (Limitation of both) - Combined Methods (Holt 1967 & Millon and Davis 1996)

Answer 89

-Holt (1967) argued that the idiographic/nomothetic distinction is a false separation because inevitably, generalisations are made
- He claimed that there is no such thing as a unique individual and what idiographic approaches actually do is generate general principles
- In other words, the idiographic approach actually ends up being nomothetic (as Hall and Lindzey concluded regarding Allport’s approach)
- Million and Davis (1996) suggested that research should start with the nomothetic approach and, once ‘laws’ have been produced they can then focus on a more idiographic understanding
- A number of approaches actually combine the two approaches: Freud used idiographic methods to study people, but also used those insights to produce general laws about human development in his theory of personality
- Uniqueness can be produced using the nomothetic approach, it depends how we define uniqueness
- For Allport, only individual traits capture a person’s uniqueness, whereas, for Eysenck, each individual is unique insofar as they have a unique combination of extraversion, introversion and neuroticism
- Therefore, uniqueness can be explained through nomothetic laws

Question 90

6 Ethical Considerations

Answer 90

• Informed consent
• Psychological harm
• Deception
• Confidentiality
• Right to withdraw
• Debrief

Question 91

The Research Process (Seiber and Stanley 1988) - The Research Question

Answer 91

• Simply asking a question (such as ‘are there racial differences in IQ?’ or ‘is homosexuality inherited?’) may be damaging to members of a particular racial group or sexual orientation because it appears to add scientific credibility to the prevailing prejudice

Question 92

The Research Process - Conduct of Research and Treatment of Participants

Answer 92

• The main concern is the confidentiality of the information collected (e.g if a participant confesses to a crime, should confidentiality be maintained?)

Question 93

The Research Process - The Institutional Context

Answer 93

• Research may be funded and managed by private institutions who may misuse the data or misunderstand it. The media may obtain reports of such research and misreport the findings

Question 94

The Research Process - Interpretation and Application of Findings

Answer 94

• Research findings may be used for purposes other than originally intended
• For example, the development of IQ tests by psychologists was subsequently used to demonstrate the inferiority of certain groups of people and was also used to identify the ‘feeble minded’ who could then be sterilised (a practise in the US in the early twentieth century)

Question 95

Privacy

Answer 95

• During the research process, a skilled investigator may extract more information from participants than they intended to give
• Some research (e.g AIDS research) may lead to social policies that are an invasion of people’s private lives (e.g through compulsory testing)

Question 96

Confidentiality

Answer 96

• Participants may be less willing to divulge information in the future if confidentiality is breached and further related research would be compromised

Question 97

Valid Methodology

Answer 97

• In cases of poor methodology (and therefore invalid findings), scientists may be aware of these problems, but the media and the public may not, and thus poor studies might shape important social policy to the detriment of those groups represented by the research

Question 98

deception

Answer 98

• Includes self-deception whereby research may lead people to form untrue stereotypes (e.g believing that women are less good at maths), which then affects one’s own performance

Question 99

informed consent

Answer 99

• Potential participants may not always comprehend what is involved in the experiment

Question 100

equitable treatment

Answer 100

• All participants should be treated in an equitable manner, and resources which are vital to the participants’ wellbeing (e.g educational opportunities) are not withheld from one group whilst being available to another

Question 101

scientific freedom

Answer 101

• The scientist has a duty to engage in research but at the same time has an obligation not to harm participants as well as institutions within society

Question 102

scientific freedom

Answer 102

• The scientist has a duty to engage in research but at the same time has an obligation not to harm participants as well as institutions within society

Question 103

Ownership of Data

Answer 103

• Some of the problems with determining ownership involve the sponsorship of the research (.g a university department or commercial organisation) and the public accessibility of the data

Question 104

values

Answer 104

• Psychologists differ in their orientation towards subjective (idiographic) approaches and more objective (scientific) approaches
• Sensitive issues arise when there is a clash in such values between the scientist and recipient of the research

Question 105

Evaluation - The Wider Impact of Research

Answer 105

• There are always some social consequences of participating in research, but with socially sensitive research the impact can be greater
• For example, there is increased potential for a more indirect impact on the participant’s family, their co-workers or maybe even the group that participant identifies with
• Researchers need to think beyond simply safeguarding the interest of the individual in research
• Therefore, researchers must take account of the likely impact of the research on the larger group of which the participants are a member

Question 106

Evaluation - May Disadvantage Marginalised Groups

Answer 106

• Many groups in society have suffered the consequences of being excluded from research or being misrepresented when they are included
• It might be argued that our understanding of human behaviour has been lessened by our misinterpretations or failure to include representative samples of persons with disabilities, the elderly, the disadvantaged ect.
• These shortcomings also mean that these groups then miss out on any of the potential benefits of research
• This failure to fully include such groups in research means our understanding of human behaviour has been unnecessarily restricted

Question 107

Evaluation - Inadequacy of Current Ethical Guidelines

Answer 107

• Psychologists typically deal with ethical issues in research by the development of strict guidelines for the conduct of their studies
• Ethical guidelines may protect the immediate needs of research participants, but may not deal with all the possible ways in which research may inflict harm on a group of people or section of society
• For example, at present, ethical guidelines don’t ask researchers to consider how their research might be used by others, as recommended by Sieber and Stanley
• Therefore, the considerations outlined some time ago have not yet permeated into professional practice

Question 108

Evaluation - Should socially sensitive research just be avoided?

Answer 108

• It might be tempting to think that the solution to the problem of handling socially sensitive research might be to try and avoid it; for example, to avoid research on homosexuality, race, gender, addiction ect. because the findings may have negative consequences for the participants, for the section of society they represent or indeed for the whole of society
• However, this would probably leave psychologists with nothing to examine but unimportant issues
• Sieber and Stanley’s view is that to simply ignore sensitive research is not a responsible approach to science
• They suggest that avoiding controversial topics, simply because they are controversial, is also an avoidance of responsibility
• Therefore, psychologists have a duty to conduct such research

Question 109

Evaluation - Engaging with the public and policymakers

Answer 109

• This research has important applications
• In order to reduce the likelihood of misuse of data, psychologists should be energetic in taking responsibility for what happens to their findings
• They should be aware if the possibility that the results of their research might lead to abuse and discrimination or, as Sieber and Stanley (1988) suggest, offer ‘scientific credibility to the prevailing prejudice’
• The British Psychological Society has a press centre which aims to promote evidence-based psychological research to the media
• But it is really a matter for individual researchers to see it as a part of the research process to promote their research in a socially sensitive way, as opposed to the neutral position that some scientists wish to take