issues and debates

Question 1

alpha bias

Answer 1

a tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women

Question 2

beta bias

Answer 2

occurs when the differences between men and women are ignored or we assume that they are the same

Question 3

andocentrism

Answer 3

mental process of viewing the world from a male Pov

Question 4

evaluation of gender bias
- may validate discriminatory practices

Answer 4

• may provide scientific justification to deny opportunities within the workplace to women for reasons such as providing care to children (e.g bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory)
• a problem because gender bias in research is not just a methodological problem, but may have damaging consequences which affect the lives and prospects of women

Question 5

evaluation of gender bias
- can promote sexism in research process

Answer 5

• a lack of women at senior level in research means that female concerns/issues may not be reflected in the research questions asked
• male researchers are more likely to have work published
• female ppts in lab studies are in an unequal power relationship with the male researcher who may label them as irrational/inferior/weak etc
  – psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism that creates bias in theory and research

Question 6

feminists have suggested that gender bias can be reduced by following certain steps

Answer 6

• women should be included in all research samples
• women should be studied within real life contexts, not just experimental conditions (e.g shaffer and emerson vs ainsworth)
• diversity across groups of women should be studies, rather than only making comparisons between women and men

Question 7

culture bias

Answer 7

if the ‘norm’ for a particular behaviour is judged only from the standpoint of one particular culture, then any cultural differences in behaviour that deviate from this norm will be seen as ‘abnormal’ or inferior

Question 8

ethnocentrism

Answer 8

a bias or focus on one ethnic group or culture, viewing other cultures as abnormal or inferior e.g aisnworth

Question 9

etics

Answer 9

constructs that are universal to all people. research from a specific culture which is then applied to other cultures to find universal laws.
- example of imposed etic: DSM gives a western classification of abnormality which may not apply to all cultures

Question 10

emics

Answer 10

emic constructs are specific to particular cultures, so they vary from place to place. study behaviour within the culture to avoid bias

Question 11

cultural relativism

Answer 11

idea that a person beliefs and practices should be understood based on that persons own culture
- proponents of cultural relativism argue that the norms and values of one culture should not be evaluated using the norms and values of another

Question 12

evaluation of cultural bias
- theoretical issues

Answer 12

• some concepts seem to be universal - culture doesn’t always matter for certain behaviour or traits e.g biological or traits
• cultural differences may be exaggerated - individualist/collectivist is too simplistic. takano found that 14/15 studies that compared the usa and japan found no evidence of the traditional distinction between collectivism and individualism
  — process of globalisation might be creating a more homogenous experience of humanity and reducing cultural differences

Question 13

evaluation of cultural bias
- methodological issues

Answer 13

• difficult to ensure reliability during cross cultural research. ensuring variables are kept controlled and consistent while research is conducted between cultures is problematic. may be due to language barriers or cultural differences. always the risk of EVs affecting the results
• conducting research in non-western cultures may be affected by investigator bias- cultures unfamiliar with scientific research may be suspicious of researchers and behave in an unnatural way
• alternatively they may exhibit demand characteristics as they attempt to ‘help’ the researchers

Question 14

free will

Answer 14

the principle that as humans we are free to choose our thoughts and actions - we are self determining
- we are able to reject the internal and external forces that act on us

Question 15

determinism

Answer 15

principle that all human behaviour comes from either internal or external causes

Question 16

hard determinism

Answer 16

assumes everything we do is dictated by internal and external forces that we cannot control

Question 17

soft determinism

Answer 17

there is room for manoeuvre in that people have conscious mental control over the way they behave

Question 18

biological determinism

Answer 18

behaviour that is determined by biological factors inside ourselves e.g inherited behaviour, neural mechanisms, hormones etc

Question 19

environmental determinism

Answer 19

behaviour is shaped by environmental events as well as agents of socialisation
- behaviourism

Question 19

environmental determinism

Answer 19

behaviour is shaped by environmental events as well as agents of socialisation
- behaviourism

Question 20

psychic determinism

Answer 20

behaviour is shaped by unconscious forces we cannot control. for freud these were created by biological drives and childhood experiences

Question 21

case against determinism

Answer 21

hard determinism contradicts the way our legal system works - its assumed that offenders are morally responsible for their behaviour as they acted of their own free will
- if it was accepted that no one was responsible for their own actions the legal consequences would be very damaging to society

Question 22

case for free will

Answer 22

• everyday experience gives us the impression that we have free will through the choices we make everyday- gives face validity to the concept
• research suggests that people who have an internal locus of control are more mentally healthy than those with an external LOC
• suggests that even if we don’t have free will the fact that we think we do had a positive impact on our mind and behaviour

Question 23

case against free will

Answer 23

• neurological studies have revealed evidence against free will
• research has shown that the activity related to whether to press a button with the left or right hand occurs in the brain 10 seconds before ppts report being consciously aware of having made the decision
• this shows that our most basic experiences of free will are decided and determined by our brain before we become aware of them

Question 24

nature

Answer 24

• nativists argue that human characteristics are innate; the result of hereditary factors
• the heritability coeffeicient is used to assess heredity

Question 25

nurture

Answer 25

• empiricists argue that the mind is a blank slate at birth upon which learning and experiences writes

Question 26

the interactionist approach

Answer 26

most psychologists recognise that disentangling the effects of nature and nurture is not always possible. it’s important to recognise the impact of both nature and nurture on all behaviour e.g diathesis stress model

Question 27

epigenetics

Answer 27

refers to a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code. it’s a process that happens throughout our life and is caused by interaction with the environment

Question 28

holism

Answer 28

considers the whole persons experience
- treat the whole person by addressing multiple factors

Question 29

biological reductionism

Answer 29

• biological reductionism is based on the premise that we are all biological organisms made up of physiological structures and processes
• thus all behaviour is at some level biological and so can be explained through neurochemical and neuriphysiological, evolutionary and genetic influences

Question 30

environmental determinism

Answer 30

• behaviourists study observable behaviour only and so break up learning into simple stimulus- response links that are measurable within the laboratory
• doesn’t concern itself with cognitive processes
• mind is regarded as irrelevant to understanding our behaviour

Question 31

arguments for reductionism

Answer 31

• scientific: can more easily establish cause and effect by isolating variables
• has led to important discoveries
• has led to important treatments e.g for psychopathologies
• easier to study one component rather than several
• high level of predictive power

Question 32

arguments against reductionism

Answer 32

• makes complex behaviour very simplistic; leading to loss of validity
• component isolated doesn’t give full explanation of behaviour
• difficult to isolate component; influence of EVs
• focus on a single level of explanation leaved our other levels of explanation

Question 33

arguments for holism

Answer 33

• provides a more complete picture
• understands complexity of behaviour
• holistic approach more useful- many factors influence behaviour
• considers individual differencs

Question 34

arguments against holism

Answer 34

• does not allow for detailed study into one area
• unscientific; often more hypothetical and lacks the predictive power of more scientific explanations
• over complicates behaviours which may have a simple explanation
• neglects importance of biological influences
• difficult to investigate all the different components = very costly/time consuming

Question 35

nomothetic approach

Answer 35

• interested in studying similarities between people
• therefore, the nomothetic approach involves establishing laws or generalisations that apply to all people

Question 36

idiographic approach

Answer 36

aims to discover what makes each of us unique
- no general laws are possible because of chance, free will and the uniqueness of individuals

Question 37

idiographic evaluation
- provides rich and detailed data

Answer 37

• provides rich and detailed data
• e.g has provided a complete and global account of the individual in the case study of HM. the case of HM in memory research helped our understanding that some procedural memories are more resistant to amnesia
• strength because a single case study like this can generate hypotheses for further study - such findings from unique case studies may reveal important insights about normal functioning which can contribute to our overall understanding of behaviour

Question 38

idiographic evaluation
- seen as subjective and restrictive in nature

Answer 38

• lack of scientific rigour; seen as subjective and restrictive in nature
• e.g freud has been criticised because many of his key concepts such as oedipus complex were largely developed from the detailed single case study (little hans)
• weakness; meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples, which means conclusions tend to rely on the subjective interpretation of the researcher and are therefore open to bias

Question 39

nomothetic evaluation
- scientific value of the research

Answer 39

• scientific value of the research; process involved in nomothetic research tend to be more scientific, mirroring those used within natural sciences
• e.g in sperry’s nomothetic research he used standardised procedures and equipment that allowed him to send information to one visual field and therefore one hemisphere of split brain patients
• this arguably gives the discipline of psychology greater scientific credibility

Question 40

nomothetic evaluation
- ‘losing of the whole person’ within psychology

Answer 40

• nomothetic approach is preoccupied with general laws, prediction and control, has been accused of ‘losing of the whole person’ within psychology
• e.g knowing there is a 1% risk of developing schizophrenia tells us little about what life is like with it. in lab tests memory ppts are treated as a set of scores rather than as an individual
• this is a weakness because in its search for general laws, the nomothetic approach may sometimes overlook the importance of human experience

Question 41

socially sensitive research

Answer 41

psychological research which may have social consequences, or wider implications, either directly or indirectly, for the people being tested or the wider group to which they belong

Question 42

sieber and stanley (1988) identify 3 concerns for socially sensitive research:

Answer 42

1. wider implications (what people might do with the findings) e.g studies may give scientific credibility to controversial findings e.g bowlby’s maternal deprivation
2. uses/public policy; the research may be used to shape public policy -e.g the 11+ exam, incarceration/decarceration of the mentally ill
3. validity of the research - the research may be affected by the researchers own bias and perception

Question 43

argument against socially sensitive research

Answer 43

• a problem with SSR is the inadequacy of ethical guidelines
• ethical guidelines may protect the immediate needs of research ppts, but may not deal with all the possible ways in which research may inflict harm on a group of people or section of society, also, some of the social consequences of research involving vulnerable groups may be difficult to anticipate or predict

Question 44

evaluation - strength of SSR

Answer 44

aronson - claims that ignoring important areas of research that may be socially sensitive would amount to an abdication of ‘the social responsibilities’ of the psychological researcher. the researcher has a responsibility to advance scientific understanding

Question 45

benefits of socially sensitive research - bowlby

Answer 45

• bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis - the idea that a child needs a continuous relationship with a mother figure in the first five years of life in order to develop normally
• disruption to this bond through separation from the mother figure can have a negative effect on later social, emotional and intellectual development
• people would not have recognised the negative effects of hospitalisation on a childs emotional wellbeing
• today, parents stay in hospital with their child and this aids the childs recovery