Issues and Debates Flashcards
What is universality
Any underlying characteristic of human beings which is capable of being applied to all
What do psychologists attempt to conduct research to be
Objective
Value-free
What stops a wanted objective and value-free research
Psychologists possess beliefs and values that are influenced by the social and historical contexts they live in
May influence their research, findings and conclusions
Can undermine universality of the research (it being applied to all human beings)
What are biomedical theories of abnormality
Abnormal behaviour explained in terms of neurochemical/hormonal processes
What is an example of gender bias to do with depression in women
Higher prevalence of depression in women explained in hormonal terms, not social/environmental
Violence, unpaid labour, discrimination
Name some uses of standardised procedures in research studies
W+M might respond differently to research situation
W+M might be treated differently by researchers
Could create artificial differences or mask real ones
How do we disseminate our research results
Publishing bias towards positive results
Research that finds sex differences are more likely to get published than that which does not
Exaggerates extent of sex differences
More men are published than women
What is alpha bias
When the differences between men and women are shown may be exaggerated
Either to heighten the value of women or devalue them
These differences are presented as real and enduring, fixed and inevitable
Freud = “femininity = failed masculinity”, penis envy, etc
What is the sociobiological theory
Wilson 1975
Example of alpha bias
Focuses on social efficiency
Believes that it is in a male’s interests to try and impregnate as many women as possible as this will guarantee that his genes will be passed down through generations
For the female her best chance is to ensure a healthy survival of her offspring which wud guarantee that her genes are passed on
Sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined, while women who engage in similar activity are seen as going against their nature
This theory has been accused of exaggerating the differences between M+W
What is beta bias
When differences between the 2 sexes are ignored or minimised or underestimated
Often occurs when female participants are not included as part of the research process and it is then assumed that the research findings apply equally to both sexes
e.g. Zimbardo, Milgram, Asch, etc
Fight or flight (men) is example of beta bias vs tend and befriend (women)
What did Kohlberg 1973 do in terms of beta bias
Said men have higher moral reasoning on men
But only conducted research on juvenile delinquents
Not women
What is androcentrism
Institutional sexism
Beta bias
Centred or focused on men, often to the neglect or exclusion of women (study contducted on men but generalised to women as well)
Is a consequence of beta bias
If our understanding of ‘normal’ behaviour is being drawn from research that involves ‘all male’ samples, then behaviour that deviates from this is seen as ‘abnormal’ by comparison
Female behaviour is misunderstood and underrepresented
e.g. pianos designed for male fingers, seatbelts designed for male chest
What is a -ve evaluation of androcentrism
PMS - feminists object to this as believe that is a social construct which stereotypes and trivialises the female experience
Suggests that female anger is due to hormones whereas male anger is a rational response to external pressure
What is the opposite of androcentrism
Gynocentrism
A study conducted on females but generalised also to males
What is an example of gender bias by Gilligan
Gilligan and moral development
Highlighted bias inherent in Kohlberg’s work
Suggested women make moral decisions in a different way to men (care ethic vs. justice ethic)
Arguable also (alpha) biased, as M&F moral reasoning is more similar than her work suggests
What is an example of alpha bias by Karen Horney
Stated it was wrong to think females were envious of men’s attributes but they were jealous of men’s attributes but they were jealous of their social class
She coined the term ‘womb envy’ in which males were envious of females ability to have children and compensated for that by achieving in other domains
How do some psychologists address gender bias
Getting feminist perspective
Re-examining the ‘facts’ about gender
View of women as normal humans. not deficient men
Skepticism towards biological determinism
Research agenda focusing on women’s concerns
Psychology for women, rather than a psychology of women
Cultural relativism
The idea that norms, values, ethics and standards differ from culture to culture and so can only be understood within specific social and cultural contexts
Cultural bias
A tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all behaviour through the ‘lens’ of one’s own culture
Ethnocentrism
Judging other cultures by the values and standards of one’s own culture
Can result in feeling of superiority for one’s own culture which can lead to problems of prejudice and bias
What is alpha bias w culture
Assumes there are real and enduring differences cultural groups
e.g. differences between collective and individualistic societies
What is beta bias w culture
Theories which ignore/minimise any differences in culture
e.g. use of IQ tests on non-western cultures
How did Milgram ignore culture
Used men only
How did Asch ignore culture
American males
Individualistic culture
How did Mary Ainsworth (strange situation) ignore culture
Western
Said applies to all babies
What did Berry do regarding imposed etics
Suggests psychologists have often been guilty of using imposed etics
Is when we impose western beliefs on people from other cultures or belief systems and judge them by it
Instead we should use emic approaches (functions from within a given culture and identifies behaviour that is specific to that culture)
Will result in psychologists being more mindful in their research and recognising cultural relativism which may otherwise be ignored or misinterpreted
What did Brislin look at
Ethnocentrism and imposed etics in intelligence tests
Found that in western cultures we often need to do things against the clock
However the Baganda ppl of Uganda characterise intelligence as slow, careful and deliberate thought (Wober)
What did Cochrane and Sashidharan 1995 discover about African-Caribbeans
That AC immigrants are 7x more likely to be diagnosed with mental health issues
To combat this problem, DSM4 included in its appendix a list of 25 culture-bound disorders
What is the problem with the emic approach
It only helps our understanding of behaviour within that culture
An etic approach seeks universals of behaviour
One way to achieve this, while avoiding cultural bias, is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting
Buss did this in his classic study on mate preferences; the data was collected from people in 37 different cultures in order to look at universal behaviour
In each cultural setting there were 3 local researchers
