Issues and debates Flashcards
What is universality ?
Characteristics that can be applied to all humans.
Define gender bias.
Views/studies that do not accurately represent behaviours in men or women.
Define androcentrism.
Male dominated research where women’s behaviour judged by male standards.
What is alpha bias ?
Exaggerates diff between men and women.
What is beta bias ?
Ignores or minimises diff between men and women.
What is an example of alpha bias ?
Freud’s Psychodynamic approach - argued that because girls do not suffer the same oedipal conflict as boys, they do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys identify with their fathers, so develop weaker superegos.
Evolutionary approach
What is an example of beta bias ?
Fight-or-flight response - carried out with male animals because they have less variation in hormones than females. It was assumed that this would not be a problem as the fight-or-flight response would be the same for both. However, later stress research by Taylor et al. (2000) has challenged this view by providing evidence that females produce a tend-and-befriend response.
Asch’s (1955) conformity studies involved all male participants, as did many of the other conformity studies (e.g., Perrin & Spencer, 1980) and therefore it was assumed that females would respond in the same way.
Evaluate gender bias.
Limitation - Gender differences explained as fixed but are not. Maccoby and Jacklin suggested differences hardwired at birth. But Joel et al used brain scanning techniques and found no diff.
Limitation - promotes sexism, lecturers most likely male (Murphy et al) so most research conducted by men and so their expectations of women may cause bias.
Limitation - research challenging gender biases may not be published. Funded less so fewer scholars apply to own work.
Give an example of ethnocentrism.
Strange situation for attachment - western culture being used on other cultures to assess attachment type led to bias.
What is etic ?
Looking at behaviour from outside given culture and attempt to describe those behaviours as universal.
What is emic ?
Looking at behaviour from inside the culture to identify behaviour specific to that culture.
Evaluate cultural bias
Limitation - most influential studies culturally biased, eg Asch and Milgram. Asch individualistic cultures.
Strength - cultural psych now, Cohen said it studies how people shaped and shape culture. Cross cultural research. Now more mindful.
Limitation - stereotypes created, prejudice due to ineffective research. Gould said IQ tests US ethnocentric and used for racism.
What did Berry suggest about etic ?
Psych often guilty of imposed etic.
What is free will ?
Idea humans are self determining and free to choose own thoughts and actions.
What is the difference between hard and soft determinism?
Hard determinism is the view that all behaviour is caused by something.
Soft determinism is the view that behaviour may be predictable, but there is also room for personal choice.
what are the three types of determinism?
biological, environmental and psychic.
Give examples for the three types of determinism
biological - autonomic nervous system on the stress response
environmental - skinner and conditioning
psychic - Freud and unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood
Evaluate freewill and determinism
strength free will - practical value, we use freewill in every day lives, even if not true Roberts et al said, if we think we do, it improves our mental health. internal loc more likely optimistic.
limitation fw - Brian scan evidence does not support. libet et al flick wrist experiment unconscious brain knew before conscious. Basic experiences may be determined by brain before we are aware.
limitation det - legal system, responsible for actions.
What is the nature nature debate?
The extent to which aspects of behaviour are the product of inherited or acquired characteristics
what is the diathesis stress model in nature/nurture ?
behaviour is caused by a biological or environmental vulnerability, which is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental trigger eg OCD.
What are epigenetic?
The change in genetic activity without changing genes themselves. aspects of our lifestyle or events leave marks on our DNA. Can affect generations so seen as third part of debate
how can we measure nature or nurture ?
concordance rates
Evaluate the nature nurture debate
strength - use of adoption studies that separate both aspects. meta analysis Rhee and Waldman found genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression
strength - support for epigenetics, ww2 Susser and Lin - pregnant women in famine had low weight babies and 2x more likely sz.
strength - real world application, Nestadt et al .76 heritable OCD. Can try prevent eg learn to manage stress.
what is holism?
theory that proposes that it makes sense to study and indivisible system rather than its constituent parts
