Issues and Debates

Question 1

What is gender bias?

Answer 1

When research incorrectly treats genders differently or the same

Question 2

What is culture bias?

Answer 2

When researchers have a distorted view of other cultures due to their own cultural understanding

Question 3

What is: Universality/ Bias?

Answer 3

Universality: theories aim to be universal, so they apply to all people.
Bias: prejudice for or against one person or group in a way that could be considered unfair.

Question 4

What is androcentrism?

Answer 4

Psychology has been largely male dominated so theories tended to represent a male world view. Occurs when all behaviour is compared according to a ‘male’ standard, often to the neglect or exclusion of women

Question 5

What is alpha bias? example

Answer 5

there are differences between genders
example: since the 1980s schizophrenia has been diagnosed more frequently in men compared to women. Women
are able to continue working, maintain good interpersonal relationships and show less distress than men. This means that the schizophrenic symptoms of women may be masked or not severe enough diagnose.

Question 6

What is beta bias? example

Answer 6

Ignore or minimise differences between men and women
example: research conducted into the fight or flight response used male lab
mice, they have fewer hormonal fluctuations, changes in
adrenaline, due to environmental stressors, could be more reliably measured. results from these studies were then generalised to females, ignoring differences between the two sexes

Question 7

Alpha evaluation: 1+, 1-

Answer 7

+ reflexivity, allowed researchers to become aware of how their own interpretations can influence the research. reflexive process now used so prevent influences so less generalisations made from research in terms of gender
- differences are exaggerated, causes stereotypes seen in mental illnesses, usually devalue females. the way in which research is carried out can lead to this

Question 8

Beta evaluation: 1+, 1-

Answer 8

+ help to create equality in society, can help to change laws so women have more access to educational and occupational opportunities
- often assume the findings from males can apply to women but men and women are biologically different so this might further disadvantage women

Question 9

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 9

the use of our own cultural group as a basis for judgments about other culture groups, we tend to view our own culture as ‘superior’ and other cultures as ‘strange’- ETIC

Question 10

What is culture relativism?

Answer 10

all cultures are worthy of respect and that we need to try and understand the way that particular cultures see the world- EMIC

Question 11

Cultural bias evaluation: 1+, 3-

Answer 11

+ taking an emic approach, researchers are trying to overcome issues with cultural bias, using ethnography where the research becomes part of the community to develop a full understanding of a culture= HOWEVER= not all behaviour is relative to ones culture
- implications of cultural bias= impacts on way in which mental illness is diagnosed= schizophrenia
- not always useful to distinguish between types of cultures, individualist and collectivist, as there are differences within cultures, distinction between cultures unlikely to be useful in an age where travel and movement is common
- Consequences of cultural bias: The US army IQ test showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ. This data has a profound effect on attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people, leading to stereotyping and
discrimination.

Question 12

What is free will?

Answer 12

We are free to choose our thoughts and behaviours and that we reject biological and environmental influences

Question 13

What is determinism?

Answer 13

We have no free will over our thoughts and actions and that they are pre-determined by internal and external factors

Question 14

What are the versions of determinism?

Answer 14

Hard: an extreme form of determinism with no room for free will and all behaviour has a specific cause which we can’t control
Soft: does allow for some free will and believes humans do have some conscious mental control over their behaviour

Question 15

What are the types of determinism?

Answer 15

Biological: behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control, such as the influence of genes
Environmental: sees behaviour as being determined as past experiences and external influences, parents and teachers
Psychic: sees behaviour as determined by unconscious forces, early childhood will have influenced our unconscious

Question 16

Free will evaluation- 1+, 1-

Answer 16

+ face validity, what we experience everyday and is reinforced in our legal system (humans are responsible for for their own behaviour) which keeps calm and order in society
- culturally relative, may only be suited to a culture that values independence, in collectivist culture behaviour is determined by groups so free will is valued

Question 17

Determinism evaluation- 2+, 1-

Answer 17

+ mental illness, notion of diagnosing mental illness suggests our behaviour is determined, symptoms are unlikely behaviour we would choose to do, medication to remove these symptoms suggests there are biological factors determining behaviour
+ interventions, means we can intervene, can give support to people with certain genetics/ biological make up- murderers
- concordance rates, behaviour is unlikely to be completely influenced by just biological or environmental determinism can be seen in comparisons of concordance rate of MZ twins- found 80% similarity for intelligence/ 40% for depression, supports an interactionist standpoint

Question 18

What is the scientific emphasis on causal explanations?

Answer 18

every event has a specific cause which can be explained by general laws. lab method is used, all extraneous variables are controlled, and an IV manipulated. the DV is measured so any difference in DV is du to the IV- cause and effect

Question 19

What is the nature debate?

Answer 19

refers to the influence of our genes on all behaviour and characteristics

Question 20

What is the nurture debate?

Answer 20

refers to influences of interactions, what is learnt through experience with both social and physical environment

Question 21

What is heredity? how does it link

Answer 21

genetic inheritance- traits are passed down from parents to offspring meaning genetic makeup influences our behaviour

Question 22

What is evolutionary traits? how does it link

Answer 22

characteristics that have supported survival are now innate within us and passed down due to natural selection

Question 23

What are environmental factors?

Answer 23

everything that is outside our body, including people, events and the
physical world/ any influence on behaviour which is non-genetic- the view that the mind is a ‘blank slate upon which experience writes upon’ is typical
of an empiricist/behaviourist approach

Question 24

What is the interactionist approach?
How can they interact?

Answer 24

IA: concept that it is not nature or nurture but an interaction between the two
Passive relationship- parental genes affect the way that parents treat their children
Active relationship- child’s genetic make-up actively affects the environment
Reactive relationship- child’s genetic make-up (appearance, temperament) leads to particular responses from others

Question 25

What is the diathesis stress?

Answer 25

suggests that mental illness or abnormality occurs due to interaction between the biological- DIATHESIS- and the environmental- STRESS- influences

Question 26

Nature and nurture evaluation- 2+,2-

Answer 26

+ nurture affects nature, Maguire study, found a larger grey matter volume in the mid-posterior hippocampus, positive correlation between increasingly pronounced changes and an increasing length of time that individuals had
been taxi drivers- neural plasticity, demonstrates the interactionist nature between the two, influences of the two cannot be separated
+ epigenetics, how our genes can be switched on or off in response to factors like stress or nutrition, can change genetic activity and leave genetic ‘marker’, genes switched on= passed down to offspring, there are experiences of previous generations suggesting babies are not blank slates
- difficult to study, impossible to separate them to see the impact of both, even with twins, they will never share the exact same environment, explains wide variation in concordance rates
- taking a purely nature or nurture size is taking a determinism approach, nature- behaviour is determined by our genes, nurture- environmentally deterministic, negatives for both, more useful to take interactionist approach

Question 27

What is holism?

Answer 27

focuses on the system as a whole rather than the individual parts and suggests we cannot predicted how the whole system will work by just looking at the individual components.

Question 28

Holism evaluation- 2+, 2-

Answer 28

+ accounts for social influences, research shows behaviour is influenced by our interactions with others so not all behaviour can be explained by just looking at the individual- ZIMBARDO
+ accounts for cognitive influences, research has shown we can’t just look at biology or stimulus-response- SCHEMA DEVELOPMENT
- hard to test, hard to isolate variables to allow controlled testing, vague, hard to generalise and create theories as looking at individual as a whole
- hard to practically apply, considers all potential factors so it is difficult to make any suggestions how to change the behaviour- which treatments first for depression

Question 29

What is reductionism?

Answer 29

breaks down complex phenomena into more simple components with the belief that more complex components are better understood in terms of a simple level of explanation- no individualism

Question 30

in reductionist- suggests that explanations begin at the highest level..

What are the levels of explanation?

Answer 30

Highest: social and cultural explanations of behaviour- affect what we remember
Middle: psychological explanations of behaviour- mostly remembered as they’re personal
Lowest: biological explanations of behaviour- activity in the brain where memories are stored and the neurotransmitters involved in making memories

Question 31

What are the types if reductionism?

Answer 31

Biological: reduces the behaviour down to a physical level and the action of neurones, genetics and hormones
Environmental: all behaviour can reduced to a simple relationship between behaviour and events in the environment

Question 32

Reductionism evaluation- 2+, 2-

Answer 32

+ measuring variables, focuses on one factor so easier to control, clear operationalisation of variables and increases reliability and internal validity so can establish cause and effect
+ practical applications, if we focus on one specific behaviour then we can develop clear interventions that focus on that one part- SSRIs for OCD
- misses complexity of behaviours, sees behaviours as simple- environmental is based of off research with animals and just generalises to humans, not the same biologically so isn’t a true reflection
- fails to take in context of behaviour/ meaning and other potential causes- SSRIs for depression may not be a long term solution if it is down to social environment

Question 33

What is ideographic?

Answer 33

focuses on unique individuals to gain insights into human behaviour rather than gaining a large quantity of numerical data and an average- QUALITATIVE

Question 34

Ideographic evaluation- 1+,2-

Answer 34

+ can make predictions, even though it doesn’t, it has the ability to make predictions, researcher built up observations of a few individuals which can be used to my generalisations/ formulate theories
- difficult to apply, only focuses on individual and doesn’t make comparisons so no baseline to compare behaviour to, no real befit to everyday life
- lack of scientific rigour, due to only focusing on qualitative data there is a large amount of subjectivity, also rely on self-report, findings may be subject to bias so difficult to draw meaningful conclusions

Question 35

What is nomothetic?

Answer 35

involves the study of a large number of people and then seeks to make generalisations or develop theories/laws about behaviour- QUANTITATIVE- provides a benchmark to be compared to and future behaviour can be predicted

Question 36

Nomothetic evaluation- 1+,1-

Answer 36

+scientific, uses controlled methodology, standardised measurements and analysis, allows cause and effect and gives higher validity
-doesn’t tell us why, only focuses on averages and statistical significance, doesn’t tell us anything about the experiences of the individual, not a full picture of human behaviour

Question 37

What are ethical implications?

Answer 37

The impact that findings of the research may have on society

Question 38

What is socially sensitive research?

Answer 38

When there are potential social implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the individuals in society

Question 39

Research into ethical issues in socially sensitive research (who?)

Answer 39

SIEBER AND STANELY
-identified a number of issues that can arise during the research process:
-interpretation and application of findings= researchers need to consider validity
-the research question= researchers need to consider implications

Question 40

Evaluation of socially sensitive research- 2+,2-

Answer 40

+the research is necessary, should not be avoided just because the findings have a negative consequences, avoiding then can underrepresent groups- may promote greater sensitivity and understanding
+practical applications, many areas have the potential to make changes in society, state example
-inadequacy of guidelines, only protect ppts and not a group of people or society
-social control, influence of findings can be difficult to change, can reinforce stereotypes and legitimise them with scientific evidence