issues and debates

Question 1

why is bias in research bad

Answer 1

-view of people distorted and of limited value
-reinforces stereotypes and discrimination
-undermines psychology’s claims to universality (concept/theory applies to everyone)

Question 2

gender bias def

Answer 2

prejudice for or against male/female
- seen in Asch and Bowlby attachment theory

Question 3

alpha bias and implications for the real world

Answer 3

exaggerating difference between M and W
reinforces stereotypes
implications for real world - sexual promiscuity eg

Question 4

beta bias

Answer 4

minimising/ignoring difference between M and W
- using all male/female Ps and generalising results to everyone

CONCLUSIONS MAY LACK VALIDITY

• fight or flight response - hormone differences, study suggests females evolved to inhibit response

Question 5

androcentrism

Answer 5

viewing the world from male POV
using male views to explain all human experience
- leads to female behaviour being misunderstood (PMS being medical but male aggression being rational)

= opposite is gynocentrism

Question 6

researcher bias

Answer 6

gender imbalance in research institutes - males tend to be appointed more and given promotions
they research stereotypes rather than real differences or similarities
don’t research issues important to women (pregnancy, female harassment)

publication bias = editors may filter out studies which exaggerate gender differences in published works

Question 7

gender bias eval

Answer 7

+ legal wise, beta bias helps us see men and women as similar so leads to equal treatment
- alpha bias has led to criticism of certain male traits that used to be desirable and adaptive eg aggression
- alpha bias sustains prejudice and stereotypes
- socially sensitive research but should we shy away from it ?

Question 8

implications of gender bias

Answer 8

• validates stereotypes - maternity/paternity leave
• may justify denying women of opportunities because of PMS
• damaging real world consequences, diagnoses of autism being affected by “extreme male brain” theory

Question 9

cultural bias in psychology

Answer 9

criticised for ignoring effect of culture on behaviour
mainstream psychology based in western cultures therefore ‘norm’ is seen through one culture
differences often seen as abnormal or inferior

Question 10

ethnocentrism

Answer 10

belief in superiority of ones own culture - views, behaviour, other cultures

eg strange situation => ideal attachment shows child slight distress when separated, German mothers were seen as cold and rejecting as they didn’t fit ideal

Question 11

cultural relativism

Answer 11

norms and values can only be understood within specific social and cultural contexts

etic -> looking at behaviour from outside of a culture (imposed etic is wrongly imposing your views on another culture)

emic -> looking at behaviour within a culture, try to describe specific behaviours

Question 12

cultural bias eval

Answer 12

+ real life application with diagnosing disorders
- validates discrimination with IQ tests being used universally
- individualist and collectivist old fashioned terms, due to media globalisation

Question 13

nature nurture debate: what is nature (heritability coefficient and nativist)

Answer 13

characteristics are the result of hereditary, inherited genes
- heritability coefficient => to what extent a characteristic has a genetic basis
- nativist => genes define characteristic

Question 14

nature nurture debate: what is nurture (empiricist)

Answer 14

characteristics as a result of our environment
- mothers state during pregnancy
- cultural, historical, social conditions we grew up in
- empiricist => born a blank slate, the learning and experience moulds us

Question 15

interactionist approach (N/N)

Answer 15

nature and nurture are linked and it doesn’t make sense to separate the two
- considers how they interact and influence each other eg the temperament hypothesis (a child’s innate personality will affect the parents response)

Question 16

PKU (phenylketonuria) N/N debate

Answer 16

genetic condition where you can’t break down a specific protein
can lead to brain damage if the protein is eaten
if defected from a young age a special low protein diet means development is normal
=> can’t distinguish between nature and nurture, cannot say one alone is responsible for the brain damage

Question 17

diathesis stress model for N/N

Answer 17

psychopathologies caused by genetic vulnerability AND an environmental trigger

Question 18

epigenetics (N/N)

Answer 18

change in genetic activity without changing genetic code
caused by interaction with environment
affects our children’s genes (need to consider life experiences of past generations)

Question 19

nature nurture eval

Answer 19

• MZ/DZ twin study, concordance rates, difficult to say if it’s nature or nurture
• nurture has environmental determinism => could lead to controlling and manipulating citizens
• nature has biological determinism => eugenics (want to create the best race) could lead to sterilisation of people like serial killers
• difficult to distinguish between the 2 as environment affects us before we’re born (epigenetics)
  => ww2 pregnant women starved, babies more likely to develop schizophrenia

Question 20

reductionism def

Answer 20

the idea behaviour can be studied by breaking down its parts, using basic principles

Question 21

holism def

Answer 21

understand behaviour by considering the person as a whole “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” <— Gestalt psychologists

Question 22

insight learning (holism)

Answer 22

behaviour learned through insight rather than trial and error
= the ‘aha’ experience where we suddenly see the solution to a problem
- happens when all parts of the problem are seen in relation to each other and forms a meaningful whole

Question 23

insight learning study Kohler 1925

Answer 23

banana placed outside a chimp cage, they had a stick
when chimp realised it couldn’t reach the banana, after a short while it reached for the stick and used it to pull in banana
- evidence of aha experience

Question 24

levels of explanation for reductionism

Answer 24

sociocultural => influence of where and how we live
psychological => influence of thoughts
physical => influence of physical movements
physiological => influence of neurochemistry genes and brain structure

Question 25

biological reductionism

Answer 25

explaining behaviour at physiological level
= all behaviour explained by neurochemical, neurophysiological, evolutionary and genetic influence
- psychoactive drugs help to treat a number of mental disorders

Question 26

environmental reductionism

Answer 26

physical level - doesn’t consider cognitive processes in psychological level
looking only at stimulus-response , usually in a lab setting

Question 27

machine reductionism

Answer 27

viewing human mind as similar to a computer
- ignores influence of emotions
explains behaviour in terms of input, processing, output

Question 28

reductionism holism eval

Answer 28

• some behaviour only occurs in certain contexts (Stanford Prison Experiment) - could not be understood by just viewing Ps individually
• holism can often not be tester scientifically, struggle to know which cause is most influential for behaviour and so we struggle to treat it
  + reductionism more scientific - operationalising variables and conducting experiments help us see what causes behaviour and develop treatments
  + interactionist approach may be best, looks at how different levels interact, diathesis stress model has led to better treatment (combining drugs and family therapy)

Question 29

idiographic side of the debate

Answer 29

focuses on individuals and emphasises their uniqueness
methods that produce qualitative data eg studying individual and not generalising, unstructured interview

eg psychodynamic approach little hans
eg humanistic approach - client centred therapy focusing on experiences of the individual

Question 30

nomothetic side of the debate

Answer 30

wants to form general laws of behaviour based on studying groups, produces statistical, quantitative data
3 general laws => classifying people into groups, establishing behaviour principles, establishing dimensions along which people can be placed, compared, measured

scientific method eg lab experiment and controlled observation (reliable)

eg behaviourist => stimulus response links, cause and effect relationship
eg cognitive => objective methods of brain activity (EEG and PET scans) inferences drawn about mental processes
eg biological => brain scans for localisation of brain function eg semantic vs episodic memory

Question 31

socially sensitive research def

Answer 31

more controversial, may have implications for the people represented by the research
eg race or sexuality
can attract attention from the media and be misrepresented