issues and debates

Question 1

bias

Answer 1

bias means to influence, typically in an unfair direction and can lead to misrepresentation and is a threat to universality.

Question 2

androcentrism

Answer 2

• means being centred on, or dominated by, males or the male viewpoint.
• In the past most psychologists were male, and the theories they produced tended to represent a male view of the world.
• This can affect psychological research as it provides a potentially misleading or inaccurate representation of how one sex (usually females) will respond in a given situation.

Question 3

alpha bias (gender)

Answer 3

refers to theories which exaggerate the differences between males and females

Question 4

example of alpha bias - psychodynamic approach

Answer 4

Freud argued that there are genuine psychological differences between men and women. His theory suggests that women are inferior as young girls suffer from ‘penis envy, and he viewed femininity as failed form of masculinity

Question 5

limitation of alpha bias

Answer 5

The problem with alpha biased research is that gender differences are exaggerated, and this leads to stereotypes and one gender is devalued in comparison with the other.

Question 6

strength of alpha bias

Answer 6

it can suggest there are real and enduring gender differences

Question 7

beta bias (gender)

Answer 7

refers to theories which minimise the differences between males and females

Question 8

beta bias example - biopsych

Answer 8

research into the fight-or-flight response has often been carried out with male animals due to less hormonal fluctuations. It was assumed that this would not be a problem as the fight-or-flight response would be the same for both sexes.

Question 9

limitation of beta bias

Answer 9

The problem with beta bias in psychological research is that we end up with a view of human nature that is supposed to apply to men and women alike, but in fact, has a male or androcentric view.
For example, Asch’s (1955) conformity studies.

Question 10

strength of beta bias

Answer 10

a beta bias can prompt more research (eg taylor)

Question 11

cultural bias

Answer 11

• the tendency to judge people in terms of one’s own cultural assumptions.
• This distorts judgement and produces a bias.
• Consequence is inability to explain other cultures successfully and leads to misrepresentation.

Question 12

ethnocentrism

Answer 12

means seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct.

Question 13

example of ethnocentrism - Ainsworth strange situations

Answer 13

• The Strange Situation was developed to assess attachment types, and many researchers assume that the Strange Situation has the same meaning for the infants from other cultures, as it does for American children.
• German Children - Show higher rates of insecure-avoidant attachment. German children, on average, demonstrate a higher rate of insecure-avoidant behaviour.
• However, it is not the case that German mothers are more insensitive than American mothers.
• Instead, they value and encourage independent behaviour, and therefore their children react differently in the Strange Situation.

Question 14

cultural relativism

Answer 14

insists that behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration.

Question 15

cultural relativism example

Answer 15

The meaning of intelligence is different in every culture. For example, Sternberg (1985) pointed out that coordination skills that may be essential to life in a preliterate society (e.g., those motor skills required for shooting a bow and arrow) may be mostly irrelevant to intelligent behaviour for most people in a literate and more “developed” society.
Therefore, the only way to understand intelligence is to take the cultural context into account.

Question 16

alpha bias (culture)

Answer 16

occurs when a theory assumes that cultural groups are profoundly different

Question 17

beta bias (culture)

Answer 17

occurs when real cultural differences are ignored or minimised, and all people are assumed to be the same, resulting in universal research designs and conclusions

Question 18

determinism

Answer 18

the view that free will is an illusion, and that our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control. consequently, our behaviour is viewed as predictable

Question 19

hard determinism

Answer 19

…is the view that forces outside of our control (e.g. biology or past experience) shape our behaviour. Hard determinism is seen as incompatible with free will.

Question 20

soft determinism

Answer 20

the view behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological make-up, but only to a certain extent and that there is an element of free will in all behaviour.

Question 21

biological determinism

Answer 21

refers to the idea that all human behaviour is innate and determined by genes.

Question 22

example of biological determinism

Answer 22

Psychopathology: The biological approach suggests that OCD is partly genetic. Nestadt et al. (2000) found that people with first-degree relatives who suffer from OCD are five times more likely to suffer from OCD at some point in their lives.

Question 23

environmental determinism

Answer 23

is the view that behaviour is caused by forces outside the individual. Therefore, behaviour is caused by previous experience learned through classical and operant conditioning.

Question 24

example of environmental determinism

Answer 24

The behaviourist approach suggests that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning and therefore, to some extent, environmentally determined.

Question 25

psychic determinism

Answer 25

claims that human behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drives (ID, Ego and Superego), as in Freud’s model of psychosexual development.

Question 26

free will

Answer 26

we can play an active role and have choice in how we behave, individuals are free to choose their behaviour and are self-determined.

Question 27

example of free will - Approaches

Answer 27

Approaches in Psychology: Humanist psychologists argue against the determinism view, claiming that humans have self-determination and free will and that behaviour is not the result of any single cause.

Question 28

the scientific emphasis on casual explanations

Answer 28

One of the basic principles of science is that every event in the universe has a cause and that can be explained using general laws. This is important because it allows scientists to predict and control events in the future.

In Psychology laboratory studies enable researchers to manipulate the IV, control extraneous variables and measure ethe effect on the DV in order to predict human behaviour.

e.g. Peterson & Peterson (1959) manipulate the IV, the delay in recall, to measure its effect on the DV, the number of successfully recalled trigrams. This allowed them to establish that STM had a duration of 18 seconds.

Question 29

nature

Answer 29

• Nature is the view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors.
• Heredity (genetic inheritance) is the which traits are passed down from one generation to the next.
• The influence of nature can be measured using concordance rates.

Question 30

nurture

Answer 30

• Nurture is the view that behaviour is the product of environmental influences.
• The environment is seen as everything outside the body which can include people, events and the physical world.

Question 31

nature vs nurture example - attachment

Answer 31

Nature:
Bowlby proposed that children come into the world biologically programmed to form attachments because this will help them to survive.
This suggests attachment behaviours are naturally selected and passed on as a result of generic inheritance (heredity mechanisms).

Nurture:
Behavioural psychologists explain attachment in terms of classical conditioning, where food (UCS) is associated with the mother (NS), and through many repeated pairings, the mother becomes a CS who elicits a CR in the child.
Therefore, the child forms an attachment based on the pleasure experienced as a result of being fed.

Question 32

the interactionist approach

Answer 32

the view that both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour. Modern research investigates the relative contribution of both of these factors.

Question 33

internationalist approach example - schizophrenia

Answer 33

• The diathesis-stress model is a popular, contemporary model to explain many mental health disorders including schizophrenia.
• The diathesis is the biological cause which gives people a genetic predisposition.
• The stress is the environment acting as a trigger.
• The model suggests without either of these factors a person will not go on to develop schizophrenia. This can explain how with identical twins one twin may develop schizophrenia whilst the other twin may not.

Question 34

epigenectics

Answer 34

• refers to a change in genetic activity without changing the genes themselves. It is a process that happens throughout a lifespan, and it is caused by interaction with the environment.
• Environmental factors such as smoking, diet and trauma can leave ‘marks’ on DNA which can switch genes on or off. This is why factors that just smoking can have lifelong influences even after an individual stops because they have changed the way your genes will be expressed.
• These markers can go on to influence the genetic codes of people’s children which is known as transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.

Question 35

holism

Answer 35

that human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integrated experience, and not as separate parts.

Question 36

reductionism

Answer 36

that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts

Question 37

levels of explanation

Answer 37

There are different levels or explanations in Psychology, which are perspectives that are
used to understand behavior. Lower levels of explanation are biological influences. Middle levels of explanations refer to the abilities and characteristics of individual people. Higher levels of explanation relate to social groups, organisations and cultures.

Question 38

example of holism - Approaches

Answer 38

Humanistic psychology argues that numans. react to stimuli as an organised whole, rather than a set or stimulus-response links (Maslows hierarchy of needs)
As an approach, it uses qualitative methods to investigate all aspects of the individual, as well as the interactions between peovie.

Question 39

biological reductionism

Answer 39

refers to the way that biological psychologists try to reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in terms of neurons, neurotransmitters, normones, orain structure, etc.

Question 40

example of biological reductionism - Psychopathology

Answer 40

The biological approach
claims that OCU is caused by higher levels of aopamine and lower levels of serotonin..

Question 41

environmental reductionism

Answer 41

also known asi stimulus-response reductionism. Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be reduced to the simple building blocks of S-R (stimulus-response) associations and that complex behaviours are a series of S-R chains.

Question 42

example of environmental reductionism - Psychopathology

Answer 42

the behaviourist approach claims that phobias are initiated through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning

Question 43

idiographic approach

Answer 43

focus on the individual and emphasise the unique personal experience of human nature. they do not seem to make generalised laws

Question 44

methods of investigation in idiographic approach

Answer 44

• case studies
• instructed interviews

these methods provide in-depth insight into individual behaviour.

Question 45

example of idiographic approach - memeory

Answer 45

the case study of HM was an in-depth study of one individual and did not attempt to create universal laws.
However a single case study can highlight flaws within a theory and significantly undermine other research.

Question 46

nomothetic approach

Answer 46

concerned with establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups of people.

Question 47

methods of investigation in nomothetic approach

Answer 47

• experiments
• correlational research

the main approach within scientifically oriented psychology

Question 48

example of nomothetic approach - biological approach

Answer 48

Biological psychologists take a nomothetic approach when explaining psychological disorders, such as OCD and depression.
They typically pinpoint biological factors, such as neurotransmitters, that are responsible for such disorders and use biological therapies to treat all patients

Question 49

idiographic and nomothetic not mutually exclusive

Answer 49

Holt (1967) argues that the idiographic/nomothetic distinction is a false distinction. Many approaches in psychology take advantage of both approaches and therefore the two approaches can be viewed as complementary rather than contradictory.

Many psychological disciplines make use of both approaches, and it could be argued that the distinction between idiographic and nomothetic is meaningless and that psychologists should employ both methods depending on the nature of the research question.

Question 50

ethical implications

Answer 50

the impact or consequences that psychological research has on the rights of the people in a wider context.

Question 51

ethical implications example - attachment

Answer 51

bowlbys theory of attachment suggests that children form one special attachment bond and suggested that this attachment bond affects their future relationships. this has encouraged the view that a women’s place is at home with her children, which could make some mothers feel guilty for wanting to return to work. It also devalues the role of the father

Question 52

socially sensitive research

Answer 52

describe studies where there are potential social consequences for the participants, or group of people represented by the research

Question 53

example of socially sentence research - social influence

Answer 53

Milgrams study could be considered as socially sensitive because the results could be used to ensure that people obey orders, including those they don’t wish to follow. This could lead to destructive authority.

Question 54

extra considerations in socially sensitive research

Answer 54

1. Care taken over the choice of research question or hypothesis
2. They need to take more care over consent, debriefing, etc., when the issue is sensitive
3. They should be aware of how their findings may be interpreted & used by others
4. They should be careful how they communicate with the media and policymakers
5. They should be aware of their own values and biases and those of the participants