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Issues and Debates 🤐 Flashcards

Paper 3

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1
Q

what does socially sensitive research refer to?

A
  • studies in which there are potential social consequences or implications
  • either directly to the participants or the class of individuals represented by the research
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2
Q

what is an example of research that is socially senstive?

A
  • investigating crime rates against Black youths
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3
Q

what are the areas mainly concerned with socially sensitive research?

A
  • race
  • gender
  • sexuality
  • social and cultural diversity
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4
Q

what is the difficulty with the current ethical guidelines when considering socially sensitive research?

A
  • focus on protecting the research participants during their participation in the study
  • doesn’t deal with ways in which the research may be harmful beyond the study and how it could inflict damage on the groups or sections of society represented in the study
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5
Q

what aspects in the research process can ethical issues with social consequences occur and why?

A
  • research question (appears to add scientific credibility to prevailing predjudice)
  • conduct of research and treatment of participants (main issue is confidentiality)
  • institutional context (may be funded/ managed by private organisations who may misuse or misunderstand the data, or media may obtain the reports and misreport the findings)
  • interpretation and application of findings (may be used for purposes other than originally intended)
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6
Q

does research have to be published to be socially sensitive?

A
  • both published and unpublished research can be socially sensitive
  • there are ethical implications beyond publication bias and censorship that can impact individuals represented by the study
  • ie. drug companies often only publish positive results
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7
Q

what are the 10 ethical issues raised in socially sensitive research?

A
  • privacy
  • confidentiality
  • valid methodology
  • deception
  • informed consent
  • equitable treatment
  • scientific freedom
  • ownership of data
  • values
  • risk/ benefit ratio
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8
Q

how is privacy an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • skilled investigators could extract more information than participants originally intended to give
  • some research could lead to social policies that are an invasion of people’s private lives
  • ie. AIDS research could lead to compulsory testing
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9
Q

how is confidentiality an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • participants could be less willing to divulge information in the future if data is shared and confidentiality is breached
  • compromise further related research
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10
Q

how is valid methodology an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • poor methodology (therefore poor findings) may be recognised by scientists but the media and public may not be aware of this
  • poor studies might shape important social policies detrimental to groups represented by the research
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11
Q

how is deception an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • includes self deception whereby research may lead people to form untrue stereotypes
  • could affect their own performance
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12
Q

how is informed consent an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • potential participants may not always comprehend what is involved in a research study
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13
Q

how is scientific freedom an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • scientist has a duty to engage in research but is also obligated not to harm participants as well as institutions within society
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14
Q

how is equitable treatment an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • all participants must be treated in an equitable manner
  • resources vital to participants’ well being are not withheld from one group whilst being available to another
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15
Q

how is ownership of data an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • some problems involved with ownership of data involve sponsorship of the research and the public accessibility of the data
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16
Q

how is values an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • psychologists differ in their orientation towards subjective (idiographic) approaches and more objective (scientific) approaches
  • sensitive issues arise when their is a clash in the values between the scientist and the recipient of the data
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17
Q

how is risk/ benefit ratio an ethical issue in socially sensitive research?

A
  • risks or costs should be minimised
  • problems arise in determining risks as well as benefits
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18
Q

how can the wider impact of research be used to evaluate socially sensitive research in issues and debates?

A
  • some social consequences to participation in research but there is also the increased potential for a more indirect impact on the participants family, coworkers and even the group represented by the participants
  • shouldn’t just safeguard the interests of the individuals in the research
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19
Q

should socially sensitive research just be avoided (evaluation of socially sensitive research in issues and debates)?

A
  • could leave psychologists with noting to examine but unimportant issues
  • Sieber and Stanley’s view is that to ignore this research is not a responsible approach to science
  • avoiding controversial topics is an avoidance of responsibility
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20
Q

how is engaging with the public and policymakers useful in evaluating socially sensitive research in issues and debates?

A
  • important applications, ie. in order to reduce the likelihood of misuse of data, psychologists should take responsibilities for what happens to their findings
  • they should be aware that their research could lead to abuse or discrimination
  • BPS has a press centre that aims to promote evidence based psychological research to the media
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21
Q

what is the nurture-nature debate?

A
  • considers the relative importance of heredity and environment, in explaining behaviour
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22
Q

what does nature mean (nature-nurture debate)?

A
  • behaviour is seen to be a product of innate factors
  • ie. biological or genetic factors
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23
Q

what does nurture mean (nature-nurture debate)?

A
  • behaviour is the product of environmental influences
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24
Q

what approach does the nature-nurture debate relate to and why?

A
  • interactionist approach
  • processes of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposition
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25
Q

what are the two examples of the influence of nature (nature-nurture debate)?

A
  • genetic explanations
  • evolutionary explanations
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26
Q

what are examples of genetic explanations of nature in the nature-nurture debate?

A
  • family studies show that the closer two individuals are genetically, more likely they will develop the same behaviours
  • studies of monozygotic twins show high concordance for many behaviours
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27
Q

what are examples of evolutionary explanations of nature in the nature-nurture debate?

A
  • assumes behaviours giving an adaptive advantage will be naturally selected and passed on in the genes
  • Bowlby proposed attachment was adaptive as it meant an infant was more likely to be protected and therefore survive
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28
Q

what are examples of nurtures affect on behaviour in the nature-nurture debate?

A
  • social learning theory, proposed by Bandura due to the affect of vicarious reinforcement
  • double bind theory of schizophrenia suggests schizophrenia develops if a child receives mixed or contradictory messages from their parents
  • behaviourism assumes behaviour can be explained in terms of experience alone, through classical and operant conditioning (ie. Little Albert study)
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29
Q

how can diathesis-stress be used to evaluate the nature-nurture debate?

A
  • diathesis stress is often used to explain mental disorders such as phobias or schizophrenia
  • diathesis is a biological vulnerability such as being born with certain genes that predispose a person to developing a disorder
  • research has shown that not everyone with those genes develop the disorder
  • expression of the gene depends on experiences (stressors) which trigger the conditions
  • therefore a persons nature is only expressed under certain conditions of nature
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30
Q

how can the idea that nurture affects nature be used to evaluate the nature-nurture debate?

A
  • Maguire et al’s study of London taxi drivers showed that the region of the brain associated with spatial memory was bigger than in controls
  • this is not because they were born this way but because their hippocampi has responded to the increased use
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31
Q

how can the idea that nature affects nurture be used to evaluate the nature-nurture debate?

A
  • genes may exert an indirect effect in a number of ways (ie. genetic factors create an infant’s microenvironment)
  • Plomin et al called this reactive gene-environment interaction as the child is reacting to genetically influenced behaviours
  • Plomin identified a second kind of interaction called passive influence (parents genes determine aspects of the child’s behaviour)
  • third kind of influence is active influence (AKA niche picking) which suggests as children grow older they seek out experiences/ environments that suit their genes (influence of genes increases as children get older)
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32
Q

what is universality (culture bias)?

A
  • belief that humans are alike, so what is true for one person is true for everyone
  • ie. nomothetic approach
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33
Q

what does the term bias refer to (culture bias)?

A
  • when a person’s or society’s views are distorted in some systematic way
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34
Q

what is culture bias?

A
  • tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions, resulting in potentially distorted conclusions
  • researchers misrepresent differences between cultural groups
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35
Q

what are the forms of cultural bias?

A
  • ethnocentrism (eurocentrism)
  • imposed etic
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36
Q

what is ethnocentrism (culture bias)?

A
  • tendency to use the standards, norms and values of one’s own culture as the baseline against which other cultures can be evaluated
  • focusing on own cultural perspective
  • the ‘normal’ way/ more important
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37
Q

what can ethnocentrism lead to (culture bias)?

A
  • ethnocentric bias
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38
Q

what are the consequences of ethnocentric bias (culture bias)?

A
  • decreases validity and reliability of research
  • misdiagnosis (ie. DSM)
  • harmful stereotypes (devalue other cultures as abnormal)
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39
Q

what is an example of a key study that suffered from ethnocentric bias (culture bias)?

A
  • Ainsworth’s strange situation only used US middle class mothers and infants
  • generalised to other cultures
  • however there were cultural variations in attachment styles (individualistic vs collectivist)
  • ie. Japanese vs US infants
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40
Q

what is eurocentrism (culture bias)?

A
  • form of ethnocentrism that is particularly focused on the Western world’s viewpoint
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41
Q

what is cultural relativism (culture bias)?

A
  • idea that a behaviour can only be properly understood/ only makes sense in the context of the norms and values of the society/ culture in which it occurs
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42
Q

what is an example of cultural relativism (culture bias)?

A
  • AMERICAN researcher studying AMERICAN behaviours
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43
Q

what is a strength of carrying out cultural relativism research (culture bias)?

A
  • prevents ethnocentric bias
  • prevents prejudice and discrimination
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44
Q

what is a limitation of carrying out cultural relativism research (culture bias)?

A
  • may exaggerate differences between cultures (alpha bias)
  • can ignore cultures within a culture (beta bias)
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45
Q

what is cross cultural research (culture bias)?

A
  • replicating studies in other cultures, with researchers of that culture
46
Q

what is gender bias?

A
  • misrepresent the differences between men and women
47
Q

where can gender bias arise in research?

A
  • in observations
  • in conclusions/ interpretations
  • in design (ie. Asch, Milgram, Zimbardo)
48
Q

what are the two types of gender bias?

A
  • alpha bias
  • beta bias
49
Q

what is alpha bias (gender bias)?

A
  • researcher exaggerates differences between men and women
50
Q

what is beta bias (gender bias)?

A
  • researcher minimises or ignores differences between men and women
  • ie. women sleeping when driving due to Stilnox (sleeping pills only tested on men)
51
Q

what is androcentrism (gender bias)?

A
  • theories/ studies only focused on the male perspective
  • ‘male centred’
  • not always biased (only when generalised to all genders)
  • ie. using men to study only the male body
52
Q

what could androcentrism lead to (gender bias)?

A
  • androcentric bias (alpha or beta)
53
Q

what studies demonstrate androcentric bias (gender bias)?

A
  • Milgram
  • Asch
  • Zimbardo
54
Q

how did Freud demonstrate androcentric bias (gender bias)?

A
  • thought women were inferior
  • thought psychological differences were enormous and permanent which was an incorrect claim (Penis envy)
  • didn’t follow scientific method either
  • androcentric alpha bias
55
Q

what is a significant problem with androcentric bias (gender bias)?

A
  • not always obvious (ie. unconscious)
  • become norm and therefore remain unchallenged
56
Q

what is gynocentrism (gender bias)?

A
  • theories/ studies only focused on the female perspective
  • ‘women centred’
  • not always biased (only when generalised to all genders)
  • less common than androcentrism
57
Q

what could gynocentrism lead to (gender bias)?

A
  • gynocentric bias (alpha or bias)
58
Q

what studies demonstrate gynocentric bias (gender bias)?

A
  • Moscovici (minority influence)
  • many studies using psychology university students (usually female)
59
Q

how did Bowlby demonstrate gynocentric bias (gender bias)?

A
  • research into attachment focused on women as thought mother’s are primary caregivers
  • led to further research on mothers
  • influences court cases to favour mothers over fathers in custody cases
60
Q

what is free will (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • full control over our behaviour
61
Q

what approach suggests behaviour occurs due to free will (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • humanistic approach
62
Q

what is determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • never have control over our behaviour
  • all behaviour has a cause (so can make reliable predictions)
  • scientific
63
Q

what are the three types of determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • psychic
  • environmental
  • biological
64
Q

what is psychic determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • behaviour is the cause of repressed childhood experience
65
Q

what approach demonstrates psychic determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • psychodynamic approach
66
Q

what is environmental determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • behaviour is the cause of our environment
67
Q

what approach demonstrates environmental determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • behaviourist approach
68
Q

what is biological determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • behaviour is the cause of our biology (ie. genes)
69
Q

what approach demonstrates biological determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • biological approach
70
Q

what are the two variations of determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • soft determinism
  • hard determinism
71
Q

what is soft determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • choices are constrained by biology or environment, but we have free will over the remaining choices
72
Q

what is hard determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • never have control over our behaviour
73
Q

what approach demonstrates soft determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • social learning
  • we have some free will through mediational processes
  • don’t have control over our environment (determinism)
  • do have freedom to choose how to behave in that environment (free will)
74
Q

how can determinism be supported through causality (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • allows us to make causal relationships
  • behaviour has a cause
  • make reliable predictions
  • use scientific approach
75
Q

how can free will be criticised through falsifiability (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • can’t falsify free will or test it at all
  • can’t make predictions as people choose their behaviour
  • doesn’t fit scientific approach
76
Q

how can determinism be criticised through falsifiability (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • unfalsifiable as we can only falsify claims that suggest a specific cause for behaviour
  • we cannot falsify the general idea that behaviour has a cause
77
Q

what does free will claim, which determinism opposes (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • behaviour matches our subjective experience (as assumed by humanistic approach)
  • determinism claims our subjective experience doesn’t matter, and our theories should be based on our objective criteria (scientific basis)
  • free will is an illusion
78
Q

how can free will be favoured over determinism in the case of societal implications (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • free will is associated with an internal locus of control
  • determinism is association with an external locus of control
  • link between locus of control and mental health
  • Benassi et al (meta analysis) found patients with an external locus of control will be more likely to show symptoms of depression (feel powerless)
  • treating people as if they have free will improves their well being and mental health
79
Q

what is the main problem with assuming free will (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • everyone is in charge of their own behaviour even if they have a cause
  • ‘their fault’
  • leads to unfairly blaming people
80
Q

what is the main problem with determinism (free will vs determinism)?

A
  • doesn’t blame people for any of their behaviour (caused)
  • would majorly affect the legal/ justice system
  • however, still be able to punish people as a deterrent even if determinism is assumed
81
Q

what is an idiographic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • focuses on individuals
  • emphasises uniqueness
  • favours qualitative methods
82
Q

what are examples of the idiographic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • psychodynamic
  • humanistic
83
Q

why is the psychodynamic approach idiographic (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • Freud used case studies of his patients to understand human behaviour
  • ie. Little Hans
  • produced generalisations from his case studies
84
Q

why is the humanistic approach idiographic (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • concerned with studying the whole person and the individual’s subjective experience of the world
85
Q

what methods is the idiographic approach associated with (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • interviews (unstructured)
  • observation
  • case studies
  • self reports
  • autobiographies
86
Q

what are the strengths of the idiographic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • provides a detailed and global understanding of an individual
  • focus psychology back on the more individual level
  • leads to new ideas to research using more general methods
87
Q

what are the main limitations when using an idiographic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • as it relies on qualitative methods, it can be time consuming
  • hard to generalise as we can’t be sure whether the data is representative of the larger group, subgroup or unique to the individual
  • data is subjective and therefore unreliable
  • researcher bias (data will need interpretation)
88
Q

what is a nomothetic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • based on study of groups
  • seeks to make generalisations and formulate general laws of behaviours
  • uses quantitative methods
89
Q

what is an example of the nomothetic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • Ainsworth’s strange situation led to the classification of attachment as either secure, insecure-resistant or insecure-avoidant
90
Q

what methods is the nomothetic approach associated with (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • experiments
  • correlations
  • observations
  • questionnaires
91
Q

what are the three types of law theories using the nomothetic approach can fall into (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • classifying people into groups
  • creating principles of behaviour
  • producing behaviour scales or dimensions
92
Q

what is an example of classifying people in groups within the nomothetic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • DSM classification
  • establishes how people belong to particular groups and how this knowledge helps us to explain the kinds of behaviour people will display
93
Q

what is an example of creating principles of behaviour within the nomothetic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • positive reinforcement increases likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated
  • laws that determine how people or animals will behave in certain situations
94
Q

what is an example of producing behaviour scales or dimensions within the nomothetic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • personality dimension of extraversion allows identification of how extroverted/ introverted a person it
95
Q

what are strengths of the nomothetic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • can be considered more scientific than the idiographic approach as it uses quantitative methods and controls variables
  • provides predictions about large numbers of people
  • leads to construction of laws and theories which can be empirically tested
96
Q

what are the main limitations when using a nomothetic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • predictions made about a group may not apply to all individuals within the group
  • may not explore differences in motivations behind a behaviour
  • methodology may lack ecological validity (particularly if carried out in a laboratory setting)
97
Q

how can the distinction between idiographic and nomothetic approaches be criticised?

A
  • false dichotomy (division)
  • both involve a degree of generalisation
  • are complimentary rather than mutually exclusive (findings of idiographic research may lead to nomothetic research and the creation of theories/ laws)
  • some psychologists use both (ie. Freud)
  • Stephenson developed Q methodology (lots of detail and lots of participants)
98
Q

what approach uses the idiographic approach only (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • humanistic
99
Q

what approach uses the nomothetic approach (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • psychodynamic
  • however, Freud did rely on case studies of dreams so used idiographic methods to establish nomothetic theories
100
Q

what approaches use the nomothetic approach to establish general laws/ theories but achieve this through idiographic research (idiographic vs nomothetic approach)?

A
  • cognitive
  • biological
  • behaviourist
  • social learning theory
101
Q

what is reductionism (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  • view that we can understand things by breaking them down into smaller parts
102
Q

what is holism (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  • view that, to understand something, we must look at is as a whole
103
Q

what are the three levels of explanations (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  1. social/cultural
  2. psychological
  3. biological
    - closer to the bottom = more reductionist
    - closer to the top = more holistic
104
Q

what are the main reductionist approaches (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  • behaviourist (environmental reductionism on the psychological level)
  • biological (biological reductionism/ level)
105
Q

what is the main holism approach (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  • humanistic (social/ cultural level)
106
Q

what approaches are a mixture of reductionist and holist (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  • cognitive (psychological level)
  • SLT (psychological level)
  • psychodynamic (social/ cultural level)
107
Q

how can reductionism be supported as being scientific (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  • involves cause and effect relationships
  • can be empirically tested
  • falsifiable and studied using the scientific method
108
Q

how can holism be criticised as not being scientific (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  • can’t be studied scientifically
  • can’t establish cause and effect
  • however, the cognitive approach is partly holistic and still uses the scientific method
109
Q

how can the reductionism vs holism debate be evaluated through the principle of parsimony?

A
  • shouldn’t make an explanation more complicated unless necessary (use the simplest level of explanation)
  • reductionism can be
    supported through this
  • holism violates this principle
110
Q

how can reductionism be supported through its application to treatment (reductionism vs holism)?

A
  • through biological reductionism
  • ie. SSRI’s are effective in reducing the symptoms of OCD and depression by altering serotonin levels
  • however may not address the cause of a condition, only symptoms
  • ie. low levels of serotonin may be a symptom but negative schemas may be the cause of depression
  • so can be more effective to consider holistic explanations long term
111
Q

how can the reductionism vs holism debate be evaluated through interactionism?

A
  • all explanations interact with each other (holism AND reductionism)
  • doesn’t ignore any causes
  • fits evidence we have about the causes of conditions like depression
  • however, interactionism is less scientific than reductionist explanations and violates the principles of parsimony (uses more than one explanation and includes higher levels)

Psychology (11 decks)

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