Issues and Debates Flashcards
What are the 11 issues and debates?
Ethics
Practical issues in the design and implementation of research
Reductionism
Comparisons between ways of explaining behaviour using different themes
Psychology as a science
Culture and gender
Nature-nurture
An understanding of how psychological understanding has developed over time
Issues of social control
The use of psychological knowledge in society
Issues related to socially-sensitive research
Ethics
Social: When researching obedience and prejudice, and also implications of findings in both areas
Cognitive: Henry Molaison (HM) and confidentiality
Biological: studying aggression and how findings are used; in the research itself such as issues of confidentiality and informed consent
LT: The ethical issues involved in using animals in studies
Practical issues in the design and implementation of research
Social: designing questionnaires and interviews and social desirability
Cognitive: how to measure memory and the validity of experimental design
Biological: issues in scanning and measuring the complexity of the brain
LT: generalising from animal-study findings to humans
Reductionism
Social: the risk of reductionism when drawing conclusions from social data
Cognitive: artificially breaking memory up into parts like Short-term Memory and Long-term Memory for the purposes of study
Biological: focusing on aggression when studying the brain
LT: in the way behaviourism reduces behaviour into parts to be studied
Comparisons between ways of explaining behaviour using different themes
Social: social identity and realistic conflict
Cognitive: the different memory models
Biological: causes of aggression comparing Freud’s ideas and biological explanations
LT: different learning theories
Psychology as a science
Social: social desirability in questionnaires; issues of validity in questionnaires
Cognitive: laboratory experiments and controls
Biological: synaptic transmission; brain-scanning techniques
LT: in the methodology; in the explicit focus of behaviourism on the measurable
Culture and gender
Social: whether prejudice and obedience are influenced by cultural factors or according to gender
Cognitive: how memory is reconstructed based on cultural differences or gender stereotypes; or differences in digit span cross-culturally if studied Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s contemporary study
Biological: hormonal differences between males and females possibly influencing behaviour, such as aggression
LT: relates to reinforcement patterns in learning theory as well as social learning theory and what is modelled) and gender (e.g. if used in the practical research exercise, and in observational learning issues
Nature-nurture
Social: the role of personality in obedience compared with the role of the situation
Cognitive: Henry Molaison (HM) and brain function = nature, reconstructive memory emphasises experiences = nurture
Biological: brain localisation in aggression and environmental influences in aggression
LT: in the observations if looking at gender or age or characteristics as these can be learned or biologically given
An understanding of how psychological understanding has developed over time
Social: if using Burger’s work replicating Milgram and comparing with Milgram’s work
Cognitive: if studying the development of the working memory model over time
Biological: development of scanning techniques up to fMRI and development of knowledge accordingly
LT: can come through choice of study, such as if looking at video game violence or through current therapy practice
Issues of social control
Social: reducing prejudice; or how people obey someone in authority/uniform
Cognitive: perhaps using understanding of memory in court situations
Biological: using knowledge of brain function to control individuals
LT: use of learning theories in therapy can be social control, including issues of power of the therapist
The use of psychological knowledge in society
Social: reducing conflict in society
Cognitive: using understanding of memory to help with memory ‘loss’
Biological: understanding causes of aggression to perhaps deal with them
LT: using patterns of reward to shape behaviour in schools or prisons
Issues related to socially-sensitive research
Social: racism or cultural differences
Cognitive: memory loss related to dementia is socially sensitive for the individual
Biological: confidentiality
LT: issues of the power of the therapist
