Issues And Debates Flashcards
Cultural relativism
Suggest psychologists have often been guilty of using imposed etics
This is when we impose western beliefs on people from other cultures and judge them by it
Instead we should use emic approaches this functions from within a given culture and identifies behaviour that is specific to that culture
Cultural bias
The tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions and this distorts or biases your judgement
cultural Alpha bias
Assumes there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups
Cultural beta bias
Theories which ignore or minimise any differences in culture
Etic research
Specific cultural
Apllied to other culture to find universal laws
Ample of the population cannot generalises the findings to all cultures
Emic reasearch
Studies variations in behaviours between groups
Exaggerating differences between groups whilst neglecting differences within groups
Iq yerkes
Yerkes devised in test in America for the military
Showed a correlation between the further north in the world your heritage was and your iq
How was proven to be false
Indigenous psychologists
One way to counter enthocnetrism in psychology is to encourage indigenous psychologists - the development of different groups of theories in different countries
Socially sensitive reasearch
Studies in which there are potential consequences or implications either directly for the participants involved in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the research
Socially sensitive topic
Explanations of obedience
Maternal deprivation
Gentic basis of criminality
4 groups which may be affected by psychological research
Member of the social group -eg racial group
Friends and family -
The research team
The institution
There concerns reasearchers should be mindful of
Implications- wider effects of research should be carefully considered , some studies may give scientific credence to preduijce and discrimination
Public policy /uses - researcher needs to consider the research and what purpose it could be used for , how it could be used for political ends to shape public policy
Validity research- although is supposed to be objective and value free this is not always the case , the researcher should be mindful of how the data is going to be used and consider who is funding the research
Determinism
The view that an individual behaviour is heaped or controlled by the internal (biological ) or external forces . This means that our behaviour should be predictable
Free will
That as humans we are free to chose our own thoughts and actions
Hard determinism
Free will is not possible as our behaviour is always end cause by internal and external events beyond our control
Soft determinism
The idea that behaviour etc are to an extent governed by internal and external forces
We still have some lament of control of our behaviour
Biological determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by biological influences we cannot control
Enviormental determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (eg reward and punishment ) that we cannot control
Psychic determinism
The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts we cannot control
Case against free will
Chin siong soon found evidence that Brian activity determines the activity of simple choices
Whether we pre a button with our left or right hand this occurs in the Brian up to 10 mins before participants reported being consciously aware of making such a descions
Universality
Any underlying characteristics of human beings which is capable of being applied to all
Alpha bias
When the differences between men and women are shown and may be exaggerated either to heighten the value of women or devalue the,
Beta bias
When teh differences between the two sexes are ignored or minimised
Often occurs when female participants not included as part of the research process and it is then assumed that the research findings apply equally to both sexes
Andro centrism
Focused on men often neglect of women
This is a consequence beta bias
If our understanding of normal behaviour is being drawn from reasearch that involves all Male participants the behaviour that deviates from this is even as abnormal
Gynocnetric
A study conducted on female but generalised to male
Implications of gender bias
Create misleading information for females
Many gender differences are based on the essentialist perspective that gender differences are fixed and enduring
Sociobiology theory
Theory of relationship formation focuses on survival efficiency
Males interested share to impregnate as much as they can to pass on their genes
Females best chance is to ensure a healthy survival of her offspring which would pass her genes on
Sexual promiscuity in males si gentically determined while woman who engage in smiling activity are seen as going against their nature
Holism
Argues that behaviour cannot be understood in terms of the components that make them up
Considers a persons whole experience : cultural m cognitive , economic etc
Reductionism
The theroy that also complex system can be completely understood in terms of their components
Reduces a complex mechanism like human behaviour or the simplest explanation possible often means looking for a biological basis for behaviour
Two main types of reductionism
Biological
Environmental
Benefits of holsim
Reminds us that the whole is not just the sum of parts so it explains how the combination of factors together cause behaviour
Provides a more complex understanding of
May be more useful
Limitations of holism
It is difficult to establish how much each individual fcators contribute to any particular behaviour so this means explanations Are unsatisfactory
Cannot be rigorously tested means that reliable research can’t be gathered to support theories
More hypothetical
Benefits of reductionism
Recognises the importance of biological explanations in human behaviour Whig is a positive as there is a lot of evidence for the influence of biology on behaviour
Easier to explain behaviour in concrete and concise terms
High level of predictive power
