Issues and Debates Flashcards
Who argued the existence of 2 types of gender bias?
Hare-Mustin and Marecek
Alpha bias
exaggerates the difference between males and females
How does Freud show alpha bias?
As girls do not suffer the same oedipal complex as boys, they do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys identify with their fathers, leading to a weak superego
Alpha bias in the evolutionary approach
The evolutionary approach describes men as dominant, explaining their tendency for adultery and women as a parental investment
Why is the evolutionary approach not suitable to justify gender differences?
Society has changed considerably over recent years, so the traditional gender roles of men and women are no longer applicable and the evolutionary perspective should not be used to justify gender differences
Beta bias
Traditionally ignores or minimizes the differences between males and females
Kohlberg - Moral development Sample
Based on extensive interviews with boys aged 10-16
the same all male sample was re-interviewed at 3-4 year intervals over a course of 20 years
How does Kohlbergs theory of moral development show beta bias?
His classification system was based on a morality of justice and some researchers (Carol Gilligan) have found that women tend to be more focused on relationships when making moral decisions and therefore often appear at a lower level of moral reasoning when using Kohlbergs system
How does psychological research generally show beta bias?
Male and female participants used in most studies with no attempt to analyse the data to see whether there are any significant sex differences
What are differences between males and females in psychological research likely to be caused by?
Different treatment of male and female participants
What did Rosenthal conclude when looking at different treatment of male and female participants in psychological research?
‘Male and female participants may, psychologically, not be in the same experiment at all’
what did Rosenthal find when looking at different treatment of men and women in psychological research?
Male experimenters were more pleasant, friendly, honest and encouraging with female participants compared to male participants
Beta bias in animal research
‘Fight-or-flight’ response based on male animals as they have less hormone variation, making the assumed that the response in females would be the same
What did Taylor find when analysing the beta bias in ‘fight-or-flight’?
Females ‘tend-and-befriend’
The beta bis meant that the stress response was not fully understood and a real difference was ignored
Androcentrism
Male dominated
What did Freus suggest about the differences between males and females?
‘Anatomy is destiny’
There are genuine psychological differences between males and females because of their physiological differences
What did Freud suggest about femininity?
Femininity is a form of masculinity as young girls suffer from penis envy
4 differences between boys and girls, consluded my Maccoby and Jacklin
Girls have greater verbal ability
Boys have greater visual and spatial abilities
Boys have greater arithmetic abilities (in adolescence)
Boys are more aggressive
Social Influence researchers who used an all male sample
Asch
Perrin & Spencer
Ethnocentrism
Seeing the world from only ones own cultural perspective, and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct
Cultural relativism
The idea that cultural norms and values are culture specific and no-one culture is superior to another culture
Culture
The values, beliefs and patterns of behvaiour shared by a group of people
Who has historically dominated psychology?
White, middle-class American males, who have monopolized both as researchers and as participants
Cultural bias
The tendency to judge others in terms of ones own cultural assumptions
Cultural bias - US Army IQ test
US Army - IQ test pre WWI
Culturally bias towards dominant white majority
Test showed African-AMericans to score lower, causing racist and prejudice attitudes
Smith & Bond - 1998 Survey of European textbooks on social psychology
66% American
32% European
2% rest on the world
Development of contemporary psychologists
Significantly more open-minded and well-travelled than previously, and have an increased understanding of other cultures at both a personal and professional level
Benefits of international psychology conferences
Increase the exchange of ideas between psychologists which has helped to reduce ethnocentrism in psychology and enable a more nuanced understanding and appreciation of cultural relativism
Indigenous psychologies
Theories drawing explicitly on the particular experiences of people in different cultural contexts
Afrocentrism
A theory that recognises that because all black people have their roots in Africa, theories about them must recognises that African context of behvaiours and attitudes - emic approach
What has Afrocentrism led to?
The emergence of theories that are more relevent to the lives and cultures of people not anly in Africa, but also those far removed from their African origins
Cultural bias in Early versions of the DSM
Virtually ignored mental disorders that are found mainly or exclusively in non-American cultures
What was unique about the DSM-IV compared to earlier versions?
Acknowledged the inadequacy of that approach and included a short appendix on culture-bound syndromes found in other parts of the world
When was the DSM-IV developed?
1994
What did Kleinman and Cohen say about the appendix of the DSM-IV on culture-bound syndromes?
Dismissed the appendix as ‘little more than a sop thrown to cultural psychiatrists and psychiatric anthropologists
What disorders did Kleinmen and Cohen point out that the DSM-IV had ignored?
Pa-fend
Amafufunyana
Brain fah
Pa-fend
Fear of wind - china
Amafufunyana
Violent behaviour caused by spirit possession - South Africa
Brain fag
Problems concentrating - West Africa
Determinism
The idea that free will is an illusion, and that our behaviour is entirely governed by internal and external forces beyond our control, consequently viewing our behaviour as predictable
Causal laws of determinism
The view that we have no control over our behaviour
Hard determinism
Forces outside of our control shape our behaviour, including biology and past experience
Incompatible with free will
Soft Determinism
Behaviour is constrained by biological makeup, but only to some extent
Some behaviours are more constrained than others, but there is an element of free will in all behaviour
Nick Heather - Soft determinism
While our behaviour is predictable, it doesn’t make it inevitable.
we can choose how to behave, but we normally have a limited number of behaviours to choose from
3 types of determinsim
Biological
Environmental
Psychic
Free Will
We can play an active role and have choice in how we behave
The assumption Is that individuals are free to choose their behaviour and are self-determined
Free will example
People can make a free choice as to whether or not they commit a crime
Therefore, a person is responsible for their own actions, and it is not impossible to predict human behaviour
Humanism - free will viewpoint
Humans have self-determination and free will and that behaviour is not the result of any single cause
Twin Studies supporting the idea that nothing is purely biologically determined
MZ twins
Intelligence - 80%
Depression - 40%
Freud’s determinism viewpoint
He argues that the unconscious controls our actions and our thoughts.
The goal of psychoanalysis is to help patients overcome that force
Erich Fromm
Neo-Freudian who argued that we all have the potential to control our lives but are too afraid to do so
Implications of Fromms suggestion that we all have the potential to control our lives but are too afraid to do so
We give up pur freedom and allow our lives to be governed by circumstance, other people, political ideology or irrational feelings
What did Fromm suggest about determinism?
Determinism is not inevitable, and Fromm sees the essence of human freedom in the choice between good and evil
Why do many psychologists, theorists and legal experts not favour a deterministic viewpoint?
If behaviour is determined by outside forces, that provides a potential excuse for criminal acts
Stephen Mobley - defence for killing a pizza shop manager
Argued he was ‘born to kill’ as his family had a disposition towards violence and aggressive behaviour
Response of Stephen Mobleys biological determinism defence for murder
Rejected by an American court
Why Is a truly deterministic viewpoint undesirable?
It provides an ‘excuse’, allowing people to mitigate their own liability and could lead to vexing legal issues regarding the nature of responsibility and intent
Who argued that free will is an illusion?
Skinner
Why did Skinner argue that free will is an illusion?
he believed our behaviour is environmentally determined, even if we are unable to admit it
Libet - supporting the idea of free will as an illusion
Motor regions of the brain become active before a person registers conscious decision
Suggests many responses are biologically determined, and that although we may believe we have free will, Skinners claim that free will is an illusion, may be correct
