Issues and Debates Flashcards
Define androcentrism
being centred on, or dominated by, males or the male viewpoint
-can be conscious or unconscious
-in the past, most psychologists were male
-hence their theories tended to represent a male view of the world
Define alpha bias and beta bias
Hare-Mustin and Marcek (1988) argued that there are two types of gender bias: Alpha and Beta bias.
Alpha Bias: theories that exaggerate the differences between males and females
Example 1:
-in his psychoanalytic approach, Freud argued that because girls do not suffer the same Oedipal conflict as boys, they do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys identify with their fathers
-hence develop weaker superegos
Beta Bias: theories that ionore or minimise sex differences, often assuming that findings from males can apply equally to females
Example 1:
-Kohlberg’s stage theory of moral development was based on extensive interviews conducted with boys aged 10-16
-the same all-male sample was then re-interviewed at intervals of 3-4 years over 20 years
-some researchers, e.g. Carol Gilligan (1982), have found that women tend to be more focused on relationships when making moral decisions
-hence often appear to be at a lower level of moral reasoning when using Kohlberg’s system
-therefore, Kohlberg’s approach meant that a real difference was ignored
Consequences of beta bias
-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 bias
Outline what is meant by cultural bias, including ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
culture = values, beliefs and patterns of behaviour shared by a group of people
universal = theory can apply to all people, irrespective of gender and culture
-historically, psychology has been dominated by white, middle-class American males
-they have monopolised psychology both as researchers and participants
-despite this, research findings and theories have been generalised, as if culture makes no real difference
Cultural bias: tendency to judge people in terms of one’s cultural assumptions. Two types: ethnocentrism and cultural relativism
Ethnocentrism: seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct
Cultural Relativism: assumption that behaviour can only be understood if the cultural context is taken into consideration
-therefore, any study which draws its sample from only one cultural context and then generalises its findings to all people everywhere, is suspect
Example:
-meaning of intelligence is different in every culture
-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 what is considered intelligent behaviour for most people in a literate and more “developed” society
Evaluate cultural bias
Limitation - culturally biased research can lead to negative effects in the real world
-such as validating damaging stereotypes
-e.g. US Army used an 10 test before WWI which was culturally biased toward the dominant white majority
-test showed that African Americans were at the bottom of the IQ scale
-harmed the attitudes of Americans toward this group of people
-highlights the negative impact of culturally biased research
Strength - by acknowledging issue of cultural bias in psychological research, ways to reduce it can be identified
-e.g. Smith and Bond (1998) conducted a survey of European textbooks
-found that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European, and only 2% from the rest of the world
-suggests that much psychological research is severely unrepresentative
-can be greatly improved by simply selecting different cultural groups to study
Strength - understanding the impacts of cultural bias in psychology has led to changes that improve research
-heightened awareness of cultural diversity has led to the development of ‘indigenous psychologies”: theories drawing explicitly on the experiences of people in different cultural contexts
-e.g. ‘Afrocentrism’ is a movement which suggests that because all black people have their roots in Africa, theories about them must recognise the African context of behaviours and attitudes
-shows that taking an emic approach to psychology research, rather than imposing etics, can emphasise the uniqueness of every culture
-enables us look at behaviour from the inside of a particular cultural system
Outline determinism
-assumes free will is an illusion
-behaviour is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control
-hence, our behaviour is viewed as predictable
-causal laws of determinism form the basis of science
Biological determinism:
- idea that all human behaviour is innate and determined by genes
- e.g. genetics research provides evidence to support biological determinism
- Chorley et al. (1998) reported a statistically significant association between 10 test scores and the IGF2r gene on chromosome six
- suggests that intelligence is to some extent biologically determined.
Environmental determinism:
- view that behaviour is determined or caused by forces outside the individual
- e.g. behaviourism or social learning
- Bandura (1961) found that children with violent parents are more likely to become violent parents themselves
- due to observational learning
Psychic determinism:
- view that human behaviour is the result of childhood experiences and innate drives (id, ego and superego)
- seen in Freud’s model of psychological development
- there are also varying degrees of determinism (hard and soft)
- hard determinism = view that forces outside of our control shape our behaviour
- e.g. biology or past experience
- soft determinism is an alternative position favoured by many psychologists
- soft determinism: behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological make-up but only to a certain extent
- determinism suggests that some behaviours are more constrained than others
- element of free will in all behaviour
-science is heavily deterministic in its search for causal relationships
-it seeks to discover whether the independent variable causes changes in the dependent variable
-e.g. Loftus and Palmer’s (1974)
-manipulated the verb used in the critical question, to measure the effect on the participant’s estimate of speed
-e.g. Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment
-manipulated the condition to which the children were exposed (aggressive role model, non-aggressive model and no role model)
-to examine the effect on the behaviour of the children
Outline free will
-idea that we play an active role and have a choice in how we behave
-assumption is that individuals are free to choose their behaviour and are self-determined
-our behaviour is not predictable
Humanistic Approach:
-understanding human behaviour and development promotes idea of free will
-assumes that we are in control over our development, rather than determined by forces such as biology
Evaluate determinism / free-will debate
Limitation - contradictory research
-e.g. identical twin studies typically find an 80% similarity in intelligence scores
-40% similarity in the likelihood of depression
-however, as identical twins share 100% of their genes, these results suggest that 20% is caused by other (environmental) factors
-demonstrates that biological determinism is unable to explain any behaviour
-also indicates that no behaviour is completely environmentally determined
-if identical twins only show an 80% likeness in terms of intelligence, it can be assumed that only 20% is caused by the environment
Limitation - not compatible with the legal system
-if behaviour is determined by outside forces, it provides a potential excuse for criminal acts
-e.g. in 1981 Stephen Mobley argued that he was ‘born to kill’ after killing a pizza shop manager
-his family had a disposition towards violence and aggressive behaviour
-an American court rejected this argument
-hence a truly determinist position may be undesirable as it allows people to mitigate their liability
Strength - research support
-Libet et al. (1983) found that the motor regions of the brain become active before a person registers conscious awareness of a decision
-i.e. the decision to move their finger when asked to press a button was actually a pre-determined action of the brain
-strongly suggests that many responses are biologically determined
-although we may believe that we have free will, claims that free will is an illusion may be correct
Limitation - not compatible with the aims of science
-nomothetic approaches help to establish general laws of behaviours
-hence research helps make predictions about development and behaviour
-however, if behaviour is the result of free will rather than determinism, then such predictions would not be possible
-hence free will ideology is not regarded as scientific
-however, it is now accepted that there is no such thing as hard determinism in science
-it seemed more appropriate in the 18th and 19th centuries when most physicists believed they would eventually be able to make very precise and accurate predictions about everything relevant to physics
Evaluate gender bias in psychology
Strength - awareness of gender bias in Psychology allows solutions to be put forward
-e.g. some psychologists attempt to develop theories that emphasise the importance or value of women
-Cornwell et al. (2013) noted that females are better at leaming, as they are more attentive and organised
-emphasises both the value of and the positive attributes of women
-hence this type of research helps to reduce or challenge gender stereotypes, which is important in reducing gender bias
Strength - gender bias can be reduced through a feminist approach
-attempts to restore the imbalance in both psychological theories and research
-e.g. feminist psychology accepts that there are biological differences between males and females
-Eagly (1978) suggested that females are less effective leaders than males
-however, the purpose of Eagly’s claim is to help researchers develop training programmes aimed at increasing the number of female leaders in the real world
-furthermore, Worrell (1992) suggested a number of research criteria that are particularly important to ensure research investigations that are not gender biased
-using alternative methods of inquiry to explore the personal lives of women
-considering women in the natural settings in which they function
-collaborating with research participants to explore personally relevant variables
-studying diverse samples (different age, socio-economic class, partner preference, minority or ethnic group)
Limitation - issues of gender bias often go unchallenged
-e.g. Darwin’s established theory of sexual selection suggests that women are selective (choosy) in terms of mate selection
-theses views have only recently been challenged by DNA evidence suggesting that women are equally as competitive as men when the need arises
Limitation - social norms have changed
-females have progressed further in academic disciplines such as psychology
-led to changes in both the research methodology used and in the earlier theories
-Carol Gilligan (a student of Kohlberg’s) proposed that women have a different sense of moral understanding from men and compiled her stage theory of moral understanding
-showed that men and women are different, but neither kind of moral reasoning (justice focus or care focus) is better
Limitation - vital to remember that sometimes gender bias can work against males as well as females
-sometimes alpha bias theories heighten the value of women
-e.g. Chodorow (1978) viewed women as more relational and caring
-another example is that women are more likely to be diagnosed with depression and given treatment than males
-may be due to women being more likely to suffer from depression, or it could be that the diagnostic system may be biased towards finding depression among women
-expectation that males should be able to ‘pull themselves together’ highlights an issue with the diagnostic systems for mental disorders
Outline what is meant by bias
-suggests that a person’s views are distorted in some way.
-evidence shows that gender is presented in a biased way
-could lead to differential treatment of males and females, based on stereotypes and false differences.
-e.g. Freud argued that ‘anatomy is destiny’
-claimed there are genuine psychological differences between men and women due to their physiological differences.
-believed that young girls suffer from ‘penis envy’ and viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity
-these assumptions can have negative consequences for females
-difficulty lies in distinguishing ‘real’ gender differences from culturally created gender differences, and ‘false’ differences that some research promotes
Outline what is meant by holism
Holism: human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integrated experience, and not as separate parts
Example:
-humanistic psychology advocates a holistic approach
-argues that humans react to stimuli as an organised whole, rather than as a set of stimulus-response links
-approach uses qualitative methods to investigate all aspects of an individual and the interactions between people
Outline what is meant by reductionism
-belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler parts
-involves looking closely at the parts that make up our systems, and using the simplest explanations to understand how they work
reductionist approach suggests that there are different levels of explanation
-lowest level considers physiological (biological) explanations (behaviour is explained in terms of neurochemicals, genes and brain structure)
-middle level considers psychological explanations (e.g. cognitive and behavioural)
-highest level considers social and cultural explanations (behaviour is explained in terms of the influence of social groups)
Example:
-aggression can be explained at a biological level in terms of hormones (e.g. testosterone) or brain structure (e.g. the amygdala)
-psychological level considers it through either operant conditioning or observation and imitation (social leaming)
-furthermore, it could also be explained in terms of cultural norms and expectations
-illustrated by Souweldane and Huesmann (1999)
-found that Detroit High School children who had been born in the US were more accepting of aggression than children who had emigrated from the Middle East, especially if they did so after the age of 11
Different types of reductionism:
Biological reductionism
-reduces behaviour to a physical level and explains it in terms of neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure, etc.
-e.g. Billett et al. (1998) conducted meta-analysis of 14 twin studies of OCD
-found that monozygotic twins were more than twice as likely to develop OCD in comparison to dizygotic twins if their co-twin also had the disorder
-suggests a genetic link
Environmental reductionism (stimulus-response reductionism)
-assumes all behaviour can be reduced to the simple building blocks of stimulus-response associations
-complex behaviours are a series of S-R chains
-e.g. behaviourists reduce the complex behaviour of attachment down to a stimulus-response link
- mother becomes the conditioned stimulus that is associated with the pleasure from feeding
-hence, the child comes to feel pleasure (conditioned response) when he or she encounters their mother
-leads to attachment formation
Experimental reductionism:
-complex behaviour is reduced to a single (isolated) variable for the purpose of testing
-e.g. the MSM of memory suggests that memory consists of three stores and each store has its own coding, capacity and duration
-however, cognitive psychologists often examine memory in terms of isolated variables
-e.g. Peterson and Peterson (1959) examined the duration of short-term memory
Evaluate the holism-reductionism debate
Strength - reductionism is compatible with the aims of science
-breaking complex behaviours into small constituent parts enables them to be scientifically tested
-over time, explanations based on scientific evidence will emerge
-furthermore, biological reductionism has led to the development of biological therapies
-e.g. Soomro et al. (2008) found that SSRI drugs are more effective than placebos at treating the symptoms of OCD
-reduce the symptoms for up to three months after the treatment
-hence, reductionist approach improve understanding of human behaviours
Limitation - reductionism can lead to errors as the complexity of human behaviour is often unaccounted for
-e.g. conditions like ADHD are often treated with drugs in the belief that the condition consists of nothing more than neurochemical imbalances
-could lead to mistaking the symptoms of the phenomenon as its true cause
-ritalin may reduce these symptoms, but the cause of ADHD have not been addressed
-hence reductionism can lead to mistakes or incomplete understandings of behaviours
Limitation - holism is not considered compatible with the aims of science
-attempts to blend different levels of explanation to provide a complete and realistic understanding of human behaviour
-however, holistic explanations do not examine behaviour in terms of operationalised variables that can be manipulated and measured
-cause and effect relationship cannot be established
-hence holistic explanations are viewed as unscientific
Strength - holism considers the full complexity of human behaviour, rather than focusing on one level of explanation
-e.g. humanism acknowledges the role of culture, social influences, and other factors in our behaviour and development
-although it is not as scientific as reductionist approaches, it offers a thorough account of behaviour
-preferred by many psychologists
Outline the nature-nurture debate
-view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors
-certain physical characteristics and diseases are biologically determined and the result of heredity (or genetic inheritance).
-characteristics of the human species are a product of evolution
-individual differences are the result of each person’s unique genetic code
-family, twin and adoption studies show that the closer the relatedness of two people, the more likely it is that they will show the same behaviours
Example:
-risk of schizophrenia diagnosis is around 1% of the general population
-but Gottesman and Shields (1991) pooled the results of around 40 family studies
-found that the risk increases to 46% for those with two parents who have schizophrenia
-Joseph (2004) pooled the data for schizophrenia studies conducted before 2001
-found an average concordance rate of 40.4% for MZ twins and 7.4% for DZ twins
-highlights a significant genetic component
-characteristics and differences that are not observable at birth, but which emerge later in life, are regarded as the product of maturation
-as we have a ‘biological clock’ which switches certain behaviours ‘on’ or *off’ in a pre-programmed way
-e.g. Huntington’s disease is a genetically transmitted disorder
-usually emerges between the ages of 30 and 50, but it can appear at any time since the genetic cause is innately present
-evolutionary explanations also emphasise the importance of nature
-they assume that behaviours/characteristics that increase our chances of survival and reproduction will be naturally selected
-the genes for these characteristics or behaviours will be passed on to provide an adaptive advantage
Example:
-Bowlby proposed that children come into the world biologically programmed to form attachments as it aids survival
-suggests attachment behaviours are naturally selected and passed on as a result of genetic inheritance (heredity mechanisms)
Nurture
-view that behaviour is the product of environmental influences
-environmentalists hold the assumption that the human mind is a tabula rasa (a blank slate) which is gradually filled due to experience
-according to environmentalists, psychological characteristics and behavioral differences that emerge through infancy and childhood are the result of learning
Example 1:
-behavioural psychologists explain attachment in terms of classical conditioning
-food (unconditioned stimulus) is associated with the mother (neutral stimulus)
-through many repeated pairings, the mother becomes a conditioned stimulus who elicits a conditioned response in the child
-hence the child forms an attachment based on the pleasure experienced because of being fed
Example 2:
-Bateson et al. (1956) proposed the double bind theory
-idea that schizophrenia is the result of disordered communication within the family
-one instruction is given overtly to a child (e.g. a mother says ‘come to me’) while another instruction is given covertly (e.g. the mother’s manner and tone of voice are rejecting)
-prolonged exposure to such interactions prevents the development of a coherent construction of reality
-later manifests itself as schizophrenic symptoms
Interactionist approach in nature-nurture debate
-it is now widely accepted that heredity and the environment do not act independently
-both nature and nurture are essential for almost all behaviour
-hence, instead of defending extreme nativist or environmentalist views, most researchers are now interested in investigating how nature and nurture interact
-interactionist approach is the view that both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour
Evaluate the nature-nurture debate
Limitation - there are real-world examples where the interactionist approach is more appropriate
-genetic disorder PKU (phenylketonuria) is caused by the inheritance of two recessive genes, one from each parent
-those with PKU are unable to break down the amino acid phenylalanine which builds up in the blood and brain causing mental retardation
-however, if the child is diagnosed early, they are placed on a low-protein diet for the first 12 years
-helps to avert this potentially lifelong disorder
-hence, the disorder PKU (nature) is not expressed, due to an altered environment (low protein diet - nurture)
-shows that an interactionist approach to understanding behaviours is more appropriate than a nature or nurture view
Limitation - research into neural plasticity shows how nature and nurture interact
-brain can reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life
-neuroplasticity = the changes in the structure of the brain (nature), because of life experience (nurture)
-Maguire et al. (2000) investigated the hippocampi volume of London taxi drivers’ brains
-she found that the hippocampus on each side of the brain (especially the right hippocampus) was larger in taxi drivers in comparison to non-taxi drivers
-consequently, Maguire concluded that driving a taxi (nurture) affected the size of the hippocampi (nature)
-suggests that these influences do not operate in isolation.
Limitation - nature can lead to socially sensitive conclusions about human behaviour
-Jenson (1969) found that the average I.Q. scores of black Americans were significantly lower than white people
-concluded that genetic factors and heredity are responsible for intelligence
-may have social and political implications, e.g. emphasising or justifying inequalities between social groups
-hence although there is plenty of research support for the role of nature, it can be problematic to assume that behaviour is fixed
Strength - research support for nurture
-Margaret Mead (1935) conducted a classic study of cultural differences in Papa New Guinea
-examined three different tribes
-found the Arapesh men and women to be gentle, responsive and cooperative
-the Mundugumor men and women were violent and aggressive, seeking power and position
-the Tchambuli showed the opposite gender-role behaviours to those seen in most cultures (dominant, impersonal and managerial women vs emotionally dependent men)
-Mead originally concluded that these differences highlight the impact of culture on gender
-shows that nurture and our environment do influence our behaviour
-however, epigenetics is the term used to describe behaviours that are inherited through sources other than genetics
-e.g. our environmental influences can influence what genetic information is ‘triggered’
-shows it is harder than it seems to separate the influence of nature and nurture
Outline what is meant by an idiographic approach, including examples
-focus on the individual and their unique personal experience of human nature
-favours qualitative research methods, e.g. case study, unstructured interviews and thematic analysis
-allow in-depth insight into individual behaviour
-does not seek to formulate laws or generalise results to others
Example 1:
-Shallice and Warrington (1970) examined Patient KF (motorbike accident victim)
-KF’s short-term forgetting of auditory information was greater than his forgetting of visual information
-suggests STM consists of multiple components
-consequently, Patient KF undermines the Multi-Store Model of Memory
-hence an individual case study can highlight flaws in a theory
Example 2:
-Freud conducted detailed investigations into the lives of his patients to understand and help them overcome their psychological disorders
-his most famous case studies include Little Hans and The Rat Man
-while Freud tried to produce generalisations from his case studies, they are still viewed as an idiographic approach
-each person’s psychological disorder is derived from their unique childhood experiences
Outline what is meant by an nomothetic approach, including examples
-establishes general laws by using statistical analysis of research conducted on large groups of people
-use experiments, correlations, psychometric testing and other quantitative methods
Example 1:
-biological approaches take a nomothetic approach when explaining psychological disorders, e.g. OCD and depression
-typically pinpoint biological factors, e.g. neurotransmitters that are responsible for such disorders and use biological therapies (e.g. drugs) to treat all patients
Example 2:
-social psychologists, e.g. Milgram and Asch, used a nomothetic approach to create general conclusions about human behaviour
-situational factors are responsible for both obedience and conformity
Evaluate nomothetic and idiographic approaches
Idiographic approaches:
Limitation - many psychologists criticise them for their unscientific nature
-emphasises in-depth data collection and difficult to arrive at justifiable generalisations
-contradicts the central purpose of science: to explain the most variation in the fewest possible terms so that phenomena can be predicted and ultimately controlled
-research practices that do not address these goals can seem scientifically pointless
-hence, there are questions about how compatible idiographic methods and theories are with the aims of science
Strength - advance our understanding of human behaviour and conditions in circumstances where experimental methods are not appropriate
-e.g. case studies
-investigates specialist and unique conditions such as amnesia can offer insightful, rich information about the condition and how it impacts life. This can be seen in case studies such as KF, HM, and Clive Wearing, who all suffered amnesia. Although the studies are idiographic, they have helped to change our understanding of memory and challenge preexisting theories about memory functions.
Nomothetic approaches:
Strength - compatible with aims of science
-experimental (quantitative) methods and controlled measurement
-allows replication to examine the reliability of findings
-helps psychology establish itself as a scientific discipline
-also able to predict behaviour
Limitation - criticised for losing sight of the ‘whole person’
-focused on quantitative data and statistical analysis
-only provide a superficial understanding of human behaviour
-e.g. Milgram found that 65% of participants obeyed an authority figure and inflicted a 450-volt electric shock when ordered to do so
-however, the results fail to explain why each person obeyed
-may have been different reasons for each participant’s obedience
Limitation - difficult to disentangle idiographic and nomothetic approaches
-e.g. cognitive psychologists typically take a nomothetic approach and create general laws of cognitive processes (e.g. the Working Memory Model)
-but they also take advantage of the idiographic approach
-e.g. use case studies to provide evidence for a particular theory (e.g. Patient KF, Shallice and Warrington, 1970)
-many researchers make use of both approaches
-can argue that the distinction between idiographic and nomothetic is meaningless
-psychologists should employ both methods depending on the nature of the research question
What is meant by ethical implications of research studies and theories
-refers to how research affects people who are not involved in research, and the consequences of research findings in a wider context
Example 1: Milgram’s (1963) research
-participants were deceived and were unable to give fully informed consent.
-also caused significant distress
-the participants were told or coerced to continue against their will
-however, they were debriefed after the experiment and a follow-up interview took place a year later
-outcome of these interviews suggested that participants had not suffered long-term effects
Example 2: Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment
-suggests that children form one special attachment bond, usually with their mother
-must take place within a critical period
-also suggested that this attachment affects their future relationships through an internal working model
-while Bowlby’s theory has contributed to the development of childcare practices, it has also encouraged the view that a woman’s place is at home with her children
-could make some mothers feel guilty for wanting to return to work following childbirth
Outline what is meant by socially sensitive research
-proposed by Sieber and Stanley (1988)
-studies where there are potential social consequences for participants or the group of people represented by the research
-identified four aspects of the scientific research process that raise ethical implications in socially sensitive research, hence the researcher must consider:
-their research question
-the treatment of the participants and their right to confidentiality and anonymity.
-how the data is going to be used and consider who is funding the research.
-how their findings might be interpreted and applied in the real world.
Example:
-Cyril Burt used studies of identical twins to support his view that intelligence is largely genetic
-his views greatly influenced the Hadow Report (1926), which led to the creation of the 11 + exam for entry into a selective ‘grammar school’
-was used throughout England from 1944-1976 and is still used today
-meant that generations of children were affected by the 11+ exam, even though there has been huge controversy regarding whether Burt had falsified his research
Evaluate ethical implications and socially sensitive research
Strength - proposals by Sieber and Stanley can help safeguard people who may be affected by research studies/theories
-research can affect people whom the sample represents, and their friends, family, and communities
-hence researchers need to consider the wider implications of their research + how their research can be used by others
-Sieber and Stanley recommend that researchers should consider this when interpreting and applying their findings
-ensures that psychological research does no indirect harm to other members of society
-furthermore, many marginalised groups (e.g. those with disabilities, elderly, economically disadvantaged) are largely excluded from research
-may in some way be harmed by its conclusions and application
Limitation - can be harmful to groups in society and lead to discrimination
-e.g. research examining racial differences in IQ has been used to justify new forms of social control. -between 1907 and 1963, over 64,000 individuals were forcibly sterilized under eugenic legislation in the United States
-in 1972, the United States Senate Committee revealed that at least 2,000 involuntary sterilizations had been performed on poor black women without their consent or knowledge
-this could be ‘justified’ by flawed research findings
-e.g. Robert Yerkes argued that black Americans had lower IQ scores in comparison to white Americans
-highlights the negative impact of socially sensitive research
Strength - useful to society
-e.g. research examining eye-witness testimony found that young children can be reliable witnesses if they are questioned in a timely and appropriate manner
-furthermore, Elizabeth Loftus completed research on how eyewitness testimonies are unreliable
-led to development of cognitive interview techniques
-this socially sensitive research has resulted in a good working relationship between psychologists and the legal profession
-helped improve the accuracy and validity of children’s eyewitnesses
-hence important to recognise that not all socially sensitive research is controversial
-some are desirable and beneficial to society
Limitation - raising concerns about socially sensitive research can lead to restrictions on what can be studied
-psychologists must be free to carry out whatever research seems important to them
-if governments start passing laws to prohibit certain kinds of research (e.g. ethnicity-related research), there is a danger that research will be stopped for political rather than ethical reasons
