Issues and Debates

Question 1

What does it mean by the term gender bias ?

Answer 1

this is the difference in treatment of males/females based on stereotypes

Question 2

What does it mean by alpha bias ?

Answer 2

this is where the differences between males/females are exaggerated

Question 3

What does it mean by beta bias ?

Answer 3

this is where the differences between males/females are ignored

Question 4

What does it mean by androcentrism ?

Answer 4

things which are centred around men

Question 5

What does it mean by gynocentrism ?

Answer 5

things which are centred around women

Question 6

What is an example of alpha bias ?

Answer 6

Freud’s psychoanalytical theory. Where he argued that because girls do not suffer the same odepial effects as boys, they do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys identify with their fathers, therefore develop weaker super-egos.

Question 7

What is an example of beta bias ?

Answer 7

biological research into the flight-or-fight response. And it shows how both sexes respond to stress in a similar way.

Question 8

What is evaluation of the gender bias debate ?

Answer 8

• One weakness is that gender differences are often presented as alpha bias when they are not.For example Eleanor Maccoboy and Carol Jacklin presented the findings of several gender studies which concluded that girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have better spacial ability. However Daphna Joel (2015) used brain scanning and found no sex differences in brain structure or processing. Therefore Maccaboys and Jacklins data was popularised by existing stereotypes as girls being ‘speakers’ and boys being ‘doers’. This suggests that we should be careful of accepting research findings as biological when it could be better explained as stereotypes.
• Weakness: gender bias debate promotes sexism
  A study conducted by Murphy et al (2014) stated that lecturers in psychology departments are more likely to be men. This means that research is more likely to be conducted by men and this may disadvantage female participants.
• Weakness: research challenging gender bias might not published
  Research on gender bias is funded less often and is published by less prestigious journals. The consequence of this is that fewer scholars become aware of it or apply it within their work. Therefore this suggests that gender bias is more over-looked than other forms of bias.

Question 9

What is mean by the term ethnocentrism ?

Answer 9

seeing the world from only ones own culture perspective and that this perspective is the normal and correct one

Question 10

What is meant by the term cultural relativism ?

Answer 10

behaviour can only properly understood in the context of the norms/ values of the society in which it occurs.

Question 11

What does it mean by the term culture bias ?

Answer 11

the tendency to judge people in terms of their culture

Question 12

What does it mean by the term universality ?

Answer 12

when a theory can apply to all people, irrespective of gender and culture.

Question 13

What is an evaluation for culture bias debate ?

Answer 13

Weakness: most of the influential studies in psychology are culturally biased. For example Asch’s study was conducted only on US participants. Replication of these studies in different countries bring about different results. For example an Asch-type experiment in collectivist cultures would have a higher conformity rate than an individualistic culture.

Strength: emergence of cultural psychology
Cultural Psychology is the study of how people are shaped by their cultural experience. Cultural psychologists stride to avoid ethnocentric assumptions, therefore being more open to other cultures.

Weakness: it has led to prejudice to other groups of people.
For example during the IQ tests taken during WW1. Many of the questions on the test were ethnocentric, such as questions like knowing the name of presidents. Therefore recruits from south-eastern Europe and African-Americans received the lowest scores. This then led to prejudice against ethnic minorities and were seen as genetically inferior.

Question 14

What does it mean by the term determinism ?

Answer 14

this is the view that free will is an illusion that our behaviour is governed by external and internal forces.

Question 15

What is meant by soft determinism ?

Answer 15

behaviour is controlled by the environment or biological influences

Question 16

What is meant by hard determinism ?

Answer 16

this is the view that forces outside of our control shape or behaviour

Question 17

What is meant by biological determinism ?

Answer 17

the belief that all human behaviour is within and that it is determined by our genes

Question 18

What is meant by environmental determinism ?

Answer 18

behaviour is determined by forces outside of an individual

Question 19

What is meant by psychic determinism ?

Answer 19

the idea that behaviour is the controlled or made up of our childhood experiences and innate drives.

Question 20

What is meant by the term free-will ?

Answer 20

humans have a free choice in how they want to behave

Question 21

What is an evaluation of the free will vs determinism debate ?

Answer 21

• Strength: it has a practical value
  A study by Rebecca Roberts (2000) suggested that even thinking we have free will improve our mental health. She looked at teenagers who had a strong belief in fatalism and found that they were much more prone to developing depression. This shows how even believing in free will is a good thing for a persons mental health.
• Weakness: brain scan evidence does not support free-will but does support determinism
  Benjamin Libet et al (1983) told his participants to flick their wrist at a random time whilst he scanned their brain. Participants had to say when they felt like they wanted to flick their wrist. Libet found that the unconscious brain activity came a half second before the conscious decision to move the wrist. This shows how our basic experiences of free will are actually determined by our brain.
• Limitation: determinism not credible in UK legal system
  The hard deterministic view is that individual choice is not cause of behaviour. But this does not correlate with the legal system, as criminals are held responsible for their actions. Therefore the deterministic view is not credible in the judicial world.

Question 22

What is meant by the term reductionism ?

Answer 22

this is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts

Question 23

What is meant by the term biological reductionism ?

Answer 23

bio psychologists reduced behaviour to a physical level and explain in terms of neurons, neurotransmitters and hormones ect.

Question 24

What is meant by the term environmental determinism ?

Answer 24

behaviourists believe that all behaviour can be reduced to simple S-R bonds and that complex behaviour is a series of S-R chains

Question 25

What is meant by the term holism ?

Answer 25

the idea that human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integral experience, and not as separate parts

Question 26

What is an example of biological reductionism ?

Answer 26

the fact that OCD is caused by higher levels of dopamine and lower levels of serotonin

Question 27

What is an example of environmental reductionism ?

Answer 27

how phobias are initiated by classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.

Question 28

What is meant by levels of explanation in terms of reductionism ?

Answer 28

There are 3 different levels of explanations within reductionism. The highest level takes into account socio-cultural explanations. The middle level reduces behaviour to psychological explanations and the lowest level reduces behaviour into individual biological factors.

Question 29

Give me an evaluation for the reductionism vs holism debate ?

Answer 29

• Limitation: may lack practical value
  holistic analysis of human behaviour becomes harder to use as they become more complex. For example with depression there are many factors to contribute to it, such as a persons past, their present relationships and their job etc). It will then be difficult to know which one is the most influential. And then it is difficult which one to prioritise in therapy.
• Strength: reductionist approaches forms the basis of a scientific approach
  In order to conduct well-controlled research we need to break down the target behaviours into smaller parts. Therefore it makes experiments be conducted in a way which is reliable.
• Limitation: one limitation of reductionism is that some behaviours can only be understood at a higher level.
  There are some aspects of social behaviour that can only be observed within a group context. For example the Zimbardo study, where the effects of conformity on social roles in the prisoners and guards were studied. It was the interaction between the people and the behaviour of the group that was important. There is no conformity gene, therefore social processes like conformity can be better explained holistically.

Question 30

What is meant by the term idiographic

Answer 30

this is where psychologists would focus on the individual and emphasise the unique personal experience of human nature

Question 31

What are some methods that are used when doing ideographic research ?

Answer 31

• case studies
• unstructured interviews
• thematic analysis

Question 32

What is meant by the term nomothetic ?

Answer 32

concerned with establishing law, based on the study of a large group of people

Question 33

What are some methods that are used when doing nomothetic research ?

Answer 33

• experiments
• correlation research
• psychometric testing

Question 34

What approaches in psychology take a nomothetic approach ?

Answer 34

• Biological Approach
• Behavioural Approach
• Cognitive Approach

Question 35

How does the biological approach take the nomothetic approach ?

Answer 35

biological psychologists take a nomothetic approach when treating psychological disorders such as OCD. They focus on bio factors such as neurotransmitters, that are responsible for such disorders and create bio therapies, such as drugs to treat all patients.

Question 36

How does the behavioural approach take the nomothetic approach ?

Answer 36

Behaviourists such as Pavlov conducted studies on animals in order to establish general laws ( classical/operant conditioning) that can be generalised to humans/animals.

Question 37

How does the cognitive approach take the nomothetic approach ?

Answer 37

Cognitive psychologists such as Atkinson and Shiffrin, developed general laws such as the Multi-store Model of memory, which they believed could be generalised to everyone.

Question 38

Give me an evaluation for the idiographic vs nomothetic approach ?

Answer 38

• Strength: the idiographic approach contributes to the nomothetic approach.
  The idiographic approach uses qualitative methods of investigation, therefore it gets in depth detail on one person. This may help the nomothetic approach by shedding further light on general laws. For example the case study on Henry Molaison and how a single case can generate hypotheses for further studies.
• Strength: both approaches fit with the aims of science
  The processes involved in nomothetic research is similar to those used in natural sciences. Such as the use of standardisation to establish objectivity. This can also be seen in idiographic approach where the use of triangulation, where a range of studies which uses qualitative methods are compared as to increase validity. This suggest that both approaches raise psychologies status as a science.
• Limitation: the nomothetic approach fails to understand the individual
  The fact that the nomothetic approach is focused on establishing general laws it can fail to understand the personal experience of an individual. For example knowing that there is a 1% chance can develop schizophrenia, tells us little about someone who does have the disorder. Knowing the personal experience of a person having schizophrenia can help devise a appropriate treatment plan.

Question 39

What does the term nature mean ?

Answer 39

this is the view that behaviour is the product of inate biological/genetic factors

Question 40

What does the term nurture mean ?

Answer 40

this is the view that behaviour is the product of environmental influences

Question 41

What is the interactionist approach ?

Answer 41

this is the view that both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour

Question 42

What is an example of nature ?

Answer 42

Bowlby suggested that children are born with biological programming to form attachment, in order to survive. Therefore attachment behaviour is based on inheritance.

Question 43

What is an example of nurtutre ?

Answer 43

Attachment can be explained in terms of classical conditioning. Where at the beginning the food is the unconditioned stimulus with the mother being the neutral stimulus. Through many attempts the mother becomes a conditioned stimulus who elicits a conditioned response from the child, whenever the mother gives her child food. This shows how a child can form an attachment based on the pleasure experienced of being fed.

Question 44

What is an example of the interactionist approach ?

Answer 44

genetic disorder PKU, it is caused by the inheritance of two recessive genes however a child with PKU who goes on a low protein diet for the first 12 years, can avoid PKU.

Question 45

Give me an evaluation for the nature vs nurture debate ?

Answer 45

Strength: use of adoption studies
adoption studies are useful because the separate the competing influences of nature and nurture. If adopted children are found to be more similar to their adoptive parents, this suggests that environment is the bigger influence. Whereas if adopted children are found to be more similar to their biological parents then genetics is the bigger factor.

Strength: support for epigenic
One example of environmental factors can span generations through epigenetic effects is in 1944 when the Nazis blocked the distribution of food to the Dutch and 22k died of starvation. Ezra Susser and Shang Lin (1992) found that people who became pregnant during the famine had a higher chance of having low birth weight babies. This then would lead them to having a higher chance of developing schizophrenia when growing up.

Strength: it has real-world application
research suggests that OCD is a highly heritable disease. This information can inform genetic counselling, as just cause it is highly heritable does not mean it is inevitable. People can therefore receive advice and find out how they can prevent it and what are the chances they will develop it.

Question 46

What is meant by the term social sensitivity ?

Answer 46

used to describe studies where there are potential social consequences for the participants or the group of people represented by the research.

Question 47

What two studies are deemed as socially sensitive ?

Answer 47

• Milgram’s obedience study
• Bowlby’s Theory of attachment

Question 48

How is Milgram’s obedience study socially sensitive ?

Answer 48

the results of this study show that how people obey orders can depend on certain factors such as uniform. Therefore this is bad as people can use this knowledge for the wrong.

Question 48

How is Bowlby’s theory of attachment socially sensitive ?

Answer 48

could be used to coerce mothers to stay at home and look after their child, just because they are deemed as the primary caregiver.

Question 49

What are the 4 aspects in the scientific research process that raise ethical implications in socially sensitive research ?

Answer 49

• The research question
• The methodology used
• The institutional context
• Interpretation and application of findings

Question 50

What is the research question aspect in the scientific research process ?

Answer 50

must consider questions carefully, as some questions can be viewed as rude

Question 51

What is the methodology used aspect in the scientific research process ?

Answer 51

needs to consider the treatment of participants, due to their right of confidentiality.

Question 52

What is the institutional context aspect in the scientific research process ?

Answer 52

should be mindful of how data is used, and consider who is funding the research

Question 53

What is the interpretation and application of findings aspect in the scientific research process ?

Answer 53

how their findings may be interpreted and applied in the real world

Question 54

Give me an evaluation on ethical implications of research studies and theory ?

Answer 54

• Strength: socially sensitive research can have benefits for the group being studied.
  One example is homosexuality. In 1952 the DSM-1 listed this as a sociopathic personality disorder. Until they removed it in 1973 due to Kinsey’s report (1972) where she interviewed 5000 men anonymously. The report concluded that homosexuality is a typical expression of human sexual behaviour. This shows the importance of researchers tackling topics that are sensitive.
• Strength: certain groups, such as policymakers, rely on research related to socially sensitive issues.
  The government looks to research when developing important social policies such as child care. In the UK there are groups such as ONS who are responsible for collecting, analysing and spreading the objective statistics about the UK’s economy, society and population. This means that psychologist data and research is being used to establish social policies.
• Weakness: poor research design can lead to incorrect findings which can have an impact.
  This can link to Burt’s case, however the 11+ exams are still used to this day. And similarly for many independent schools children have to take a entry exam in year 6 in order to get in. This shows how Burt’s research has had a lasting effect. Therefore this means that an research based on socially sensitive topics must be done carefully to ensure findings are valid, because if done wrong can have enduring effects.