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Psychology A level > Issues and Debates > Flashcards

Issues and Debates Flashcards

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1
Q

What is universality?

A

the assumption that research can be applied to everyone, everywhere regardless of time and culture

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2
Q

What is bias?

A

a distortion in representation of a group/data. A view is biased if it leans toward a subjective opinion.

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3
Q

What is gender bias?

A

a distorted view of behaviours that may be typical and atypical for men and/or women this could lead to misrepresentation

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4
Q

What is alpha bias?

A

research that exaggerates differences between men and women

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5
Q

What is an example of alpha bias?

A

Freud stated that the identification process for the development of the superego (working on morality principle), is weaker in females than males
so girls develop a weaker sense of morals

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6
Q

What is beta bias?

A

research that ignores, minimises or underestimates differenes between men and women

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7
Q

What are some examples of beta bias?

A

Asch in confomity - applied it to everyone
Taylor in fght or flight in male animal studies - females have a different respone

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8
Q

What is androcentrism?

A

research that is centred on men
‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to the male standard
female behaviour is often judged as abnormal

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9
Q

What is an example using agression of androcentrism?

A

male anger is seen as a rational response to external pressues like sexual jealousy
female anger is less accepted as concepts like prementrual syndrome medicalises female emotions

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10
Q

What did Maccoby and Jacklin state on diffrence between males and females?

A

girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have better spatial ability
these differences are hardwired into the brain before birth

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11
Q

What disproves Maccoby and Jacklin’s research on bio sex differences?

A

recent brain scans found no sex differences in brain structure
the data from their research was fitting the social stereotypes of the time

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12
Q

What brain stucture difference did Ingalhalikar et al find on men and women?

A

there are more connections between hemispheres in women’s brains = explains the stereotype that women are better at multi-tasking

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13
Q

How is sexism present in research?

A

male researchers are more likely to have their work published
research that find gender differences are more likely to be published
institutional sexism creates bias in theory

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14
Q

What is the main issue with having misleading info on female behaviour?

A

biase science provides ‘scientific’ justification for denying women oppotunities

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15
Q

What did Tim Hunt state on women in lab setting jobs?

A

girls in the lab cause men to fall in love with them and they cry when they are criticised

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16
Q

How can you avoid gender bias in research?

A

promote universality
women should be studied in a meaningful real-life context
diversity between groups of women should be studied
more emphasis on collaborative research with qualitative data
research women dominated areas

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17
Q

What is culture bias?

A

the tendancy to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions, ignoring the effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour

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18
Q

What does WEIRD nations stand for?

A

Westernised
educated
industrialised
rich
democracies

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19
Q

What is enthnocentrism?

A

jugding others by the value and standards of one’s own culture. it may include beliefs that one’s culture is superior

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20
Q

What is an example of enthnocentrism?

A

Ainsworth strange situ - used a western society
Takahashi japan variation found different results
Van ijzendoorn and Kroogenburg cultural variation

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21
Q

What is cultural relativism?

A

the idea that behaviour can only be properly meaningful and understood in the context of the norms and values of the society or culture in which the study was carried out in.
Research may only relate to the culture it has studied within

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22
Q

What is imposed etic?

A

studying behaviour outside of a culture and attempting to describe those behaviours as universal

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23
Q

What are 2 examples are imposed etic/ cultural relativism?

A

ainsworth strange situ - imposed etic
definitions of abnormality

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24
Q

What is the cultural issues with a lot of classic studies?

A

all of the social influence expts. were conducted on US ps which is an individualist culture where people feel as tho they can make more of their own decisions
replications in collectivist cultures gave different results

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25
Q

What has made the Individualism-Collectivism distinction less relevant?

A

we are in an age of increased media globalisation

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26
Q

What is Takano and Osaka study on Japan and US differences?

A

14/15 studies that compares the US to japan found no evidence of traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism

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27
Q

Who developed the 1st IQ tests in the 1930s?

A

Gould

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28
Q

What was the issues with the 1st IQ test in the 1930s?

A

it was culturally biased as they included items on American products and presidants
south-eastern Europians and African-Americans got the lowest scores
test results were used to be racist towards a particular culture and ethnic group = they were denied educational and occupational oppotunities

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29
Q

What did Ekman find on universality and cultures?

A

basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the human and animal world

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30
Q

What is an example of cultural relativism vs universality?

A

Ainsworth - features of forming attach like interactional synchrony and imitation are universal

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31
Q

What is an implication of Culture Bias?

A

cultural psychology = studies how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience aims to avoid ethnocentric assumptions, takes an emic approach

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32
Q

What is the emic approach?

A

conducts research with a particular culture

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33
Q

How can culture bias be avoided in research?

A

do not attempt to extrapolate to cultures that are not represented in the study
researchers that are native or immersed with the culture being studied
cross-cultural research
do not make assumptions
be sensitive
single-culture studies
reflexive approach - refect on your own biases

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34
Q

What is free will?

A

people have the power to make choices and control their own behaviour/ thoughts

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35
Q

What are 2 examples of free will in psych?

A

internal locus of control
cognitive approach to explaining depression

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36
Q

What is determinism?

A

behaviour is controlled by either internal or external forces

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37
Q

What is hard determinism?

A

all human behaviour behaviour has an internal or external cause - these causes are outside of a person’s control

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38
Q

What are 2 examples of hard determinsim?

A

the bio appoarch
behavioural approach = everything is caused by conditioning

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39
Q

What is soft determinism?

A

behaviour and actions are to an extent governed by internal or external forces but we still have some element of control and free will

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40
Q

What are 2 examples of soft determinism?

A

cognitive approach
social learning theory - mediational processes

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41
Q

What is biological determinism?

A

behaviour is determined by bio factors outside of our control for example, the influfence of genes, neurotransmitters and brain structure on mental health

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42
Q

What is an example of bio determinism?

A

the autonomic nervous system on the stress response

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43
Q

What is environmental determinsim?

A

behaviour is determined by environmental factors outside of our control

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44
Q

What is an example of environmental determinsim?

A

reinforcements and punishments for behaviours = skinner

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45
Q

What did skinner say about free will?

A

free will is an illusion because everything is learnt through conditioning

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46
Q

What is psychic determinism?

A

behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood that are outisde of our control
the cause of behaviour is rooted in childhood experiences

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47
Q

What is an example of psychic determinism?

A

Freud - the superego follows the morality principle, girls do not identify with their mothers as strongly so their identification is weaker and they internalise weaker morals

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48
Q

What is the case supporting determinism?

A

it is consistent with the aims of science
it places psychology on equal footing with other established sciences
it allows prediction and control of behaviour
it has led to the development of therapies and treatments

49
Q

What treatment has been developed from determinism?

A

psychotherapeutic drugs for management of schizophrenia

50
Q

What is the case against determinism in terms of the legal system?

A

hard determinsim is not consistent with the way in which the legal system operates
offenders are held morally accountable for their actions and cannot blame external factors

51
Q

What is the case against determinism in terms of unfalsifiablity?

A

determinism as an approach is unfalsifiable, - it cannot be proven wrong it should simply be accepted
it is based on the idea that causes of behaviour will always exist even if they haven’t been identified yet

52
Q

What is the face validity case for Free will?

A

even if we do not have free will, if we think we do it may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour,
it is something that seems true on the surface

53
Q

What did robert et al find to support free wil?

A

adolesences with a strong belief in determinism and an external LOC, were at a greater risk of depresion

54
Q

What is Libet’s study disproving free will?

A

neurological studies of decision-making found that brain activity that determines the outcome of simple choices predates our knowlegde of having made a choice
there is a 10 sec delay where the choice is already made in the brain before being conscious of making a decision

55
Q

What is a causal explaination?

A

it is based on the scientific notion that behaviour is caused by internal/external factors and there is always a cause for everything
this aligns with determinism

56
Q

What is the idiographic approach?

A

focuses on recognition of uniqueness = studies the uniqueness of an individual
uses subjective experiences
does not want general laws or theories of behaviour

57
Q

What is the nomethetic approach?

A

attempts to generalise people
uses objective knowledge
based on numerical data or data that can be categorised
wants general laws and theories for generalisation

58
Q

What is an example of the idiographic approach?

A

the humanistic approach = Rogers and Maslow

59
Q

How is the humanistic app idiographic?

A

documents the conscious experiences of an idividual = concerned with the unique experience of self

60
Q

What is are examples of nomethic approach?

A

cog app
bio app
behaviourist
psychodynamic applications = little hans

61
Q

What are 2 studies that demonstrate the nomethetic app?

A

milgram = theory of situational obedience
Ainsworth = attach types

62
Q

How is the behaviourist app nomethetic?

A

skinner + behaviourists studied the responses of hundreds of animals i order to develop the laws of learning

63
Q

How is the cognitive app nomethetic?

A

you are able to infer the structure and processes of human memory by measuring large samples in lab tests

64
Q

How is the bio app nomethetic?

A

brain scans on many people make generalisations about localisation of function

65
Q

What is the case supporting the idiographic app?

A

provides a complete and global account of the individual = challenges laws
eg : HM generates hypotheses for further study = LTM is not a unitray store

66
Q

What is the case against the idiographic app?

A

it must recognise the restricted nature of the work
Freud’s oedipus complex was critised = developed from a single case - Little hans
meaningful generalisations cannot be made

less scientific
subjective interpretation of researcher = bias

67
Q

What is the case for the nomethetic app?

A

more scientific = testing under stand. cond using control
enabled psychologists to establish norms of typical behaviour = average IQ
giving the discipline of psychology greater scientific credibility

68
Q

What is the case against the nometheitic app?

A

general laws and prediction = loses the whole person
knowing there is a risk for a disorder does not tell us what it is like to have the disorder

treats ps as a set of scores rather than individuals
subjective experiences are ignored
overlooks human experience

69
Q

What is nature?

A

behaviour is seen to be the product of innate genetic factors

70
Q

What is nurture?

A

behaviour is seen to be a product of environmental factors

71
Q

What did John locke say about the mind in terms of the nurture debate?

A

the mind is a blank state at birth which is then shaped by its environment

72
Q

What are examples of the nature debate?

A

intelligence and personality are determined by genes like eye colour
bio app = explaining OCD and aggression

73
Q

What are examples of the nurture debate?

A

learning apps
behavioural explanations of phobias
social learning theory for aggesion

74
Q

What is the nature-nurture debate?

A

refers to the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors

75
Q

What is the interactionist app?

A

behaviour is the product of genetic and environmental influences working together

76
Q

What is an example of the interactionist app?

A

the diahesis-stress model suggets people inherit a vulnerability for OCD or schizophrenia but it will only be expressed if the person is exposed to environmental triggers

77
Q

What is epigenetics?

A

refers to a change in our genetic activity due to out environment without changing the genes themselves

78
Q

What are the negative implications of the nature perspective?

A

attempted to link race, genetics and intelligence = socially sensitive research

79
Q

What is the negative implication of the nurture perspective?

A

suggets behaviour can be changed by altering the environmental conditions
may lead to advocate a model of society that controls and manipulates citizens using these techniques

80
Q

What type of studies did the nature-nurture app develop?

A

adoption studies

81
Q

What are the strengths of using adoption studies?

A

they seprate competing influences of nature and nurture
research can separate nature and nurture influences

82
Q

What can you tell from adopted children being more similar to biological parents?

A

genetic factors are presumed to dominate

83
Q

What can you tell from adopted children being more similar to adoptive parents?

A

the environment has a bigger influence than genetics

84
Q

What was Rhee and Waldman’s adoption meta-analysis?

A

found genetic factors accout for 41% of varience in aggression

85
Q

What did Plomin’s niche picking?

A

people create their own nurture by actively seeking environments that are appropriate for their nature

86
Q

What is an example of niche picking?

A

naturally aggressive children feel more comfortable with other aggressive children which further influencs their development

87
Q

What does niche picking suggest about the nature-nurture debate?

A

they cannot be seperated

88
Q

What is the real world application of the nature-nurtue debate?

A

finding out heritablity rates
Nestadt = heritablility rate for OCD was .76
can inform genetic counselling = people are genetically vulnerable for a disorder
educate them on prevention = manage stress

89
Q

What study of epigenetics supports the interactionist app?

A

Susser and Shang Lin

90
Q

What did Susser and Shang lin find on epigenetics?

A

babies of women who were pregnant during the Dutch Hunger winter were X2 likely to develop schizophrenia when they grew up
shows that life experineces of previouse generattions can leave epigenetic markers that influence the health of their offspring

91
Q

What is holism?

A

an argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisible study rather than its constituent parts

92
Q

What is reductionism?

A

the belief that human behaviour is best understood by breaking it down into its constituent parts/basic units and explaining at the simplest level

93
Q

What are levels of explaination?

A

the idea that there are several ways (levels) of explaining behaviour

94
Q

What is the lowest level of explaination?

A

physiological and biological explainations

95
Q

What is the middle level of explaination?

A

psychological explainations

96
Q

What is the highest levels of explaination?

A

considering social and cultural explainations

97
Q

What is the example of aggression using levels of explaination?

A

physiological level = having high levels of testosterone
social-psychological level = the social learning theory

98
Q

What is biological reductionism?

A

analysing behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts and explaining at the simplest physiological level

99
Q

What is environmental reductionism?

A

an attempt to explain behaviour in terms of simple stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience

100
Q

What is the case for holism and higher levels of explaination?

A

some aspects of social behaviour that only emerge within a group context cannot be understood at the level of individual group members = eg conformity
holistic level explainations provide a more complete and global understanding of behaviour

101
Q

What is the case against holism and higher levels of explaination?

A

can be vague, complex
cant be scientifically tested
humanistic app is critisised for its lack of empirical evidence = it has loose concepts

102
Q

What is the case for reductionism and lower levels of explaination?

A

forms the basis of scientific research = creates operationalised variables by breaking down target behaviours into constituent parts
makes it possible to record obvs in behavioural categories = meaningful and reliable

complex learning can be broken down into simple stimulus-response links within the lab
greater scientific credibility

103
Q

What is the case against reductionism and low levels of explaination?

A

oversimplifies complex phenomena leading to loss of validity
doesn’t consider social context
can only form part of an explaination and not all of it

104
Q

What is ethical implications of research?

A

the way research impacts on those who take part in the research and the way the findings are communicated to the public and how those finding are used

105
Q

What is socially sensitive research?

A

studies in which there are potential social consequences or implications, either directly for the participant in the research or the class of individuals represented by the research

106
Q

What are 2 examples of socially sensitive research?

A

women affected by Bowlby’s work on attach.
women affected by Quintons work on the effects of institutionalisation

107
Q

What are the 3 concerns researchers should be mindful of identified by Sieber and Stanley?

A

implications
uses/ public policy
validity of research

108
Q

Why should the researchers be mindful of the implications of the research?

A

some studies may be seen as giving scientific credence and legitimising prejudice and discrimination

109
Q

Why should researchers be mindful of the research uses and public policy?

A

the government could use findings for political ends or to shape public policy

110
Q

Why does the validity of the research need to be considered?

A

to avoid bias being published

111
Q

What should researchers be considering when publishing findings?

A

the effects on ps
effects on wider population
potential use of findings = political, allocation of resources
bias against certain groups of people
influence moral attitudes towards different groups of people
economic implications

112
Q

How can you avoid socially sensitive research?

A

submit proposals to ethics commitees
weigh up costs and benefits
formulate aims that do not misrepresent certain groups of people
present findings in a value-free way
consider wider effects of publication + possible reactions of ps

113
Q

What did Scarr argue on the benefit of socially sensitive research?

A

argues that studies of underrepresnted groups and issues may promote a greater sensitivity and understanding of these
EG homosexuality

114
Q

What did the DSM label homosexuality as?

A

a sociopathic personality disorder

115
Q

What was responsible for removing the DSM’s label for homosexuality?

A

the kinsey report = homosexuality is a typical expression of human sexual behaviour

116
Q

What is the issue of using socially sensitive research in the legal system?

A

research on the genetic basis of criminality = found there is a criminal gene
someone could be convicted on the basis of their genes or excused for their wrongdoing

117
Q

How has socially sensitive research benefitted society?

A

governments looks to research when developing policies for childcare, education, mental health
psychologists have an important role in providing high quality research

118
Q

How is bias in methodology an issue with socially sensitive research?

A

Sieber and Stanley = the way in which questions are phrased and investigated may influence the way the findings ae interpretted
cross-cultural research may have cultural superiority and ethnocentrism on behalf of the researhers
EG ainsworths strange situtation

Psychology A level (10 decks)

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