Issues and Debates Flashcards
Gender and Culture Bias:
outline universality in regards to gender and culture bias
assumption that behaviours are universal to all humans despite gender or culture differences
Gender and Culture Bias:
Name the universal behaviours
happiness
sadness
surprise
anger
fear
disgust
Gender and Culture Bias - Gender Bias:
outline androcentrism in regards to gender bias
wrongfully assuming male behaviour is normal and therefore applying male behaviour to women.
e.g. Milgram, Zimbardo, Asch, Freud (hysteria)
Gender and Culture Bias - Gender Bias:
outline gynocentrism in regards to gender bias
wrongfully assuming female behaviour is normal and therefore applying onto men
e.g. no one
Gender and Culture Bias - Gender Bias:
outline alpha bias in regards to gender bias
over-exaggerating the differences between the 2 genders
results in gender stereotypes as certain behaviours from both genders are emphasised
Gender and Culture Bias - Gender Bias:
outline beta bias in regards to gender bias
under-exaggerating the differences between the 2 genders
results in a lack of explanatory power for both genders as it doesn’t outline the differences
Gender and Culture Bias - Gender Bias:
give evaluations for gender bias
- beta bias leads to negative impact on diagnosing mental health disorders
- alpha bias leads to stereotypes - one potential cause for gender dysphoria
Gender and Culture Bias - Culture Bias:
outline ethnocentrism in regards to culture bias
the assumption that one culture is normal and therefore applying onto other cultures
result of perceived superiority of one culture e.g. western culture
Gender and Culture Bias - Culture Bias:
outline the emic approach to research in regards to culture bias
research that aims to study one culture without applying onto others
inherited ideography
e.g. Swazi tribesmen can tell apart their cows by physical features. something us brits are shit at
Gender and Culture Bias - Culture Bias:
outline the etic approach to research in regards to culture bias
aims to find trends and behaviours that can be generalised across several different cultures
this can lead to imposed etic, where you assume your culture is the norm and all behaviours can be generalised
links in with ethnocentrism
Gender and Culture Bias - Culture Bias:
outline cultural relativism in regards to culture bias
going to a culture to study them specifically rather than generalising research across cultures
avoids ethnocentrism and imposed etic
links in with emic research
Gender and Culture Bias - Culture Bias:
outline exposure in regards to culture bias
from 2003-07, 93% of studies in the top 6 psychological journals were from western countries
soft power from western countries, e.g. america, britain
Gender and Culture Bias - Culture Bias:
give evaluations for culture bias
- negative impact on diagnosing mental health disorders as generalising behaviours from one culture to another
- may lead to misleading assumptions about other cultures - stereotypes and discriminatory practices
- not all behaviours have to take culture into account - universality
- corrupts the cultures of other countries (imposed etic) e.g. yerkes’ research skewed american perception of african-american intelligence making it harder for them to get jobs - favoured pure americans
Free Will and Determinism - Free Will:
outline the primary features of free will
- ability to make decisions of your own accord despite external stimuli - without manipulation
- links to humanism - personal agency
Free Will and Determinism - Free Will:
give evaluations for free will
- socially sensitive - people can do what ever they like
- unscientific/not empirical/not observable
- unfalsifiable - fails to meet criteria to be a science - puts psychology down
- research suggesting its importance as a concept - Roberts et al (2000) found adolescents who were fatalists were at significantly increased risk to depression
Free Will and Determinism - Determinism:
outline the primary features of determinism
- all behaviours is pre-determined thereby taking away all free will
- external factors affecting your behaviour outside of your control - determinants
- hard determinism known as fatalism (fatalists)
Free Will and Determinism - Determinism:
name the 5 types of determinism
biological
environmental
psychic
soft
hard
Free Will and Determinism - Determinism:
outline biological determinism
- brain, physiology, genetics and biochemistry
- whilst these don’t cause behaviour, they impact the likelihood of a behaviour taking place - genotype impacting phenotype
Free Will and Determinism - Determinism:
outline environmental determinism
- parenting, friendship, lovers
- external stimuli from your environment, including relationships, affecting how you interpret stimuli, thereby affecting your behaviour - environment interacting with bio to cause behaviour
Free Will and Determinism - Determinism:
outline psychic determinism
- links to psychodynamic approach
- unconscious motives into your decision making
- criminality - unconscious conflict causing you to break the law
Free Will and Determinism - Determinism:
outline soft determinism
- combination of opinion and predeterministic factors
- combines both free will and determinism
Free Will and Determinism - Determinism:
outline hard determinism
- falism
- no free will
- all behaviour is purely caused by determinants without any choice in your actions
Free Will and Determinism - Determinism:
give evaluations for determinism
- socially sensitive/offensive - you have no control over your behaviour
- scientific - determinants can be observed, resulting in empirical evidence - raises reputation of psychology
- meets criteria of features of a science - puts psychology in the same league as other sciences such as biology and chemistry
Free Will and Determinism:
outline scientific emphasis on causal explanations in regards to determinism
isolation of variable:
all extraneous and confounding variables have been controlled giving direct influence between the IVs and the DV
allows you to see exactly what is causing behaviour
Free Will and Determinism:
outline the interactionist perspective in regards to free will and determinism
- compromise between free will and determinism
- says behaviour is influenced by determinants but you still have free will over your actions
- softer version of soft determinism
Holism vs Reductionism - Holism:
outline the primary features of holism
- viewing a behaviour as complex with several/infinite factors - multi-faceted
- the more holistic you go, the less scientific
- cannot observe all factors
- basically sociology
Holism vs Reductionism - Reductionism:
outline the primary features of reductionism
- reducing a behaviour down to a single variable cause
- the more reductionist you go, the more scientific
- simplifying complex behaviour to one or few causes
Holism vs Reductionism - levels of explanation:
outline what is meant by levels of explanation in psychology
- higher levels of reductionism - cultural and social explanations
- middle levels of reductionism - psychological explanations
- lowest levels of reductionism - biological explanations
Holism vs Reductionism - levels of explanation:
outline holistic factors into behaviour
culture
socio-politics
sub-culture
Holism vs Reductionism - levels of explanation:
outline reductionist factors into behaviour
learned associations
genetics
physiology
cellular biology
biochemistry
quantum physics (atomic effect)
p.s. notice all are biological other than learned associations
Holism vs Reductionism - levels of explanation:
outline factors into behaviour that are neither holistic or reductionist
social cognition
social groups
interpersonal interaction
cognition and emotion
Holism vs Reductionism - levels of explanation:
outline ‘principle of parsimony’
Morgan (1903):
there is no need to explain complex behaviour with complex factors
you should always stick to observable, objective factors into behaviour
Holism vs Reductionism - Reductionism:
outline biological reductionism
- behaviour reduced down to biology (genes, neuroanatomy, neurochemical). more scientific - improved reputation, simple - maybe too simple, easier to explain - increased explanatory power, leads to treatments
- biological approach
Holism vs Reductionism - Reductionism:
outline environmental reductionism
- operant and classical conditioning
- learning approach
- only observable behaviour should be studied - fuck cognition
Holism vs Reductionism:
give evaluations for holism vs reductionism
- reductionism is more scientific - singular factors can be directly observed and empirically measured, unlike holistic factors. e.g. biological explanation of ocd (psychopathology)
- reductionism has lead to treatments - SSRIs
- reductionism is too simple - attempts to explain complex behaviour with one factor - i call bullshit
- holism takes into account all factors into behaviour - increased explanatory power
Nature-Nurture:
outline the primary features of the nature side of the debate
- all factors that influence us are genetic and hereditary
- nativism - extreme nature side
- heredity - inherited characteristics
- genotypes - composition of all genes (roughly 20-25,000 genes)
- phenotype (interactionism) - interaction between genotype and evironment
Nature-Nurture:
outline the primary features of the nurture side of the debate
- all factors that influence us are environmental
- empiricism - extreme nurture
- ‘tabula rasa’ - born a blank slate
Nature-Nurture:
outline interactionism in regards to the nature-nurture debate
behaviour is influenced by the interaction of hereditary factors and environmental variables
Nature-Nurture:
name, in order, where the different approaches lie on the nature-nurture debate (from nature to nurture)
biological - nativist take
psycho pee pee
cognitive
humanistic
learning - empirical take
Nature-Nurture:
outline the two types of twins and their genetic similarity, as well as their risk factor for schizophrenia
Monozygotic (MZ) - close to 100% shared
MZ - 48% likely to develop schizophrenia
Dizygotic (DZ) - 50% shared
DZ - 17% likely to develop schizophrenia
this could be nature or nurture - whilst they are genetically similar, they are likely exposed to similar environments
Nature-Nurture:
outline what is meant by a heritability coefficient
numerical figure between 0 and 1 indicating to what extent characteristics are genetic
1 = entirely genetic
0 = entirely environmental
e.g. Huntington’s disease = 0.96 - 96% chance a Huntington’s patient will give birth to a kid who also has Huntington’s disease
Nature-Nurture:
give evaluations for the nature-nurture debate
- nature is extremely socially sensitive - you are destined to behave a certain way because of your genes
- Niche picking - people choose environments that compliment their heredity - genes cause you to choose certain environments
- debate has evolved to accept both - just to what extent? (interactionism) - this allows us to move forward with psychology as we aren’t arguing with each other
- plenty of research for both sides - suggests both are key parts in behavioural influences
Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches - Idiographic:
outline the idiographic approach
- focussing on individuals - recognises uniqueness
- purely subjective - based on experience
- in-depth why into behaviour of participants
- qualitative
- deep dive into participant behaviour
- large amount of detail of participant experiences
gives the why but not the what
Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches - Nomothetic:
outline the nomothetic approach
3 primary laws:
- classifying people into groups
- establishing principles of behaviour that can be applied to everyone
- establishing dimensions along which people can be placed
aims to create principles of behaviour allowing everyone to be put into categories created from numerical date
- objective
- quantitative data
- gives the what but not the why
Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches:
outline the interactionist approach in regards to idiographic and nomothetic approaches
creating general principles and laws for human behaviour whilst taking into account individual differences that may affect behaviour
Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches:
give evaluations for the idiographic approach
- more complete understanding of participant behaviour - more scientific
- over-reliance on case studies
- cannot be replicated
Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches:
give evaluations for the nomothetic approach
- replicable - collects objective data that is quantitative
- reaches a larger sample population compared to idiographic because it is less detailed
- less detailed - less scientific
- highly standardised
Ethical Implications:
outline the ethical guidelines
- protection from harm
- debriefing
- right to withdraw
- informed consent
- deception
- confidentiality
- observational research (covert/overt)
Ethical Implications:
outline the code of ethics by the BPS
- competency
- responsibility
- respect
- integrity
Ethical Implications:
outline what is meant by ethical implications
the impact that psychological research may have on society
- protecting the rights of participants
- impact of results on wider society - influence onto public policy, treatment of certain social groups
Ethical Implications:
outline Sieber and Stanley’s 1988 theory into the responsibilities of researchers in conducting studies
- research question - wording the question in a way as to avoid offending civilians
- Methodology - participant rights to confidentiality and anonymity
- Institutional context - if institutions are conducting the research, do they hold any prior biases or ulterior motives
- interpretation and application of findings - what effect will the results and conclusions of the study have on the wider society (public policies)
Ethical Implications:
outline ways in which psychologists could deal with socially sensitive research
- risk/benefit ratio - does the benefit of the research outweigh the risk or social harm it may do. e.g. Milgram harmed 40 people to prevent another WW2
- briefing the participants about the potential social implications - apart of informed consent
- publish with discretion - carefully wording intro as to not offend people straight of the bat
Ethical Implications:
give evaluations for ethical implications
- cost/benefit analysis can make studies less socially sensitive - long term benefit
- it is not psychologies job to avoid taboo subjects, but to challenge them and reveal their true nature
- it could be argued that more interaction between the public and psychologists is needed to come to an agreement on socially sensitive topics
