Issues and Debates Flashcards
what is gender bias?
the differential treatment and/or representation of males and females based on stereotypes and not real differences
what is androcentrism?
theories which are centered on or focused on males
what is gynocentrism?
theories which are centered on or focused on females
what is alpha bias?
refers to theories which exaggerates the differences between males and females
what is beta bias?
refers to the theories which ignore or minimise sex differences. These theories often assume that the findings from males can apply equally to females
what is an example of alpha bias?
Freud’s psychodynamic approach
argued there are psychological differences between men and women. His theory suggests that women are inferior because of penis envy.
femininity is a failed form of masculinity
what is an example of beta bias?
fight or flight
research carried out on males assumed it was the same for both sexes. However Shelley Taylor et al (2002) found females adopt tend and befriend where women are more likely to protect their offspring (tending) and form alliances with other women (befriending)
what is an example of androcentrism?
Asch’s conformity studies
- only male Ps
why is gender bias an issue?
- creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour which may reinforce gender stereotypes
- may provide justification from scientific research to deny opportunities to women
- male behaviour is seen as the normal lead women to feel they’re abnormal
- not only methodological issue, has real life consequences
what is culture bias?
cultural bias is the tendency to judge people in terms of one’s own cultural assumptions
what is ethnocentrism?
seeing world from one’s own cultural perspective and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct
what is cultural relativism?
insists that behaviour can be understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration
what is an example of ethnocentrism?
Ainsworth’s strange situation
developed to assess attachment types and many researchers assume that strange situation can be applied to all cultures
German children show higher rates of insecure-avoidant attachment
example of cultural relativism?
Sternberg (1985)
coordination skills that are essential in a preliterate society (e.g. shooting a bow and arrow) may be irrelevant to a more literate and developed society
what is determinism?
determinism is the view that free will is an illusion and that our behaviour is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control. consequently our behaviour is viewed as predictable
what is hard determinism?
view that forces outside our control (e.g. biology/past experiences) shape our behaviour
what is soft determinism?
view that behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological make-up but only to a certain extent and there is an element of free will in all behaviour
what is free will?
idea that 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
what is biological determinism?
idea that all human behaviour is innate and determined by genes
what is environmental determinism?
view that behaviour is caused by forces outside the individual therefore behaviour is caused by previous experience learned through classical and operant conditioning
what is psychic determinism?
claims that behaviour is the result of childhood experiences, innate drives (ID Ego Superego) as in Freud’s model of psychological development
what is an example of biological determinism?
psychopathology
suggests OCD us partly genetic. Nestadt et al (2000) found people with first-degree relatives who suffer from OCD are 5x more likely to suffer from OCD at some point
what is an example of environmental determinism?
psychopathology
behaviourist approach suggests that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning and therefore environmentally determined
what is an example of psychic determinism?
psychodynamic
suggests that gender behaviours are acquired during the phallic stage of development through the resolution of the Oedipus complex or Electra complex where children identify with the same sex parent
what is an example of free-will?
Humanistic Approach
Humanist psychologists argue against determinism claiming that humans have self-determination and free will and that behaviour doesn’t have a single cause
what is nature?
the view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors
what is nurture?
view that behaviour is the product of environmental influences
what is an example of nature?
Bowlby
suggested children come into the world biologically programmed to form attachements because this will help them to survive. This suggests attachments are naturally selected and passed on because of genetic inheritance (hereditary mechanisms)
(behaviour = attachment cause = innate/biological factors)
what is the interactionist approach?
view that both nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour
define heredity
this is the process in which traits are passed down from one gen to the next
what is an example of nurture?
Attachment (conditioning)
food (UCS) is associated with mother (NS) and through repeated pairings the mother becomes CS who elicits a CR in the child. Attachment formed based on pleasure experience from being fed
(behaviour = attachment cause = classical conditioning)
define the environment
seen as everything outside the body which can include people events and the physical world
what is an example of the interactionist approach?
PKU
genetic disorder PKU (phenylketonuria) is caused by inheritance of 2 recessive genes. People with PKU are unable to break down amino acid phenylalanine which builds up in blood and brain causing a severe learning disability. However if a child with PKU is placed on a low protein diet for the first 12 years they avoid this potentially serious lifelong disorder.
(the disorder PKU (nature) isn’t expressed because of an altered environment (low protein diet - nurture))
(nature = genetic inheritance nurture = high protein diet)
what is the diathesis-stress model?
where we can have a genetic vulnerability to a characteristic/behaviour. genetic vulnerability = inherited set of genes HOWEVER characteristic may not be present in the phenotype. It’s only expressed when there is a trigger in the environment e.g. traumatic event
what is an example of the diathesis-stress model?
Tienari (2004)
finnish adoptees (those who were likely to develop schizophrenia) coupled with an adopted family who were seen as dysfunctional
what is epigenetics?
how we interact with the environment and our experience do not directly cause changes to the genetic code but change the activity and expression of genes
what is an example of epigenetics?
Brian Dias and Kerry Ressler (2014)
- gave male lab rats shocks everytime they were exposed to the smell of acetophenone a chemical used in perfume
- mice showed a fear reaction as soon as the scent was presented
- mice’s children also feared the scent even though they had never been exposed to it or received shocks
- so did their grandchildren
what does idiographic mean?
psychologists who take an idiographic approach focus on the individual and emphsise the unique and personal experience of human nature
what does nomothetic mean?
approach concerned with establishing general laws based on the study of large groups of people
what are idiographic research methods?
- case studies
- unstructured interviews
- thematic analysis
doesnt seek to formulate laws or generalise results to others
why are case studies a powerful research method?
a case study can highlight flaws in a theory and undermine other research
what are examples of case studies?
Patient KF
Shallice and warrington (1970)
- KF got in a motorbike accident
- short-term forgetting of auditory info was greater than his forgetting of visual info
- suggests stm has multiple models
- undermines MSM
what are nomothetic research methods?
- experiments
- correlation research
- psychometric testing (personality)
main approach in scientifically orientated psychology
what is an example of a nomothetic approach?
Biological Approach
- pinpoint biological factors such as neurotransmitters that are responsible for such disorders and use biological therapies (drugs) to treat patients
Behavioural Approach
- Behaviourists (Pavlov/Skinner) conducted experiments with animals in order to establish laws of learning (classical and operant conditioning) that could be generalised to humans/non-humans
Cognitive Approach
- cognitive psychologists e.g. Atkinson and Shiffrin developed general laws e.g. MSM which they believe could be generalised to everyone
Social Learning Theory
- attempts to establish general laws of behaviour (e.g. vicarious reinforcement)
Psychodynamic Approach
- attempts to establish general laws e.g. innate drives
what is an example of an idiographic approach?
Humanistic Approach
- focuses on subjective human experience and makes no attempt as creating general laws
Cognitive Approach
- uses case studies e.g. Case of HM/Patient KF
Psychodynamic Approach
- considers unique experience of childhood
what is holism?
idea that human behaviour should be viewed as a whole integrated experience not as separate parts
what is biological reductionism?
behaviour is reduced to a physical level and explained in terms of neurons neurotransmitters hormones brain structures etc
what is environmental reductionism?
behaviour can be reduced to the simple building blocks of stimulus and response associations
what is reductionism?
belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts
