issues and debates

Question 1

what is the nature - nurture debate

Answer 1

the relative importance of heredity and environment in
determining behaviour

Question 2

what does the nature side argue

Answer 2

that behaviour is caused by innate characteristics - biology

Question 3

approaches that support the nature debate

Answer 3

• biological and evolutionary approach

Question 4

research to support nature debate

Answer 4

language acquisition (chomsky 1968):
- chomsky maintained language as the result of innate cognitive structures in the mind
- biologically based inborn brain mechanism
- language acquisition follows same sequence in all children

MZ and DZ twins:
- genetic effects shown when correlations within each group is compared with correlations between each group

Question 5

what does the nurture side argue

Answer 5

• behaviour is determined by the environment - things that are taught

Question 6

approaches that support nurture side

Answer 6

• behaviourist and learning theory

Question 7

research to support nurture debate

Answer 7

little albert (watson and raynor 1920)
- before study, little albert showed no sign of fear response in any situation
- after 5 sessions (1 month later), albert continued to show fear reactions to all stimuli
- provides evidence that the environment can be manipulated to create a phobic response + behavioural change

zimbardo:
- study showed how roles can affect behaviour

Question 8

studies and theories that show interaction between nature and nurture

Answer 8

maguire et al:
- taxi driver study
- MRI scans of taxi drivers 10 years after they became a driver showed that their hippocampal area grew
- showed that the environment changed their brains
- appears that brain has the capacity for plasticity + structure of brain can alter in response to environmental behaviour/demands

diathesis stress model:
- suggested that behaviour is caused by biological or environmental vulnerability; only expressed when coupled with a biological/environmental trigger
- e,g biological explanations of OCD - person who inherits a genetic vulnerability for OCD may not develop the disorder, but when combined with a psychological trigger (e.g trauma), it may result in the disorder appearing

Question 9

what does the interactionist approach argue

Answer 9

• behaviour is often a result of interaction between nature and nurture

Question 10

applications of the nature debate

Answer 10

• drug therapies can be developed to treat behavioural/psychological problems that have a physiological origin
• e.g SSRIs can be used to treat depression

Question 11

applications of the nurture debate

Answer 11

• if behaviour is susceptible to environmental influences, we need to consider how we adapt to our environment
• e.g to promote helping behaviour, decrease criminality etc

Question 12

problems associated with the nature nurture debate

Answer 12

• difficult to tell how much of someone’s behaviour is determined by nature or nurture
• the experiments to find this out aren’t ethically possible either; to get MZ twins and put them in different environments to investigate the effect of genetics + nurture is not ethical
• there are too many extraneous variables to determine causality

Question 13

what does it mean to be biased

Answer 13

• to be prejudiced for or against something

Question 14

what is gender bias

Answer 14

prejudice for and against males or females

Question 15

examples of research that has presented gender stereotypes

Answer 15

• maccoby and jacklin; men better at visual/spatial tasks, women = more verbal and less aggressive
• schaffer; men = lower sensitivity, more physically active. women = higher sensitivity, less likely to suffer language disorders
• williams and best; men = aggressive, dominant. women = nurturing, affiliated

Question 16

who distinguished between alpha and beta bias

Answer 16

hare-mustin and maracek

Question 17

alpha bias

Answer 17

• exaggerated differences between males and females
• normally done to emphasise superiority of males

Question 18

examples of alpha bias

Answer 18

• Freud’s theory of psychosexual development ; androcentrism
• sociobiological theory of relationship formation

Question 19

how is freud’s theory of psychosexual development an example of alpha bias

Answer 19

• male behaviour taken as standard for all human behaviour + female behaviour = deviation from that standard
• based his theories around boys’ fear of castration and girls ‘penis envy’
• freud claimed that these gender differences in psychosexual development result in female moral inferiority; cause girls do not identify as strongly with same sex parent as they’ve already been castrated (which is the boys main fear)
• these gender bias views have not been supported as there is no evidence women are morally inferior to men

Question 20

consequences of freud’s ideas

Answer 20

• reinforcing stereotypes e.g of women’s moral inferiority
• treating deviations from traditional sex-role behaviour as pathological (career ambition = penis envy)

Question 21

how is the sociobiological theory of relationship formation an example of alpha bias

Answer 21

• explains human sexual attraction and behaviour through principle of ‘survival efficiency’
• in male’s interest to try impregnate as many women as possible to increase chances of his genes being passed on; whereas for women, the best chance of preserving her genes is to ensure the healthy survival of the relatively few offspring she is able to produce
• central idea of this theory = sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined whilst females who engage in same behaviour are regarded as going against their ‘nature’

Question 22

evaluation of freuds theory of psychosexual development as an example of alpha bias

Answer 22

• horney; no face validity in assuming a woman is mentally affected by a wish for male attributes. coined term ‘womb envy’ where men envy women because of their ability to have children. men then compensate for that inability by achievement in other domains
• bruehl; characterisation of females simply reflected the reality of western patriarchal structure of the time
• williams; argues that freud’s theory is not alpha biased. he didn’t claim innate factors made men and women different, but rather the social context transforms biological factors into mental representations that create differences. freud explained differences in terms of mental/social representation. women envy penis as it represents male dominance
• walker; meta analysis of 108 studies found only 8 clear indications of gender differences.

Question 23

universality

Answer 23

• any underlying characterstic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing.
• gender bias and culture bias threaten the universality of findings in psychology

Question 24

explain bias and universality in research

Answer 24

• psychologists possess beliefs and values that have been influence by the social and historical context within which they live; therefore, bias is an inevitable aspect of the research process.
• undermines psychology’s claims to universality; that conclusions can be applied to everyone regardless of time and culture.

Question 25

beta bias

Answer 25

tendency to minimise/ignore differences between males and females - many studies don't use female ptps because they feel there is 'no need'

Question 26

examples of beta bias

Answer 26

- milgram - zimbardo - kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning - fight or flight response

Question 27

how is zimbardo's study an example of beta bias

Answer 27

- zimbardo used a biased sample of only male university students from america - we cannot generalise the findings to other populations e.g female students. - unable to conclude whether female students would have conformed in a similar way to the male students. - so zimbardo's study has beta bias because it minimises the differences between men and women. - further research is required to determine whether men and women conform in the same way.

Question 28

how is milgram's study an example of beta bias

Answer 28

- only used male participants in his original shock experiment - minimises potential differences between males and females; e.g assuming that there was no need to test females as the results would've been similar - eventually tested women aswell

Question 29

how is kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning an example of beta bias (and alpha bias)

Answer 29

- proposed a stage theory of moral development based entirely on the longitudinal study of a sample of american men - his research was based on male-oriented principles; though he argued that such principles were universal and represented the moral reasoning of both males and females - androcentric moral dilemmas used to assess people's moral reasoning - women classified using stage theory so women were found to be inferior beta bias; minimises gender differences by claiming this as a universal theory even though its based on male participants alpha bias; exaggerates difference between male and female moral reasoning

Question 30

how is the fight of flight response an example of beta bias

Answer 30

- seen as universal reaction to stressors but this is based on generalisations of studies using males - early research into fight or flight was also based exclusively on male animals (preferred as female hormones fluctuate) - more recently, shelley taylor et al, suggested that female biology has evolved to inhibit the fight or flight response, shifting attention towards caring for offspring and forming defensive networks with other females

Question 31

consequences of gender bias overall

Answer 31

- may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour - may provide scientific 'justification' to deny women opportunities within the workplace or in wider society - gender bias in research is not just a methodological problem but can also have damaging consequences which affect the lives and prospects of real women (e.g statistics that females are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men)

Question 32

gender bias in research methods

Answer 32

- if theories and studies are gender biased, research may find differences between genders but only due to the methods used to test and observe them (not due to actual gender differences) e.g rosenthal; found male experimenters are more pleasant and encouraging to female ptps and subsequently perform better on tasks. - also lack of women appointed at senior research level means that female concerns may not be reflected in the research questions asked; males more likely to have their work published.

Question 33

reflexivity

Answer 33

- researchers able to recognise effect their own values and assumptions have on nature of the work - instead of seeing bias as a problem, they embrace it - e.g lack of women in executive positions in lambert's study; included in reflection on how gender related experiences influence their reading of such events - reflexivity is important development in psychology and may lead to greater awareness of the role of personal biases in shaping research in the future

Question 34

validity of gender bias

Answer 34

maccoby and jacklin - thorough review of the research into sex differences, concluded that in majority of areas, no significant differences were found and if they were, it would be very small - gender bias views e.g freud's and bowbly's, have been disproved

Question 35

reducing gender bias

Answer 35

- equal opportunity legislation and feminist psychology have performed the valuable functions of reducing institutionalised gender bias - draw attention to sources of bias and under researched areas in psych e.g childcare and sexual abuse

Question 36

positive consequences of alpha bias

Answer 36

- led to some theorists to assert the worth and valuation 'feminine qualities' - led to healthy criticism of cultural values that praise certain male qualities e.g aggression as desirable and universal

Question 37

positive consequences of beta bias

Answer 37

- makes people see men and women as the same, led to equal treatment in legal terms and equal access to e.g education and employment

Question 38

negative consequences of alpha bias

Answer 38

- focuses on differences between genders leads to implication of similarity within genders, thus this ignores the many ways women differ from each other - cam sustain prejudices and stereotypes

Question 39

negative consequences of beta bias

Answer 39

- draws attention away from the differences in power between men and women - is considered as an egalitarian approach (all humans are equal) but it results in major misrepresentations of both genders