issues and debates Flashcards
Universality
An underlying characteristic that can be applied to all
Gender bias
Different treatment of men and women based on stereotypes
Alpha bias
Exaggerating differences between men and women
Beta bias
Ignoring differences between men and women
Androcentrism
Male centred view of behaviour, male behaviour as the norm
Gender bias evaluation
- Promotes sexism in research process
research conducted by men more disadvantage female participants
e.g. Nicolson ‘male researcher expect women to be irrational and unable to perform complex tasks’ - Research into gender bias may not be published as there is a lack of funding toward it taken less seriously
+
Cultural relativism
norms and ethics only make sense in their cultural context
Ethnocentrism
Viewing the world by ones own cultural perspective
Imposed etic
Studying one behaviour in a country and applying it universally
Cultural bias evaluation
- Ethnic stereotyping
e.g. Gould intelligence tests
+ cultural psychology
e.g. Cohen how cultural experience shapes people - most influential studies cultural bias e.g. Milgram only white men
Free Will
Humans make their own choices, behaviours not determined by biological or external factors
Determinism
Behaviour is shaped by internal/ external factors
Hard Determinism
All actions have a cause
Soft Determinism
Restricted amount of freedom of choice
Biological Determinism
Behaviour cause by biological factors, genes. e.g. Biological
Environmental Determinism
Behaviour due to environmental factors and learning. e.g. behaviourist
Psychic Determinism
Behaviour caused by unconscious/ childhood conflicts. e.g. Psychological
Scientific emphasis
every event has a cause
Free will vs Determinism evaluation
- Hard determinism not applicable in terms of the law
Nature
All behaviour is hereditary, determined by genes
Nurture
All behaviour is learnt from the environment, the mind starts as a blank slate
Diathesis-stress model
diathesis -genetic vulnerability [nature]
stress - trigger [nurture]
Epigenetics
Changes in genetic activity from environment leaving ‘marks’ on DNA, inheritable
Nature-Nurture evaluation
+ Epigenetics evidence
e.g. WWII Dutch hunger winter
+ RWA
e.g. Nestadt OCD heritable = higher risk not inevitable
Holism
viewing an individual as a whole and not constituent parts
Reductionism
Reducing behaviour to individual parts
Levels of explanation
> Socio-cultural e.g. OCD interrupting social relationships
Psychological e.g. person’s experience of anxiety
Physical e.g. washing hands
Environmental/ Behavioural
Physiological e.g. abnormal frontal lobe function
Neurochemical e.g. underproduction of serotonin
Biological Reductionism
Behaviour explained from genes/ hormones alone e.g. OCD reduced to serotonin activity
Environmental Reductionism
Behaviour explained in terms of stimulus response e.g. classical conditioning
Holism vs Reductionism evaluation
- lack of practical value in holism
e.g. many factors contributing to depression hard to identify most influential
+ highly scientific reductionist, higher credibility - reductionism not account for high level explanations of social roles as behaviour in a group different, lacking validity
Idiographic approach
Qualitative focus on the individual making generalisation
Nomothetic approach
Quantitative focus on general laws
Idiographic vs nomothetic evaluation
-
Ethical implications
Consequences of research
Socially sensitive research
Research that has consequences for represented group
Research question
May be damaging to a specific group
Ethical implications evaluation
