Issues and debates Flashcards
What is gender bias?
When one gender is treated less favourably than the other, often referred to as sexism
What is meant by universality in terms of gender bias?
This is often the incorrect assumption that behaviours are universal to all humans and that gender doesn’t have an impact on this.
What is androcentrism?
Taking male thinking/behaviour as normal and therefore regarding female thinking/behaviour a deviant, inferior, abnormal, or ‘other’ when it is different
What is gynocentrism?
Taking female thinking/behaviour as normal and regarding male thinking/behaviour as deviant, inferior, abnormal, or other when it is different
What is alpha bias?
Occurs when differences between females and males are exaggerated.
What is beta bias?
Occurs when the differences between men and women are minimised
How can psychologists avoid gender bias?
Use a representative sample in their research: stratified sampling would achieve this aim as it reflects the gender demographic within the target population
conduct research within the context of the group itself so that there’s meaningful participation from female/male groups.
What is culture bias?
The act of interpreting and judging behaviour and psychological characteristics of a culture by holding them to the standards of your own.
What is universality meant in terms of cultural bias?
mainstream psychology has generally ignored culture as an important influence on behaviour. This means that finding from studies carried out in western culture have wrongfully been considered as universal.
What is meant by ethnocentrism?
Occurs when. researcher assumes that their own culturally specific practices or ideas are ‘natural’ or ‘right’
What is meant by emic approach to research?
One that is applied only to one cultural group, so they vary from place to place
What is meant by an etic approach t research?
A theoretical idea that is assumed to apply in all cultural groups. Therefore, etic constructs are considered universal to all people and are factors that hold across all cultures
What is meant by cultural relativism?
The antidote to ethnocentrism is cultural relativism. This is the principle of regarding the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture from the view point of that culture itself
What is meant by free will?
That individuals have an active role in controlling their behaviour and aren’t controlled by biological factors. the humanistic approach in psychology is one of the few that proposes individuals have free will to control their own actions regardless of their internal or external pressures and are thus able to work towards self-actualisation
What does determinism propose?
That individuals behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces, rather than their own will. Internal forces would include biological factors (genes, brain damage) External factors could include learnt associations and stimulus-response links
There are three main types of determinism, what are they?
biological determinism
environmental determinism
psychic determinism
What is biological determinism?
The belief that behaviour s caused by biological influences that we can’t control v
What is environmental determinism?
The belief that behaviour is caused by environmental influences that we can’t control.
What is psychic determinism?
The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we can’t control, which may stem from early childhood
What are the two ‘other’ types of determinism?
Hard determinism
Soft determinism
What is soft determinism? Give an example:
Even though human behaviour may have a cause, individuals do have the capacity to make conscious choices about their behaviour: conformity - illusion of choice in an environment that does constrain our behaviour
What is meant by scientific emphasis on casual explanations?
Refers to psychology’s tendency to observe one variable affecting another
What is meant by the interactionist approach in terms of the determinism and holism debate?
This settles the debate of determinism vs holism. It offers the best compromise in the free will v determinism debate
What is meant by reductionism? Give an example:
The idea of explaining complex human behaviour by breaking it down to a single variable cause e.g. schizophrenia being caused by excessive dopamine
What does reductionism work on the idea of and what does it argue?
Parsimony which argues science favours the simplest explanation for events to explain behaviour.
What is meant by holism?
The idea that human behaviour should be understood not as separate parts, but as an integrated whole
What are the three levels of explanation in psychology?
Higher level of reductionism - cultural & social
Middle level of reductionism - psychological
Lowest level of reductionism - biological
What are the two biologically reductionist measures used in psychology?
- monitoring and recording neurotransmitter levels by sampling cerebrospinal fluid to make assumptions on the causes of psychiatric conditions
-monitoring and recording brain activity using an fMRI to assess localisation of function in the brain
What is meant by hard determinism?
That behaviour is purely down to internal or external forces with no element of free will
