Issues And Debates

Question 1

What does universality and bias mean in psychology

💡Universality: define + effect
💡Bias: Define+example

📍there’s literally nothing you cannot do xx

Answer 1

Universality: this is when psychologist possess beliefs and values influenced by social and historical contexts within which they may live. This undermines undermines psychologists claims to discover facts and human behaviors that are objective, value-free and consistent across time and cultures.

Bias: this is leaning towards a personal view that doesn’t reflect reality and psychologists may not accurately represent the experience and behavior of men and women=gender bias

Question 2

What does Alpha bias and beta bias refer to?

💡Alpha bias + Define
💡Examples: male+female centered
💡Beta Bias
💡Examples

📍be mindful ml x

Answer 2

• Alpha bias (exaggerated difference): this difference between both sexes are usually heighten but are more likely to devalue women.
  An example of alpha bias favoring males is seen in Freud who claimed that in the phallic stage, females develop a weaker superego.
  Alpha bias favoring females is seen in Chodorow who claimed that females develop better bonds and empathy for others as a result of their bond with their mothers.
• Beta bias (minimizes differences): this ignores or underestimates the difference between men and women.
  An example of beta bias is seen in bio psych. Where early research into fight or flight was based on male animals and flight or flight was assumed to be universal response to threat and this was disproved by Taylor et al

Androcentrism(male centered): psychology has traditionally been a subject donated by males. This leads to female behavior being misunderstood

Question 3

What does cultural bias refer to?

💡occurs when? (Construct)
💡WEIRD people
💡Ethnocentrism + examples
💡Cultural relativism

📍tug it out babes xx

Answer 3

• Cultural bias can occur when a researcher assumes that an emic construct (specific to a single culture) is actually etic (behavior universal to all cultures)
• WEIRD people: Westernized, educated people from industrialized , rich democracies set the standards. If the norm for a particular behavior is WEIRD the the behavior of people from non western, less educated cultures are inevitable seen as abnormal
• Ethnocentrism( superiority of own culture): this is a form of cultural bias in which a behavior that does not conform to a western standard will be seen as inferior.
  An example of this ISE seen in the strange situation. The standards for attachment type reflected the norms of US culture.
• Cultural relativism( helps to avoid cultural bias): principle of regarding the beliefs and values from the point of the culture.

Question 4

What are the theoretical constructions for understanding cultural bias?

💡Emic approach + example
💡Etic approach + example

📍think before you click ml x

Answer 4

An emic approach refer to the investigation of a culture within the culture itself. This means that the research of European society from a European perspective is emic. An emic approach is more likely to have high ecological validity.

An etic approach refers to the application of theoretical ideas to all cultural groups. It functions from the inside of a culture and identifies behaviors thta are specific to that culture.
Ainworth research illustrates an imposed etic. They studied behaviors within a single culture then assumed their ideal attachment type could be applied universally

Question 5

What exactly is the free-will determinism debate about?

💡Debate?
💡Free will
💡soft vs hard determinism
💡Types of determinism

Answer 5

• Debate: is our behavior a matter of free will or at we a product of internal and external influences ?

Free will (self determining): humans are free to make choices, we can choose to accept eternal influences. The view of the humanistic approach.

Determinism:
Hard determinism (free will is an illusion) - all human actions has a cause and it should be possible to identify these causes.
Soft determisim- all human actions has a cause but people have freedom to make choices within a restricted range of options.

Types of determinism:
Biological: all behaviors are influenced by biological processes
Environmental determinism: conditioning’s and our past experiences (behaviorist)
Psychic determinism: unconscious mind and biological drive repressed in childhood

Question 6

What is the nature vs nature debate about?

💡Debate
💡Nature+ define+ examples
💡Nurture+ defines+ examples
💡interactionist approach’s

Answer 6

• Debate: the central is the extent to which our behavior is determined by biology (nature) versus the influence of environment factors (nurture)
• Nature: inherited influences - Descartes argued that characteristics are innate and are a result of genes.
• Nurture: environmental influences - Locke argued that mind is a blank state at birth.
• Interactionist approach: interaction between environment and genes

Question 7

What is the holistic-reductionism debate

💡debate
💡Holism + examples
💡Reductionism + examples
💡types of reductionism

Answer 7

• Debate: breaking into parts vs whole in explanation of behavior
• Holism (Gestalt): proposes that the whole is greater than the sum of it parts. For example the humanist approach.
• Reductionism: all phenomena should be explained using lowest level Principle. For example, from neurochemicals level to social cultural level

Types of reductionism includes:
Biological reductionism, environmental reductionism and machine reductionism

Question 8

What is the idiographic and nomothetic debate?

💡debate
💡Idiographic
💡Nomothetic

Answer 8

• Debate: detailed study of individual for in-depth understanding vs larger groups to discover norms or universal principles
• Idiographic (qualitative): small, individual group. Examples include Roger’s concept of counseling and freud’s explanation of phobia was based on Little Hans
• Nomothetic (quantitative): general law developed and then applied to individual situations. Examples include sperry’s split brain research, skinners study.