issues and debates

Question 1

what is gender bias

Answer 1

Gender bias results when one gender is treated less favourable then the other often referred to as sexism and it has a range of consequences

Question 2

what are the three consequences if gender bias

Answer 2

Scientifically misleading

Upholding stereotypical assumptions

Validating sex discrimination

Question 3

what are the 3 things that cause gender bias in research

Answer 3

1. men dominate at senior level research
   2.research often has an agenda towards makes and ignores females
2. men are treated differently to women in research for example male researchers are often found to be kinder to women than men

Question 4

what are the two types of gender bias

Answer 4

Alpha and Beta

Question 5

outline what alpha gender bias is

Answer 5

Alpha bias exaggerates the differences between men and women and believes there are real enduring differences between a male and female

Question 6

outline what a gender beta bias is

Answer 6

Beta bias is exaggerating the similarity between men and women and this minimises gender differences and assumes all people are the same so theories and research can be applied to all

Question 7

what is androcentrism

Answer 7

Taking a male thinking or behaviour as normal and regarding female behaviour as deviant or inferior

Question 8

outline research that is beta bias

Answer 8

Research has shown a differences in the ways that males and females respond to stress and in response to stress females are much more likely to adopt the tend and befriend response then males whereases a man is more likely to socially withdraw

Question 9

outline research that is alpha bias

Answer 9

Freuds ideas are inherently gender biased and he described women’s roles are prescribed and predetermines describing them as having penis envy and that women are defined psychologically by the fact they aren’t men. Fruends ideas reinforced stereotypes and are androcentric

Question 10

discuss gender bias

Answer 10

+ Gilligan agrees that there are real biologically based differences between sex but socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to the differences. Eagley for example argued that women might be less effective as leaders then men but this knowledge should be used to develop training programmes rather than exclude women

• If the theories and studies are gender biased then the consequence is the research may find differences between genders that aren’t actually there

-Rosenthal argues that male investigators are more pleasant to females than the male ones causing males to perform less well on tasks

+Develop theories that show the difference between men and women but that emphasise the value of women and this can be seen in feminist research where women are shown as being more attentive, flexible and organised and this challenges the stereotypes that the male is better and changes peoples perception

+Hare- Mustin and Marecek point out that arguing for equality draws attention away from women’s special needs and in a society where one group holds more power than the other seemingly neutral action end up benefitting the group with more power. For example equal parent leave ignores the biological demands of pregnancy and therefore disadvantages them

-Darwin’s theory of sexual selection portrays women as picky and men as the one who competes and this view has been challenged and it has been recognised that women can be as equally aggressive when the need arises and this is proven by DNA evidence supporting the idea that it is a good adaptive strategy

Question 11

give three reasons why there is culture bias that favours the west

Answer 11

1. most of traditional psychology comes from the west
2. most psychologists come from the west
3. most people in research samples are from the west

Question 12

what is culture bias

Answer 12

that psychological theories and research techniques have a basis in the western works and when this knowledge is applied to the other cultures it reflects culture bias

Question 13

what are the two types of cultural bias

Answer 13

emics and etics

Question 14

outline what etics cultural bias is

Answer 14

Etics approach theories ignore or minimise cultural differences and they do this by assuming all people are the same

Question 15

outline what emics cultural bias is

Answer 15

Emics approach refers to theories that assume there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups e.g. individualist and collectivist cultures

Question 16

give an example of etic research

Answer 16

Intelligence testing: psychologist used IQ tests devised by western cultures to study intelligence in many other cultures but is western cultures they view intelligence as coming from within and Ugandan society see it as a functional relationship depending on shared knowledge between the individual and society.

Question 17

give an example of emics research

Answer 17

We would expect members of individualist cultures to be less conformist as they’re less orientates towards group norms, but Takano and Osaka found that in 14/15 studies this was untrue

Question 18

what is ethnocentrism

Answer 18

Ethnocentrism is seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social group and there is a tendency to view the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures as strange or deviant

Question 19

what is cultural relativism

Answer 19

the principle regarding the beliefs, values and practises of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself and is practised to avoid culture bias

Question 20

what are the two solutions to cultural bias research

Answer 20

Cross-cultural approach – studying many cultures to identify variations

Transcultural approach – study many different cultures to identify similarities

Question 21

discuss and evaluate cultural bias

Answer 21

One way to overcome ethnocentrism is to encourage indigenous psychologies. For example Afrocentrism is the movement whose central positioning is that all black people have their roots in Africa and so psychological theories concerning them should be African centred and express African values

Approaches only focusing on one culture is only significant to that culture whereas the etic approach seeks universals of behaviour. One way you can avoid culture bias is by using indigenous researchers in each cultural setting

Bias is sampling methods causes cultural bias . Smith and Bond found in a European textbook that 66% of the studies were American, 32% were European and the 2% from the rest of the world .Sears found 82% of studies use undergrads ass the ppts and 51% were psych students

Researchers travel so much more then they dud 50 years ago so they have a increased understanding of other cultures at a personal and professional level. Academics hold conferences and researchers meet to discuss and exchange ideas and a greater exchange of ideas leads to less ethnocentrism and therefore real differences are valued

Researchers travel so much more then they dud 50 years ago so they have a increased understanding of other cultures at a personal and professional level. Academics hold conferences and researchers meet to discuss and exchange ideas and a greater exchange of ideas leads to less ethnocentrism and therefore real differences are valued

Question 22

what is determinism

Answer 22

The view that an individual’s behaviour us controlled by either an internal or external force and that behaviour is predictable and not under our conscious control

Question 23

what are the three types of determinism and outline them

Answer 23

Environmental determinism and this are the idea that out behaviour is caused by some sort of outside influence. For example, behaviourist believe that all behaviour us caused by conditioning

Biological determinism is that our behaviour is caused by out biological systems including genes. Research into the human genome is producing more evidence in genetic influences on behaviour like the IGF2R gene that is associated with high intelligence

Psychic determinism is that out behaviour us controlled by out unconscious motivations, innate drives and early experiences. For example, the behaviour us driven by the libido and if a child experiences overindulgent at any stage if the psychosexual development can cause fixation and therefore behaviour focused on it. E.g. smoking in the oral phase

Question 24

what is free will

Answer 24

People are free to choose and are not acting is response to any external or internal pressures however in reality free will is constrained by out circumstances and other people

Question 25

what is soft determinism

Answer 25

Soft determinism represents a middle ground and says that people have a choice but that choice is contrained by external factors – Nick Heather

E.g being poor doesnt make you steal but it makes you more likely to take that route through despiration

Question 26

what is hard determinism

Answer 26

Sees free will as an illusion and beleives that every event and action has a cause – Elizabeth Valentine

Question 27

evaluate and discuss determinism

Answer 27

Biologically reductionist as it is doubtful that 100% genetic determinism will ever be found for any behaviour for example studies comparing identical twins found a 80% similarity on intelligence and 40% on depression

Environmentally reductionist as the concordance rates in identical twins show that environment cant be the sole determining factor in behaviour either and there has to be at least some genetic input

Scientific reductionism as Dennet argues that very small changes in initial conditions can result in major changes and that casual relationships are probabilistic rather than determinist and there is no such thing as total determinism. E.g. they increase the probability of something occurring rather than being the sole determinant

Determinism explanations oversimplify human behaviour and they may be appropriate for non human animals like mating behaviour for example, but human behaviour is less rigid and influenced by many factors like cognition and this means that the idea of attempting to find a simple determinist formula from psychological research is unrealistic.

There have been attempts in the US for murdered to claim their behaviour was determined by inherited factors and therefore they shouldn’t be punished to death

Its an issue for treatment of disorders as if we take the view that disorders like schizophrenia are genetic/neurotransmitter accountable then it follows that treatments should be biological but this determinist treatment might then block the consideration of other treatments that might be beneficial e.g. CBT

Question 28

evaluate or discuss free will

Answer 28

• just being able to decide between different courses of action is not free will but it may give us the illusion of having free will. An argument put forward by the behaviourist skinner was that a person may choose to buy a particular car or see a certain film, but these choices are determined by previous reinforcement experiences

+ supporting research by Chun Siong Soon et al found activity in the prefrontal cortex up to 10 seconds before a person was aware of their decision to act but Trevena and Miller showed that the brain activity was simply a readiness to act rather than the intention to move and this supports free will

Question 29

what is the nature nurture debate

Answer 29

Nature is the view that all of our behaviour is determined by our biology (genes, neurotransmitters, brain structure)

Nurture is the view that all behaviour is learnt and influenced by external factors such as the environment.

Question 30

outline the nature side of the debate and some research to support it

Answer 30

Evolutionary psychologists assume behaviour is a product of natural selection and has survival value . For example, men and women choose partners who increase their chance of productive success and passing on of their genes

Genetic explanations is the idea that genes control behaviour and this is shown in studies like twin studies. For example the concordance rate for Mz twins with schizophrenia is 40% whereas it is 7% for Dz twins and this shows that genetics has a major contribution to the disorder.

Question 31

outline the nurture side of the debate and supporting research

Answer 31

Nurture is the view that all behaviour is learnt and influenced by external factors such as the environment. Supporters of the nurture are empiricists holding the view that all knowledge is gained through experience. The behaviourist approach is the clearest examples of the nurture position in psychology which assumes all behaviour is learnt. SLT also supports nurture as an explanation of behaviour through imitation and vicarious reinforcement.

For example Bandura demonstrated this in his Bobo Doll experiments and he found that children that watched an agressive role model being rewarded with aggression tended to imitate that behaviour supporting the idea that personality is determined by nurture

Another example of a nurture explanation is the double bind theory in schizophrenia which states that contradicting messages can cause schizophrenia

Question 32

what is epigenetics and why does it complicate the nature vs nurture debate

Answer 32

Epigenetics refers to life experiences affecting the expression of genes in a human and the passing on of these changes to subsequent generations

it complicates the nature vs nurtire debate because you cant tell is a gene is from the nature of the person or epigenetics and therefore nurture

Question 33

give some examples where epigenetics has played a role in behaviour

Answer 33

Area in Sweden that went through periods of starvation died 6 years sooner than those who were constantly starved and their children also died 6 years earlier and so on.

Those who got pregnant during the northern Ireland conflict has children with higher rates of mental illness years later and this is due to transgenerational trauma