Issues and debates Flashcards
Gender bias
Gender bias - failing to adequately consider differences between men and women
Alpha bias - tendency to exaggerate the differences between genders E.g
- The evolutionary explanation of partner preference states males are wired to mate with as many as possible and women as few as possible, suggesting promiscuity is not normal for females
Beta bias - tendency to minimize the differences between genders
- Zimbardo’s prison experiment where students were allocated either guard or prisoner, showed guards became aggressive and conformity to social roles - all male sample applied to all genders
Androcentrism - viewing the world from a male point of view
AO3:
P: creates and reinforces negative stereotypes, mainly about women
E: evolutionary explanation for partner preference, leads to women being called derogatory names if they go against their evolution
T: leads to unfair treatment and discrimination of women
P: there are more male researchers at a senior scientific level than women meaning the concerns of women are less likely to be addressed
E: impact of periods on women’s lives/ cervical cancer
T: means less advances in those areas such as treatments for women’s menopause, reducing their quality of life
Ways to overcome:
Use both genders as PPTs
Only apply the findings of the research to the population used
Reflexivity (the process of continual reflection upon research, self awareness)
Culture bias
Culture bias - Tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret phenomena through the lens of one’s own culture
Ethnocentrism - Belief that one culture is inherently superior than others, which manifests as behaviors not matching the western norms being seen as inferior
Cultural relativism - The idea that a behavior can only be properly understood in the context of the norms and values of the society in which it occurs
Universality - The belief behaviors are the same for all cultures and can be applied equally across the globe
Imposed etic looks at behaviors from outside of a culture, trying to apply universal laws
- applying the strange situation all over the world
Emic approaches study cultures from within, looking at what behaviors are specific to a culture
- only using the strange situation in the US and using different assessment systems in eastern cultures
Individualistic - focus on the needs of the self and value independence
Collectivist - value togetherness and focus on the needs of the group
The strange situation:
- avoidant children most common in Germany as they value independence
- Insecure most common in China as they spend time away from mothers
AO3:
P: Research has found there are some universal features of human behavior
E: Elkman suggested facial expressions and emotions are the same all over the world
T: means not all behaviors are culturally relative
P: Contradictory research into difference in collectivist and individualistic cultures
E: from analyzing studies comparing these cultures, no evidence of difference was found in 14 of them
T: suggests cultural difference may not be as big of a factor as previously thought
P: the division between individualistic and collectivist cultures is too simplistic
E: globalization has led to many cultures becoming interconnected, adopting aspects of other cultures into their own - in the UK there are collectivist cultures
T: so it is not appropriate to assume all of the UK is individualistic - outdated
Ways to overcome:
Carry out cross-cultural research
Do not apply findings to cultures not represented in the sample
Reflexivity
Nature and nurture
Nature - belief that behavior is as a result of inherited, innate factors (nativism - extreme nature)
Nurture - belief that behavior is as a result of environmental influences (Empiricism - extreme nurture) - the human mind is a tabula rasa at birth
Hereditary - process of how traits are passed from parents to offspring
Environment - influences outside of the human body (physical world)
Interactionist - the view of nature and nurture working together
AO3:
Implications of the debate
P: Niche picking
E: the idea that people choose environments that compliment their hereditary - extroverts engaging sociable people/ social events
T: nature and nurture are not stand alone factors
P: Epigenetics
E: how life experiences of previous generations can influence our genetic code. your behaviors and environment affect how genes are read and which are switched on, influencing genetic codes of offspring
T: nature and nurture are not stand alone factors
Strengths
P: Research support
E: Tienari found children from adopted families who had mothers with schizophrenia were more likely to develop SZ, but only in those who were assessed as having a critical child -rearing style, lacking in empathy
T: supports interactionism
P: Research support
E: Cromer found OCD was more severe in patients who had experiences traumatic events and even more severe when there was more than one event
T: supports nurture
Weaknesses
P: nurture is environmentally reductionist
E: learning theory of attachment reduces down to role of stimulus-response bonds, too simplistic
T: not a realistic explanation
P: nurture is subject to environmental determinism
E: family dysfunction
T: very pessimistic and ignores free will
P: nature is biologically reductionist
E: Biological explanation of SZ - too simplistic
T: not a realistic view of human behavior and interactionist would be better
P: nature is biologically deterministic
E: biological explanation for OCD
T: too pessimistic and ignores freewill
Idiographic and nomothetic
Idiographic:
- Looking at unique human experience
- qualitative data
- interviews or case studies
- small sample
Genie - case study of a young girl deprives of care, showed being deprived of maternal affection can lead to severe consequences such as inability to speak or walk
Nomothetic:
- develops general laws of behavior that can be generalized
- quantitative data
- experiments, questionnaires
- large sample
Schaffer’s stages of attachment - applied to all children suggesting all children go through stages of asocial, indiscriminate, specific and multiple attachments in the same order
Clive wearing is an example of both as he was a case study and so an in-depth look at one individual (Idio) but also generated a theory applied to everyone of 3 types of long term memory (Nomo)
AO3:
P: Nomothetic is more scientific
E: uses experimental methods allowing for high levels of control and replication
T: enables us to make predictions
P: nomothetic is accused of losing sight of the person
E: knowing there is a lifetime risk of 1% for developing SZ tells us little about what it is like to live with SZ
T: overlooks the richness of human experience
P: idiographic focuses on the individual
E: a single case may generate interest in further study such as HM in memory showing us some procedural memories are more resistant to amnesia
T: unique cases may reveal important info about normal functioning
P: idiographic is time consuming
E: case studies take a lot of time and money to study individuals in depth - off-putting
T: but using Nomo you can study hundreds at once, producing more data at a single time
Freewill and determinism
Determinism - the idea we are controlled by factors that we have no influence over
Freewill - we are in control of our behavior and make our own choices
Hard - behavior is caused by events outside of an individuals control and freewill is an illusion
Soft - we choose how to behave but these choices are within constraints by internal or external forces
Biological - behavior is caused by internal biological factors
Environmental - behavior is caused by past experience and external forces in the environment
Psychic - unconscious forces and innate drives control behavior
Causal explanations - establishing cause and effect, any change in the DV must be due to manipulation of the IV. hence use of lab experiments where EVs can be controlled
AO3:
Determinism
P: consistent with aims of science
E: allows us to establish cause and effect (one variable causes another), leads to predicting behavior
T: increases credibility and helps psychology establish itself as a science
P: prediction has led to treatments
E: SZ caused by abnormal levels of DA- antipsychotics
T: benefits patients QOL
F: benefits economy
P: doesn’t align with therapy
E: states people are doomed to get mental illness and cannot overcome it
T: make people feel they cannot overcome it and so do not engage in therapy, too pessimistic
P: doesn’t align with criminal justice system
E: states people are morally responsible for committing crimes (guilty intention)
T: undesirable as it provides an excuse for such behavior
Freewill:
P: high face validity
E: everyday experiences show we exercise freewill, constantly making decisions throughout the day
T: concept of freewill will make sense on the face of it
P: optimistic
E: people with internal LOC tend to be more healthy than those with external LOC
T: if we don’t have freewill, believing that we do can have positive implications on mental health
P: align with criminal justice system
E: criminal are morally responsible, placing the blame o them, no room for exoneration
T: used in the real world
P: align with therapy
E: states people do have the power to overcome mental illness so patients will engage, reducing symptoms
T: used in the real world in treating mental health
