Issues And Debates Flashcards
What is nature
The extent to which particular aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or internal characteristics
What is nurture?
The extent to which particular aspects of behaviour are a product of acquired characteristics from the environment
What is diathesis stress model
A disorder or behaviour trait is the result of an interaction between genetic predisposition vulnerability and stress, usually caused by life events and factors
What is heredity?
The process by which traits are passed down genetically from one generation to the next.
What is environment?
Everything outside the body which can include people, events and the physical world
Nature Vs Nurture early Nativists and Empiricits
- Early Nativists such as Descartes argued that human characteristics and even some aspects of knowledge are innate and result of heredity factors- Nature
- Empiricists such as Locke disagreed and argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth upon in which learning and experiences writes- Nurture
However Psychology encompasses both Nature and Nurture
Topics down to nature or nurture
OCD- biological and down to Nature but could also be explained using Learning i.e. SLT. Via nurture from watching others
Memory- via nurture via rehearsal but also could be linked to brain structure ie, ability to remember E.g. Taxi Driver study
What is the interactionist approach?
Suggests that nature and nurture interact together to produce/ shape human behaviour
What show how N&N work together so it is not easy or not clear cut to separate them?
- Interactionist Approach
- Diathesis Stress
- Niche Picking
- Epigenetics
- Neuroplasticy
What is Diathesis stress?
The biological vulnerability or being born with a gene that predisposes a disorder. However, the disorder will only develop if there is an environmental/ biological stresser to trigger it
What are Epigenetics?
Changes in organisms caused by modification of the ways that genes are expressed. Genetic activity also changes via interaction with environmental influences such as smoking, diet and pollution. These leave marks on DNA which in turn may go on and influence the genetic codes of our offspring.
What is niche picking?
The idea that people create their own ‘nurture’ by actively selecting environments that complement their ‘nature’. E.g extroverts may seek out other extroverts
What is neuroplasticy?
The changes in the structure of the brain (nature) , as a result of life experience (nurture) Eg Taxi Driver study
Pros nature
Objective
Compatible with aims of science
Cons of nature
Biologically reductionist
Pros of nurture
More holistic
Cons of nurture
Ignores nature
Environmentally reductionist
Not always objective or controlled
What are ethics and why are they used?
The moral considerations that researchers must make during their research
Used to ensure that research doesn’t cause harm emotionally, psychologically or physically to a person, community or culture
What are the ethical guidelines and who set them out?
BPS set out the guidelines. Research must be approved by the BPS for it to be deemed as ethical and reputable
- Brief
- Consent
- Confidentiality
- Deception
- Debrief
- Privacy
- Protection from harm
- Right to withdraw
How do you deal with ethics?
- seeking advice from colleagues
- consult ‘likely’ participants for their opinion on the research
- assume full responsibility for the research
- gain fully informed consent where possible
- get pp to inform you of any pre-existing illnesses or disorders
- where there is any sign of potential harm from the study, stop it
- allocate numbers or change names to protect identity
- a part of the debrief, ensure full aftercare is offered
- constant opportunities for the right to withdraw- before, during, and after collection
- gain retrospective consent- pps give the ok for their data to be used once they have taken part, have been debriefed and know the full nature of the research
- gain prior general consent- asking pps to give the ok to take part in all potential research. Once this is gained, the pp has in theory given the ok to take part in any research
- gain presumptive consent- asking a group who are representative of pps’s whether they would take part once they have been made aware of all featured of the research. If they agrees an assumption is made hat others like them would also agree
- conduct a cost benefit analysis- evaluating possible adv and dis of a behaviour or decision
What are ethical issues?
Issues that arise if research doesn’t follow the ethical guidelines
What are ethical implications?
The impact psychological research may have in terms of the rights of other people especially pps
What is socially sensitive research and who was it proposed by?
Sieber and Stanley
SSR refers to studies in which there are potential social consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or the class (type) of individuals represented by the research
What are examples of research that can be classed as socially sensitive?
Milgram- obedience to authority electric shocks
Zimbardo- 1 prisoner had to leave in one day
What did Sieber and Stanley use to help combat the impact of SSR having long term consequences on pp, those represented by the research and wider society?
Alternative set of guidelines for SSR
To consider the long- term protection of pp as current guidelines only focus short term during research
- new set of guidelines includes the research planning stage and post research stage- ensures protections for pps
What are the four aspects in the scientific research process that make research socially sensitive? Sieber and stanley
- The research question- researcher must consider their research question carefully so they do not ask anything that will be damaging to members of a particular group eg’ are there racial differences in IQ’
- The methodology used- researcher must consider the treatment of the pps and their right to confidentiality and anonymity. Eg is someone admits to committing a crime should the researcher maintain confidentiality
- The institutional context- research may be funded and managed by private institutions who may misuse or misunderstand the data. The media may obtain reports reports of such research and misreport the findings
- Interpretation and application of findings - researcher considers how their findings might be interpreted and applied in the real-world.
What are the ethical issues the relate especially to socially sensitive research
Sound and valid methodology- findings from research with poor methodology may find their way into the public domain and therefore shape important social policy
Justice and equitable treatment - research interests, techniques or findings should not result in some people being treated unfairly.
Scientific freedom-
Ownership of data
Risk/ benefit ratio
Values of social scientists
What are the benefits of SSR?
- Promotes a greater understanding of issues associated with underrepresented groups
- Allows social issues to be dealt with via social policies
- EG Bowlbys MD theory (implications of MD) and his 44 thieves study
- Bowlby highlighted the importance of early life and showed link between early life and later life- this helped to advise of the importance of early life
- It reinforced that the quality of care from others could reduce the severe effects, first thought of having MD
- this shows that SSR can be positive and beneficial for individuals and wider society
What are the benefits of SSR- government?
- SSR is used to devise policies/ change social norms
- +allows for intervention for social issues/ social norms
- SSR it can also shape social policy without the full consideration of the impact on society
- any research manipulating society with new government policies or changes in social norms, has ethical implications
Define holism
Proposes that it only makes sense to study an indivisible system rather than its constituent parts. The whole picture.
Define reductionism
The belief that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts
Define biological reductionism
Attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena at a lower biological level in terms of genes and hormones etc.
Define environmental reductionism
Attempts to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience
Describe the history of holism
A group of German researchers working in the 1920s 30s known collectively as Gestalt psychologists- famously declared that ‘the whole picture is greater than the sum of its parts’. This is the basis of the view of holism in psychology: the idea that any attempt to break up behaviour and experience is inappropriate as these can only be understood by analysing the person or behaviour as a whole. This is a view shared by humanistic psychologists, who saw successful therapy as bringing together all aspects of the ‘whole picture’
Describe the history of reductionism
Analyses behaviour by breaking it down into constituent parts. Based on the scientific principle of parsimony: that all phenomena should be explained using the most basic (lowest level) principles. This is often the simplest, easiest, and most economical level of explanation
What is levels of explanation and give each level of the reductionist hiearchy?
Suggests that there are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in psychology some more reductionist than others
Sociology Macro- more general
Psychology
Biology
Chemistry
Physics Micro- more precise
A03 pros for holism
- can explain key aspects of social behaviour that only emerge within a group context
- for example, the effects of conformity to social roles and the deindividuation displayed by prisoners and guards in the Standford Prison Experiment could be not understood by studying the participants as individuals.
- rather it was the interaction between the group members that was important
- therefore holistic explanations provide a more complete understanding than reductionist approaches
A03 cons for holism
- holistic explanations are difficult to test scientifically
- they can become vague and speculative as they become more complex
- for example humanistic psychology which looks behaviour holistically is criticised for its lack of empirical evidence, and is seen as a loose set of concepts.
- higher level explanations that combine many different perspectives present researchers with a practical dilemma; if we accept that there are many factors that contribute to eg depression, it becomes difficult to establish which factor is most influential.
- this has implications for therapy and knowing exactly what to treat.
- therefore, reductionist explanations may be more appropriate when finding solutions to real-world problems
A03 pros for reductionism
- reductionist often forms the basis of scientific research
- in order to operationalise variables, it is necessary to break down target behaviours into constituent parts
- this makes it possible to conduct experiments or record observations in a way that is meaningful and reliable
- the behaviorist approach demonstrated how complex learning could be broken down to simple stimulus- response links within a lab. This gives psychology greater credibility, placing it on equal terms with the natural sciences lower down in the reductionist hierchary
A03 cons for reductionism
- reductionist approaches oversimplify complex behaviours, leading to loss of validity.
- explanations that operate at the level gene, neurotransmitter, or neuron do not include analysis of the social context within which behaviour occurs.
- for example, the physiological processes used when pointing a finger will always be the same, but this does not explain why someone may be pointing- could be to draw attention, to answer a question in class or any act of aggression. This means reductionist explanations only ever form part of an explanation
A03 a compromise to holistic and reductionist approaches
- an interactionist approach between holistic approaches and reductionist approaches may provide a logical compromise to the debate
- for example, the diathesis- stress model explains mental disorders such as SZ as the outcome of predisposition, which is triggered by an environmental stressor.
- this model has led to a more multi-disciplinary and holistic approach to treatment (eg combining drugs with family therapy) and is associated with lower relapse rates.
- therefore there is something to be said for considering behaviours on multiple reductionist levels, in order to gain a more holistic overview
What are idiographic approaches
- focuses on the individual and emphasises the unique personal experience of human nature as a means of understanding behaviour
- allow for deep understanding of an individual and uniqueness and subject experience
What research methods are seen in the idiographic approach
- collect qualitative data such as case studies, unstructured interviews and unstructured observations
What approaches are found within the idiographic approach
Humanistic
Psychodynamic
What is the nomothetic approach
- attempts to study human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws
- provides a benchmark against which behaviour can be compared, classified and measured - means to some extent behaviour can be predicted and controlled
What research methods are used within the nomothetic approach
Quantitative data collected- Experiment’s, correlations, content analysis and structured observations
What approaches are seen within the nomothetic approach
Biological
Some aspects of cognitive
