Issues and debates Flashcards
Evaluate gender bias
May validate negative stereotypes and discrimination, providing a scientific justification to deny women opportunities
- signs of sexism as research questions are orientated to male concerns
- Studies that find evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journal articles
- Lab experiments disadvantage women as females are placed in an inequitable relationship with a male researcher who has the power to label them unreasonable
- many modern researchers are beginning to recognise the effect their own values and assumptions have on the nature of their work
- researchers such as Dambrin and Lambert include reflection on how their gender related experiences influence their reading of events and see bias as a crucial aspect of the research process
Evaluate cultural bias
Individualism collectivism
- distinction may be too simple
- may no longer apply: takano and osaka found no evidence
Cultural relativism versus universality
- shouldn’t be assumed that all human behaviours are culturally specific, there are some universals- such as aspects of attachment and the facial expression of emotion
Unfamiliarity with research tradition
- demand characteristics are more likely in an unfamiliar situation
Operationalisation of variables
- some behaviours may not be expressed in the same way, e.g displays of aggression may be culturally relative
Challenging implicit assumptions
- researchers own cultural views may be challenged. Taken for granted assumptions may not be universal
Evaluate free will and determinism
Determinism the case supporting
- scientific approach is valuable
- no one would ‘choose’ to have, say, schizophrenia which casts doubt on the idea of free will
Determinism the case against
- not consistent with legal system
- unfalsifiable: based on the idea that a cause of an event will always exist even though one may not have been found
Free will the case supporting
- everyday experiences suggest free choice
- promotes mental well being, internal locus of control (Roberts et al)
Free will the case against
-neurological evidence from Libet and Soon et al. Suggests that awareness is pre-determined
A compromise?
-best option may be soft determinism, e.g Bandura’s reciprocal determinism
Evaluate the nature-nurture debate
Implications of nativism and empiricism
- nativism may indirectly promote eugenicist philosophy
- behaviour shaping may lead to a ‘big brother society’
Shared and unshared environments
-siblings raised together may have very different experiences and thus would explain why MZ twins raised together show different concordance rates
Constructivism
-people create the nurture that fits their nature through niche-picking and niche-building ,suggesting it is impossible to separate nature and nurture (Plomin)
Genotype environment interaction
-Gene enviroment interaction includes passive, evocative and active forms, pointing to a complex and multi-layered relationship between nature and nurture (Scarr and Mcartney)
Relationship to other debates
-nature and nurture approaches are determinist and reductionist,
but an interactionist position is an antidote to this
Evaluate Holism and reductionism
The case supporting holism
-more complete understanding because it includes social context, e.g Stanford prison experiment
Case against holism
- vague and speculative, e.g humanistic psychology
- a combination of different perspectives is difficult to put to practical use, e.g in therapy
The case supporting reductionism
-reductionism means that variables can be broken down (behavioural categories or behaviourist approach) and studied precisely giving psychology more credibility
Case against reductionism
-explanations at a genetic level cannot account for meaning within a social context
The interactionist approach
-combines levels of explanation, e.g diathesis stress model, and interactionist approaches to treatment of schizophrenia
Evaluate idiographic and nomothetic approaches
The case supporting the idiographic approach
- completely account of the individual
- one case may generate new hypotheses (e.g HM) within a particular field
Case against idiographic approach
- the approach may take a narrow and restricted view, e.g Freud’s case studies
- conclusions drawn from case studies may be subjective
The case supporting nomothetic approach
- more scientific , prediction and control, e.g in the field of IQ testing
- Gives psychology greater scientific credibility
Case against nomothetic approach
- using statistics results in the loss of the ‘whole’ person
- subjective experience is ignored
Complementary rather than contradictory
-the same issue can be considered from both perspectives , e.g gender development
Evaluate ethical implications of research and theory
Benefits of socially sensitive research
-can benefit society, e.g reduce prejudice and the effects of unreliable eyewitness testimony
Framing the question
- phrasing of research questions may influence outcome
- investigators must keep an open mind so as not to offend minority groups
Who benefits?
-finding may be misused or abused , e.g research into subliminal messages and manipulation of the public
Social control
- in 1920s USA the feeble minded were sterilised, based on psychological research on IQ, e.g Goddard
- scientific racism (Gould) is the outcome of socially sensitive research
Costs and benefits
-although socially sensitive research will be subject to scrutiny by an ethics committee , the costs , benefits and wider implications of research may be very difficult to predict
What is universality and what is bias
Universality - any underlying characteristics of human wigs that is capable of being applied to all despite differences of experience and upbringing
Bias - a tendency to treat one individual or group in a different way from others.
may be an inevitable part of the research process
What is gender bias
Psychological research or theory may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women
What alpha bias in gender bias?
Exaggerates differences between the sexes, such differences are typically presented ad real and enduring, e.g sociobiological theory
Typically undervalues females
What is beta bias in gender bias
Minimises differences between the sexes, often occurs when females aren’t involved in a research and then the findings are assumed to apll equally to both sexes, e.g kolhbergs theory and fight/flight
What is androcentrism
Normal behaviour is judged from the male standard, any behaviour that deviates from this is likely to be judged as abnormal or inferior ,
e.g female aggression explained by PMS
What is universality and bias in cultural bias
- Mainstream psychology has generally ignored importance of culture as an influence on human behaviour
- mistakenly this has assumed that findings derived from studies carried out in western cultures can be straightforwardly applied worldwide
What is ethnocentrism
Refers to a particular form of cultural bias and is a belief in the superiority of one’s own cultural group
When ones culture is seen as the ‘norm or standard, e.g Ainsworth’s ideal attachment type was criticised as reflecting only the norms and values of American culture
What is cultural relativism
Berry suggested that psychology has taken an etic approach (e.g Ainsworth) and should be emic (acknowledging cultural relativism)
