Issues and Debates Flashcards
Discuss gender bias in psychological research. Refer to examples of alpha bias and beta bias in your answer.
A01:
Universality and bias:
Bias is almost inevitable as everyone is influenced by social and historical contexts.
It also undermines psychology’s claims to universality - that conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone.
Gender Bias:
Alpha bias = Psychological theories that suggest there are real and enduring differences between men and women.
Alpha bias normally undermines the value of women in relation to males.
Example = sociobiological theory of relationship formation.
Explains human sexual attraction and behaviour through the principle of ‘survival efficiency’.
Inter sexual selection - females are choosier as they have less chances of having offspring due to the limit of ova they have.
Intra sexual selection - males want to mate with as many females as possible to have a higher chance of passing on their genes. They compete with each other to protect the females.
The central idea of sociobiological theory is that sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined whilst females who engage in the same behaviour are regarded as going against their nature - exaggeration of the differences between males and females.
Beta bias = Theories that ignore or minimise the differences between males and females.
Often occurs when female ppts are not included as part of the research process and then the findings are applied to both sexes.
Example = Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.
Kohlberg’s research was based on male-oriented principles - though he argued that such principles were universal and represented the moral reasoning of both males and females.
Extra example = fight or flight - only male animals studied because female hormones fluctuated too much but was assumed to be a universal theory. Recent research shows that female biology has evolved to inhibit the fight or flight reaction
Androcentrism:
Consequence of beta bias.
All behaviour is drawn from male-orientated research and so anything that deviates from this is judged as deficient.
This leads to female behaviour being misunderstood or pathologised.
Example - PMS is a social construct which medicates female emotions.
Male anger is always seen as a rational response to external pressures.
A03
Implications of gender bias:
Create misleading assumptions about female behaviour.
Fails to challenge negative stereotypes and validates discriminatory practices.
May provide a more scientific justification to deny women work opportunities.
‘It becomes normal for women to feel abnormal’
Therefore, gender bias in research is not just a methodological problem but may have damaging consequences which affect the lives of women.
women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men
Sexism within the research process:
Female concerns may nit be reflected in the research questions asked.
Male researchers are more likely to have their research published and studies which find evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journals.
In lab experiments, female ppts are placed in an inequitable relationship with a (usually male) researcher who has the power to label them as unreasonable.
This means that psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism.
Essentialism:
Many of the gender differences reported are based on an essentialist perspective: that the gender difference in question is fixed in nature.
Walkerdine reports how in the 1930s ‘scientific’ research showed how intellectual activity would shrivel a woman’s ovaries.
Such accounts are usually politically motivated arguments disguised as biological ‘facts’.
This often creates a double standard in the way that the same behaviour is viewed from a male and female perspective.
Discuss cultural bias in psychology.
A01
Universality and bias:
Many argue that although psychology may claim to have discovered truths about human behaviour, in reality, those findings only relate to the group of individuals studied.
Mainstream psychology has generally ignored culture as an important influence on human culture - therefore apply findings to everyone around the world.
Examples = Asch and Milgram - white, American males - they had different results when replicated in different parts of the world.
If the ‘norm’ for a particular behaviour is judged only from the standpoint of one particular culture, then any cultural differences will be seen as abnormal.
Ethnocentrism:
Belief in the superiority of one’s own cultural group.
May be seen through the view that behaviours that don’t conform to the typical (Western) model are somehow deficient.
Example = Ainsworth’s strange situation.
Suggested that the ideal attachment type (secure) was characterised by the infant showing moderate amounts of distress when left alone.
This led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries.
The strange situation was deemed as an inappropriate measure for attachment for non-US children.
Cultural relativism:
Ainsworth’s research is also an example of imposed etic. (explain why)
Berry - looked at the different emic and etic approaches.
Etic approach - looks at behaviour from the outside of a given culture and attempts to describe universal behaviours.
Emic approach - looks at behaviour from inside a given culture and attempts to identify behaviours specific to that culture.
Psychology has often been guilty of imposing an etic approach.
Psychologists should be more conscious of cultural relativism in their research.
A03
Individualism and collectivism:
In the past, when psychologists have mentioned culture, they have done so in the context of individualism and collectivism.
Critics argue that in the world nowadays, the classifications of individualist cultures and collectivist cultures no longer applies.
Takano and Osaka - found that 14/15 studies that compared USA to Japan found no evidence of the traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism.
This suggests that cultural bias in research is less of a problem than it once was.
Cultural relativism and universality:
It should not be assumed that all psychology is culturally relative and that there is no such thing as universal behaviour.
Research suggests that basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the world.
Some features of human attachment, such as imitation and interactional synchrony, are universal.
A full understanding of human behaviour requires the study of both universals and variation among individuals and groups.
Challenging ‘implicit’ assumptions:
Benefits of cross-cultural research is that it may challenge our typically Western way of thinking.
Can promote a greater sensitivity to individual differences and cultural relativism in the future.
This not only counters the charge of scientific racism that has been made against some psychological theories in the past but also means conclusions drawn have more validity if they include recognition of culture.
Discuss the free will and determinism debate.
A01
Free will:
As human beings we are self-determining and free to choose our thoughts and actions.
A belief in free will doesn’t deny that there may be biological and environmental forces that exert some influence on our behaviour - we are able to reject these forces.
Advocated by the humanistic approach.
Determinism:
Proposes that free will has no place in explaining behaviour.
Hard determinism:
(Fatalism)
All human behaviour has a cause and in principle it should be possible to identify these causes.
Compatible with the aims of science.
Everything we do and think is dictated by internal and external forces we cannot control.
Soft determinism:
Important feature of the cognitive approach.
All human behaviour has a cause but people have conscious mental control over the way they behave.
We have freedom to make rational, conscious choices in everyday situations.
Different determinism:
Biological determinism:
Biological approach.
Our physiological and neurological brain processes are not under our conscious control - example = the ANS during the fight or flight response.
Behaviours and mental disorders are seen to have a genetic basis.
Also recognises the influence of the environment but it still means that we are determined in ways we cannot control.
Environmental determinism:
Behaviourist and SLT approach.
All behaviour is a result of conditioning.
Experience of choice is merely the sum total of reinforcements that have acted upon us throughout our lives.
Behaviour has been shaped by environmental events and socialisation.
Psychic determinism:
Psychodynamic approach.
Free will is an illusion and there is more emphasis placed on the influence of biological drives and instincts.
Sees human behaviour as determined and directed by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood.
No such thing as an accident.
The scientific emphasis on causal explanations:
Every event in the universe has a cause and that cause can be explained using general laws.
Knowledge of these allow scientists to predict and control events in the future.
Lab experiments enable researchers to simulate the conditions of a ‘test tube’ and remove all other extraneous variables in an attempt to predict human behaviour.
A03
Determinism strengths:
Consistent with the aims of science - places psychology on equal footing with other sciences.
The prediction and control of human behaviour has led to the development of treatments and therapies.
Example = psychotherapeutic drug treatment in controlling and managing schizophrenia.
The experience of mental disorders like SZ where the person loses control over thoughts and behaviours casts doubt on the concept of free will.
Determinism weaknesses:
The hard determinism stance is not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates - offenders are held morally accountable for their acts.
Determinism as an approach is unfalsifiable - based on the idea that causes of behaviour will always exist, even though they may not have yet been found.
May not be as scientific as appears.
Free will strengths:
Has face validity as we are constantly exercising free will through the choices we make on a daily basis- makes cognitive sense.
Research shows that people who have an internal LOC (have a high degree of influence on behaviours) tend to be more mentally healthy.
Roberts - teens who had a strong belief in fatalism were at significantly greater risk of developing depression.
Even if we don’t have free will, the idea that we think we do may have a positive impact on the mind and behaviour.
Free will weaknesses:
Neurological studies of decision making have revealed evidence against free will.
Libet and Siong Soon have demonstrated that the brain activity that determines the outcome of simple choices may predate our knowledge of having made that choice.
This shows that even our most basic experiences of free will are decided and determined by our brain before we become aware of them.
Discuss the nature-nurture debate.
A01
The debate:
Nature:
Early nativists argued that human characteristics are innate and a result of heredity.
Empiricists like Locke argue that the mind is a blank slate at birth and we learn behaviours.
The hereitability coefficient is used to asses and indicates the extent to which a characteristic is genetic.
Nurture:
Lerner has identified different levels of the environment.
May be defined in quite narrow pre-natal terms or more generally through post-natal experiences such as social experiences and cultural and historical contexts.
Relative importance of heredity and environment:
The question is impossible to answer because nature and nurture are so closely intertwined that it makes little sense to try and separate the 2.
Example = twin studies and concordance rates.
Psychologists are now more likely to ask what the relative contribution of each influence is in terms of thinking and behaviour.
Diathesis-stress model:
Models that emphasise the interaction between nature and nurture.
Suggests that psycopathy is caused by a biological vulnerability which is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental trigger.
Tienari et al - In a group of Finnish adoptees, those most likely to develop SZ had a family history of the disorder and had dysfunctional relationships with their adoptive families (trigger).
Epigenetics:
Change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code.
Caused by an interaction between nature and nurture.
Aspects of our lifestyle - like smoking - leave genetic markers on our DNA.
These marks tell our bodies which genes to ignore and which genes to switch on and in turn may go on to influence the genetic make up of our children.
Introduces a third element into nature-nurture which is the life experience of previous generations.
A03
Shared and unshared environments:
Even siblings living in the same household may not have had the same experience of upbringing.
Suggests that individual differences mean that siblings may experience life events differently.
Example = age would mean that a life event such as parental divorce would have a different meaning to each sibling.
This would explain the finding that even MZ twins reared together do not show perfect concordance rates which supports the view that heredity and the environment cannot be meaningfully separated.
Constructivism:
People create their own ‘nurture’ by actively selecting environments that are appropriate for their ‘nature’.
A naturally aggressive child will feel more comfortable with other children of similar aggression levels.
This environment then affects their development.
Niche-picking and niche-building - further evidence that it is impossible to separate nature and nurture influences on a child’s behaviour.
Genotype-environment interaction:
Scarr and McCartney.
Passive interaction:
The parent’s genes influence the way they treat the child.
Evocative interaction:
The child’s genes influence and shape the environment in which they grow up.
Active interaction:
The child creates its own environment through the people and experiences it selects.
Points to a complex and multi-layered interaction between nature and nurture.
Discuss the Holism-reductionism debate.
A01
Holism: The idea that any attempt to break up behaviour and experience is inappropriate as these can only be understood by studying the personas a whole.
Reductionism: Analyses behaviour by breaking it down into its constituent parts.
The debate aims to answer whether it would be better to use a reductionist or holism approach for behaviour.
Levels of explanation:
There are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in psychology - some more reductionist than others.
Example = OCD may be understood in a socio-cultural context as producing behaviour that most people would regard as odd; psychological level, the experience of having obsessive thoughts; physical level, as a sequence of movements involved in washing one’s hands; physiological level, hypersensitivity of the basal ganglia; neurochemical level, an underproduction of serotonin.
Each level is more reductionist than the one before.
Psychology is also placed on a hierarchy and is more general and less reductionist than other sciences like physics.
Biological reductionism:
All behaviour is at some level biological and so can be explained through neurochemical, neurophysiological and genetic influences.
Assumption of the biological approach which has been applied to different topic areas.
Example = the effects of psychoactive drugs on the brain have contributed much to our understanding of neural processes and might be possible to explain serious mental disorders.
Environmental reuctionism:
The behaviourist approach.
Break complex learning processes into simple stimulus-response links that are measurable within the lab.
Key unit of analysis occurs at the physical level.
The mind is regarded as a ‘black-box’- irrelevant to our understanding of behaviour.
A03
Holism strengths:
There are aspects of social behaviour that only emerge within a group context and cannot be analysed with an individual.
Example = effects of conformity to social roles and the de-individuation of the prisoners and guards in the Stanford prison experiment - it was the interaction between people and the behaviour of the group that was important.
This shows that holistic explanations provide a more complete and global understanding of behaviour.
Holism weaknesses:
Tend not to lend themselves to rigorous scientific testing.
Can be vague and speculative as they become more complex.
Example = humanistic approach is often criticised for lack of empirical evidence and is seen as a loose set of concepts.
Higher level explanations that combine many different perspectives preset a dilemma: If we accept that there are many factors that contribute to one thing it becomes difficult to assess which is more influential.
Suggests that when it comes to finding solutions for real-life problems, a lower level (more reductionist) explanation may be more practical.
Reductionism strengths:
Forms the basis of scientific research.
In order to create operationalised variables it is necessary to break target behaviours down into parts.
Makes it possible to conduct experiments or record observations in a way that is meaningful.
This gives psychology greater credibility.
Reductionism weaknesses:
Oversimplifies complex phenomena leading to a loss of validity.
Explanations that operate at the level of the gene do not include an analysis of the social context within which behaviour occurs.
Does not tell us why certain behaviours occur (pointing a finger is easy to explain physiologically).
This means that reductionist explanations can only ever form part of an explanation and never be the full explanation.
Discuss idiographic and nomothetic approaches in psychology.
A01
The idiographic approach:
Attempts to describe the nature of the individual.
People are studied as unique entities, each with their own subjective experiences.
May be no attempt to compare these to a larger group.
Associated with methods that produce qualitative data: case studies, unstructured interviews and other self-report measures.
Aim = to describe the richness of human experience and gain insight into the person’s unique way of viewing the world.
Examples in psychology:
Humaistic psychology is the best example for the idiographic approach.
Rogers and Maslow took a phenomenological approach to the study of human beings and were interested in studying the conscious experience of the individual.
Not concerned with producing general laws of behaviour.
The psychodynamic approach is also labelled as idiographic because of Freud’s use of the case study method.
However, Freud assumed he had identified universal laws of behaviour and personality development.
The nomothetic approach:
Aim = to produce general laws of behaviour.
Provide a ‘benchmark’ to which people can be compared and likely future behaviour can be predicted.
Most closely associated with those methods that are seen as ‘scientific’: experiments.
The study of large groups in order to establish ways in which people are similar.
Examples in psychology:
Cognitive, behaviourist and biological approach all have features of the nomothetic approach.
Skinner conducted experiments on hundreds of animals in order to be able to create general laws of behaviour.
Cognitive psychologists have been able to infer the structure of memory by measuring large samples of people in the lab.
Biological psychologists use brain scans to make generalisations about the localisation of function.
Hypotheses are rigorously tested and general laws and principles are proposed and developed.
A03
Idiographic approach strengths:
Provides a complete and global account of the individual.
May complement the nomothetic approach by shedding light on general laws or by challenging general laws.
A single case study may generate a hypothesis for further study (the case of HM).
Brain-damaged individuals may reveal important insights about normal functioning which may contribute to our overall understanding.
Idiographic approach weaknesses:
Narrow and restricted.
One of the criticisms for Freud is that many of his key concepts were largely developed from the detailed study of a single case.
Methods associated with this approach tend to be least scientific in that conclusions often rely on the subjective interpretation of the researcher, as such, are open to bias.
Nomothetic approach strengths:
Processes involved tend to be more scientific, mirroring those employed within the natural sciences.
E.g. testing under standardised conditions and statistical analysis.
Such processes have enabled psychologists to establish norms of typical behaviour, giving psychology more scientific credibility.
Nomothetic approach weaknesses:
Loses the ‘whole’ person.
Knowing that there is a 1% lifetime risk of a person developing SZ tells us little about what its like living with the disorder.
Ppts are treated as a series of scores rather than individuals and their subjective experiences are ignored.
Nomothetic approach overlooks the richness of human experience.
Discuss the ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity.
A01
Ethical implications:
Ethical guidelines are put in place to protect participants whilst still being able to test the aims of a study.
What is harder to guard against is the social impact of psychological research once it has been conducted.
Have little say in the way their findings are represented in the media, the impact of their work on public policy, and how it may influence our perception of particular groups in society.
Socially sensitive research:
Some areas of research are more controversial and subject to greater social sensitivity.
Example = research into the genetic basis of criminality.
Studies of race or sexuality attract a great deal of attention from psychologists and the media.
Should not lead psychologists to shy away from these topics because of the undoubted importance of research into these areas, psychologists may have a social responsibility to carry it out.
Ethical issues in socially sensitive research:
Seiber and Stanley identified a number of concerns that researchers should be mindful of:
Implications:
The wider effects of such research should be considered as some studies may be seen as giving scientific credibility to prejudice and discrimination.
Uses/public policy:
What is the research likely to be used for and what if it was used for the wrong purpose.
The validity of the research:
Some findings that were presented as objective and value-free in the past have turned out not so. However, many modern constructionist researchers are more up-front about their own biases.
A03
Benefits of socially sensitive research:
Scarr argues that studies of underrepresented groups and issues may promote a greater sensitivity and understanding of these.
Can help to eliminate prejudice and discrimination.
Benefitted society - research into the reliability of eyewitness testimony has reduced the risk of miscarriages of justice within the legal system.
May play a valuable role in society.
Who gains?:
Socially sensitive research has been used by the government to shape social policy, without the full consideration of the moderating effects of the environment on characteristics such as intelligence.
Example = in the 1950s research into the persuasive effects of subliminal messages was used by marketing companies to advertise their products.
Research that seeks to manipulate the public has obvious ethical implications.
Who gains from the research may be difficult to manage once the research has been published.
Social control:
In the 1920s in America, lots of states made compulsory the sterilisation of many citizens on the grounds that they were feeble-minded and a drain on society.
The rationale, supported by many sections of the scientific and psychological community at the time, was that these people were unfit to breed.
The fact that socially sensitive research has been used to ‘prop up’ discriminatory practices in the past is an argument against it’s widespread adoption.
