Issues and Debates

Question 1

The Seven Debates

Answer 1

1. Gender Bias
2. Culture in Psychology (Bias)
3. Free will vs Determinism
4. Nature vs Nurture
5. Holism vs Reductionism
6. Idiographic vs Nomothetic Approaches
7. Ethical Implications of Research and Theory

Question 2

Issues and debates:
Gender Bias
AO1

Answer 2

Alpha Bias: over exaggerate the diff’s betw genders (devalue one gender).
Beta Bias: ignores the diff’s betw genders (assumes one gender must be true for the other).
Universality: ideal situation, theory manages to recognise the diff’s betw genders = avoid beta bias + doesn’t value one gender over the other = avoid alpha bias

Question 3

Issues and debates:
Gender Bias
AO3

Answer 3

• Feminist Psychology: argues biological diff’s betw genders need to be recognised and can’t be avoided + also culturally crafted diff’s due to socialisation (learning) = if inferiorities in one gender research help design training programmes to improve
• Androcentrism: over emphasis of males, root of problem
• gender bias in research methods result in males and females to appear different but they aren’t actually e.g. Rosenthal 1966: male experimenters were more encouraging, friendly and understanding to female p’s than to male p’s so males performed worse

Question 4

Issues and debates:
Culture in Psychology
AO1

Answer 4

Alpha Bias: exaggerate diff’s betw cultures (value one more)
Beta Bias: ignores possibility of cultural diff’s )assumes one culture can be generalised to all)
Emic Approach: explains a behaviour that is culturally specific rather than human behaviour globally (can exaggerate differences between cultures and neglect to look at differences within cultures).
Etic Approach: aims to explain universal behaviour (not reliant on culture): done by compare and contrast diff cultures to determine which same aspects are across all cultures.
Imposed etic: where a culture specific idea is wrongly imposed on another culture (e.g. apply western results elsewhere - Ainsworth)

Question 5

Issues and debates:
Culture in Psychology
AO3

Answer 5

Examples: Ainsworth Strange Situation = assumes secure attachment is ideal/insecure are deviant = etic/beta + Buss 1989: carried out surveys across cultures to discover male preferences - employed people in each culture to translate the words and ideas in survey for their home culture = etic

• Bias in research methods: not using diff cultures in a sample of a study
• indigenous psychologies: development of diff groupd of theories in diff cultures = diff cultures have diff values = creater of measuring values should be native indigenous
• globalisation and improved intern transportation solves cultural bias issues as people travel more = exchange of ideas = reduce ethnocentrism = enable understanding of cultural relativism = real diff’s identified and valued
• cultural biases negative effect on certain groups: diff cultures have diff values e.g. Uganda taught slow thinking but take Wrn intelligent tests = speedy = seem dumb but not

Question 6

Issues and debates:
Free will and determinism
AO1

Answer 6

Free will: despite forces on us we make our own decisions

Determinism: assumes behaviour is predictable as it is affected by a finite number of internal and external forces

Question 7

Issues and debates:
Free will
AO1

Answer 7

1. Humanistic Approach: idea ‘self determination’ - in charge of yourself and your actions
2. Moral Responsibility: assumes we are in control of our actions (commit crime = held responsible) - young children and severe mentally ill not tried in same way as assumed not in control

Question 8

Issues and debates:
Determinism
AO1

Answer 8

1. Biological: idea beh is affected solely by your biology
2. Environmental: idea beh is determ by learning + experiences e.g. exposure to agg role models
3. Psychic: beh is caused by a mix of innate drives + effects of early experiences (superego + ego dev) e.g. oral fixation due to issues during oral psychosexual stage
4. Scientific: idea beh and thought has a direct cause (focus here on causal explanations betw a stimulus + response)

Question 9

Issues and debates:
Free will and determinism
Do we have free will?
AO3

Answer 9

Yes:
- Trevena + Miller: showed brain activity was a ‘readiness to act’ not an intention to move = neuroscience still supports free will atm
No:
- Libet 1983: recorded activity in the motor areas of the brain before the person has a conscious awareness of the decision to move the finger = decision to move finger (a conscious state) was read out of a pre-determined action
- Chun Siong Soon et al 2008: found activity in pre-frontal cortex up to 10 seconds before a person was aware of their decision to act
Sort of:
- Dennett 2003: no such thing as total determinism in physical sciences = chaos theory proposes small changes in initial conditions can cause major changes = butterfly effect = causal rel’s are probalisitic rather than deterministic

Question 10

Issues and debates:
Nature vs Nurture
AO1

Answer 10

Nature: all of our innate behaviours + tendencies = genetic + evolutionary influences
Nurture: refers to our experiences since birth + assumes that we are shaped by what happens to us

Question 11

Issues and debates:
Nature vs Nurture
Is it nature or nurture?
AO3

Answer 11

Nature:
- Hutchings and Mednick (1975): 14,000 adopted children = high proportion of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with criminal convictions too (esp father)
Nurture:
- Watson Little Albert: conditioned to be scared of mice - Behaviourist approach
- Beck: negative schema
Both:
- Caspi: MAOA-L gene + maltreatment as a child = aggression

Question 12

Issues and debates:
Holism vs Reductionism
AO1

Answer 12

Holism: aims to explain behaviour through processes and systems rather than a combination of parts.
Reductionism: aims to explain human behaviour by breaking it own into manageable chunks and studying them separately.

Question 13

Issues and debates:
Holism
AO1

Answer 13

Gestalt Psychology:
‘gestalten’ means ‘the whole’ in german.
This is the view that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In human behaviour this means that our processes are more complex than the constituent parts that reductionists would choose to investigate separately.

Question 14

Issues and debates:
Reductionism: Levels of Explanation
AO1

Answer 14

(most complicated at top/most basic at bottom)
Higher level: social + cultural explanations of our social groups affect our behaviour
Middle level: psychological explanations of behaviour
Lower level: biological explanations of behaviour (genes + hormones)

Question 15

Issues and debates:
Reductionism
AO1

Answer 15

• Biological: any explanation that assumes all beh can be expl through biological means.
• Environmental: any expl that assumes all beh can be expl by stimulus-response links + learning.
• Experimental: expl that assumes when doing an experiment with mre than one IV that everything else about the p will remain constant from one condition to the next. Therefore, any change in the DV must come from the IV change, rather than a more complex p change.

Question 16

Issues and debates:
Holism vs Reduction
AO3

Answer 16

• using lower levels of expl overlooks behaviour and ignores meaning
• benefits from bio red: dev drug therapies (dec institutionalisation in 1950s) - more humane approach to treatment of mental illnesses as doesn’t blame patient
• problem reductionists find studying mind-body: assumes physical basis of beh has a causal link to higher levels (we can only observe that certain physical events are associated with mental events
• evidence support interaction betw mind+brain: Martin et al 2001: depressed patients who received psychotherapy experienced same changes of serotonin + norepinephrine in brain as those on drugs
• Kandel 1979: points out physiological changes should not be surprising as we know that learning creates new neurological links.

Question 17

Issues and debates:
Idiographic vs Nomothetic
AO1

Answer 17

Nomothetic approach: uses large samples and makes general laws and principles to apply to all people.
Idiographic: focuses on individuals (case studies) to find out more in depth. Then tries to apply to all people.

Question 18

Issues and debates:
Idiographic vs Nomothetic
AO3

Answer 18

Examples: Freud -case studies -idio/Eyseneck- psychometrics -nomothetic/Humanistic app - holistic -id
+ Allport: only by knowing the person as a person that we can predict what that person will do in any situation idio= takes psych back to individual level
- nomo = lacks detail
+ nomo = quantitative + objective = >scientific
- idio = case study - hard to generalise
+ idio = case study - v detailed + accurate
- wrong to distinguish betw idio+nomo = Holt 1967: both use to make generalisations + no such thing as a unique individual (idio generates principles = nomothetic)
Hall + Lindzey 1970: say Allport’s app is actually nomo
Millon + Davis 1966: research should start as nomo then when laws made focus on more idio understanding

Question 19

Issues and debates:
Ethical Implications of Research and Theory
AO1

Answer 19

Sieber + Stanley 1988: four aspects of study that can be scientifically sensitive:

1. Research question: lends scientific credibility to idea
2. Conduct of research + treatment of p’s: ethical issues esp confidentiality + not harm p’s
3. The institutional context: funded + managed by? (private co. want certain results = manipulate outcome by ignore negative and publish only positive)
4. interpretation + application of findings: some may unethically interpret findings

Question 20

Issues and debates:
Ethical Implications of Research and Theory
AO3

Answer 20

• one solution: avoid investigating controversial topics (sexuality, race, gender) = minimise chance of research being used to support prejudice/be misinterpreted in a way which is harmful to p’s/minority group. But this would leave only unimportant issues to study.
• improve education on interpretation of findings to reduce misinterpretation: more rigid proceudres needed to protect people from misinformation (misleading statistics) by regulating info in first place or prepare other to be more critically aware.

Question 21

Gender Bias linked to topics

Answer 21

Freud viewed femininity as failed masculinity and research into fight or flight but women more tend and befriend. ALPHA BIAS

Zimbardo only male participants. BETA BIAS

Question 22

Culture in psychology linked to topics

Answer 22

Ainsworth strange situation (attachment)

Buss carried out surveys across cultures to discover mate preferences - employed people in each culture to translate the words and ideas in survey for their home culture = etic (relationships)

Question 23

Nature vs nurture

Answer 23

Aggression
Behaviourist approach (watson, classical conditioning)
Schizophrenia (stress-diathesis model)

Question 24

Holism and reductionism

Answer 24

Reductionism: Aggression - serotonin
Behaviourism explains human behaviour by stimulus response bonds.

Holism: cognitive approach takes into account thoughts, humanistic approach

Question 25

Idiographic vs nomothetic

Answer 25

Idiographic: humanistic approach is concerned about the whole person

Nomothetic: aggression: hutchings and mednick meta-analysis of 14,000 danish to see if aggression is inherited