Issues and Debates

Question 1

What is universality?

Answer 1

Anything that can be applied to all despite differences of up bringing and experiences.
Gender and culture bias threaten this.

Question 2

What is Alpha and Beta bias?

Answer 2

Alpha bias = exaggerates/overestimate differences between sexes.
Beta bias = minimises/underestimates differences between sexes.

Question 3

What are examples of alpha and beta bias?

Answer 3

Alpha: sociobiological theory (Wilson 1975) - suggests that sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined but females who engage in same behaviour are regarded as ‘going against their nature’. (exaggerates differences).

Beta: fight or flight response - assumes that males and females have same fight or flight responses despite only studying males.
– Taylor (2000) - female biology inhibits fight or flight.

Question 4

What is a consequence of beta bias?

Answer 4

ANDROCENTRISM = ‘male centred’: when normal behaviour is is judged according to male standard.
– meaning female behaviour is seen as abnormal and misunderstood in comparison.
E.G. PMS

Question 5

Evaluation of gender bias?

Answer 5

+ reflexivity - Dambrin and Lambert (2008) gender-related experiences affected interpretation of findings into lack of women in executive roles.
+ feminist psychology - Worrell (1992) criteria to avoid gender bias research (studies in meaningful context, participate in research, diversity within women’s groups, qualitative data)

• negative consequences - create misleading assumptions and fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discriminate. (scientific justification)
• sexism within research process - lack of women at senior research level means females may not be properly represented. (institutional sexism)
• research comes from essentialist views - sexism is inevitable: ‘double-standard’ in way behaviour is reviewed.

Question 6

What is an example of research which is culturally biased?

Answer 6

Asch conformity study
Milgram obedience study
– both conducted with only US participants and when replicated in other countries there were very different results (Kilham and Mann 1974).

Question 7

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 7

Form of cultural bias which involves judging other cultures by the standards of values of ones own culture.

Question 8

What is an example of research which is ethnocentric?

Answer 8

Ainsworth Strange Situation (1970) - only shows norms and values of American culture.
– suggested ideal attachment (secure) was when an infant showed moderate amounts of stress when left alone.
This led to misinterpretation of child rearing practices in other countries e.g. German mothers seen as cold and rejecting rather than encouraging independence.

Question 9

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 9

Idea that human behaviour can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts.
e.g. Strange situation only understood in US context.
(being mindful of this can reduce cultural bias)

Question 10

What is the difference between an emic and etic approach?

Answer 10

Berry (1969)
Emic = studying cultures in isolation by identifying behaviours that are specific to that culture.
Etic = studying behaviours across many cultures to find universal human behaviours.
PSYCHOLOGY GUILTY OF TAKING ETIC APPROACH ON RESEARCH FROM EMIC APPROACH. (imposed etic)

Question 11

What is an imposed etic?

Answer 11

research devised in one culture that is used to explain human behaviour in another culture.

Question 12

What is the difference between individualist and collectivist cultures?

Answer 12

Individualist = cultures which are more independent (western countries)
Collectivist = cultures which are more group - orientated (e.g. India and China).

Question 13

Evaluation of cultural bias?

Answer 13

+ challenges western ways of thinking - greater sensitivity to individual difference means more valid research.

• individualist and collectivist too simplistic of a distinction - Takano and Osaka (1999), 14/15 studies which compared USA to Japan found no traditional distinction. (cultural bias less on an issue than in once was).
• not all research is culturally bias - some human behaviour is universal e.g. imitation and interactional synchronicty.
• research tradition = leads to demand characteristics exaggerated.
• operationalisation of variables in other cultures - variables may not be experienced in same way.

Question 14

What are the ethical guidelines? 6

Answer 14

• consent
• deception
• confidentiality
• debrief
• withdrawal
• protection.

Question 15

What are ethical implications?

Answer 15

impact research has on society and how it influences public policy and how people are seen.

Question 16

What is socially sensitive research?

Answer 16

any research which may be controversial.

e.g. race, sexuality, genetic basis on criminality.

Question 17

What did Arson (1999) say about socially sensitive research?

Answer 17

Socially sensitive research may attract attention from other psychologists and the media and pupil but we shouldn’t ‘shy away’ from it.
– “psychologists have a social responsibility to conduct socially sensitive research”.

Question 18

What raises ethical issues for socially sensitive research? 3

Answer 18

Sieber and Stanley (1988)

• implications - wider effects of research needs to be considered (some may be seen as giving ‘scientific’ credibility for prejudice and discrimination).
• uses/public policy - findings may be adopted by government for political ends/shape public policy.
• validity of research - findings must be objective and value free.

Question 19

Evaluation of socially sensitive research (ethical issues)?

Answer 19

+ benefits of socially sensitive research - benefited society e.g. showed unreliability of EWT and helped reduce incorrect prosecution.
+ framing question - Sieber and Sieber (1988), way question is phrased can influence way findings are intepreted - researchers must have an open mind.

• negative consequences - used by government and adverting to create social policies and subliminal messages e.g. coco cola ads showed flashing images to increase sales from information from study which findings were made up. (manipulate public).
• social control - has been used to ‘prop up’ discriminatory practises .
• costs and benefits hard to predict - consequences involving vulnerable groups and worth of research hard to predict

Question 20

What is free will?

Answer 20

Based on that humans make choices which are not determined by biological or external forces.

Question 21

What approaches support free will?

Answer 21

Humanistic approach - Rogers and Maslow
- self determination is key in changing behaviour (taking responsibility within idea of the self). - without it you cannot reach self actualisation. (Maslows hierarchy of needs).

Question 22

What is determinism?

Answer 22

Human behaviour is shaped by internal or external forces rather than the individuals will to do something.

Question 23

What are the 2 variations of determinism?

Answer 23

Hard determinism = free will is not possible and behaviour is ALWAYS shaped by internal and external forces which we can’t control.
Soft determinism = James (1890), all events have a cause but behaviour can also be changed by choices.
(cognitive approach heavily based on this).

Question 24

What approaches support determinism? (types of determinism) 3

Answer 24

Biological determinism = behaviour is caused by biological factors. (genes, brain structures, neurotransmitters)
E.G. mental disorders have genetic basis, hormones in aggression.
Environmental determinism = Skinner - behaviour is caused by environmental factors. (reward systems and punishment, conditioning, socialisation).
E.G. classical and operant conditioning, agents of socialisation.
Psychic determinism = Freud - behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts (biological drives/instincts).
E.G. emphasise on childhood (events repressed in childhood can determine adult behaviour).

Question 25

What is the scientific emphasis on casual explanations?

Answer 25

Supports determinism - also known as ‘scientific determinism’.
Based on idea that all events have a cause and can be explain using laws.
E.G. linked to laboratory experiment as it allows elimination of all other extraneous variables so we can precisely control and predict human behaviour.

Question 26

Evaluation of free will?

Answer 26

+ face validity - we appear to to be constantly making our own choices.
+ research support - Roberts (2000) study showed that teenagers with strong belief in fatalism were at greater risk of developing depression - therefore having control over our own behaviour has a positive impact

• research against - Libet (1985), study demonstrated that the brain activity is responsible for simple choices and may predate our knowledge of making it. (when choosing to press button with left or right hand, the activity in the brain occurs up to 10 seconds before p’s reported they were aware they made the decision).
• Skinner - ‘illusion of free will’.
• Cultural relativism - cannot always fully apply to collectivist cultures which behaviour is determined by group needs.

Question 27

Evaluation of determinism?

Answer 27

+ real world support - lead to development of treatments which have helped many e.g. drugs for schizophrenia.
+ mental illnesses support - no one would choose to have a mental illness so better explained by determinism.
+ scientific support - aims of science, equal with other sciences.

• Criminal justice system does not support view - offenders help morally accountable for own decisions.
• unfalsifiable - based on idea that causes will always exist even if they haven’t been found which can’t be proved wrong (unscientific).

Question 28

What compromise is there between free will and determinism?

Answer 28

Interactionalist position - any approach which takes a cognitive element (take soft determinism)
E.G. social learning approach, argues environmental factors are key but are free to choose certain choices and behaviours.

Question 29

What is the nature - nurture debate?

Answer 29

Concerned with extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics.

Question 30

What is the side of nurture? 4

Answer 30

Behaviour is shaped by environmental influences.
- Behaviourist theories = all behaviour can be explained by experiences. - Skinner, classical and operant conditioning to explain learning.
E.G. attachment.
- Social learning = behaviour can be explain through imitation and reinforcement. (vicarious reinforcement) - did acknowledge biological causes.
E.G. Bandura’s bobo doll study. (aggression)
- OTHER STUDIES - Bateson (1956) schizophrenia double bind theory (develops in children who receive mixed messages from parents).
Zimbardo Stanford prison experiment - behaviour results of situational factors.

Question 31

What is the side of nature? 2

Answer 31

Behaviour shaped by innate factors.
- genetic explanations - family, twin and adoption studies.
E.G. schizophrenia concordance rate of 40%, aggression 50% concordance rate between MZ twins.
- evolutionary explanations - behaviour is shaped for survival and reproduction through natural selection
E.G. Bowlby (1969), attachment adaptive as infant more likely to survive and promotes closer relationship which leads to successful reproduction. .

Question 32

Evaluation of nature - nurture debate?

Answer 32

+ real world applications - nature approach has helped in development of drug therapies. Nurture approach can help us understand the environment e.g. stop criminality.
+ more likely an interaction between the two - e.g. diathesis-stress model.
– constructivism = people create ‘nurture’ by selecting environments which are appropriate for their ‘nature’.
+ research support for interaction between the two - Maguire’s taxi drivers (2000) - after learning ‘the knowledge’ hippocampus was larger than in controls

• both deterministic - both ignore all free will (free will vs determinism).
• nature is more expensive - less studies as more expensive, can be less ethical.

Question 33

What is holism?

Answer 33

Focuses on the system as a whole rather than the individual features.

Question 34

What is reductionism?

Answer 34

Breaks complex phenomena down into more simple components.

Question 35

What are the levels of explanation?

Answer 35

Part of reductionism - explanations begin at highest level and progressively look at component elements.

• Highest level = cultural and social explanations.
• Middle level = psychological explanations.
• Lowest level = biological explanations.

Question 36

What are the different types of reductionism? 3

Answer 36

• Biological reductionism = behaviour explained in terms of hormones, neurotransmitters, brain structures. (e.g. dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia).
• Environmental reductionism = behaviour explained in terms of stimulus causing response (e.g. attachment classical conditioning)
• Experimental reductionism = use of operationalised variables in experimental research.

Question 37

What are examples of holism? 3

Answer 37

• Gestalt psychology = concerned with perception; the whole does not equal the sum of the parts.
• Humanistic psychology = we act as a whole rather than a set of stimulus-response links.
• Cognitive psychology = networks are linked and behave as a whole.

Question 38

Evaluation of holism and reductionism?

Answer 38

• danger of lower level explanations - real meaning of behaviour may be overlooked e.g. prescribing drugs for disorders may be a result of family problems.
• biological reductionism - drug therapies only have partial success may and block possibility of more successful therapies.
• environmental reductionism - may be appropriate for non-human animals but ignores influence from higher levels e.g. emotion.
• experimental reductionism - may not represent real life e.g. real life research doesn’t always support experimental research.
• holism - less reliable, harder to test. no real evidence.

Question 39

What is the idiographic approach?

Answer 39

Focuses on individual and their unique characteristics as a way to understand human behaviour.
– uses qualitative methods - focuses on depth of one individual (unstructured interviews, thematic analysis).

Question 40

What are examples of the idiographic approach? 2

Answer 40

• Freud’s case studies e.g. Little Hans.

- Humanistic research into subjective experience.

Question 41

What is the nomothetic approach?

Answer 41

Study of large numbers of people to establish laws about behaviour.
– uses quantitative research - large data sets used to work out averages and conduct statistical tests, producing normative data about behaviour.

Question 42

What are examples of the nomothetic approach? 3

Answer 42

• Biological approach e.g. general principles of stress response.
• Behavioural approach e.g. laws of conditioning (classical, operant)
• Cognitive psychology e.g. case studies used for abnormal behaviour.

Question 43

Evaluation of the ideographic and nomothetic approaches?

Answer 43

+ ideographic focuses on the individual - humanistic and qualitative psychologists felt nomothetic psychology had lost sight of what it was to be human.
+ both have scientific basis - nomothetic quantitative, ideographic seeks to be scientific and objective despite humanistic psychology not being evidence based.
+ able to make predictions - Allport argued predictions can be made from individual cases.

• ideographic approaches are time consuming + nomothetic can produce large sets of data and analyse them quickly.
• combined methods - idiographic approach ends up being nomothetic (Holt) + start with nomothetic approach and then focus on ideographic and combine approaches e.g. Freud.