Issues and Debates Flashcards
Gender Bias
X - socially sensitive - may lead to discrimination
X - research process is sexist - Research is more likely to be published if it shows a difference between men and women
X - More men than women psychologists - female issues less likely to be addressed
√ - development of feminist psychology. Groups within women should also be studied and in real life scenarios.
Culture bias
X - Focuses too much on individualist vs collectivist cultures - In this modern age, there is more interconnectedness between cultures so this isnt appropriate.
X - Although one shouldnt assume behaviour is universal, there is some behaviours that appear to be - for instance facial expressions and emotions seem to be universal.
X - Operationalisation of variables cannot be applied to all cultures - if one thing is aggressive in one culture, like invasion of personal space, it may not be in another culture.
√ - Determinism
√ - consistent with science, predictions can be made and cause and effect.
√ - Allows us to create treatments
X - Determinism
X - cant really prove it
X - Doesnt suit our legal system - where we hold individuals morally responsible for their actions
√ - Free Will
√ - empirical evidence from everyday experiences
X - Free Will
X - LIbet (1985) found the brain made a decision 10 seconds before we are concious of making the choice. Pushing a button with right/ left hand
X - no one would choose to have Sz
√ - Nature
√ - Objective support, e.g. Ripke
X - Nature
X - May lead to discrimination - its socially sensitive, e.g. race and IQ
X - Cant isolate it - as soon as we are born we are exposed to the environment
√ - Nurture
√ - allows treatments to be developed, e.g. CBT or humanist approach
X - nature and Nurture debate
X - shouldnt try and seperate them - interactionist approach, diathesis-stress and Tienari
X - epigenetics - Dias and Ressler - mice and perfume
√ - Holism
√ - offers a more complete perspective of a phenomenan and doesnt ignore the complexity of an issue
√ - not always appropriate to look at the behaviour of individuals but the groups actions - SPE
X - Holism
X - tends to be unscientific and unobjective - e.g Humanistic
X - If one acknowledges how several factors are important in determining a behaviour - hard to identify which one is most important, therefore this approach isnt useful for developing treatments
√ - Reductionism
√ - Based on parsimony - tends to be scientific with fully operationalised variables and cause and effect
X - Reductionism
X - Ignores the complexity of an issue - may explain a behaviour but misses the social context of it. Pointing a finger can be applied to many scenarios.
X - Holism vs Reductionisn
X - should use interactionist approach
√ - Idiographic
√ - Use of case studies - allows a hypothesis to be formulated for further testing
√ - Case studies can be used when it would be unethical to manipulate the IV
X - Idiographic
X - Case studies - cant generalise
√ - Nomothetic
√ - tends to be more scientific methods - like experiments and applying conclusions to the TP
√ - allows treatments to be made
X - Nomothetic
X - ignores the subjective experience of the indivdual - instead just tends to look at a score on a test
√ - Ethical Issues
√ - Researching Taboo topics can reduce sensitivity to it - becomes less discriminatory and prejudice and more understanding
√ - Real world implications - studying taboo topics like the inaccuracy of EWT can lead to improvements being made in it
X - Ethical Issues
X - Researchers cant see the effect their research will have until its published.
X - Promotes discrimination - e.g. in 20s/30s america certain people werent allowed to breed as they were mentally ill etc.
X - Sometimes dubious results can be used for evil - e.g. research in the 50s led to companies flashing advertising images really fast in cinema screens but the research that suggested this was effective was made up - Packard (1957)
Who did the mice perfume thing
Dias and Ressler
