Issues and Debates Flashcards
Universality
A characteristic that can be applied to anyone, regardless of upbringing
Gender bias
Psychological research that is unrepresentative of either males or females
Androcentricism
Historically, psychology has been accused of being androcentric or ‘‘ male bias”. This is when research is based on men and then applied to women, which can lead to women’s behaviour being judged as inadequate
Alpha Bias and Beta Bias
Alpha bias= the view that there are distinct differences between the sexes e.g. the sociobiological formation of relationship
Beta bias= psychological research that ignores or minimises gender differences e.g. fight or flight
Evaluation of Gender Bias
Denmark et. al
Essentialist approach
Gynocentric
Culture Bias
Interpreting phenomena through the eyes of ones own culture
Endocentricism
Judging another cultures behaviour in the basis of ones own culture and in its extreme form is believing one is superior to the other and that there’s is the ‘norm’.
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is accused of being endocentric because it was study of American middle class. BERRY argues it is guilty of imposing a etic approach when it is based on emic research
Cultural Relativism
The belief that there is no universal right or wrong as it varies across cultures. The culture should be considered when studying behaviour in order to avoid culture bias
Evaluation of Culture Bias
The idea that there are simplistic distinctions between individualist and collectivist cultures is criticised for being lazy. Takano and Osaka found that in 14/15 studies comparing America and Japan there were little differences between individualism and collectivism- less of an issue as it once was.
Ekman- basic facial expressions in world
Cultural differences in mental disorders
-Koro more likely in China
-Anoriexia in Western World
The nature-nurture debate
The debate refers to the possibility that our behaviour is governed by nature (environment etc) and by nurture (genes and chemicals) and the debate refers to the relative contribution of the two.
Levels of explanation
Refers to how far an explanation is holistic or reductionist
Examples of explaintions for OCD for different LOE
From a socio-cultural point of view= irrational behaviour
From a psychological point of view= obsessive thoughts
From a physiological point of view= hypersensitivity of the basal ganglia
At a neurochemical level underproduction of serotonin
Holism
Proposes that behaviour should be viewed as a whole rather than its constituent parts.
It originates from Gestalt psychologists who argue the whole is better than the sum of its parts
Reductionism
The belief that a single explanation or cause is best and it is explained by being broken down into smaller parts
Biological reductionism
Attempts to explain behaviour at a lower biological level
Because we are all biological organism therefore we should be explained by biology
The interactionist approach
Argues that nature and nurture/ reductionism and holism shouldn’t be studied separately, rather than how they influence each other
The diathesis-stress model explains how genes make people vulnerable but an environmental stressors trigger a disorder e.g. schizophrenia
Environmental reductionism
Explains behaviour through stimulus and response.
It is not concerned with mental processes as it views the mind as a black box
Weakness of holism (1)
It doesn’t lend itself to scientific research; by arguing that many factors cause a phenomena it becomes difficult to find which is most influential
Strength of holism
It enables better understanding of social behaviour such as conformity which could not be understood at the level of individual group levels
Free Will
The idea that humans can make choices and behave how they want. This is attributed to the humanistic approach but most of psychology adopts the deterministic approach
Determinism - Soft+Hard
Determinism suggests that our behaviour is controlled and we cannot chose hoe to behave.
Soft determinism is the idea that our behaviour is determined but we can exercise free will in certain circumstances.
Hard determinism is the idea that we have no choice over how we behave as is it determined by internal and external and factors beyond our control
3 Types of Determinism
Biological- Suggests that behaviour is determined by aspects of biology eg genes and chemicals. OCD is believed to be caused by neurotransmitters
Environmental- Suggests behaviour is determined by external factors such as parents or society. Conditioning is another factor which may determine behaviour and Skinner said free will is an illusion.
Psychic- The belief behaviour is controlled by unconscious fears and desires. This is the belief of Freudian psychologists.
Why does psychology adopt determinism?
Psychology adopts determinism because of the sci jetfoil emphasis on causal explanations. Science suggests that everything in the universe has a cause and effect and his is explained by general laws therefore psychology uses lab experiments in order to determine cause and effect of behaviour.
Evaluation of Free Will
+ It has FACE VALIDITY because we consciously make decisions and chose how to act
+ Research found that people who believe they exercise free will and therefore have a high LOC are less likely to get depression
- CHUN SING SOIN argued that our brains unconsciously make decisions before we are aware of them
Evaluation of Determinism
+ it is scientific. Theories have managed to develop therapies to treat those suffering from depression.
- LEGAL SYSTEM only when people can claim diminished responsibility can they claim they were not responsible for their actions
- UNFALSIFIABLE Some argue that behaviour is determined, even if we do not know what by suggesting not scientific
Conclusion of Free Will Vs Determinism
Due to evaluation points of each, could be argued that the SLT or behaviourism is best approach.
BANDURA argued ‘reciprocal determinism’ by which we are determined by and determines environmental and personal factors.
Environment
Any influence on behaviour that is non-genetic and this can include phenomena ranging from influences in the womb to historical and cultural influences
John Locke argues that environment is all important and so he and behaviourists argued that environment is all important
For example, influences in the womb such as mother taking drugs could effect foetal development.
Heredity
Characteristics that are determined genes
QTL (quantities trait loci) suggests that by looking for multiples genes we will find a genetic link to behaviour rather than the OGOD approach
Behaviour Genecists claim to have found a mathematical way of working out the genetic basis of any characteristic
V= G+E+ (GxE) is used and Plomin found coefficient of 0.5 for intelligence
Weakness of nature-nurture
- A view point committed to either nature of nurture could be called deterministic. Such a stance has led to controversy and socially sensitive research in areas such as intelligence, race genetics
- PLOMIN argued that even when sharing same experiences, siblings experience events differently which suggests nature-is difficult to study
SCARR AND MCARTHY
Gene-environment interaction
Not only may genes influence our behaviour but also our environment.
Three types of gene environment interaction
Passive
Evocative
Active
Idiographic approach
The idiographic approach considers the individual when studying behaviour and argues that due to our uniqueness generalising from person to person is difficult.
The approach uses studies which produce qualitative data such as case studies and self report techniques
Rogers and Marslow were only concerned with finding the individuals conscious experience and argued there research was anti scientific because they were not concerned in creating general laws
Freud could be argued to adopt nomothetic because of his use of case studies
Nomothetic Approach
Argues that individuals can be studied in group and attempts to find general laws of behaviour.
It is a scientific approach and is features of both reductionism and determinism
A key feature is use of experiments which requires large numbers of participants to create universal laws and this case Freudian psychology could be considered nomothetic
Research by behaviourists, biological and cognitive psychologists is regarded nomothetic
RADFORD AND KIRBY argued it has developed 3 laws:
Classification
Establishing principles
Establishing dimensions
Evaluation of Idiographic
CASE STUDIES provide lots of info
Can challenge laws of nomothetic- only takes one case study
However, case studies lead to more research which is nomothetic
Nomothetic evaluation
Scientific and allows us to establish norms of behaviour
Develops mental health treatments eg DSM-V
However makes generalisations and ignores variety of human nature
Treatments don’t work for all
