ISSUES AND DEBATES Flashcards
strengths of gender bias
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understanding of gender bias leads to reflexivity:
researchers recognise the effects of their values on their work (reflexivity) and embrace bias as an important aspect of the research process rather than seeing it as a problem. in their study lack of women in executive positions in accountancy firms, Dambrin & Lambert include reflection on how their bias influenced their understanding of events. reflexivity may lead to greater awareness of role of personal bias in shaping future research
feminist psychologists propose how it can be avoided:
Worrell suggested criteria to avoid gender bias. women should be studied within real-life contexts and genuinely participate in research intead of being objects of study. also diversity in groups of women should be studied rather than comparisons between men and women. this way may be preferable and less gender biased
limitations of gender bias
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problems of gender-bias in psychological research:
gender-biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour and validiate discriminatory practices. may provide scientific justification to deny women opportunities in the workplace or in wider society e.g PMS. not just a methodological problem but may have damaging consequences affecting lives of real women
promotes sexism in research process:
lack of women at senior research level means female concerns may not be reflected in research questions. male researchers are also more likely to have their work published. female participants in lab studies are in an inequitable relationship with male researcher who has power to label them as irrational. psychology is guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism that creates bias in theory and research
strength of cultural bias in osychology
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recognition of both cultural relativism and universals:
‘imposed etic’ such as the strange situation shows culturally specific nature of psychology but shouldn’t assume all of psychology is culturally relative. Ekman suggests basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over human and animal world and some features of attachment e.g imitation are universal. full understanding of human beh. requires studies of both universals an variation among groups
cross-cultural research challenges western assumtpions:
benefit of conducting cross-cultural research is that it may challenege typically western ways of thinking. understanding knowledge and concepts we take for granted aren’t shared by others mayt promote greater sensitivity to individual differences and cultural relativism. conclusions drawn are likely to have moe validity if they recognise the role of culture in bringing them about
limitations of cultural bias in psychology
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distinction between individualism and collectivism:
often refer to cuture in context of I v. C individualsists value independence and collectivst value interdependnece. distcintion no loonger applies as Takano and Osaka found 14/15 studies comparing US and japan found no evidence of a distinction between the 2 types of cultures. this form of cultural bias is less of an issue than it once was
cross-cultural research prone to demand characteristics:
when conducting research in Western cultures, assumed participants are familiar with aims and objectives of scientific enquiry. in cultures without historical experience of research, local participants may be more affected by demand charactersistcis e.g communicate. unfamiliarity with research threatens validity of outcome
example of cutural relativism in psychology
diagnosis of schizophrenia:
auditory hallucinations are cultural norm in many cultures thorughout the world, especially after bereivment and even sen as a gift. in western cultures, we see this as a postiive symtpo of schizophrenia which may lead to incorrectly diagnosising someone from a different culture.
example of cultural relativism as only makes sense from perspective of that culture and not western ones
example of ethnocentrism in psychology
classification in the Strange Situation which was developedin Britain. sees ideal reaction to baby being left by mother as ‘moderately distressed’ and anything that strays from this is seen as ‘insecure’. in japan it is normal for mothers to rarely eave their babies so strange situation labelled them as very insecure.also, german mothers seen as cold as babies not bothered when they left the room as emphasis on independence.
example of ethnocentrism as deviations seen as inferior and unusual
(also cultural bias issues in sampling as not representative e.g non in africa and only a few in asia)
strengths of free will and determinism
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determinism is consistent with the aims of science:
notion tha human beh. obeys laws places psychology on equal foting with other sciences. prediction and control of bhaviour has led to development of treatment and therapies such as drug treatments for schizophrenia in which antidepressants block dopamine receptors as identified that dopamine helps cause schizphrenia. schizphrenia also a good example of determinism as no one choses to have a mental illness
strength of free will is that it is a positive approach:
Robetrs et al. showed that adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism (lives decided by events outside of the control) i.e deterministic view of behaviour, were more at risk of depression. supports belief in idea of free will
limitations of free will and determinism
hard determinism isn’t consistent with the legal system.
offenders are morally accountable for their actions and only inextreme circumstances like mental illness are juries instructed to act with leniency. if there was no such thing as free will then offenders shouldn’t get punished as they were controlled by internal and external forces. this is the belief of genetic explanations of offending that candidate genes of MAOA and CDH13 make individuals 13x more likely to commit violent crime (a form of biological determinism). moral dilemma if this was acted upon
free will sin’t supported by neurological evidence:
brain studies of decision making have revealed evidence against free will. Libet & Soon found that brain activity related to the decision to press a button with particular hand occurs up to 10 seconds before ppts reported being consciously aware of maiing such a decision. most basic experiences of free will are decided by our brain
example of free will in psychology
humanistic approach
sees humans as active agents not controlled by anything
rejects any attempt to establish scientifc principles of human beh. as individuals react differently due to free will
examples of different types of determinism
biological determinism:
biological approach which sees behaviour as inherited in the form of genes and neurochemistry such as low levels of serotnonin in OCD
environmental determinism:
behaviourist approach isn’t inetersted in mental processes of the mind as believes all behaviour is conditioned and skinner believes free will is ‘an illusion’
psychic determinism:
psychodynamic approach views biological drives and insticts underpinning behaviour and idrceted by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood
strengths of the nature-nurture debate
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understanding the intercation may have real-world implications:
extreme beliefs of nature or nurture may have negative implications on how we view human behaviour. nativists belief of ‘anatomy is destiny’ may lead to families recieving all the blame for causing relative to have schizophrenia. therefore recognising that human behaviour is both nature and nurture (schizophrenia is due to both genetics and family) is a more reasonable and manageable approach
interaction explained by constructivism:
people create their own nurture by actively selecting environments appropraite for their nature (known as constructivism). e.g a naturally aggressive child is more comfortable around smiliar children and ‘chooses’ their environment accordingly which affects their development. impossible to try and separate the 2 and provides support for interactionist perspective
limitation of the nature-nurture debate
confounding factor of unshared environments:
research trying to ‘tease out’ environmental influences is complicated by the fact that even siblings raised within the same family will not have identical upbringings. Dunn & Plomin suggests individual differences mean siblings may experience events differently e.g age leads to events like divorce having a different meaning to each sibling. explains why concordance rates between MZs aren’t perfect
example of nature and nurture in schizophrenia
and interaction
genetic explanation
gottesman family study showed 48% concordance rate between MZs and DZs 17% concordance rate
108 genetic variations associated with increased risk
can evaluate with issues of twin studies of unshared environments so hard to measure how much down to genetics
family dysfunction
high levels of expressed emotion including crticism cause relapse
diathesis stress
diathesis (vulnerability) = genes
stress (trigger) = family
Tiernari found most likely to develop sz if biological relatives have it (nature) and if adoptive family dysfunctional (nurture)
can evaluate with real-world implications of extreme views e.g fault of family
essay:
briefly discuss genetic and family dysfunction and then diathesis stress
evaluate diathesis stress with extreme views
evaluate family / twin studies using gottesman as an example
then Buss findings link between nature and nurture in sex preferences
evaluate with support from constructivism about impossible to separate the two
example of nature and nurture in relationships
Buss conducted a cross-cultural study into partner preferences over 33 countries
nature: generally females valued resource related characteristics and males valued reproductive capacity including good looks (human nature)
nurture: compared results to 30 years ago and found less sex differences betwen men and women over prefernce for looks and resources than 30 years ago (nurture)
can evaluate with support of interaction by constructivism if needed
strengths of holism and reductionism in psychology
strength of holism is that it can explain key aspects of behaviour:
some behaviours that only occur within a group context and cannot be understood at an individual level. for example, trying to understand and treat someone who feels worthless would be impossible and wouldn’t make sense without looking at the bigger picture as due to lack of unconditional positibe regard and conditions of worth by parents. led to therpay including unconditional positive regard so holism provides more complete understanding of beh.
strength of reductionism is ability to form therapies:
target behaviours reduced to constituent parts which helps come up with treatments for disorders. for example, looking at biological causes of schizophrenia enabled psychologists to isolate high levels of dopamine in causing sz. antipsychotics developed to treat disorder largely effective.
