Issues and Debates

Question 1

• Define Universality:

Answer 1

• Any underlying characteristics of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing.
• Gender bias and culture bias threaten the universality in psychology

Question 2

• What can beliefs and values be influeunced by?

Answer 2

• They are influenced by the social and historical context within which they live
• This means that bias may be an inevitable part of the research process
• Despite the arguments psychologists might make to have discovered ‘facts’ about human behaviour that are ‘objective’ and ‘value-free’

Question 3

• Gender bias

Answer 3

• When considering human behaviour, bias is a tendency to treat one individual or group in a different way from others
• In the context of gender bias, psychological research or theory may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women (usually women)

Question 4

• Define alpha bias:

Answer 4

• Psychological theories that suggest there are real and enduring differences between men and women
• They may enhance or undervalue members of either sex, but typically undervalue females

Question 5

• Define beta bias:

Answer 5

• Theories that ignore or minimise differences between the sexes

Question 6

• Example of alpha bias:

Answer 6

• The sociobiological theory: relationship formation- explains sexual attraction and behaviour through the principle of ‘survival efficiency’
• It’s in the males interest to try to impregnate as many women as possible to increase chance of his genes being passed on to next generation
• Female- the best chance in preserving her genes is to ensure the healthy survival of the relatively few offspring she is able to produce in her lifetime
• central premise= sexual promiscuity in makles is genetically determined whilst females who engage in same behaviour are regarded as going against their ‘nature’- exaggeration of difference between the sexes

Question 7

• Example of beta bias:

Answer 7

• kohlberg’s theory of moral development:
• based entirely on the longitudinal study of a sample of American men
• Kohlberg’s research was based on male-oriented principles
• he argues that such principles were universal and represented the moral reasoning for both males and females

Question 8

• Define androcentricism:

Answer 8

• Male-centred; when normal behaviour is judged according to a male standard
• Meaning that female behaviour is often judged to be ‘abnormal’ or ‘deficient’ by comparison

Question 9

• Example of androcentricism:

Answer 9

• Many feminist commentators have objected to the diagnostic category- premenstral syndrome (PMS) on the grounds that it stereotypes and trivialises female experience
• Critics claim that PMS is a social construction that medicalises female emotions, especially anger, by explaining these in hormonal terms
• Male anger is often seen as a rational response to external pressures (Brescoll and Uhlman 2008)

Question 10

• Evaluation- Gender And Culture In Psychology: Gender Bias
• FIRST POINT:

Answer 10

1. Implications of gender bias:

• Gender-biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour
• It may provide scientific ‘justification’ to deny wome opportunities within workplace it wider society
• Carol Tavris: ‘it becomes normal for women to feel abnormal’
• Gender bias in research isn’t just a methodological problem but may have damaging consequences affecting lives if real women

Question 11

• Evaluation- Gender And Culture In Psychology: Gender Bias
• SECOND POINT:

Answer 11

1. Sexism within the research process:

• Lack of women appointed at senior research level means female concerns may not be reflected in the research questions asked
• Male researchers = more likely to have their work published and studies which find evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journal articles
• lab experiment = cornerstone of ‘scientific’ enquiry and may further disadvantage women
• Female participants placed in inequitable relationship with usually make researcher who has power to label them unreasonable, irrational and unable to complete complex tasks
• Means psychology may be guilty of institutional sexism that creates bias in theory and research

Question 12

• Evaluation- Gender And Culture In Psychology: Gender Bias
• THIRD POINT:

Answer 12

1. Reflexivity:

• Many modern researchers are beginning to recognise effect of their own values and assumptions have on nature of their work
• Rather than seeing bias as a problem that may threaten objective status of their work, they embrace it as a crucial and critical aspect of research process
• Study of lack of women in executive positions in executive positions in accountancy firms- includes reflection in how their gender-related experiences influence their reading of events
• Such reflexivity is important development in psychology and may lead to greater awareness of role of personal biases in shaping research in future

Question 13

• Evaluation- Gender And Culture In Psychology: Gender Bias
• FOURTH POINT:

Answer 13

1. Essentialism

• Many gender differences reported by psychologists over years are based on essentialist perspective: gender difference is inevitable and ‘fixed’ in nature
• Valerie Walkerdine (1990) reports how in the 1930’s, ‘scientific’ research revealed how intellectual activity- e.g. attending university would shrivel a woman’s ovaries and harm her chances of giving birth
• Such essentialist accounts are often politically motivated arguments disguised as biological ‘facts’
• This often creates a double standard in way behaviour is viewed from male and female perspective

Question 14

• Define cultural bias:

Answer 14

• Refers to a tendency to ignore cultural differences and innyerlret all phenomena through the ‘lens’ of own’s own culture

Question 15

• Example of cultural bias:

Answer 15

• In 1992, 66% of world’s 56000 psychology researchers = American
• In Baran and Brynes’s 1991 textbook on social psychology, 94% studies cited were conducted in North America
• Statistics suggest that as well as being a male-dominated discipline, psychology is mainly the study if white American makes
• Despite psychologists routinely claiming to having discovered ‘universal facts’ about human behaviour

Question 16

• Universality and Bias (revisited)

Answer 16

• Critics argue that mainstream psychology has generally ignored culture as an important influence on human behaviour
• It has mistakenly assumed that finding ps derived from Western studies can be straightforwardly applied all over the world
• E.g. Comformity (Asch) and Obedience (Milgram), originally conducted with US participants, revealed very different results when replicated in other parts of the world, e.g. Kilham and Mann

Question 17

• Define ethnocentrism:

Answer 17

• Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture
• In it’s extreme form it’s the belief in the superiority of one’s own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures

Question 18

• Example of ethnocentricism:
• *HINT* Refer to Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 18

• Ainsworth’s Strange Situation = criticised as reflecting only norms and values of American culture
• She identified key defining variable of attachment type as child’s experience of anxiety on separation
• She suggested that ‘ideal’ attachment was characterised by infant showing moderate amounts of distress when left alone by mother-figure
• However, this led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries which were seen to deviate from American ‘norm’
• E.g. German mother were seen as cold and rejecting tather than encouraging independence in children
• Therefore, Strange situation = inappropriate measure of attachment type for non-US children

Question 19

• Define cultural relativism:

Answer 19

• The idea that norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts

Question 20

• Define etic approach:

Answer 20

• Looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours that are universal

Question 21

• Define emic approach:

Answer 21

• Functions from within or inside certain cultures and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture

Question 22

• Give example of cultural relativism:
• *HINT* John Berry

Answer 22

• John Berry has drawn a distinction between etic and emic approaches in the study of the human behaviour
• Berry argues that psychology has often been guilty of imposing an etic approach- arguing theories, models, concepts, etc., are universal, when they actually came about through emic research within a specific culture
• Suggestion = psychologists should be much more mindful of the cultural relativism of their research- ‘things’ they discover may only make sense from perspective of culture within which they discovered- and recognition of this is one way of avoiding cultural bias

Question 23

• Evaluation- Gender And Culture In Psychology: Cultural Bias:
• FIRST POINT:

Answer 23

1. Individualism and collectivism:

• Psychologists have made reference to ‘culture’ and done so within context of individualist- collectivist distinction
• Individualist culture is associated with Western countries (US) who are thought to value personal freedom and independence
• Collectivist culture (India and China)- said to place emphasis on interdependence and needs of the group
• Critics- suggested in this age of global communication and increased interconnectedness a ‘lazy’ and simplistic distinction between cultures no longer applies
• Yohtaro Takano + Eiko Osaka found that 14 out of 15 studies that compared USA and Japan found no evidence of traditional distinction (I + C)
• This could suggest cultural bias in research is less of an issue it once was

Question 24

• Evaluation- Gender And Culture In Psychology: Cultural Bias
• SECOND POINT:

Answer 24

• Berry’s concept of imposed etic = useful reminder to psychologists if culturally specific nature of their work
• It shouldn’t be assumed that all psychology is culturally relative and there’s no such thing as universal behaviour
• Ekman suggests that basic facial expressions for emotions (happiness) are the same all over the human and animal world
• Critiques of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation shouldn’t obscure the fact that some features of human attachment- such as imitation and interaction all synchrony- are universal
• Full understanding of human behaviour requires study of both universals and variation among individuals and group

Question 25

• Evaluation- Gender And Culture In Psychology: Cultural Bias
• THIRD POINT:

Answer 25

1. Unfamiliarity with research tradition:

• When conducting research in Western culture, the participants’ familiarity with general aims and objectives of scientific enquiry is assumed
• However, same knowledge and ‘faith’ in scientific testing may not extend to cultures that don’t have the same historical experience of research
• Demand characteristics (always an issue) may be exaggerated when working with members of local population (Bond and Smith 1966) - and this may have an adverse effect of validity of research

Question 26

• Evaluation- Gender And Culture In Psychology: Cultural Bias
• FOURTH POINT:

Answer 26

1. Challenging ‘implicit’ assumptions:

• Great benefits of conducting cross-cultural research is that it may challenge our typically Western ways of thinking and viewing the world
• Being able to see that some of the knowledge and concepts we take for granted aren’t shared by other people around the world may promote greater sensitivity to individual difference and cultural relativism in the future
• This not only counters charge of ‘scientific racism’ that has been made against some psychological theories in the past
• also means that conclusions psychologists draw are likely to have more validity if the include recognition of role of culture in bringing them about

Question 27

• Define free will:

Answer 27

• The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces
• View that human behaviour is advocated by humanistic approach

Question 28

• Define determinism:

Answer 28

• The view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something
• proposes that free will has no place in explaining behaviour

Question 29

• What are the 2 types of determinism?

Answer 29

• Hard determinism
• Soft determinism

Question 30

• Define hard determinism:

Answer 30

• Implies that free will isn’t possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal or external events beyond our control
• referred to as fatalism
• compatible with aims of science- to uncover causal laws that govern thought and action
• can be seen as too extreme

Question 31

• Define soft determinism:

Answer 31

• All events, including human behaviour, have causes, but behaviour can also be determined by our conscious choices in absence of coercion
• Philosopher- William James was the first to put forward notion of soft determinism- position that later became important feature of cognitive approach
• Soft determinists suggest some room for manoeuvre- people have conscious mental control over way they behave

Question 32

• Define biological determinism:

Answer 32

• Belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences we can’t control
• Many of our physiological and neurological (brain) processes aren’t under our conscious control e.g. influence of ans during periods of stress and anxiety
• Lots of behaviours and characteristics- mental disorders are thought to have genetic basis and research demonstrated effect of hormones- roller of testosterone in aggression
• Modern biopsychologists would also recognise mediating influence of environment on our biological structures = ‘doubly determined’ in ways we can’t control

Question 33

• Define environmental determination:

Answer 33

• The belief that behaviour is caused by features if the environment (e.g.systems of reward and punishment) that we can’t control
• B.F Skinner described free will as ‘an illusion’ and argued all behaviour is a result of conditioning
• our experience of choice is merely contingencies acted upon us throughout our lives
• we might think we’re acting independently, but our behaviour has been shaped by environmental events as well as agents of socialisation- parents, teachers, institutions etc.

Question 34

• Define Psychic determinism:

Answer 34

• The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we can’t control
• Sigmund Freud agreed with Skinner that free will is an ‘illusion’ but placed more emphasis on influence of biological drives and instincts than behaviourists
• saw human behaviour as determined and directed by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood
• ‘slip of tongue’ can be supposedly explained by unconscious

Question 35

• What is the scientific emphasis based on?

Answer 35

• Causal explanations
• Basic principles of science = every event in the universe has a cause and that causes can be explained using general laws
• knowledge of causes and formulation of laws are important as they allow scientists to predict and control events in the future
• In psychology, lab experiment enables researchers to simulate conditions of test tube and remove other extraneous variables in attempt to precisely control and predict human behaviour

Question 36

• Evaluation - Free Will And Determinism:
• FIRST POINT:

Answer 36

1. For- Determinism

• Determinism = consistent with aims of science
• Notion that human behaviour is orderly and obeys laws places psychology on equal footing with other more established sciences
• Value of such research is that the prediction and control of human behaviour has led to development of treatments, therapies and behavioural interventions that have benefitted many, e.g. psychotherapeutic drug treatment in controlling and managing schizophrenia
• Experience of schizophrenia- sufferers experience total loss of control over tonight’s and behaviours casts doubt on concept of free will
• In terms of mental illness then, behaviour would appear determined

Question 37

• Evaluation - Free Will And Determinism
• SECOND POINT:

Answer 37

1. Against- Determinism

• The hard determinist stance- that individual choice isn’t the cause of behaviour
• It’s not consistent with the way in which our legal system operates. In a court of law, offenders are. Held morally accountable for their actions
• Despite its scientific credentials, determinism as an approach is unfalsifiable
• Its based on the idea that causes of behaviour will always exist, even though they haven’t been found- impossible to prove wrong
• Suggests that the determinist approach to human behaviour may not be as scientific as it first appears

Question 38

• Evaluation - Free Will And Determinism
• THIRD POINT:

Answer 38

1. For- Free Will:

• Everyday experience ‘gives impression’ that we’re constantly exercise free will through choices we make- gives face validity to concept of free will (makes cognitive sense)
• Research suggest that those with internal locus of control tend to be more mentally healthy
• Roberts’ study demonstrated that adolescents with strong belief in fatalism were at significantly greater risk of developing depression
• suggests that even if we don’t have free will the fact that we think we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour

Question 39

• Evaluation - Free Will And Determinism
• FOURTH POINT:

Answer 39

1. Against- Free will:

• Neurological studies of decision making may have revealed evidence against free will
• Studies by Benjamin libet and recently Chun Siong Soon have demonstrated that brain activity that determines outcome of simple choices may predate our knowledge of having made that choice
• Researchers found that activity related to whether to press a button with left or right hand occurs in brain up to 10 secs before participants report being consciously aware of making that decision
• Shows that even our most basic experiences if free will are determined by our brain before we become aware

Question 40

• What is the nature-nurture debate?

Answer 40

• It’s concerned with the extent to which aspects of behaviour are a product of inherited or acquired characteristics

Question 41

• What does the nature element argue?

Answer 41

• The focus is on heredity, hormones and chemicals, through the interaction with the environment is acknowledged
• Early nativists = René Descartes (1596-1650) argued that human characteristics- and even some aspects of knowledge- are innate: the result of hereditary

Question 42

• What do the empiricist including the philosopher John Locke argue?

Answer 42

• He argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth upon which learning and experience writes: the result of the environment (a view that was later to become an important feature of the behaviourist approach)

Question 43

• What is the heritability coefficient?

Answer 43

• Used to assess heredity
• It’s a numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1.0 which indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a generic basis (value of 1 meaning its entirely genetically determined)
• General figure for heritability in IQ is around 0.5 across multiple studies in varying populations (Plomin 1994)- suggests that both genetics and environment are important factors in intelligence

Question 44

• What does the nurture debate debate?

Answer 44

• The mind is a blank slate at birth.
• Behaviour is determined by learning experiences in the environment

Question 45

• What did Richard Lerner identify
• *HINT* Refer to nurture and environment

Answer 45

• He identified different levels of the environment
• These may be defined in quite narrow pre-natal terms
• E.g. the mother’s physical and psychological state during pregnancy , or more generally through post-natal experiences such as social conditions the child grow do up in and the cultural and historical context they’re a part of

Question 46

• Relative importance of heredity and environment:

Answer 46

• Nature and nurture are so closely intertwined that, practically and theoretically, it makes little sense to separate the two
• E.g. in twin studies it’s often very different to tell whether high concordance rates are the result shared of shared genetics or shared upbringing
• The focus of the nature-nurture debate has therefore changed in recent years, and psychologists are more likely to ask what the relative contribution of each influence is in terms of what we think and do

Question 47

• Is the interactionist approach nurture or nature?

Answer 47

• Innate info processing abilities are constantly refined by experience
• E.g. attachment patterns between infant and it’s parents are often the result of a ‘two-way street’ in which the child’s innate temperament will influence the way it’s parents respond to it- and their responses will in turn affect the child’s behaviour
• Therefore, nature, in a real sense, creates nurture; heredity and environment interact

Question 48

• Is the diathesis-stress model nurture or nature?

Answer 48

• Models of mental illness which emphasis interaction nature and nurture tend to be the most persuasive
• The diathesis-stress model suggests that psychopathology is caused by a biological/genetic vulnerability (the diathesis) which is only expressed when coupled with a biological or environmental ‘trigger’ (stressor)
• Pikka Tienari et al - found that when a group of Finnish adoptees those most likely to develop schizophrenia has biological relatives with a history if the disorder (the vulnerability) and had relationships with their adoptive families that were defined as ‘dysfunctional’ (the triggger)

Question 49

• What are epigenetics?

Answer 49

• Refers to a change in our genetic activity without genetic activity
• it’s a process that happens throughout life and is caused by interaction with environment
• Aspects of our lifestyle, and the events we encounter- from smoking and diet to pollution and war- leave ‘epigenetic marks’ on our DNA
• These marks tell our bodies which genes to ignore and which to use, and in turn, may go on and influence the genetic codes of our children

Question 50

• Are epigentics nurture or nature?
• include: Brian Dias and Kerry Ressler’s study

Answer 50

• Epigentics introduces a 3rd element into the nature-nurture debate: the life experience of previous generations
• E.g. Brian Dias and Kerry Ressler- gave male lab mice electric shocks every time they were exposed to the smell of acetophenone- perfume chemical. Mice showed fear reaction as soon as scent was presented
• The rats’ children who hadn’t been exposed to the acetophenone before or received any shocks feared the smell and so did their grandchildren

Question 51

• Evaluation- The Nature- Nurture Debate:
• FIRST POINT:

Answer 51

1. Implications of nativism and empiricism:

• Nativists suggest ‘anatomy is destiny’ in that our inherited genetic makeup determines our characteristics and behaviour, whilst the environment has little input
• This extreme determinist stance = led to controversy such as this which attempted to link race, genetics and intelligence and application of eugenics policies
• In contrast (also controversial) empiricists would suggest any behaviour can be changed by altering environmental conditions
• Behaviour shaping, a behaviour concept, has had practical application in therapy
• Desirable behaviours = selectively reinforced and undesirable behaviours are punished or ignored
• In extreme terms, this may lead one to advocate a model of society that controls a;d manipulates it’s citizens using these techniques

Question 52

• Evaluation- The Nature- Nurture Debate
• SECOND POINT:

Answer 52

1. Shared and unshared environments:

• Research attempting ‘tease out’ the influence of environment is complicated by fact that even siblings raised within the same family may not have experienced exactly the same upbringing
• Judy Dunn and Robert Plomin- first explained this- suggested that individual differences mean that siblings may experience life events differently
• E.g. age or temperament would mean that a life event such as parental divorce would have a different meaning to each sibling
• This would explain the finding that even MZ twins reared together don’t show perfect concordance rates which supports the view that heredity and the environment can’t be meaningfully separated

Question 53

• Evaluation- The Nature- Nurture Debate
• THIRD POINT:

Answer 53

1. Constructivism:

• Notion that genes and environment interact is elaborated
• People create their own ‘nurture’ by actively selecting environments that are appropriate for their ‘nature’
• So a naturally aggressive child is likely to feel more comfortable around children who show similar behaviours and will ‘choose’ their environment accordingly. This environment then affects their development
• Robert Plomin refers to this as niche-picking and niche-building- further evidence that it’s impossible and illogical to try to separate nature and nurture influences in child’s behaviour