Issues and Debates (A2) PAPER 3

Question 1

Define gender bias

Answer 1

When differences between genders are misrepresented

Question 2

Define alpha bias

Answer 2

When a researcher exaggerates the differences between men and women

Question 3

Define beta bias

Answer 3

When a researcher minimises or ignores the differences between men and women

Question 4

Define andro and gyno centrism

Answer 4

andro - male centred
gyno - female centred

Question 5

Describe one example of psychological research that demonstrates alpha bias

Answer 5

Freud argued that there was a genuine psychological difference between men and women because of ther physiological differences, he claimed young girls suffer from penis envy, and viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity.

Question 6

Describe one example of psychological research that demonstrates beta bias

Answer 6

Asch’s conformity studies involved all male participants, but it was assumed that females would respond in the same way.

Question 7

Outline what is meant by cultural bias in psychology

Answer 7

when researchers misrepresent the differences between cultures, similar to the forms of gender bias.

Question 8

Describe one example of ethnocentrism in psychological research

Answer 8

Ainsworths The Strange Situation used ethnocentrism as the sample used all american infants to assess the attachment types of infants, however the results from other cultures were very different. The ideal standard of attachemnt in america was secure attachment whilst in Japan it was insecure resistant attachement, and in Germany it was insecure avoidant attachment. The different results from other cultures were seen as abnormal.

Question 9

Define universality

Answer 9

Universality is when a theory of behaviour applies to everyone

Question 10

Outline ethnocentrism

Answer 10

when someone focuses on there own cultural perspective. Sometimes this is known as seeing there own culture as correct or more important and seeing other cultures as abnormal.

Question 11

define ethnocentric bias

Answer 11

When a researcher ignores other cultures completely or they studied cultures without understanding there cultural perspective.

Question 12

Limitations of ethnocentrism

Answer 12

• decreases the validity and reliability of research
• can lead to misdiagnosis
• can lead to harmful stereotypes

Question 13

Define cultural relativism

Answer 13

A persons behaviour must be understood from their own cultures perspective.

Question 14

Strength and limitations of cultural relativism

Answer 14

+ Removes ethnocentric bias which prevents prejudice and discrimination because it values all cultures.
- May exaggerate the differences between cultures
- May ignore differences within a culture

Question 15

Define cross cultural research

Answer 15

Research being carried out in different cultures to see if theories generalise or if there are cultural variations.

Question 16

Explain the difference between free will and determinism

Answer 16

Free will is when we have full control over our behaviour whilst Determinism is the veiw that we never have control over our behaviour.

Question 17

Explain what is meant by soft determinism

Answer 17

our choices are constrained by biological or environmental factors, but we have free will to choose within these options.
- social learning theory and cognitive approach assumes soft determinism.

Question 18

Briefly explain the concept of biological determinism

Answer 18

Human behaviour is assumed by biological factors such as genes, meaning we have no free will.

Question 19

Why are free will and determinism unfalsifiable

Answer 19

• free will doesnt allow for predictions about behaviour.
• determinism can falsify specific causes for behaviour but not the general idea that behaviour has a cause.

Question 20

State an argument in favour of assuming free will (treatments and therapy)

Answer 20

• if we treat people as if they have free will, then they will be likely to believe that they have free will and develop an internal locus of control.
  -BENASSI et al showed that people with an internal locus of control were less likely to develop symptoms of depression.
• thus favouring free will

Question 21

State an argument against assuming free will

Answer 21

Assuming free will can unfairly blame people for behaviour that wasnt there fault, it might be that there behaviour was caused by biological or environmental factors.

Question 22

State the legal implications of determinism

Answer 22

• determinism states how no one is responsible for there actions but our legal system states how people are responsible for there actions and should get punished if they break the law.
  COUNTER if our legal system provides a deterrent (punishment to put off people from commiting crimes) we can assume determinism and still have a legal system.

Question 23

Explain what is meant by heredity

Answer 23

when genetic traits are passed on through reproduction

Question 24

Briefly outline the nature-nurture debate in psychology

Answer 24

It is about the relative contributions of heredity and environment in determining behaviour

Question 25

Explain what is meant by an interactionist approach in the nature-nurture debate

Answer 25

Its how heredity and environment interact to determine behaviour

Question 26

evaluate 2 limitation of the nature-nurture debate in studying relative contributions

Answer 26

• may be many alleles associated with behaviour
• Ripke at al did a study where he found over 100 risk alleles which were associated with schizophrenia
• because different people carry different combinations of these risk alleles, it is hard to determine cause and effect relationship between certain alleles and Sz
• therefore hard to show the contribution of herdity to Sz

-we dont know the extent to which someones environment was influenced by their genes in the first place
-this is called a gene - environment correlation, and was first theorised by Robert Plomin

Question 27

give two examples of the interactionist approach to nature nurture

Answer 27

GENETIC POTENTIAL
-gottesmans research on intelligence
- our genes determine our potential intelligence and our environment determines where we end up in that range

DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL
-used to understand mental health problems
- need both diathesis and stress to show symptoms

Question 27

Define gene - environment interaction

Answer 27

when the effect of an environment on phenotype depends on the genotype

Question 28

What is reductionism and holism

Answer 28

reductionism - the veiw that we can understand things by breaking them down into simpler parts

holism - to understand something we must look at it as a whole

Question 29

Explain what is meant by biological reductionism

Answer 29

It is the lowest most reductionist level of explanation is biological reuctionism.
It is when we explain behaviour in terms of biological factors, such as neurotransmitters, hormones and genes.

Question 30

Explain what is meant by ‘levels of explanation’ in psychology

Answer 30

It is used to explain behaviour, the lowest level considers biological explanations where behaviour can be explained in regards to genetics and brain structure, the middle layer is psychological explanations (cognitive and behavioural) and the highest level considers social and cultural explanations where behaviour is explained in terms of the influence of social groups.

Question 31

Explain the difference between biological reductionism and environmental reductionism

Answer 31

one difference is that biological reductionism is more reductionist than environmental as it involves a lower level of explanation

Question 32

why is reductionist explanations scientific but holism explanations are not

Answer 32

reductionist explanations reduce behaviour to cause and effect relationships that are emperically testable and therefore falsifiable.
However very holistic explanations are not scientific because they insist we shouldnt break down behaviour into cause and effect relationships

Question 33

Define principe of parsimony

Answer 33

states that you should choose the simplest explanation - support for reductionism

Question 34

Explain what is meant by nomothetic approach to psychological investigation

Answer 34

nomothetic approach try to establish general laws for everyone, psychologists use large groups of people and the use of statistical (quantitative) techniques to analyse data. experiments and correlational studies are nomothetic

Question 35

What is an idiographic approach

Answer 35

focuses on individual differences. Uses qualitative data such as unstructured interveiws and open questions

Question 36

Explain one strength of the nomothetic approach to psychological investigation

Answer 36

It is more scientific because it aims to establish general laws, which allows us to make predictions. For this reason, experemental psychologists tend to prefer nomothetic methods

Question 37

Explain what is meant by social sensitivity in research studies and theories

Answer 37

Sieber and Stanley used the term social sensitivity to describe studies where there are potential social consequences for the participants or the group of people represented by the research.

Question 38

Explain how one example of research could be considered to be socially sensitive

Answer 38

Loftus and Palmers research into the accuracy of eye wittness testimony is socially sensitive because it questions whether victims of crimes can be believed. Therefore, discouraging victims from reporting crimes because they fear they wont be believed