Issues and Debates AO1

Question 1

ETHICAL ISSUES

Answer 1

BPS Guidelines-

Respect, Responsibility, Competence, and Integrity.

Ethical Issues-

• Deception
• Informed consent
• Confidentiality
• Right to withdraw
• Protection from harm
• Privacy

Question 2

PRACTICAL ISSUES

Answer 2

Generalisability- Representative sample

Reliability- Internal, External, Inter-rater and test-retest

Validity- Internal, External, Ecological, Concurrent, Predictive, Descriptive.

Question 3

REDUCTIONISM

Answer 3

Reductionism is breaking something down into parts in order to study it. Then the findings of the study of the parts are put together to try and make sense of the whole.

Holism is when something is studied as a whole, considering everything about the situation, theory or individual. Looking at risk factors.

Animal reductionism- believing that animal studies will directly relate to animals when they have different cognitive systems.

Experimental reductionism- They control 1 IV at a time which isn’t how behaviour works.

Machine reductionism- Computer analogy in cognitive psychology

Question 4

PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

Answer 4

Paradigm- Shared set of beliefs. Lack of paradigms are a weakness across psychology (no consistent way of explaining behaviour) therefore psychology is not scientific. No shared set of beliefs.

Falsifiable- Try and prove ourselves wrong, cant so assume right. Can’t prove anything right it can only be proved wrong. Research is designed to support the null hypothesis.

Empiricism- Based on evidence. Eg studies

Replication- A theory may have been replication.

Controls- Controls extraneous variables and a standardised procedure

Question 5

CULTURE AND GENDER

Answer 5

Ethnocentric- The focus on one culture when conducting research or participants are all from the same ethnic background.

Individualist or collectivist-

Imposed etics- Impose one cultures views and beliefs on another or using a questionnaire that was developed in one culture in another.

Androcentric- The focus on one gender when conducting research or participants are all the same gender.

Alpha bias- Over estimates gender differences.

Beta Bias- Under estimates gender differences.

Question 6

NATURE VS NURTURE

Answer 6

Methods- Twin/adoption

Nature- role of genetics in behaviour

Nurture- Role of environment in behaviour

Interactionism- how nature and nurture work together.

Question 7

DEVELOPMENT OVER TIME

Answer 7

Describe different ways in which it has developed.

Question 8

SOCIAL CONTROL

Answer 8

Positive social control- Using knowledge to overcome problems/barriers.

Negative social control- Unavoidable to control or used to harm.

Question 9

USE OF KNOWLEDGE IN SOCIETY

Answer 9

Positive use of psychological knowledge- Using knowledge to overcome problems/barriers.

Negative use of psychological knowledge- Using knowledge to control or used to harm.