Issues and Debates for exam

Question 1

What is gender bias?

Answer 1

It is the different treatment/representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences.
Alpha and beta bias

Question 2

What is androcentrism?

Answer 2

Male centred/focused often to the neglect or exclusion of women.

Theories produced tend to represent a male world view.

Women are not represented in research as much as men.

Question 3

What are the two types of gender bias?

Answer 3

Alpha

Beta

Question 4

What is alpha bias in gender? (2)

Answer 4

Difference between men and women is exaggerated. Misrepresentation of behaviour as a result.
Devalue one gender in comparison to the other.

Question 5

What is beta bias in gender?

Answer 5

Differences between men and women are ignored. What is assumed for men (usually) will be also assumed for women.
The NEEDS of one gender are (usually women) are ignored

Question 6

What is an example of alpha bias in gender?

Answer 6

Freud’s alpha biased theory of psychoanalysis, he viewed femininity as failed masculinity - exaggerated.
Freud’s theories reflected culture he lived in 19th century. Men more powerful/educated.

As the superego develops from the Oedipus complex (which involves castration anxiety), and women cannot go through the same Oedipus complex as boys, women are seen as morally inferior.

Question 7

What is an example of beta bias in gender?

Answer 7

When researching fight or flight stress responses, male animals mostly used because in females - there is a variation in hormone levels making research more difficult. Tf assumed true for males is true for females. Not the case - ignored.

For schizophrenia, symptoms are found by male psychologists and male ppts - differences ignored. Hence why females have been diagnosed as mentally stable in the past, this may not be the case.

Question 8

What is universality?

Answer 8

Aiming to develop theories that apply to all people, may include real differences. Recognising differences but not the superiority of one gender over another.

Question 9

Evaluation point about feminist psychology in gender bias.

Answer 9

Way to counter androcentrism is to take a feminist perspective. It agrees biologically based sex differences but socially determined stereotypes can be challenged.
Eagly (1978) claimed women may be less effective leader but this should be used to develop suitable training programmes and create a future with more women as leaders

Question 10

Evaluation point, gender bias in research methods.

Answer 10

Rosenthal (1966) found that male experimenters are more pleasant, friendly and encouraging to female ppts than to male ppts. Methods used to test or observe participants may be biased. Or perhaps males and females are treated differently by researchers which may cause differences.

Question 11

What is reversing alpha bias in gender evaluation point

What is avoiding beta bias evaluation point

Answer 11

Changing preconceptions saying that women are better than men: research suggests they are better learners because they are more attentive and organised - Cornwall et. al. (2013)

Equal treatment for men and women (beta bias) given women greater opportunities - may be a disadvantage. Mustin and Marecek (1988) point out arguing for equality between men and women draws attention away from women’s special needs.
For example pregnancy/childbirth - biological demands.
Suggests we should avoid beta bias to ensure significant differences are taken account of.

Question 12

What is soft determinism?

Answer 12

Soft determinism - A version of determinism that allows for some element of free will,

claiming physical behaviour is determined, but mental behaviour is not.

Question 13

What is hard determinism?

Answer 13

Hard determinism - The view that all behaviour can be predicted that there is no free will.

Question 14

What is biological determinism?

Answer 14

Biological determinism: all our behaviour is caused by our biological makeup and so we are not in control of our behaviour.
Research into human genome is producing increasing evidence of genetic influences.
For example, the high intelligence gene.

Question 15

What is environmental determinism?

give example

Answer 15

Believe all behaviours are caused by PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE, through classical/operant CONDITIONING.
For example phobias develop as a result of conditioning. Dog is paired with being bitten.

Question 16

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 16

Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of personality suggests that adult behaviour is determined by a mix of innate drives and early experiences (internal and external forces)
Behaviour driven by libido (sex drive).

Question 17

What is scientific determinism?
give example
Any questions about science!

Answer 17

Based on belief that all events have a cause. Independent variable manipulated to observe causal effect on dependent variable.
For example Harlow’s study (1959) the monkey either went to the wire mother covered with milk or the cloth covered mother. Showed contact comfort, not food, determined formation of attachment.

Question 18

What is the humanistic approach to free will?

Answer 18

Maslow + Rogers argued self-determination is a necessary part of human behaviour.
Only when a person takes self responsibility is personal growth possible.

Question 19

What is moral responsibility approach to free will?

Answer 19

Says an individual is in charge of their own actions, in other words humans (except children/mentally ill) are accountable for their actions, regardless of innate factors.

Question 20

Evaluation point for biological determinism v environmental determinism

Answer 20

It is doubtful that 100% genetic determinism will ever be found for any behaviour. For example the studies that compare monozygotic twins find an 80% match on intelligence.
INTERACTIONIST APPROACH

Question 21

1

Answer 21

1

Question 22

Evaluation point for psychic determinism.

Answer 22

No scientific research.

Question 23

Evaluation point for scientific determinism.

Answer 23

Too simplistic
Human behaviour very complex
Might be suitable explanations for animals but humans have sophisticated cognitive processes.

Question 24

Evaluation point for free will. (2)

Answer 24

Being able to decide between different courses of actions is not free will but may give us the illusion of having free will.
Idea of self determination may be a culturally relative concept, appropriate for individualist societies.
Collectivist cultures place greater value on behaviour determined by group needs.

Question 25

What are the reductionist levels of explanation? high, med, low

Answer 25

Ways we can explain our behaviour:

• Highest level: cultural and social explanations of how our social groups affect our behaviour.
• Medium level: Psychological explanations of behaviour.
• Lowest level: Biological explanations of how hormones and genes.. affect our behaviour.

Question 26

What is reductionism simply? Include PARSIMONY

Answer 26

Pulling complex ideas into more simple components.

Based on scientific assumption of parsimony: idea that complex phenomena should be explained in simple terms.

Question 27

What is holism simply?

Answer 27

Holism is about systems as a whole rather than just the constituent parts.

We cannot predict how the whole system will behave just from a knowledge of the individual components.

Question 28

What is biological reductionism? and give example

Answer 28

Human behaviour is reduced to a physical level.

Biological psychologists reduce behaviour to actions of neurons/neurotransmitters.

Question 29

What is environmental reductionism?

Answer 29

Behaviourist explanations suggest all behaviour can be explained in terms of simple stimulus-response links - behaviour can be reduced to simple relationship between behaviour and events in environment.

Question 30

Give example of biological reductionism (neurons/neurotransmitters).

Answer 30

Popular explanation, eg: it is suggested schizophrenia is caused by excessive activity of neurotransmitter dopamine because drugs that block neurotransmitter reduce symptoms.

Question 31

Give example of environmental reductionism.

Answer 31

Behaviourist explanations offered for attachment. Complex emotion of attachment reduced to a set of probabilities: mother is likely to provide food which is reinforcing - operant (reduces discomfort). Tf becomes the ‘loved one’.

Question 32

What is experimental reductionism?

Answer 32

Reducing complex behaviours to isolated variables. So variables can be operationalised (easily testable) and simple cause/effect relationships can be determined.

Question 33

What is gestalt psychology in the holism approach?

Answer 33

Gestalt - ‘the whole’ in German, founded by German psychologists. They focused on perception, arguing that explanations for what we see only makes sense through a consideration of the whole rather than the individual elements.

Question 34

What is humanistic psychology in the holism approach?

Answer 34

Humanistic psychologists believe individuals react as an organised whole, rather than a set of stimulus response links.

Question 35

What is cognitive psychology in the holism approach to behaviour?

Answer 35

Memory is a complex system - recent years has been understood in terms of connectionist networks. Idea each network is a unit.

Question 36

What is a strength/slight weakness of biological reductionism?

eval point

Answer 36

Development of drug therapies. More humane approach of treating the mentally ill - not blaming the patient, leads to greater tolerance of mentally ill.
However, drug therapies are not always successful as they ignore the context of such behaviour.

Question 37

What is a limitation of environmental reductionism?

eval point

Answer 37

A limitation of the behavioural approach is that it was developed using experiments with non-human animals. May be useful in terms of simple behaviour but less appropriate for more complex human behaviour. Tf, en. red. ignores other possible influences on human behaviour eg: social contect and emotions.

Question 38

What is a limitation of experimental reductionism?

Answer 38

Behaviour reduced to a form that can be easily tested many not tell us much about everyday life. Such as the findings from Loftus and Palmer, had to be done in a lab.

Question 39

What are the 3 types of reductionism?

Answer 39

• Biological
• Environmetal
• Experimental

Question 40

What are the 3 types of holism?

Answer 40

• Gestalt
• Humanistic
• Cognitive

Question 41

What is the idiographic approach to psychological investigation?

Answer 41

Study of individuals and the unique insights each individual gives us about human behaviour.

Question 42

What data methods does an idiographic approach use?

Answer 42

Qualitative data methods.

Question 43

What are the qualitative methods used in an idiographic approach?

Answer 43

Rich, detailed written analysis,

Unstructured interviews, case studies and thematic analysis (closely examined common themes over a lot of data)

Question 44

What is an example of the idiographic approach?

Answer 44

Freud and Little Hans.
Freud investigated Little Hans, a child afraid of horses because he had a growing interest with his penis up until the point where his mum said she would have it cut off and Hans then developed castration anxiety.

Question 45

What is the nomothetic approach to psychological investigation?

Answer 45

Involves large numbers of people and then seeks to make generalisations or develop laws about their behaviour.
Takes a scientific approach.

Question 46

What data methods does an nomothetic approach use?

Answer 46

Quantitative data methods.

Question 47

What are the quantitative data methods used in the nomothetic approach?

Answer 47

Measures of central tendency

Data from groups rather than individuals.

Question 48

What is an example of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 48

Behaviourist psychologists research into classical and operant conditioning, involved thousands of human ppts. Seeking 1 set of rules for all animals - humans/non-humans.

Question 49

A weakness of the nomothetic approach.

Answer 49

-Questionnaire may not give a middle number.

True / False questions, no inbetween.

Question 50

2 strengths of the idiographic approach.

Answer 50

• New understanding/new findings of behaviour as open questions are asked.
• Focus on individuals level. Humanistic/qualitative psychologists felt nomothetic psychology lost sight of what it was to be human.

Question 51

A weakness of the idiographic approach.

Answer 51

• Time consuming as you have to collect the data and then analyse.
• Both have large sets of data but nomothetic is quicker if you have a devised questionnaire where data can be generated differently

Question 52

Strength/weakness of idiographic.

Answer 52

-Scientific basis, lack of objective evidence but idiographic methods are useful for positive psychology approaches that focus on evidence based as they include case studies etc…

Question 53

Combining idiographic and nomothetic methods.

Answer 53

Holt (1967) argues there is no such thing as a unique individual - do generate general principles (nomothetic). Using idiographic to find a behaviour and then applying nomothetic to find generalisations of behaviour.

Question 54

Who proposed the two different ways theories can be biased in gender and culture?

Answer 54

Hare-Mustin and Marecek (1988)

Question 55

What is a limitation of the reductionism theory? (mind-body problem and give example.)
Eval point.

Answer 55

Reductionist approach struggles to explain the mind-body relationship with everything being reduced to the physical world. It assumes the physical basis of behaviour has a causal link to higher levels of reductionism. Whereas we can only observe certain physical events that are associated with mental events.
Eg: sleeping, electrical activity in brain is associated with dreaming but cannot establish a cause.

Question 56

EXTRA to help with AO3

Answer 56

EXTRA

Question 57

Gender bias evaluation point.

What did Eagly (1978) say?

Answer 57

Way to counter androcentrism is to take a feminist approach.
Eagly (1978) claimed women may be less effective leader but this should be used to develop suitable training programmes and create a future with more women as leaders.

Question 58

Gender bias evaluation point.

What did Cornwall et al. (2013) say?

Answer 58

Changing preconceptions saying that women are better than men: research suggests they are better learners because they are more attentive and organised - Cornwall et. al. (2013)

Question 59

Gender bias evaluation point.

What did Rosenthal (1966) say?

Answer 59

Rosenthal (1966) found that male experimenters are more pleasant, friendly and encouraging to female ppts than to male ppts. Methods used to test or observe participants may be biased. Or perhaps males and females are treated differently by researchers which may cause differences.

Question 60

Gender bias evaluation point.

What did Mustin and Marecek (1988) say?

Answer 60

The importance of avoiding beta bias. They argue differences between men and women should not be ignored. Equal treatment for men and women (beta bias) given women greater opportunities - may be a disadvantage. Mustin and Marecek (1988) point out arguing for equality between men and women draws attention away from women’s special needs.
For example pregnancy/childbirth - biological demands.
Suggests we should avoid beta bias to ensure significant differences are taken account of.

Question 61

What is free will? (3 marks)

Answer 61

• An individual is seen as being capable of self-determination.
• Individuals have an active role in controlling their behaviour.
• Individuals are free to choose their behaviour and aren’t acting in response to any external
or internal pressures.