Issues and Debates in Psychology

Question 1

Outline Gender bias

Answer 1

Issue of Gender bias:

Struggle to reach facts about human behaviour that are objective, value-free and consistent across time and culture (universality) due to bias.

Alpha bias: Exaggerates difference
- Psychodynamic theory, girls identify with same sex weaker so have weaker super-ego.

Beta bias: Minimises difference
- Fight or flight research done on male animals only but applied to all.

Androcentrism: Male-centred approach historically in psychology. List of 100 famous psychologists, 6 are women.

Question 2

Give three negative evaluations of Gender bias.

Answer 2

1) “Gender differences” presented as fact often based of social stereotype:
Maccoby and Jacklin
- Girls better with verbal ability, boys with spatial due to biological brain differences (no scans to back up).
Joel et al.
- Actually did scans which don’t find any evidence for the above statement.
=> Counterpoint
There could still be underlying biological differences but we cannot exaggerate the effect.

2) Gender bias promotes sexism in research:
Murphy et al.
- Women traditionally underrepresented in university departments. Research (especially early) is more likely to be conducted by males and suffer from gender bias.

3) Research challenging bias may not be published:
Formanowicz et al.
- Analysed 1000 articles relating to gender bias. Research is often underfunded and published by less prestigious journals.

Question 3

Outline culture bias

Answer 3

Americans and students over-represented 68% US and 80% students.

WEIRD (Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised Rich Democracies) people set standard.

Ethnocentrism:
Tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all research through the ‘lens’ of one’s own culture.
- The strange situation reflects western values so Japanese babies classed as insecurely attached.

Cultural relativism:
Norms and ethics only make sense in their cultural context.

Universality VS Cultural relativism:
1. Etic approach looks for universal behaviours.
2. Emic approach looks for behaviours specific to that culture.

Question 4

Give two evaluative limitations of cultural bias in research.

Answer 4

1. Ethnic stereotyping:
   Gould
   - IQ tests were originally ethnocentric in America WW1 and then used as evidence that certain ethnic groups were of lower intelligence.
2. Classic studies are culturally-biased:
   - Asch’s and Milgram’s studies done on white middle-class US participants. Replications produced different results.

Question 5

Give one positive evaluation of the knowledge that cultural bias can occur in research.

Answer 5

Cultural psychology:
- Field that studies how people are shaped by their cultural experience. Approach is emic to avoid ethnocentrism, local researchers and culturally-based techniques.

Question 6

Outline free will versus determinism.

Answer 6

Is behaviour a matter of free will or caused by internal/ external factors. Modern approaches are deterministic but disagree on origin.

Free will:
- We are influenced but ultimately self determining.

Determinism:
1. Hard = Fatalism, all actions have cause
2. Soft = Cause with limited will

Types of determinism:
- Biological
- Environmental
- Psychic

Science seeks to find causal relationships where one thing is determined by another.

Question 7

Give two negative evaluations for the free will versus determinism debate in psychology.

Answer 7

1. Evidence against free will:
   Libet et al.
   - Participants asked to randomly flick wrist and say so, brain activity came before action.
   => Counterpoint
   - Delayed conscious awareness still means the person may have made the decision to act.
2. Responsibility of law:
   Fatalism is not consistent with legal principle of moral responsibility.

Question 8

Give one positive evaluation for the free will versus determinism debate.

Answer 8

Practical value of free will:
Roberts et al.
- Adolescents who believed in fatalism more prone to depression due to external locus of control.

Question 9

Outline the nature versus nurture debate.

Answer 9

Not really a debate. Interactionist approach, most things are due to both.

Examples:
- Diathesis stress model
- Epigenetics, lifestyle can affect genes

Key concepts:
- Nature = genetics, Descartes’s nativism
- Nurture = environment, Locke’s TR

Measuring:
Concordance (how similar two people are on a particular trait) used to estimate heritability (proportion of differences between individuals, with regards to a particular trait, due to genes).

Question 10

Give three positive evaluations for the nature versus nurture debate.

Answer 10

1. Adoption studies:
   Rhee and Waldman
   - Similarities between adopted child and biological then adoptive parents. Genes account for 41% of variance in aggression.
2. Support for epigenetics:
   Susser and Lin
   - Dutch Hunger Winter (1944). Pregnant mothers had low birth weight babies who were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia.
3. Real-world application:
   Nestadt et al.
   - Heritability rate for OCD is .76 which is high. Genetic counselling, understand likelihood and how to prevent - manage stress.

Question 11

Outline the holism versus reductionism debate.

Answer 11

The debate is whether to look at the whole person (holism) or breaking them down and studying constituent parts (reductionism). There is no continuum, one or the other.

Levels of explanation using OCD:
- Socio-cultural level
- Psychological level
- Physical level
- Environmental level
- Physiological level
- Neurochemical level

Biological reductionism

Environmental reductionism

Question 12

Give two negative evaluations for the holism versus reductionism debate.

Answer 12

1. Holism lacks practical value:
   - Theories and explanation become to complex and impractical to apply.
2. Reductionism is not compatible with higher level explanations:
   - Aspects of behaviour only emerge within group context. e.g Asch or Zimbardo’s conformity studies.

Question 13

Give one positive evaluation for the holism versus reductionism debate.

Answer 13

Reductionism has scientific status:
- Basis of operationalisation, enables objective and reliable experiments.
=> Counterpoint:
- Ignore context in which behaviour occurs, only partial explanation.

Question 14

Outline the idiographic versus nomothetic debate.

Answer 14

How to investigate human behaviour. Look in detail at single cases or try and find universal laws.

Idiographic:
- Studying single individual or small group. Generates qualitative data used to make generalisations.
- e.g Rogerian therapy and Freud’s “little Hans”

Nomothetic:
- Study of larger groups to try and find universal laws. Quantitative data generally produced.
- e.g Skinner’s laws of learning or the Strange situation.

Nomothetic assumes objective measurement is possible through standardisation, idiographic believes only individual experience matters. Objective versus subjective.

Question 15

Give two positive evaluations for the idiographic versus nomothetic debate.

Answer 15

1. The approaches work together:
   - Idiographic complements nomothetic such as patient HM.
   => Counterpoint:
   - Idiographic on its own is restricted, no baseline for comparison.
2. Both approaches fit aims of science:
   - Nomothetic is objective using statistical testing. Idiographic also scientific, uses triangulation and reflexivity.

Question 16

Give one negative evaluation for the idiographic versus nomothetic debate.

Answer 16

Nomothetic approach loses the individuals experience:
- Nomothetic approach focuses on general laws and statistics e.g 1% risk for schizophrenia. Overlooks the experience which is useful for devising therapy.

Question 17

Outline ethical implications of research in studies and theory.

Answer 17

Ethical implications are concerns about the consequences of the theory/ study. Issues arise due to conflict between aims and rights of participants. Ethical guidelines protect.

Socially sensitive research (SSR):
- Research that has consequences for the participants or the groups they represent. Some research is more sensitive than others.

Research question:
- Question changes interpretation of findings. E.g If focus is on “alternative relationships” then heterosexual may be excluded. Initial bias.

Dealing with participants:
- Informed consent, confidentiality and psychological harm MUST be considered.

Use of findings:
- May give scientific credence to existing prejudice. E.g WW1 US IQ test results.

Question 18

Give two positive evaluations for ethical implications of research studies and theory.

Answer 18

1. Benefits of SSR for the group studied:
   Kinsey et al.
   - Homosexuality defined as “sociopathic personality disorder” in DSM-1. However research (interviews of 5000 men) showed it was normal.
   => Counterpoint:
   - This is situational, sometimes SSR can have negative or dangerous consequences.
2. Real-world application:
   Office of National Statistics
   - Decisions on child care, crime etc. use SSR research.

Question 19

Give one negative evaluation for the ethical implications of research studies and theory.

Answer 19

Poor research design has long-term consequences:
- Burt’s research on IQ showed it was fixed by age 11, which led to 11+ exams. However, later showed to be based on false evidence - but too late as system was already in place and has not changed. Any SSR research must be carefully planned to ensure it is valid.