Issues and Debates in Psychology

Question 1

What is Gender Bias?

Answer 1

The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real difference.

Question 2

What is Alpha Bias? (Gender)

Answer 2

• A tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women, suggesting that there are real and enduring differences between the two sexes.
• The consequences are that theories devalue one gender in comparison to the other, but typically devalue women.

Question 3

Example of Alpha Bias (Gender) -> Psychodynamic Explanation

Answer 3

• Psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour suggests that criminality occurs due to a deviant superego.
• According to Freud, since females do not experience castration anxiety, they are under less pressure and have less of a need to identify with the moral standards of their same-sex parent, as compared to boys.
• This suggests that females, in line with the psychodynamic approach, are less moral than males - an idea which has been refuted by Hoffman et al.

Question 4

Example of Alpha Bias (Gender) -> Relationships

Answer 4

• Wilson’s sociobiological theory of relationship formation suggests that sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined, whereas promiscuous females are going
  against their ‘nature’.
• Females, from an evolutionary standpoint, need to be more
  selective when choosing their mates, due to having a limited supply of eggs and requiring more energy and effort to reproduce, compared to men.
• Therefore, such alpha bias may lead to prejudice and stereotyping of women who engage in these behaviours.

Question 5

What is Androcentrism?

Answer 5

• Theories that are centred on males, often to the neglect or exclusion of women

Question 6

Example of Androcentrism -> Flight or Fight

Answer 6

• Research on Fight or Flight is usually conducted with male animals because in females the variation in hormone levels would make research more difficult – it has been assumed that only male samples are needed as what is true for males is true for females
• Until Shelley Taylor 2000 challenged this, they provided evidence that females produce a tend and befriend respond at times of stress which is adaptive as it ensures the survival of the offspring.
• This beta bias meant that a real difference was ignored.

Question 7

What is Beta Bias? (Gender)

Answer 7

• A tendency to ignore or minimise differences between men and women.
• Such theories tend to ignore questions about the lives of women, or insights derived from studies of men will apply equally well to women.

Question 8

Example of Beta Bias (Gender) -> Flight or Fight

Answer 8

• Early research conducted into the fight or flight response exclusively used male lab mice because they experience fewer hormonal fluctuations and so changes in adrenaline, due to environmental stressors, could be more reliably measured.
• However, results from these studies were then generalised to females, ignoring differences between the two sexes (e.g. speed and extent of the fight or flight response).

Question 9

Example of Beta Bias (Gender) - Forensics Kohlberg

Answer 9

• Kohlberg’s levels of moral reasoning theory was developed on the basis of studying groups of American males, who all answered questions based on moral dilemmas e.g. the Heinz dilemma.
• These results were then generalised to represent levels of moral reasoning for both men and women.

Question 9

What is Universality?

Answer 9

A theory that can apply to all people, irrespective of gender and culture

Question 9

Evaluate Avoiding Beta Bias (++++)

Answer 9

• Beta bias has allowed women greater access to educational and occupational opportunities.
• However it was found that arguing for equality draws attention away from women’s special needs, for example equal parenting ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, childbirth and the special needs of
  women.
• Therefore, this suggests that some elements of beta bias may actually disadvantage women.

Question 10

Evaluate Gender bias in research methods (—–)

Answer 10

• If theories and studies are gender biased, the research may find differences between genders but it may not be the genders that differ but simply the methods used to test or observe them.
• For example, Rosenthal (1966) found that male experimenters are more pleasant and encouraging to female participants and subsequently they perform better in tasks/male participants appeared to perform less well.
• Secondly, fewer women being appointed at senior research positions means that female concerns are less likely to be reflected in the experimental questions.

Question 10

Evaluate how lab experiments may be an example of institutionalised sexism within psychology (—)

Answer 10

• Male researchers have the authority to deem women as “unreasonable, irrational and unable to complete complex tasks” (Nicolson, 1995).
• Eagly and Johnson noted that studies in real settings found women and men were judged as more similar in styles of leadership than in lab settings, hence having higher ecological validity.

Question 11

Evaluate how Reverse alpha bias describes the development of theories that show a greater emphasis women (+++)

Answer 11

• Research by Cornwell et al (2013) showed that women are better at learning because they are more attentive, flexible and organised.
• Such research challenges the stereotype that in any gender differences the male position must be better and challenges
  people’s preconceptions.

Question 12

What is Culture?

Answer 12

• The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people.

Question 13

What is Cultural Bias?

Answer 13

• The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions.
• This distorts or biases your judgements.

Question 14

What is Cultural Relativism?

Answer 14

• The view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate.

Question 15

Example of Cultural Relativism - Obedience

Answer 15

• Milgram’s study into obedience was originally conducted using 40 male American participants
• But then also replicated using Spanish students (Miranda et al. found over 90% obedience rates in Spanish students) and Australian students (where only 16% of female participants continued to the highest voltage setting, as shown by Kilham and Mann).
• This suggests that Milgram’s original results were specifically bound to American cultures.

Question 16

What is Alpha Bias (Cultural Relativism)?

Answer 16

• The assumption that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups

Question 17

Example of Alpha Bias (Cultural Relativism) -> Conformity

Answer 17

• We would expect individualistic
  cultures to be less conformist as they are less orientated towards group norms and value the needs of the group over the individual.
• For example, Takano and Osaka reviewed 15 studies that compared the US and Japan in terms of collectivist /individualism and found that 14 out of 15 studies did not support the common view about differences in conformity.
• This suggests that there is less of a collectivist/individualist divide in an increasingly global world

Question 18

What is Beta Bias (Cultural Relativism)?

Answer 18

• Refers to theories that minimise or ignore cultural differences
• They do this by assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories for different cultural groups.

Question 19

What is an example of Beta Bias (Cultural Relativism) -> IQ Tests

Answer 19

• Psychologists use IQ tests to study intelligence in many different cultures as they assume that their view of intelligence applies equally to all cultures.
• However this may not always be the case. Western societies see intelligence as something within the individual whereas in a collectivist culture intelligence is a functional relationship depending on shared information between the
  individual and society.
• The result is that non-western people may appear less intelligent
• Such tests are described as taking an “imposed etic” approach, where a test is made in one group and then imposed on another.
• This approach studies behaviours outside a given group and behaviours which can be universally applied to all groups.

Question 20

What is Ethnocentrism?

Answer 20

• Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social group
• In its extreme form, can lead to prejudice and discrimination against “lesser” cultures

Question 21

What is indigenous Psychologies?

Answer 21

• A method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of
  different groups of theories in different countries.

Question 22

Example of Ethnocentrism - Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 22

• Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is an example of cultural relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety.
• Therefore, German mothers, whose children showed little
  separation and stranger anxiety (thus being insecure-avoidant according to Ainsworth’s system), were deemed as cold and rejecting.

Question 23

What is the emic-etic distinction approach?

Answer 23

• Seeks universal aspects of behaviour
• One way to do this whilst still avoiding cultural bias is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting.

Question 24

Evaluate Consequences of cultural bias (US Army IQ test) (—–)

Answer 24

• The US army IQ test showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ.
• This data has a profound effect on attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people, leading to stereotyping and
  discrimination.

Question 25

Evaluate how not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias

Answer 25

• Although there may be differences in rates of obedience (Milgram) and conformity (Asch) between collectivist/Eastern and individualist/Western cultures, universal behaviours still exist.
• For example, Ekman et al. demonstrated that facial expressions for anger, guilt and disgust were universally
  recognised across all cultures.
• In terms of attachment, interactional synchrony and
  reciprocity are universal features of infant-caregiver interactions.
• Therefore, this suggests that to fully understand behaviour, we must look at both universal and culture-bound examples.

Question 26

Evaluate Worldwide psychology (cultural bias) (+++)

Answer 26

• Researchers are now able to travel more and therefore have a greater understanding of other cultures, alongside having increased opportunities to conduct cross-cultural research.
• Academics meet to discuss and share ideas at international conferences, which reduces ethnocentrism in Psychology through appreciating that behaviours found in one culture may not be the same as in others, as well as real differences being identified and valued.
• For example, Bond and Smith noted that not all cultures will be familiar with research traditions and the aims of science, leading to a greater ‘Please-U’ demand characteristic effect, which may bias the findings.

Question 27

What is Determinism?

Answer 27

• The belief that behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors acting upon the individual and beyond their control.

Question 28

What are the three types of determinism?

Answer 28

Biological

Environmental

Psychic

Question 29

What is Biological Determinism?

Answer 29

The view that behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control, such as the influence of genes.

Question 30

Give 2 examples of Biological Determinism

Answer 30

• Research on intelligence has identified particular genes in those with high intelligence, such as the IGF2R gene (Hill et al,1999).
• Also, genes which affect brain structure and neurotransmitter production (i.e. serotonin and dopamine) may also determine our behaviour e.g. the CDH-13 and MAOA gene being candidate genes for criminality.

Question 31

What is environmental determinism?

Answer 31

The belief that behaviour is caused by previous experience through classical and operant conditioning.

Question 32

What is an example of Environmental Determinism?

Answer 32

• Phobias are a result of conditioning, as demonstrated by Watson’s study on Little Albert and Skinner’s Box (operant conditioning determining the behaviour of lab rats).
• These are external forces, over which we have no control.

Question 33

What is Psychic determinism?

Answer 33

• Freud’s theory of personality suggests that adult behaviour is determined by a mix of innate drives and early experience.
• These result in unconscious conflicts over which we have no control.

Question 34

What is an example of psychic determinism?

Answer 34

• Freud’s psychosexual stages of development suggests that each stage is characterised by a conflict which, if unresolved, leads to fixation in adulthood
• e.g. anal expulsive personalities being the result of fixation at the anal stage.

Question 35

What is Free Will?

Answer 35

• Each individual has the power to make choices about their behaviour, without being determined by internal or external forces beyond their control.
• A common feature of the humanistic approach.

Question 36

What is Hard determinism?

Answer 36

• The view that all behaviour can be predicted, according to the action of internal and external forces beyond our control, and so there can be no free will.

Question 37

What are the examples of Hard determinism?

Answer 37

• Behaviourism suggests that all behaviour is the product of classical and operant conditioning
• The biological approach sees behaviour as the product of genes and neurochemistry

Question 38

What is Soft determinism?

Answer 38

• A version of determinism that allows for some element of free will and suggests that all events, including human behaviour, has a cause

Question 39

Example of Soft Determinism

Answer 39

• The cognitive approach suggests that individuals can reason and make decisions within the limits of their cognitive system.
• Social learning theory suggests that behaviour is the product of vicarious reinforcement and mediational processes.

Question 40

Determine the importance of scientific research

Answer 40

• Scientific research is based on the belief that all events have a cause.
• An independent variable is manipulated to have an effect on the dependent variable.
• Through repeating the research under controlled conditions (e.g. using a laboratory experiment) and performing statistical tests, a ‘cause and effect’ relationship can be established between two variables.
• This increases the scientific credibility of Psychology, through enabling the prediction and control of behaviour.

Question 41

Evaluate how 100% genetic determinism is unlikely to be found for any behaviour

Answer 41

• Studies that compare monozygotic twins have found 80% similarity for intelligence and 40% for depression.
• This suggests that genes do not entirely determine behaviour and supports an interactionist standpoint.
• The fact that concordance rates for MZ twins are often higher than for siblings, despite both sharing 50% of genes, may be due to MZ twins being more likely to share the same environment.

Question 42

Evaluate how Determinism simplifies human behaviour

Answer 42

• Human behaviour is less rigid than non-humans and influenced by many factors i.e. cognitive factors which can override biological impulses.
• For example, aggression cannot be simplified to the action of the endocrine system and adrenaline.
• There are cognitive factors and accompanying emotions which are just as, or more important, than the biological aspects.

Question 43

Evaluate how a determinist position may be used for people to try and justify behaviours if they have
committed a crime

Answer 43

• This would be undesirable as it excuses their behaviour.
• Therefore, a hard deterministic stance is not in line with the principles of the judicial system, which sees individuals as taking moral responsibility for their actions.
• Determinism has also led to treatment methods for mental disorders, such as depression through the control of serotonin by using SSRIs and SNRIs.
• However, this biological deterministic approach does not allow the use of other treatments which are not based on biological mechanisms, such as CBT.

Question 44

Explain the Humanistic Approach (Free Will)

Answer 44

• Humanistic psychologists argue that self-determinism is a necessary part of human behaviour.
• Rogers (1959) claimed that as long as an individual remains controlled by other people or other things they cannot take responsibility for their own behaviour and therefore cannot change it. Only when an individual takes self responsibility is personal growth or ‘self actualisation’ possible.
• By taking such a stance, humanism has been praised as a positive approach, essentially seeing people as good and free to ‘better themselves’.

Question 45

Explain Moral responsibility (Free Will)

Answer 45

• The basis is that an individual is in charge of their own actions.
• The law states that children and those who are mentally ill do not have this responsibility but other than this, there is an assumption that normal adult behaviour is self determined.
• Therefore, humans are accountable for their behaviour regardless of innate factors or early experience.

Question 46

Evaluate the Challenge to the idea of free will (—-)

Answer 46

• Benjamin Libet et al (1983) recorded activity in motor areas of the brain before the person had a conscious awareness to move their finger.
• Chun Soon et al (2008) found activity in the prefrontal cortex up to 10 seconds before a person was aware of their decision to act.
• This suggests that the motor activity preceding movement occurred before the conscious decision was made, and so implies that all behaviour is pre-determined by up to 10 seconds.

Question 47

Evaluate how free will has high internal validity (+++)

Answer 47

• Robert et al. found that adolescents with an internal locus of control (an individual’s idea of what controls events in their lives) are less likely to develop depression and are more likely to have better mental health, compared to those with an external locus of control.
• These differences in LOC and mental health states supports the idea that free will can be used to help us determine what controls our life events, and so we make such conscious decisions.

Question 48

What is the environment?

Answer 48

• Everything that is outside our body, including people, events and the physical world.
• Any influence on behaviour which is non-genetic.

Question 49

What is Nature?

Answer 49

• Any influence on behaviour which is genetic
• e.g. the action of genes, neurochemistry, neurotransmitters and neurological structures.

Question 50

What is Heredity?

Answer 50

• The process by which traits are passed from parents to their offspring, usually referring to genetic inheritance.
• The heritability coefficient can be used to quantify the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis.

Question 51

What is the heritability coefficient used for?

Answer 51

• The heritability coefficient can be used to quantify the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis.

Question 52

What is an example of the heritability coefficient?

Answer 52

• For example, intelligence appears to have a heritability coefficient of 0.5 (Plomin et al, 1994) and so the influences of nature and nurture are equal.

Question 53

What is the interactionist approach?

Answer 53

• The view that the processes of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposition.

-They are linked in such a way that it does not make sense to separate the influences of the two.

Question 54

What is the nature nurture debate?

Answer 54

• The argument as to whether a person’s development is mainly due to their genes or to environmental influences.
• Most researchers accept that behaviour is a product of the interaction between nature and nurture.

Question 55

“Genetic explanations” as an example of the influence of nature

Answer 55

• The more closely related two individuals are, the more likely that they will develop the same behaviours.
• The concordance rate for a mental disorder such as schizophrenia is 40% for MZ twins and 7% for DZ twins.
• This illustrates how nature plays a part in contribution to the disorder.
• However, concordance rates for MZ twins are not 100%, despite being genetically identical.
• This suggests that nurture and the environment also plays a significant role in development.

Question 56

“Evolutionary explanations” as an example of the influence of nature

Answer 56

• These are based on the principle that a behaviour which promotes survival will be naturally selected e.g. running away from fire or avoiding deep water.
• This is because such behaviours are adaptive, so the individual is more likely to survive to adulthood and reproduce.
• Bowlby proposed that attachment was adaptive as it meant an infant was more likely to be protected due to displaying social releasers (innate, ‘cute’ behaviours which activates the adult mammalian attachment system) and features
  of infant-caregiver interactions (such as interactional synchrony and reciprocity).
• As such, the infant would be more likely to survive and reproduce as an adult.

Question 57

“Behaviourism” as an example of the influence of nature

Answer 57

• Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be explained in terms of experience alone.
• Skinner used the concepts of classical and operant conditioning to explain learning and suggests that attachment could be explained in terms of classical conditioning where the food reduces the discomfort of hunger (negative reinforcement) and is therefore rewarding.

Question 58

“Social Learning Theory” as an example of the influence of nature

Answer 58

• Bandura proposed that behaviour is acquired indirectly through operant and classical conditioning but also by directly through vicarious reinforcement.
• He acknowledged that biology had a role to play e.g. the urge to act aggressively could be biological but the way a person learns to express anger is through environmental
  influences (such as through observing and imitating the methods of expression of anger displayed by the identified role models).

Question 59

Evaluate how nurture affects nature (nature nurture debate)

Answer 59

• Maguire et al study of London taxi drivers showed that the region of their brains with spatial memory was bigger than in controls, this is because the hippocampi had responded this way.
• Maguire et al. studied the brains of London taxi drivers and found a larger grey matter volume in the mid-posterior hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with spatial awareness (skills needed for taxi drivers when they are learning and completing ‘The Knowledge’ exam).
• There was a positive correlation between increasingly pronounced changes and an increasing length of time that individuals had been taxi drivers.
• This demonstrates the interactionist nature of empiricism and nativism, and gives further reason as to why the influences of the two cannot be separated.

Question 60

Evaluate Constructivism (Nature Nurture Debate)

Answer 60

• Plomin suggested that an individual’s ‘nature’ would determine their ‘nurture’ through niche-picking or niche-building.
• For example, a naturally aggressive child would be more likely to play with and befriend other aggressive children.
• This in turn would increase the aggressiveness of the child.
• Therefore, the idea of constructivism further emphasises the multi-layered relationship between nature and nurture.

Question 61

What is Holism?

Answer 61

• With respect to a behaviour such as memory or mental disorder, perceiving the whole experience rather than the individual feature and or the relations between them.
• Some psychologists suggest that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ and so it does not make sense to break down target behaviours into their constituent parts, but rather study behaviours as part of an indivisible system.

Question 62

What is Reductionism?

Answer 62

• An approach that breaks complex phenomena into more simple components and implies that this is desirable because complex phenomena are best understood in terms of a simpler level of explanation.
• This is in contrast with holism.
• For example, a reductionist explanation of depression would be the consequence of low levels of serotonin in the brain.
• This is biological reductionism and a neurochemical viewpoint.

Question 63

What is the “Levels of explanation”? (Reductionism and Holism)

Answer 63

That there are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in Psychology e.g. socio-cultural, psychological, physical, physiological and neurochemical.

Question 64

What does Reductionists believe about the levels of explanation?

Answer 64

• The lower level level explanations (Biology, Chemistry physics) will eventually replace high level explanations (Social Sciences)

Question 65

What is the Highest level of Levels of explanation and give an example?

Answer 65

• Cultural and social explanations of behaviour
• e.g. depression being explained by a withdrawal from social activities, low energy levels and insomnia, which is viewed as odd by society.

Question 66

What is the middle level of Levels of explanation and give an example?

Answer 66

• Psychological explanations of behaviour
• e.g. depression being explained by Beck’s Cognitive Theory (the product of the cognitive triad of automatic negative thoughts, faulty information processing and negative self-schemas)
• Ellis’ ABC model (an activating event produces an irrational belief which leads to an emotional or
  behavioural consequence).

Question 67

What is the Lower level of level of explanation and give an example?

Answer 67

• Biological explanations of behaviour
• E.g. depression being explained by the action of candidate genes
• like 5HT1-D beta controlling the efficiency of synaptic serotonin transport
• and Neural Factors
• Like abnormal functioning of the left parahippocampal gyrus and the lateral frontal lobes

Question 68

What are the two types of Reductionism?

Answer 68

• Biological reductionism
• Environmental Reductionism

Question 69

What is Biological reductionism?

Answer 69

• Reducing behaviour to biology as it is based on the premise than we are biological organisms.

Question 70

What is an example of Biological Reductionism?

Answer 70

• Depression can be explained biochemically as a result of
  low levels of serotonin in the synaptic gaps between neurons.
• A characteristic feature of the biological approach.

Question 71

What is Environmental reductionism?

Answer 71

• Behaviourist explanations suggest that all behaviour can be explained in terms of simple stimulus response links

Question 72

What is an example of Environmental reductionism?

Answer 72

• Phobias are obtained and maintained using classical and operant conditioning (through repeated pairings between
  the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus to produce an unconditioned response, and then leading to a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response, as shown through Watson and Rayner’s study of Little Albert).

Question 73

Evaluate how Holism provides a more complete picture (++++)

Answer 73

• Some examples of behaviour can only be understood at the holistic level, such as the conformity and deindividuation of Zimbardo’s prisoners and guards in his Stanford Prison Experiment.
• Research into resisting conformity, such as Gamson’s work into the role of social support in groups, also makes use of holistic explanations by looking at the interactions within and between groups. Therefore, holistic explanations may provide a more ‘complete’ picture of behaviour.

Question 74

Evaluate the difficulty in investigating many different types and levels of explanations (Holism) (—-)

Answer 74

• It is difficult to investigate the many differing types and levels of explanations:
• This poses a practical problem for researchers who attempt to combine many higher-level explanations, because it becomes difficult to identify which explanation is most influential and therefore which explanation it would be most useful to base treatment upon.
• Therefore, holistic explanations may not lead to the development of effective treatments for mental health disorders.

Question 75

Evaluate the hypotheticals of Holistic explanations (—-)

Answer 75

• More hypothetical and not based on empirical evidence
• Holistic explanations are frequently used by the humanistic approach.
• However, there is a lack of empirical evidence associated with higher-level explanations and holistic viewpoints may simplify complex phenomena too far.
• As such, humanism is still seen as a set of rather loosely joined abstract concepts.

-Therefore, holistic explanations may not be suited towards more complex behaviours.

Question 76

Evaluate how Reductionism is consistent with the scientific approach (+++)

Answer 76

• Scientific psychology aims to be able to predict and control behaviour.
• Therefore, reductionism is consistent with the aims of science because it allows for this.
• Smaller, constituent parts of behaviour are easily measured and manipulated under strict laboratory conditions, and so ‘cause and effect’ relationships between variables can be reliably established.

-Hence, reductionism raises the scientific credibility of psychology.

Question 77

Evaluate how reductionism is a practical application in the development of drug therapy (+++)

Answer 77

• A reductionist approach towards researching and explaining mental disorders has led to the development of powerful and effective drug therapies
• e.g. SSRIs to treat depression, based on the view that a deficiency in serotonin causes depression (biological reductionism).
• This also reduces need for institutionalisation, where sufferers can continue with their day to day lives through the use of non - invasive treatment and without regular hospital visits.
• Therefore, reductionist approaches have had a positive impact on people’s lives.

Question 78

Evaluate how reductionism ignores the complexity of behaviour (—–)

Answer 78

• Reductionist explanations may lead to a loss of validity because they ignore the social context where behaviour occurs, which often gives behaviour its meaning.
• For example, from a reductionist viewpoint, the act of speaking would be the same across all scenarios due to each individual having the same biological mechanism for this.
• However, such a view ignores the social context of this speaking, such as with the aim of alerting someone, voicing an opinion etc.
• Therefore, reductionist explanations may simplify complex phenomena too much.

Question 79

What is an idiographic approach to psychological investigation?

Answer 79

• A method of investigating behaviour which focuses on individuals and emphasises their uniqueness.
• Subjective and rich human experience is used as a way
  of explaining behaviour, without the aim of developing general principles and unifying laws
• Associated with methods that produce qualitative data.
• These methods include studying the individual and not groups and therefore not generalising findings to others.

Question 80

Example of the Idiographic approach (Psychodynamic)

Answer 80

• Freud used case studies and in-depth interviews to collect qualitative data from Little Hans; data which later formed the basis of the Oedipus and Electra complexes.
• However, Freud also established his psychosexual stages of development on the basis of similar research methods, arguing that all children pass through the same sequence of stages. This is more similar to a nomothetic approach.

Question 81

Example of the Idiographic approach (Humanistic)

Answer 81

• The humanistic approach adopts a holistic and ‘phenomenological’ approach to research, which focuses on the experience of the individual.
• Such research methods were then used to develop the client-centred approach to therapy and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Question 82

What is a nomothetic approach to psychological investigation?

Answer 82

• Seeks to formulate general laws of behaviour based on the stud of groups and the use of statistical, quantitive techniques.
• It attempts to summarise the differences between people through generalisations, whilst developing general laws and unifying principles which can be used to accurately predict and control behaviour.

Question 83

What are the three general laws of the nomothetic approach according to Radford and Kirby?

Answer 83

• Classifying people into groups
• Establishing the principles of behaviour that can be applied to people in general
• Establishing dimensions along which people can be placed, compared, measured

Question 84

Example of the Nomothetic Approach (Behaviourist)

Answer 84

• Behaviourists explain all behaviour in terms of simple stimulus-response links which have been learnt through experience.
• In order to collect valid and reliable data, behaviourists often use laboratory experiments, where strict control upon extraneous and confounding variables allows for a ‘cause and effect’ relationship between variables to be established.

Question 85

Example of the Nomothetic Approach (Cognitive)

Answer 85

• The cognitive approach uses objective methods of measuring brain activity, such as EEG and PET scans.
• This allows cognitive psychologists to draw inferences about the workings of mental processes.

Question 86

Example of the nomothetic Approach (Biological)

Answer 86

• The biological approach also makes use of brain scans to make inferences about localisation of brain function.
• For example, the use of PET scans by Tulving et al. helped to establish that semantic memories were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex, whilst episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex.

Question 87

Evaluate how Qualitative data produces an in-depth and more complete account of an individual (Idiographic) (++++)

Answer 87

• This may support existing theories or challenge general laws and lead to development of improved psychological theories, through the process of deduction.
• For example, the case studies conducted on HM and Clive Wearing demonstrated that different types of longterm memory are located in different areas of the brain. This led to the further research of localisation and memory.

Question 88

Evaluate how an Idiographic approach offers a narrow and restrictive perspective (—)

Answer 88

• Theories developed from case studies and (unstructured) interviews may struggle to be generalised beyond the individual, thus reducing the ecological validity of these findings.

-For example, the humanism widely uses the idiographic approach but is still viewed by many as a set of rather loose, abstract concepts, due to a lack of empirical evidence as well as being specific to the individual.

• Generalisations cannot be made without further examples to act as a baseline comparison.
• This means that the idiographic approach does not improve the scientific credibility of psychology.

Question 89

Evaluate research methods used in the idiographic approach (—-)

Answer 89

• The research methods used, such as case studies and unstructured interviews, lack scientific rigour
• These methods rely heavily on individual and subjective interpretation.
• Therefore, conclusions are open to researcher bias, which reduces the reliability of the findings and the extent to which they can be generalised to other individuals.
• This translates to a lack of validity when developing theories and assumptions based upon the idiographic approach.

Question 90

Evaluate the highly scientific methods used in the nomothetic approach

Answer 90

• Nomothetic approach makes use of research methods which objectively produce reliable data through adopting standardised conditions and a high level of control of extraneous and confounding variables.
• Constituent parts of the target behaviour can be reliably measured through the use of operationalised behavioural categories, thus increasing the internal validity of the findings.
• Since the findings will not be influenced by researcher bias, the findings have greater scientific creditability due to their method of collection.

Question 91

Evaluate how the nomothetic approach enables unifying laws and general principles to be reliably established (+++)

Answer 91

• Enables unifying laws and general principles to be reliably established

-The focus on objectively collecting reliable data has led to certain ‘norms’ or standards of behaviour to be established, such as the average IQ score being 100.

• Such norms act as a good baseline comparison for intellectual abilities and mental disorders.

Question 92

Evaluate how the nomothetic approach may undervalue the impact of individual experiences (—)

Answer 92

• Some have criticised the nomothetic approach as ‘losing the whole person’ in psychology due to such an emphasis on establishing universal norms and unifying laws of behaviour.
• For example, research into the frequency of depression or bipolar disorder tells us little about the experiences of sufferers and so little about what treatments may be most beneficial.
• Therefore, the nomothetic approach, from this standpoint, has done little to improve people’s lives in comparison to the idiographic approach.

Question 93

What is socially sensitive research?

Answer 93

Any research that might have direct social consequences for the participants in the research or the group that they represent.

Question 94

Example of Socially Sensitive Research (Bowlby’s monotropic attachment theory)

Answer 94

• Bowlby was an advisor to the World Health Organisation in the 1950s
• following his theory that the critical period for attachment formation with the primary caregiver was the first 2 years of life, and maternal deprivation during this time could have severe emotional and intellectual consequences for the child
• i.e. affectionless psychopathy/criminality and mental retardation.
• Therefore, this led to Britain being one of the only countries in the EU not offering free childcare for children under the age of 5.

Question 95

Example of Socially Sensitive Research (Burt (1955))

Answer 95

• Burt (1955) fraudulently published research demonstrating that the heritability coefficient for intelligence was 0.77, and so played a significant part in the development of the 11+ examinations.
• Despite his work being proven as false and fraudulent, the 11+ exams still exist to this day, as well as the idea that children can be organised according to their ‘natural intelligence’ from an early age.

Question 96

Evaluate the importance of not staying clear of socially sensitive research

Answer 96

• This is important because such research may have major positive impacts, such as challenging stereotypes or ‘scientific justifications’ for discrimination.
• For example, Scarr argues that only by studying these areas will the general public and scientific community develop a greater understanding for these underrepresented groups.

Question 97

Evaluate Social Control (ethical implications)

Answer 97

• Socially sensitive research has historically been used as ‘scientific justification’ for discriminatory practices.
• For example, during the 1920s and 1930s, some states in the USA issues voluntary sterilization programmes for citizens who were deemed as ‘unfit to breed’.
• These included the mentally ill, the disabled and drug addicts.
• This was based upon William Shockley’s Voluntary Sterilisation Bonus Plan, which encouragedvlow-IQ individuals to undergo sterilization.
• Such a programme was based upon his fraudulent and incorrect research where “preliminary research suggested that an increase of 1% in Caucasian ancestry raises African American IQ an average of one point for low IQ populations,
  with diminishing returns approaching 100 IQ”.
• Therefore, socially sensitive research can be and has been used for malicious and unjust ends.

Question 98

Evaluate how Research could potentially be misused (Ethical implication)

Answer 98

• Research could be potentially misused so psychologists should take responsibility for the presentation of findings
• For example, Packard proposed the idea of ‘subliminal messaging’, where he found that when pictures of Coca Cola and popcorn were projected onto cinema screens for split seconds, so that audience members could not see it, their
  sales increased significantly.
• However, it was discovered that Packard had completely made up his results!
• Although the implications in this case were not serious, such an example shows the power of socially sensitive research and how it can be misused.