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issues and debates in psychology Flashcards

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1
Q

what are the debates in psychology?

A

holism vs reductionism
free will vs determinism
idiographic vs nomothetic
nature vs nurture

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2
Q

what issues are central to the idiographic vs nomothetic debate?

A
  • should psychologists research people generally or individually?
  • should the aim of research produce general claims about human behaviour which can be used as a baseline for people to compare people to OR should researchers focus on what makes people UNIQUE
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3
Q

what is an idiographic approach?

A
  • an approach to research that focuses more on the individual cases to understand human behaviour
  • people are studied as UNIQUE entities
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4
Q

what is a nomothetic approach to research?

A
  • attempts to create general principles and universal laws as a means of understanding human behaviour
  • which future behaviour can be predicted or controlled
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5
Q

what research methods does the idographic approach include?

A

methods that produce qualitative data - case studies, unstructured interviews and other self-report

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6
Q

why is self report firrting for idiographic

A

because it allows the research deeper insight into the richness and subjective experience of an individuals life

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7
Q

what research methods does the nomothetic approach use?

A

scientific - experiments - large sample - so they can establish similarities

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8
Q

nomos meaning

A

law

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9
Q

idio

A

private

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10
Q

examples of idiographic

A

humanism -> studied unique experience
maslow and rogers took a phenomenological approach, only reporting conscious experience of the self.

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11
Q

example of nomothetic

A

and biological psychologists tend to do this.

skinner - analysed loads of animals to generalise human behaviour
miller - labe experiments to nake conclusions on human memory

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12
Q

what is the main discussion in the reductionism and holism debate?

A
  • concerned with what level is most appropriate for understanding human behaviour
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13
Q

what is reductionism?

A

human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts

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14
Q

what is holism?

A

Makes more sense to study human behaviour by looking at the whole person as an indivisible system

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15
Q

other types of reductionism ?

A

biological
environmental
machine

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16
Q

biological determnism

A

breaks human behaviour down to a biological level

-depression and schizophrenia has been explained through NT (helpful, treatment)

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17
Q

environmental reductionism

A

attempts to explain human behaviour merely through experience

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18
Q

who were the Gestalt psychologists?

A

group of german psychologists in the 1920s and 30s

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19
Q

what is the issue discussed in the nature vs nurture debate?

A

wether traits such as personality, intelligence or criminality are determined by innate or external influences

how does nature and nurture interact as it is more likely they both influence human behaviour

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20
Q

what is the issue in the nature and nurture debate?

A
  • are traits such as personality, IQ or criminality etc influenced by internal (biology, neuroscience) or external forces (environment)
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21
Q

what is the interactionist approach?

A

how does nature and nurture interact as it is more likely they both influence human behaviour, it does not make sense to study these individually

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22
Q

Descartes view on nature-nurture debate

A
  • human traits and even knowledge is innate, the result of heredity.
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23
Q

John Lockes view on nature-nurture debate

A

he was an empiricist

stated that we are born a blank slate (tabula rasa)

we learn through our experience with the environment

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24
Q

what is heredity’?

A

the genetic transmission of mental and physical charectoristics from one generation to another

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25
Q

what is the heritability coefficient?

A

asses heredity-> range from 0-1 -> indicates the extent to which something has a genetical basis -> 1 is entirely genetical ->

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26
Q

what is the heritablity coefficient for IQ

A

0.5 suggesting nature and nurture

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27
Q

lerners view on nurture

A
  • nurture needs more research because reffering to it as effects from the environment is to broad
  • lener said this could be - post-natal expereinces, culture and social class
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28
Q

what in forensics demonstrates the interactionist theory

A

the diasthesis-stress model as an explanation for criminal behaviour

it states that we have a biological predisposition to crime but a environmental trigger is required to influence criminal behaviour

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29
Q

what are epigenetics

A

refers to the change in our genetic code, it happens throughout life and is caused by an interaction of the environment. diet, smoking or even war can leave epigentic markers on our DNA.
This change can even be passed down to offsring.

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30
Q

dias and resslers research

A

mice electruc chocks every time they were exposed to the smell of acetophenone. the mice showed fear but so did their children suggesting there was a epigentic marker that was on their DNA and then inherited by the offspring.

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31
Q

what is the dicussion point in free will vs determinism?

A

the extent we have control over our behaviour

32
Q

what are the branches of determinism

A

soft
hard
biological
enviromental
psychic

33
Q

what is psychic determinism

A

behaviour is controlled by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control

34
Q

what is soft determinism/ compatibilism ?

A

is the position that causal determinism is true, but we still act as free, morally responsible agents when, in the absence of external constraints, our actions are caused by our desires.

35
Q

free will approach

A

humanism

36
Q

william james and soft determinism

A

all human action has a cause
but humans have some conscious control over how they behave
whilst there are deterministic forces, in day to day life, we have free will

37
Q

example of biological determnism

A
  • neurological explanation for crime - the MAOA gene and CDH13
  • autonomic nervous system in stress

-mental health disorders such as OCD - dopamine and serotonin levels

38
Q

example of environmental determinism

A

skinner - conditioning - our behaviour is the force of conditionig and rienforcement-

39
Q

example of psychic determism

A

freud - there is no accidental behaviour everything is controlled by unconcious mechanisms and conflict - even slip of the tongue

40
Q

what are the levels of explainging psychology (reductionism)

A
  • Socio-cultural level
  • Psychological level
  • Environmental/behavioural level
  • Physiological level
  • Neurochemical level
41
Q

what is the principle for parsimony?

A

looking at the most basic levels

42
Q

what is the scientific emphasis on causal explanations

A
  • Hard determinism.
  • Everything in the universe has a cause.
  • The cause can be explained by general laws/principles.
43
Q

evaluate holism

A

 Provides a more complete picture of human behaviour - more external validity is more realistic of human behaviour
 Considers individual differences
 Difficult to investigate the many differing types and levels of explanation.
 Lacks predictive power of more scientific explanations.
-

44
Q

evaluate reductionism

A

 Consistent with the scientific approach as breaking phenomena down into smaller components means the empirical method can be used.
 Easier to explain behaviour in concrete and concise terms.
 Ignores complexity of behaviour and can be oversimplified.
 Context is important in understanding meaning of behaviour

45
Q

evaluate idiographic

A

 Provides a more complete understanding of the individual.
 Evidence from a single case study can challenge scientific findings/theory and form the basis and ideas for further scientific study.
 Difficult to generalise from detailed subjective knowledge about one person
 Often regarded as non-scientific as subjective experience cannot be empirically tested and lacks reliability (replication)

46
Q

evaluate nomothetic

A

 Regarded as scientific
 Has helped psychology as a whole become scientific by developing laws and theories which can be empirically tested.
 Predictions can be made about groups but these may not apply to individuals.
 Extensive use of controlled laboratory experiments creates a lack of generalisation to everyday life.

47
Q

evaluate determinism

A

 Scientific
 Emphasises causal explanations
 Reductionist
 Does not account for individual differences

48
Q

evaluate free will

A

 Emphasis on the individual.
 Fits in with societies view of individual responsibility. kant
 The concept of free will may be culturally relative.
 Cannot be tested- free will can be situational

49
Q

evaluate nature

A
  • its difficult to research the effect of nurture because studies struggle to seperate them, even twin studies and adoption studies
50
Q

what do the levels of explanations in reductionism mean

A

they suggest that there are different ways of looking at the same phenomena and each level is more reductionist than the other
(neuro being the moest reductionist)

51
Q

what are the genders biases?

A

universality
alpha
beta
androcentrism

52
Q

what is univesrability

A

traits that cane be applied to all

53
Q

what is alpha bias

A

focuses on DIFFERENCES between men and women, exagerating

54
Q

what is beta bias

A

focuses on similarities between men and women

55
Q

what is androcentrism

A

male focus

56
Q

evaluate gender biases

A

 Acknowledging and highlighting gender bias leads to equality in the psychological research process
 Acknowledging gender bias has lead to the emergence of feminist psychology
 If you argue for equality, it may draw attention away from the specific needs of each gender - for example research into anorexia has a focus on females since this is more common if we treat male and female research equally in all areas, important areas may go under researched
 There is often underlying sexism in the research process

57
Q

what what is culture bias

A

interpretating phenomena through the lens of ones own culture

58
Q

what are the types of culture bias

A

ethnocentrism
cultural relativism

59
Q

what is ethnocentrism?

A

judging other cultures based off our own culture

60
Q

what is cultural relativsm

A

Norms, values, ethics and moral standards can only be understood within specific social and cultural context.
Evaluation

61
Q

evaluate cultural biases

A

+ culture bias is less promenant in psychological research because we no longer distinguish between individual and collective cultures.
- we cant assume all traits are culturally relative for example interactional synchrony between mother and child seems to be universal

62
Q

what are ethical implications?

A

the impact psychological research has on other people but also the PP. This includes at a societal level, it influence on public policy and the way in which certain people are regarded as a result of the researc.

63
Q

what does ‘social sensitivity’ mean?

A

studies which could have concequences or implications for PP or people represented by the research

64
Q

how do ethicals issues arise?

A

when theres a conflict between psychologsists need to gain valid research ( zimbardo, milgram#)

65
Q

what was established to protect PP

A

BPS ethical guidelines

66
Q

Example of socially sensitive research

A

genetic explanation for crime

67
Q

what are some socially sensitive ‘taboo’ topics

A

sexuality or ethnicity

68
Q

what did sieber and stanley do

A

identified concerns that researchers should be mindful of when conudtcing socially sensitive research

69
Q

what are siebrs and stanleys concerns

A

implications
uses/public policy
validity

70
Q

why should we consider the implications of socieally sensitive research

A

he wider effects the research will have after, some may be contributing to discrimination but others may be beneficial

71
Q

why should we consider the uses of socieally sensitive research?

A

because we should consider wat it will e used for and if it will have bad implications, will it shape public policy

72
Q

why should researches consider validity of sociallu sensitive research?

A

commonent on the reflexive nature of the research and its value whislt being upfront about biases

73
Q

evaluate socieally sensitive research

A

 Reduce prejudice
 Benefit society/practical applictions - unreliability of EWT reduces unfair justice in the legal system - may be valuable
 socieal control - swabb - 1990 - homoesexuaal brain SCN is different to heterosexual. This could lead the public to discrimination.
 Ethically committee assessment is subjective - e cannot know the implications until after the research so maybe it shouldnt be conducted at all
 Misinterpretation of findings can shape public policy - people should be open minded and have their beliefs questioned so they dont misrepresent people
 Hard to control authentication and validity of research

74
Q

what is machine reductionism?

A

the belief that human functions are the result of the ‘units’ of activity in information processing systems, such as memory stores.

75
Q

what is gestaltism?

A
  • Adherents in holistic practice within psychology.
  • ‘the whole is better than the sum of its parts’
  • played a major rule in human perception of reality, with the view that to understand humans we are better looking at the whole than individual components
  • in terms of perception, it depends on many factors, such as, environment, thoughts, feelings etc
76
Q

describe gender bias in psychological research

A
  • failure to consider adequately differences between men and women can lead to gender bias
  • historically in psychology there has been predominance of research based on samples of men
  • researchers might have different expectations of men and women, which might then affect research outcomes

psychology (44 decks)

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