Issues and Debates knowledge Flashcards
What is the definition of bias in the context of research?
Bias refers to leaning towards a subjective view that does not necessarily reflect objective reality.
Bias is often seen as an unavoidable aspect of the research process, influencing the conclusions drawn by psychologists.
What does universality mean in psychological research?
Universality implies that conclusions drawn from research can be applied to everyone regardless of time or culture.
This concept is challenged by the presence of bias in research.
How is gender defined in the context of psychology?
Gender encompasses the behavioural, cultural, and psychological characteristics that distinguish males from females.
Gender is often closely related to biological sex, but is not solely determined by it.
What is the difference between sex and gender?
Sex refers to biological characteristics, while gender refers to the social and cultural roles associated with being male or female.
Some individuals may identify with a gender that does not correspond to their biological sex.
What is gender bias?
Gender bias refers to the differential treatment of males and females based on stereotypes rather than real differences.
It can occur unconsciously in research settings.
What is alpha bias?
Alpha bias is the exaggeration of differences between genders, often undervaluing females.
An example is Freud’s theory on superegos, suggesting that girls develop weaker superegos than boys.
What is an example of alpha bias in psychological theories?
Freud’s argument that girls do not experience castration anxiety and therefore develop weaker superegos compared to boys.
This reflects a tendency to undervalue female psychological development.
What is beta bias?
Beta bias is the downplaying or underestimating of differences between genders.
It often leads to the assumption that results from male studies apply equally to females.
How did animal research contribute to beta bias?
Animal research often used male subjects, leading to assumptions that findings applied to females without adequate evidence.
Taylor et al. (2000) challenged this by showing a different stress response in females.
What is androcentrism?
Androcentrism is the practice of comparing female behaviour to male behaviour, often leading to female behaviour being seen as abnormal or inferior.
This can result in misunderstandings and pathologization of female behaviour.
Give an example of androcentrism in psychological diagnosis.
The DSM-III-R proposed ‘Masochistic Personality Disorder’ for women, labeling behaviours like self-sacrifice as abnormal.
This illustrates how female behaviours can be misunderstood through a male-centric lens.
What are some ways to avoid gender bias in research?
- Do not extrapolate findings from one gender to another
- Use both male and female participants
- Involve both genders in research planning and execution
- Avoid exaggerating or minimizing gender differences
- Be sensitive to gender norms
- Take a reflexive approach to personal biases
Implementing these strategies can help ensure that research is more inclusive and accurate.
True or False: Gender bias is always a conscious process.
False.
Researchers may believe they are being objective while still holding biases.
What does bias mean in the context of psychological research?
Bias refers to leaning towards a subjective view that does not necessarily reflect objective reality.
How does bias affect psychology’s claims to universality?
Bias undermines psychology’s claims that conclusions can be applied to everyone regardless of time or culture.
What is the definition of universality in psychological research?
Universality means that all research is assumed to apply equally to all cultures.
Who predominantly proposes psychological theories and conducts psychological research?
Psychological theories are usually proposed by white middle-class men.
Give an example of studies that produced different results in different cultures.
Asch and Milgram’s studies produced very different results when conducted in countries other than America.
What is cultural bias?
Cultural bias occurs when cultural differences in behavior are judged as ‘abnormal’ based on one culture’s standards.
Define ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture.
How is The Strange Situation criticized in terms of cultural bias?
It is criticized for being ethnocentric, suggesting that American infant behaviors are the ideal.
What is an imposed etic?
An imposed etic is a test or measure devised in one culture that is used to explain behavior in another culture.
What criticism is directed towards Mary Ainsworth’s study regarding imposed etic?
The methodology used reflects US practices in child rearing, potentially misjudging attachment types in other cultures.
Fill in the blank: The practice in Japan often involves _______ and infant co-sleeping.
caregiver
What are the two approaches to studying human behavior according to Berry?
- Etic approach
- Emic approach
What characterizes the emic approach in psychology?
It involves studying behavior from within a given culture and identifying culture-specific behaviors.
What is the importance of cultural relativism in psychology?
Cultural relativism helps to recognize that findings may only make sense within the culture they were discovered.
How can cultural bias in research be reduced?
By recognizing cultural relativism in research.
In which cultures is emotional expression viewed differently according to Davison and Neale (1994)?
- Asian cultures: praised for showing no emotions
- Arabic cultures: encouraged to express emotions
What is the cultural interpretation of auditory hallucinations in Haiti?
They are believed to be communications from ancestors.
What is Koro, and where is it primarily found?
Koro is an acute anxiety state related to fear of penile shrinkage, found primarily among the Malay Archipelago and Southern Chinese individuals.
True or False: Cultural bias can lead to an overinterpretation of symptoms in individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
True
What does the term ‘culturally bound syndrome’ refer to?
A syndrome that is linked to specific cultural beliefs and practices.
What are ethical guidelines?
A set of principles set out by the BPS to help psychologists behave honestly and with integrity
Ethical guidelines include protecting participants from harm, ensuring informed consent, and reminding participants of their right to withdraw.
What are ethical issues?
Conflicts between the rights of the participant and the aims of the researcher(s)
Ethical issues arise when researchers violate one or more ethical guidelines.
What do ethical implications involve?
Considering the wider context of research findings and their potential impacts on a broader group of people
This includes both positive and negative consequences of research findings.
What was the main finding of Milgram’s Obedience Study?
It showed that Germans were not inherently ‘different’ and helped change perceptions of those who followed Hitler
This finding had positive ethical implications by reducing negative labels attached to a nation.
What is a positive ethical implication of Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory?
Contributed to the development of childcare practices, such as having a ‘key worker’ at nursery
This helps children develop a positive internal working model despite not being at home.
What is a negative ethical implication of Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory?
Encourages the view that a mother’s place is at home, leading to guilt for mothers wanting to return to work
This can create societal pressure on mothers regarding their roles.
What does social sensitivity describe?
Studies with potential social consequences for participants or the group represented by the research
This concept highlights the ethical concerns surrounding the impact of research findings on society.
How can Milgram’s study be considered socially sensitive?
Findings could be used to compel obedience to orders that individuals do not wish to follow
This raises ethical concerns regarding coercion and manipulation.
How can Bowlby’s theory be considered socially sensitive?
It may pressure mothers to stay at home due to guilt and fear of judgment
This can conflict with economic needs and personal choices of families.
What are the four aspects identified by Sieber and Stanley for considering social sensitivity in research?
- The research question
- The methodology used
- The institutional context
- Interpretation and application of findings
Each aspect highlights important ethical considerations prior to conducting research.
What was Cyril Burt’s main claim regarding intelligence?
Intelligence is largely genetic, supported by studies of identical twins
His ideas influenced educational policies, such as the Hadow Report and the 11+ exam.
What was a significant issue with Cyril Burt’s research?
Discrepancies revealed that much of his data was fake, including imaginary research assistants
His work was publicly discredited, yet the concepts persisted in societal beliefs.
Fill in the blank: Ethical guidelines help psychologists behave _______.
[honestly and with integrity]
True or False: Ethical implications only consider the immediate effects of research findings.
False
Ethical implications require considering the broader impact of research on society.
What is free will?
The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces.
Individuals can play an active role and have choice in how they behave.
What does the determinist view argue?
Free will is an illusion, and behaviour is governed by internal or external forces.
Behaviour is viewed as predictable.
Define hard determinism.
The view that forces outside of an individual’s control shape their behaviour.
It is seen as incompatible with free will.
Who is a strong believer in hard determinism?
B.F. Skinner
He argues that concepts like ‘free will’ and ‘motivation’ are illusions.
What is the perspective of soft determinism?
Behaviour is constrained by the environment or biological make-up, but only to a certain extent.
It represents a middle ground where individuals have a choice, but it is constrained.
Fill in the blank: Environmental determinism sees the cause of behaviour as being _____ the individual.
outside
What is biological determinism?
The idea that all human behaviour is innate and determined by genes, neurotransmitters, hormones, etc.
It views humans as biological machines.
What does psychic determinism claim?
Human behaviour is the result of unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that cannot be controlled.
This includes childhood experiences and innate drives.
What is the scientific emphasis on causal explanations?
Science aims to find the cause of things based on the principle that every event has a cause.
This aligns with determinism.
How does psychology aim to be a science?
By employing the scientific method through theory construction and hypothesis testing.
It uses methods such as laboratory experiments for observable results.
What is the role of the independent variable in an experiment?
It is manipulated to observe the causal effect on the dependent variable.
True or False: Determinism allows psychologists to control and predict human behaviour.
True
What does the nature-nurture debate focus on?
The origins of an individual’s traits and the extent to which behaviour is a product of inherited or acquired characteristics.
Define ‘Nature’ in the context of the nature-nurture debate.
The view that behaviour is the product of innate biological or genetic factors.
What is the nativist position?
The assumption that the characteristics of the human species are a product of evolution and individual differences are due to unique genetic codes.
What is heredity?
The process in which traits are passed down from one generation to the next.
What is the heritability coefficient?
A numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1 that indicates the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis.
Characteristics like height and weight are positively correlated with what?
Genetic relatedness.
What are concordance rates?
Rates that show the extent to which both people share the same characteristic.
What is the risk of being diagnosed with schizophrenia in the general population?
Approximately 1%.
According to Gottsman and Shields (1991), what is the risk of schizophrenia for those with two affected parents?
46%.
Joseph (2004) found an average concordance rate for MZ twins of what percentage?
40.4%.
What do evolutionary explanations emphasize about nature?
Behaviours or characteristics that increase chances of survival and reproduction will be naturally selected.
Define ‘Nurture’ in the context of the nature-nurture debate.
The view that behaviour is the product of environmental influences.
What do environmentalists believe about the mind?
That it is a blank slate (tabula rasa) and human characteristics are learned from the environment.
What are the two levels of the environment identified by Ricard Lerner?
- Pre-natal experiences
- Post-natal experiences
How do behavioural psychologists explain attachment?
In terms of classical conditioning, where food is associated with the mother.
Why is the nature-nurture question considered impossible to answer?
Environmental influences are thought to begin before birth.
What does the interactionist approach argue?
That heredity and the environment both interact in the development of behaviour.
What is the diathesis-stress model?
A model that explains a disorder as the result of an underlying vulnerability (diathesis) and a trigger (stressor).
What does ‘diathesis’ refer to in the diathesis-stress model?
A factor that makes it more likely that an individual will develop a disorder following a stressful life event.
In early diathesis-stress models, how were vulnerability and triggers viewed?
Vulnerability was seen as genetic and triggers as psychological.
What can stressors be in the modern understanding of the diathesis-stress model?
- Psychological
- Biological (e.g., smoking cannabis)
What is reductionism?
Reductionism is the belief that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts.
It emphasizes understanding behaviour by examining its basic elements.
What scientific principle is reductionism based on?
Reductionism is based on the scientific principle of parsimony.
This principle suggests that all phenomena should be explained using the most basic principles.
What does biological reductionism focus on?
Biological reductionism focuses on reducing behaviour to a physical level, explaining it in terms of:
* neurons
* neurotransmitters
* hormones
* brain structure
An example is the claim that OCD should be explained by low levels of serotonin.
What is environmental reductionism also known as?
Environmental reductionism is also known as stimulus-response reductionism.
This approach assumes all behaviour can be reduced to stimulus-response associations.
What is the 2-process model proposed by Mowrer (1960)?
The 2-process model states that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning and negative reinforcement.
This emphasizes the role of learning in phobia acquisition.
What are the three levels of explanation in the reductionist approach?
The three levels of explanation are:
* Physiological or biological factors
* Psychological concepts (cognitive or behavioral)
* Social and cultural factors
These levels help to understand behavior from different perspectives.
At the socio-cultural level, how can some phobias be explained?
Some phobias can be explained by their specific cultural contexts, such as TKS (a fear of offending or harming others) being exclusive to Japanese culture.
This suggests social and cultural explanations for certain phobias.
What cognitive biases might individuals with phobias experience?
Individuals with phobias may have cognitive biases in attention and memory, leading to catastrophic thoughts about potential dangers.
This reflects a distorted way of thinking.
What does the biological level suggest about the inheritance of phobias?
The biological level suggests that phobias can be explained by genetic inheritance, with studies indicating a heritability rate for specific phobias.
A meta-analysis found 33% heritability for specific phobias (Van Houtem et al., 2013).
How do socio-cultural factors impact memory?
Socio-cultural factors impact what individuals remember and how they recall information based on their schema.
This was suggested by Bartlett’s research in 1932.
What aspects of memory do cognitive psychologists examine?
Cognitive psychologists examine aspects such as:
* Capacity of short-term memory (STM)
* Duration of short-term memory (STM)
Studies by Miller and Peterson & Peterson (1959) focused on these aspects.
What brain structure is associated with memory according to Maguire et al. (2000)?
Maguire et al. (2000) found an association between the size of the hippocampus and memory of spatial navigation.
This highlights the biological level of memory explanation.
What does holism mean in psychology?
Holism is the idea that human behaviour should be viewed as an integrated experience and not as separate parts.
It emphasizes understanding behaviour as a whole entity.
What is the starting point for humanistic psychologists?
The starting point for humanistic psychologists is the self, which includes a sense of personal identity and awareness of potential.
They argue this cannot and should not be explained in parts.
True or False: Humanistic psychologists support environmental reductionism.
False.
Humanistic psychologists are against the environmental reductionist point of view.
What does the term ‘idiographic’ mean?
It comes from the Greek word ‘idios’, meaning ‘own’ or ‘private’
It refers to an approach that focuses on individual experiences and uniqueness.
What is the main focus of the idiographic approach?
The individual and their unique, personal experience
It emphasizes studying people independently without generalizations.
Which research methods are favored in the idiographic approach?
- Case studies
- Unstructured interviews
- Thematic analysis
These methods provide in-depth insights into human behavior.
Who are notable figures associated with the humanistic approach?
- Carl Rogers
- Abraham Maslow
They focused on documenting the conscious experience of individuals.
What does the term ‘nomothetic’ mean?
It comes from the Greek word ‘nomos’, meaning ‘law’
It refers to an approach that seeks to establish general laws from large groups of people.
What is the goal of the nomothetic approach?
To establish general laws based on the study of large groups using statistical techniques
This allows for predictions and control of future behavior.
Which research methods are favored by nomothetic researchers?
- Experiments
- Correlations
- Psychometric testing
These methods focus on obtaining quantitative data.
What is an example of a nomothetic approach in psychology?
Behaviourism
It developed laws of learning from studying rat responses.
What are the three kinds of laws categorised in the nomothetic approach?
- Classifying people into groups
- Establishing principles
- Establishing dimensions
Examples include DSM-V, behaviorist laws, and Eysenck’s personality inventory.
What characterizes the overlap between idiographic and nomothetic approaches?
The psychodynamic approach uses idiographic methods while developing universal laws
Case studies like Little Hans illustrate this overlap.
Which common research method is used in cognitive psychology to study memory?
Case studies
Examples include HM, KF, and Clive Wearing, which led to universal models of memory.
True or False: The idiographic approach attempts to create general laws about behavior.
False
The idiographic approach focuses on individual uniqueness without generalizations.
Fill in the blank: The idiographic approach is characterized by _______.
[unique personal experience]
It emphasizes the individual rather than comparing them to groups.
Fill in the blank: The nomothetic approach seeks to establish general laws through _______.
[statistical analysis of large groups]
This method allows predictions about behavior based on group data.
