Issues And Debates (paper 3) Flashcards
What are issues? What are debates?
Things important to take notice of in research which may impact validity if not addressed (eg/gender bias)
Ongoing academic discussions about fundamental aspects of human behaviour (eg/free will and determinism)
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B
What is collectivist culture?
What is individualistic culture?
Refers to cultures such as India/China that are said to be more conformist and group orientated
Refers to Western countries like US thought to be more independent
What are ethical guidelines?
What are ethical issues?
Set of principles set out by BPS to help psychologists behave with honesty and integrity (inc. protecting participants from harm etc)
Arise when conflict exists between rights of participants and goals of researcher to produce valid, authentic, worthwhile data (researcher breaks one or more guidelines)
What are ethical implications?
Outline the ethical implications of a study and a theory
Impact psychological research may have in terms of rights of other people, inc. at societal level, influencing public policy and/or in way in which certain groups of people are regarded
RESEARCH MILGRAM
- do the ends justify the means?-participants deceived & unable to give fully informed consent, it also caused significant distress & participants told to proceed against free will BUT were debriefed & had follow up interview year later-none suffered long term effects
- research showed Germans weren’t different, therefore helped to change perception of those who followed Hitler as “evil” so can be argued had positive ethical implications as its been useful in reducing negative labels attached to a nation & helped to understand how people can be made to obey
THEORY BOWLBYS MONOTROPY
- no ethical issues (no participants) but theory suggests children form 1 special attachment bond usually with mother in critical period-suggested this bond affects future relationships through IWM
- has contributed to development of child care practices (positive ethical implication) but also encouraged view mothers place is at home with children=negative implication bc makes mothers feel guilty for wanting to return to work after childbirth, also devalues fathers role (shouldn’t stay home)
What is social sensitivity? How can the study and theory mentioned to have ethical implications be argued to be socially sensitive?
Studies in which there’s potential consequences for participants directly or for group represented by research
MILGRAM STUDY
sensitive=findings could be used to make people obey orders they don’t want to follow-could have severe ethical implications
BOWLBYS MONOTROPY THEORY
very sensitive=could be used to make mothers stay home out of guilt and fear f being judged by others
What was involved in Sieber and Stanley’s work?
Identified 4 aspects in scientific research process that raise ethical implications in socially sensitive research which should ideally be considered before research is carried out
1 RESEARCH QUESTION
should be carefully considered (eg/ are there racial differences in IQ? could be damaging to members of particular group
2 METHODOLOGY
must consider treatment of participants, right to confidentiality and anonymity (eg/if someone admits crimes committed, should it still be confidential?)
3 INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT
should be mindful of how data’s used and who’s funding research
4 INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION OF FINDINGS
consider how findings might be interpreted and applied in real world (eg/inform social policy?)
Explain 3 positive impacts of ethical implications (includng references to social sensitivity aka SSR)
+ SSR can benefit society, promoting greater sensitivity&understanding of underrepresented groups&issues
The effect of culture bias can have on diagnosis of schizo with regards to auditory hallucinations experienced by African&West Indian individuals
Helps reduce prejudice&encourage acceptance demonstrating there’s positive outcomes of SSR
+ SSR can prevent miscarriages of justice within legal system
Research into unreliability of EWT specifically case of Ronald Cotton shows SSR plays valuable role in society and is a positive consequence-this is despite research may have had negative impact on individuals who had been in EW trials
+ realisation theres issues regarding ethical implications of SSR has meant researchers are more reflexive
Includes thinking more about what research findings likely to be used for
As result can make researchers take more responsibility for their findings and ensure work they do doesn’t lead to abuse or discrimination
What are 2 negative impacts of ethical implications (including references to social sensitivity aka SSR)
- SSR has been used to support discriminatory practices
In America during 1920s&1930s, large number of US states approved laws that led to compulsory sterilisation of citizens deemed to be “feeble minded” and were drains on society which was based on research from psych and science that suggested such Shows SSR has negative impacts as been used inappropriately to “support” discriminatory practices - Its important psychologists are free to carry out whatever research seems important to them but its problematic if government start passing laws to prohibit certain kinds of research
Eg/race related research due to being issues of social sensitivity, there’s real danger research will stop for political rather than ethical reasons
Researchers may need to be mindful benefits of SSR must outweigh costs
What is free will? How does the humanistic approach link to free will?
The notion human can make choices and aren’t determined by biological (genes, hormones etc) or external forces
Believes humans self determining but don’t deny there may be biological and environmental influences that exert some influence on behaviours but were able to reject and be masters of our own destiny
Only approach accepting free will
What’s determinism? What are the 5 types?
View individuals behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than individuals will to do something
HARD (suggests free will isn’t possible, behaviour controlled by forces beyond control)
SOFT (all events have causes but behaviour can also be determined by conscious choices in the absence of pressure)
BIOLOGICAL (belief behaviours caused by biological influences we can’t control, genes hormones etc)
-mental disorders thought to have genetic basis (OCD)
ENVIRONMENTAL (belief behaviours caused by features of environment, like systems of reward and punishment, we can’t control)
-Skinner argued behaviour is result of conditioning & 2 process model for phobias
PSYCHIC (belief behaviours caused by unconscious conflicts we can’t control)
-Little Hans FREUD displacement of fear
What is scientific emphasis on causal explanations?
Science aims to find cause of thingsbased on principle every event has a cause which can be explained using general laws meaning science is deterministic
- psych wants to be scientific so has to employ their methods (theories, hypotheses, observable methods
If one factor changes behaviour, whilst all other factors controlled, original factor must be responsible-it has determined behaviour
IV is manipulated to observe causal effect on DV-determinism therefore about causation
Behaviours been caused by something outside of individuals control, allows us to control and predict human behaviour
Outline 2 strengths of determinism
+ Determinism is consistent with aims of science
Hard determinist view says human behaviour is orderly & obeys laws
Psychs therefore placed on equal footing worth other more established sciences
This view means human behaviour can be predicted & controlled which has led to development of treatments, therapies & behavioural interventions that have benefited many
(MIDDLE GROUND)
Approaches which adopt soft determinism pov may be more appropriate in explaining behaviour
Eg/ SLT says although environmental factors are key in learning, we’re free to choose who/what to attend to & when to perform certain behaviours
Suggesting an interactionist approach may provide the best compromise in the free will-determinism debate
How can a researcher deal with social sensitivity in a study?
Sensitive debriefing for those involved
Care in relation to publication, disclosure of results& confidentiality/anonymity
Evaluate free will, provide 1 argument for and 1 argument against it
+ Everyday experience gives impression we’re constantly exercising free will
Choices we make daily are believed to be made by ourselves
This gives face validity to concept free will
Research suggests those have internal locus of control tend to be more mentally healthy, suggesting even thinking we have free will (even if don’t) may have positive impact on behaviour
- Brain scan evidence doesn’t support concept of free will
Libet et al instructed participants to choose random moment to flick wrist while he measured activity in brains, they had to say when they felt conscious will to move, Libet et al found conscious decision to move came around 1/2 second before participant consciously felt they’d decided to move
This may be interpreted as meaning that even our most basic experiences of free will are actually determined by our brain before we’re aware of them
How can the free-will vs determinism debate be applied to the nature-nurture debate?
Both sides are deterministic (suggest behaviour is determined by something
However could be seen as less deterministic bc it takes on an interactionist position suggesting both forces influence behaviour as opposed to behaviour being caused by a single factor/force
Constructivism is the notion genes & environment interact-people crate their own “nurture” by actively selecting environments that are appropriate for their “nature”
Reciprocal determinism is the idea the environment & a persons behaviour influence each other
What is a paradigm shift?
- an important change in basic concepts&experimental practices of scientific discipline
- change from one way of thinking to another&also referred to as ‘scientific revolution’
What is the idiographic approach?
(what do they focus on, what type of research do they prefer and which approach is an example of the approach?
What is the overlap between these approaches?
IDIO=INDIVIDUAL
- Focuses on individual&emphasises unique, persons experience humans have
- People=studied independently, own experiences, motivations&values considered (no laws/generalisations formulated using this approach&no attempt to comapre individuals to larger groups/standards/norms)
- Qualitative research=favoured (in depth insight to behaviour&allows richness of experience to be described from unique pov)
- HUMANISTIC approach=example (Rogers&Maslow only interested in documenting conscious experience of individual, anti-scientific wanting to look at unique experiences rather than creating general laws of behaviour)
What is the nomothetic approach?
(what do they focus on, what type of research do they prefer and which approach is an example of the approach?
NOMO=NUMBER&LARGE SAMPLES
- Wants to establish general laws based on study of large groups using statistical techniques to analyse data (general laws provide benchmark against which people can be compared, classified&measured, allowing future behaviour to be predicted&controlled)
- Quantitative methods=favoured (regarded scientific&involve large no. to establish ways people=similar/diff)
- BEHAVIOURISM=example (response of rats used to develop laws of learning-cognitive psychologists infer sructure&process of human memory by looking at large no. people completing lab experiments)
BIOLOGICAL=example (looks at brain scans to make generalisations about localisation of function)
What is the overlap between the idiographic and nomothetic approach?
What is complementary evaluation point rather than contradictory of the idiographic and nomothetic approach?
Psychodynamic=idiographic as case studies used to detail peoples lives however universal laws eg/personality development&psychosexual were also developed which fits with nomothetic approach
Rather than seeing idiographic&nomathetic as mutually exclusive, its possible to consider the issue from both perspectives
Eg/Schaffer’s stages of attachment=nomothetic suggesting all children go through stages in same order, but Bowlby’s 44 thieves study is idiographic as its based on series of detailed case studies showing what can happen during early development
Considering both approaches together will provide rich, detailed descriptions of human behaviour as well as explanations of such behaviour within framework of general laws
Outine a limitation of the argunment of determinism
- Limitation is the position of legal system on responsibility
In court of law offenders are held responsible for actions, suggestions usually defendant has exercised free will to commit the crime
Suggests in real world, determinist arguments don’t work
Give an example of a study which is considered socially sensitive and how their research can be linked to Sieber and Stanley’s findings
CYRIL BURT STUDY
studies of identical twins to support view intelligence is largely genetic (his views greatly influenced Hadow Report which led to creation of 11+ exam 1944-1976, meant generations of children affected despite huge controversy to is data being falsified)
1 serious implications of intelligence being genetic-led to further research by others to discover “intelligent genes”
2 fabricated data eg/names of helping researchers made up
3 worked for council, uni & other institutions-should’ve been mindful of use and publication of research
4 should’ve considered implications of findings influencing social policy-Hadlow report
- influenced which school people went to and if gained any GCSEs at all
- could’ve led to sterilisation (stop “less intelligent” reproducing)
The idiographic approach focuses on the individual,
give 1 strength and 1 limitation
+ With its in-depth qualitative methods of investigation it provides complete, global account of individual
Single case may generate hypotheses for further study, its also true in case of brain damaged individuals like HM, findings may reveal important insights about normal functioning which may contribute to overall understanding
May also complement nomothetic approach=sheds further light on general laws/by challenging such laws
- Must recognise strict&narrow nature of work
1 criticism levelled at Freud=many of his key concepts eg/Oedipus complex, were largely developed from detailed single study of Little Hans so meaningful generalisations cant be made without further examples as theres no adequate baseline to compare behaviour, also methods associated with approach tend to be least scientific in conclusions often rely on subjective interpretation of researcher, so open to bias
The nomothetic approach looks to establish general laws of behaviour, give 1 strength and 1 limitation
+ Processes involved tend to be more scientific, mirroring those employed in natural sciences
Eg/ testing under standardised conditions, using data sets providing group averages, prediction&control eg/like in field of IQ testing
Such processes enabled psychologists to establish norms of “typical behaviour” like average IQ of 100, arguably giving discipline of psych greater scientific credibility
- Approach’s preoccupation withe genral laws, prediction&control has been accused of “losing whole person” within psych
Knowing theres 1% lifetime risk of developing schizo tells little about what lifes like for someone experiienicng the disorder, simairly in lab studies involving tests of memeory, patricipants teaetsed as series of scores rather han individual&subjective experience of situation=ignored
Meaning in search of generalities, it may sometime overlook richness of human experience
