Issues & Debate Flashcards
What is universality?
All behaviour regardless of gender is caused by the same things
What is gender bias?
Inaccurate or misleading views about gender
What is androcentrism?
Research centred on or dominated by males. This can be conscious or unconscious. E.G. using only male participants
Suggests male behaviour is the norm
What is gynocentrism?
Research centred on or dominated by females. E.G. using only female participants
Suggests female behaviour is the norm
Who came up with Alpha and Beta bias
Hare-Mustin & Maracek
What is alpha bias
When the differences between men and women are exaggerated E.G. research into the role of the father - father is play mate - mother is carer
What is beta bias
When the difference between the 2 sexes is minimised e.g. only using male participants but then applying the results to everyone
Gender bias evaluation
Psychologists attempt to develop theories that emphasise the importance or value of women. Cornwell et al. (2013) noted that females are better at learning, as they are more attentive and organised, thus emphasising both the value and the positive attributes of women. As a result, this type of research helps to reduce or challenge gender stereotypes which is important in reducing gender bias.
Take a feminist approach which attempts to restore the imbalance in both psychological theories and research. For example, feminist psychology accepts that there are biological differences between males and females: Research by Eagly (1978) claims that female are less effective leaders than males. However, the purpose of Eagly’s claim is to help researchers develop training programmes aimed at reducing the lack of female leaders in the real-world.
Women are more likely to be diagnosed with depression and given treatment than males. This may be because woman are more likely to suffer from depression, or it could be that the diagnostic system may be biased towards finding depression among women. The expectation for males should be able to ‘pull themselves together’ is viewed as a masculine trait which may highlight an issue with the psychological diagnostic systems.
- Still exists in the world today - men still tend to dominate at senior research level. Therefore the research agenda often follows male concerns and may disregard female ones
What is cultural bias?
Having a distorted view of another culture
What is ethnocentrism
Seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective, and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct.
What is imposed etic?
A piece of research is conducted in 1 culture and then applied to all cultural groups
What is imposed emic?
Research done applies only to the cultural group the study was done in - this emphasises the difference between cultures
What is cultural relativism
The idea that a behaviour can only be properly understood/only has meaning/only makes sense in the context of the norms and values of the society or culture in which it occurs.
What is culture bound syndrome?
Groups of syndromes classifies as treatable illnesses in certain cultures that are not recognised in the west
Culture bias evaluation
Reduced cultural bias has improved the field of diagnosing mental disorders. Early diagnostic manuals ignored conditions not found in America but modern manuals include culturally bound syndromes such as Pa Leng (fear of wind in China)
Imposed emic can lead to stereotyping and prejudice. The american ww1 IQ test was culturally biased towards the white majority. African - americans therefore scored poorly and this contributed to negative stereotypes
Takano and Osaka - found that 14/15 studies that compared the US and Japan found no evidence of the traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism.This could perhaps suggest that cultural bias in research is less of an issue than it once was.
Not all behaviour is culturally relative as some behaviours are universal e.g. interactional synchrony
What is free will
Humans are free to make their own choices and behaviour is not caused by biological or environmental influences
What is determinism?
Behaviour is controlled by biological or external forces
What is soft determinism?
A compromise position - behaviour is determined to an extent but people have a degree of choice
What are 4 types of determinism
Biological
Psychic
Environmental
Experimental
What is biological determinism?
Emphasises the biological cause of behaviour.
Many of our physiological and neurological processes happen without conscious control
Many mental disorders are thought to have a genetic basis
What is psychic determinism?
Proposed by Freud. Human behaviour is directed by unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood. There is no such thing as an accident - even a slip of the tongue is a result of unconscious conflict. There is no such thing as free will
What is environmental determinism?
Skinner said free will is an illusion and argued all of our behaviour is a result of conditioning. We are acted on by environmental influences as well as role models
What is experimental determinism?
Complex behaviour is reduced to a single variable for testing
What is the scientific emphasis on causal relationships?
All behaviour should have identifiable causes and be predictable (according to determinism)
Events have a cause which we can then generate theories with and make predictions with
All extraneous variables must be eliminated
