Issues & Debate

Question 1

What is universality?

Answer 1

All behaviour regardless of gender is caused by the same things

Question 2

What is gender bias?

Answer 2

Inaccurate or misleading views about gender

Question 3

What is androcentrism?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is gynocentrism?

Answer 4

Research centred on or dominated by females. E.G. using only female participants

Suggests female behaviour is the norm

Question 5

Who came up with Alpha and Beta bias

Answer 5

Hare-Mustin & Maracek

Question 6

What is alpha bias

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is beta bias

Answer 7

When the difference between the 2 sexes is minimised e.g. only using male participants but then applying the results to everyone

Question 8

Gender bias evaluation

Answer 8

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

Question 9

What is cultural bias?

Answer 9

Having a distorted view of another culture

Question 10

What is ethnocentrism

Answer 10

Seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective, and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct.

Question 11

What is imposed etic?

Answer 11

A piece of research is conducted in 1 culture and then applied to all cultural groups

Question 12

What is imposed emic?

Answer 12

Research done applies only to the cultural group the study was done in - this emphasises the difference between cultures

Question 13

What is cultural relativism

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

What is culture bound syndrome?

Answer 14

Groups of syndromes classifies as treatable illnesses in certain cultures that are not recognised in the west

Question 15

Culture bias evaluation

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is free will

Answer 16

Humans are free to make their own choices and behaviour is not caused by biological or environmental influences

Question 17

What is determinism?

Answer 17

Behaviour is controlled by biological or external forces

Question 18

What is soft determinism?

Answer 18

A compromise position - behaviour is determined to an extent but people have a degree of choice

Question 19

What are 4 types of determinism

Answer 19

Biological
Psychic
Environmental
Experimental

Question 20

What is biological determinism?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

What is environmental determinism?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What is experimental determinism?

Answer 23

Complex behaviour is reduced to a single variable for testing

Question 24

What is the scientific emphasis on causal relationships?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

**What do you need to include on a scientific emphasis of causal relationships question?**

Answer 25

IV DV What has been controlled How cause and effect has been established

Question 26

Where do the theories fall in to free will vs determinism

Answer 26

Biological - biological determinism Behaviourist - environmental determinism Cognitive - soft determinism Psychodynamic - Psychic determinism Humanistic - free will

Question 27

Free will Vs determinism evaluation

Answer 27

Free will Skinner insisted that our behaviour is in fact environmentally determined, even if we are unable (or unwilling) to admit it. Neurological studies show we don't have free will (**Libet** found we have decided to press button before we do). Therefore take a **soft determinism** approach Determinism Twin studies find a 40% concordance between chance of getting depression in identical twins. However, as identical twins share 100% of their genes, these results suggest that 60% is caused by other (environmental) factors. This indicates that no behaviour is completely environmentally determined. Legal system suggests we have free will - can't identify cause of behaviour. If behaviour is determined by outside forces, that provides a potential excuse for criminal acts. For example, in 1981 **Stephen Mobley** argued that he was ‘born to kill’ after killing a pizza shop manager, because his family had a disposition towards violence and aggressive behavior. This argument was rejected by an American court. Therefore, a truly determinist position may be undesirable as it provides an ‘excuse’

Question 28

What is the interactionist approach (free will Vs determinism)

Answer 28

A compromise of free will and determinism E.g. SLT suggests environmental factors are key to learning behaviour but we are free to choose who we listen to.

Question 29

Nature Vs nurture

Answer 29

Nature - Biological factors used to assess heritability Numbered from 0-1 where 0 is no genetic basis and 1 is completely genetically based Nurture - environmental influences **Lerner** level of explanation: Pre-natal - in womb Post-natal - Social conditions Cultural and historical contexts

Question 30

Where do the theories fall in to nature Vs nurture

Answer 30

Biological - all nature Psychodynamic - Mostly nature (Id Ego SuperEgo all innate) Cognitive - interactionist approach (Innate processing abilities that are constantly refined by experience) Humanistic - Accepts some biology but mainly focuses on persons environmental experiences Behaviourist - full nurture (tabula rasa)

Question 31

What is the interactionist approach (nature vs nurture)

Answer 31

How nature and nurture intact with each other

Question 32

What is the diathesis-stress model (nature vs nurture)

Answer 32

People have a biological vulnerability to behave in a certain way but his must be triggered but he environment

Question 33

What are epigenetics?

Answer 33

A change in genetic activity without changing our genetic code

Question 34

Dias and Ressler

Answer 34

Gave mice a small electric shock whenever they were exposed to a chemical. The mice became fearful of the smell The mice's offspring became fearful of the smell

Question 35

What are the types of gene-environment interaction Who proposed it?

Answer 35

Proposed by Plomin Passive interaction Reactive interaction Active interaction

Question 36

What is a passive interaction (gene - environment)

Answer 36

Parents pass on genes but also provide an environment, both of which influence a child's development

Question 37

What is a reactive interaction (gene-environment)

Answer 37

A heritable trait you have influences how others treat you and therefore the environment provided by others

Question 38

What is an active interaction (gene - environment)

Answer 38

A childs heritable trait influences its choice of environment

Question 39

Nature vs nurture evaluation

Answer 39

Nativists suggest "anatomy is destiny" which can be socially sensitive due to links to race, intelligence etc Application - empiricists believe behaviour is affected by environment so environment can be changed **especially useful in therapy** C.A - The empiricist's view that behaviour can be altered through changing things in the environment lead to a society that controls and manipulates its citizens using conditioning techniques. The nature- nurture debate has grown increasingly complex, to the point where some psychologists believe that it is now a meaningless distinction. **Plomin et al**. (1977) have suggested the idea of “passive influence” in which genetic influences on parental behaviour create a particular environment in which their children are raised. For example, parents with a genetically influenced mental illness (like schizophrenia) may create an unsettled home environment. This suggests that disorders like schizophrenia may be the result of indirect influences. Furthermore, these ideas also demonstrate the possible interaction between nature and nurture and demonstrate that nature can actually affect nurture. Other psychologists have suggested that the influence can operate in the other direction. Research examining neural plasticity suggests that life experiences (nurture) shape our biology (nature). For example, Maguire et al. (2000) investigated the hippocampi volume of London taxi drivers’ brains. She found that this region of the brain was larger in taxi drivers in comparison to non-taxi drivers. Consequently, Maguire concluded that driving a taxi (nurture) actually had an effect on the size of the hippocampi (nature).

Question 40

Holism vs reductionism

Answer 40

Holism - Only makes sense to study a whole system rather that its constituent parts Reductionism - Human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller parts

Question 41

What did Gestalt say (holism)

Answer 41

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Question 42

What is parsimony

Answer 42

Behaviour should be broken down into its smallest parts and most basic principles

Question 43

What are levels of explanation? What are they?

Answer 43

The different levels of viewing behaviour Social and cultural - influence of social groups on behaviour Psychological - Cognitive, behavioural and environmental influences on behaviour Phsyiological - The influence of neurochemicals, genetics and brain - structure on behaviour

Question 44

Where do the theories fall in to holism vs reductionism

Answer 44

Psychodymanic - holistic - unconscious forces and childhood Humanistic - holistic - studies the individual in context. Self report Biological - biological reductionism Cognitive - machine reductionism Behaviourist - Environmental reductionism

Question 45

What is biological reductionism?

Answer 45

All behaviours can be explained as a result of biological influences like genetics, brain structure and neurochemistry. Used to explain schizophrenia by dopamine levels etc

Question 46

What is machine reductionism?

Answer 46

The brains cognitive precesses are compared to a computer. There is an input, processing, and then an output.

Question 47

What is environmental reductionism?

Answer 47

All behaviour has been learnt and therefore breaks behaviour down to stimuli and response, reinforcement and punishment

Question 48

Reductionism and Holism evaluation

Answer 48

Environmental reductionism has many methodological issues. Much of the relevant research in the behaviourist tradition has made use of non- human animals as subjects. The classic Pavlovian experiments are an iconic example. But is human behaviour simply a scaled-up version of that of dogs or rats? Critics of reductionism point to the social context in which humans are embedded from the earliest moments of life, and to hard-to-measure factors like cognition, emotion, and intentionality There are aspects of social behaviour that only emerge in a group context and can’t be understood through an individual group member.E.g the effects of conformity to social roles and the deindividuation of the prisoners and guards in the stanford prison experiment could not be understood through individual pps.The interaction between people in the group was more informative.This shows that holistic explanations provide a more complete understanding of behaviour rather than reductionist approaches. Biological reductionism can lead to errors of understanding because it ignores the complexity of human behaviour. For example, to treat conditions like ADHD with drugs in the belief that the condition consists of nothing more than neurochemical imbalances is to mistake the symptoms of the phenomenon for its true cause. **Ritalin** may reduce these symptoms, but the conditions which gave rise to the ADHD have not been addressed. Biological reductionism has led to the development of biological therapies, such as drugs. For example, SSRIs are more effective than placebos at treating the symptoms of OCD and reduce the symptoms for up to three months after the treatment (Soomro et al., 2008). The use of SSRIs in patients with OCD has helped to reduce the anxiety associated with OCD thus providing relief for some patients. The higher levels of explanation make it difficult to identify cause and effect. Therefore it becomes hard to develop treatments if the behaviour has multiple causes

Question 49

Idiographic vs nomothetic

Answer 49

Idiographic - Studies individuals in a lot of detail. Avoids making general theories. Rich qualitative data - case studies/interviews Nomothetic - studies many people. Creates theories for whole population. Predicts future behaviour. Uses large samples in labs and does correctional research. Creates hypothesis

Question 50

Where do the theories fall in to idiographic vs nomothetic

Answer 50

Biological - nomothetic Cognitive - nomothetic Humanistic - idiographic Behavioural - nomothetic psychodynamic - both

Question 51

Idiographic Vs Nomothetic evaluation

Answer 51

Nomothetic Furthermore, because the nomothetic approach is viewed as scientific, it is useful for predicting and controlling behaviour. For example, Biological Psychologists take a nomothetic approach when explaining obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and claim that OCD is caused by higher levels of dopamine and lower levels of serotonin. Drug therapies are developed on the basis of nomothetic research and work by readdressing a biological imbalance. SSRIs are used to treat OCD and increase the availability and uptake of serotonin, thus reducing the anxiety associated with OCD which helps to improve the lives of people suffering from this condition, as a result of nomothetic the research. However, as drug treatments are not successful for all patients, some psychologists argue that alternate treatments (e.g. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) which are based on an idiographic approach are more suitable for treating individuals with such conditions, as they seek to understand and explain the disorder from a patient’s point of view. Furthermore, some psychologists argue that the nomothetic approach loses sight of the ‘whole person’, due to its fixation on quantitative data and statistical analysis. Furthermore, these psychologists also claim that the nomothetic approaches only provides a superficial understanding of human behaviour. For example, Milgram’s research found that 65% of participants obeyed an authority figure and inflicted a 450-volt electric shock because they were ordered to do so. However, the results fail to provide an explanation of why each person obeyed, and there may have been very different circumstances that led to the obedience found in each participant. Idiographic provides a complete,global account of the individual.Complements the nomothetic approach by shedding further light on general laws or challenging them.HM case study lead to generation of further hypothesis that contribute to overall understanding on normal functioning of the brain. many psychologists criticise the idiographic approach for its essentially unscientific nature. The emphasis on in-depth data collection, and the difficulties in arriving at justifiable generalisations, contradicts the central purpose of any mature science: to explain the most variation in the fewest possible terms so that phenomena can be predicted and ultimately controlled. Research practices that do not address these goals can seem scientifically pointless.

Question 52

Name some ethical implications in psychology

Answer 52

Ethical issues Ethical guidelines Ethical implications Social sensitivity

Question 53

What are ethical issues?

Answer 53

Where there is conflict between gain of research and dignity of the participants

Question 54

What are the ethical guidelines

Answer 54

D eception **C onsent** **C onfidentionality** O bservation **W ithdrawal** **P rotection from harm** A dvice D ebrief

Question 55

What are ethical implications?

Answer 55

The impact of the research on the rights of other people in society, not just the participants

Question 56

What is socially sensitive research

Answer 56

Describes the potential social consequences for participants of the wider group of people represented by the research

Question 57

What are 5 factors that are raised by ethical implications in socially sensitive research Sieber and Stanley

Answer 57

The research question The method used The institutional context (Source of funding) Application of findings Age of participants (children)

Question 58

What is an example of some socially sensitive research (11+)

Answer 58

Cyril Burt was a psychologist who used twin studies to show intelligence is genetic This led to 11+ and grammar schools It was later found all of his research was falsified

Question 59

How can we deal with socially sensitive research

Answer 59

Be aware of its effects - could the government use this for good or bad Briefing participants as to what will be involved Anonymity in results Make sure info published is accurate

Question 60

Ethical implications evaluation

Answer 60

Socially sensitive research into genetic influences could lead to compulsory genetic testing to identify people with particular genes Research can lead to discrimination e.g. in the US in the 1920's, compulsory sterilisation of "feeble minded" people was legislated including those with low IQ and addictions Studies into socially sensitive areas can lead to greater sensitivity and understanding. This can help reduce prejudice and encourage acceptance The research can benefit society as a whole e.g. research into eye witness testimony has shown how unreliable it can be and has helped reduce false prosecution