issues & debates

Question 1

Freewill

Answer 1

having the power to make your own choices about your behaviour.

Question 2

Determinism

Answer 2

behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors

Question 3

Hard determinism

Answer 3

the view that all behaviour can be predicted as freewill is not possible (causal explanation)

Question 4

Soft determinism

Answer 4

the view that behaviour does have causes but there is an element of freewill.

Question 5

Biological determinism

Answer 5

the belief that behaviour is caused by biological influences e.g. genes, hormones, evolution.

Question 6

Environmental determinism

Answer 6

the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment e.g. reward & punishment.

Question 7

Psychic determinism

Answer 7

the belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts.

Question 8

If it can be argued that human behaviour is deterministic, what is the benefit for the field of psychology?

Answer 8

Determinism is consistent with the aims of science. The idea that human behaviour is orderly & obeys laws places psychology on the same level as other established sciences. In addition, if we can predict & control human behaviour, we can develop treatments & therapies that benefit many people, e.g. drug treatments for OCD & systematic desensitisation for phobias.

Question 9

Studies into OCD have found a 68% concordance rate for MZ twins. What does this tell us about biological determinism? What does the statistic tell us about environmental determinism?

Answer 9

It is unlikely that 100% genetic determination will ever be found for a behaviour. No studies comparing concordance rates for MZ twins have ever found 100% concordance. E.g. OCD = 68%, IQ = 70%, Aggression = 72%. This shows that although there is a genetic vulnerability, there must be another additional cause. Therefore biological determinism cannot be correct as it is not genes alone causing these characteristics. BUT the fact that MZ concordance rates are always higher than DZ concordance rates does show that genetics are important and that the environment cannot be a sole cause of behaviour. This therefore argues against the case of environmental determinism. Therefore a better approach would be the diathesis – stress model which argues against any one type of determinism causing behaviour.

Question 10

The idea of determinism is not consistent with the way our legal system works. Why not? But are there any types of people for whom this argument might be used in court?

Answer 10

Determinism is not compatible with the way our legal system works as criminals are usually held personally & morally accountable for their crimes. Only in extreme cases is ‘The law of diminished responsibility’ applied. This is when it is assumed that a defendant has not been able to act under their own freewill. E.g. in cases of self defence, mental illness & ‘crimes of passion’ (when a judgement of temporary insanity can be made)

Question 11

How do you think locus of control has been linked to freewill? How could this then be linked to mental health?

Answer 11

A positive aspect of believing in freewill is that it leads to better mental health. Internal LoC believe they have a high level of control over their own lives & behaviours. They also tend to have better mental health than people with external LoC, Roberts et al (2000): found adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism (that their lives were controlled by external factors - determinism) were at greater risk of depression. So even if we don’t have freewill, the fact that we think we do has a positive impact on our mind & behaviour.

Question 12

Some have suggested that freewill is just an illusion. What do you think this means?

Answer 12

Skinner argues that being able to decide between different courses of action is not freewill but may give us the illusion of having freewill. E.g. a person might ‘choose’ to see a particular film but in fact this choice is determined by previous reinforcement experiences. E.g. seeing an advert on TV, talking to friends.

Question 13

Some have suggested that freewill is just an illusion. What study did we look at last lesson that supports this?

Answer 13

Libet recorded activity in the motor cortex BEFORE the person had a conscious awareness of the decision to move their finger. Therefore the brain activity comes before we have knowledge of our decision to make the movement.
Suggests even our most basic experiences of freewill are decided & determined by our brain before we are aware of them.

Question 14

approaches linked to freewill

Answer 14

Humanism

Question 15

approaches linked to determinism

Answer 15

scientific

Question 16

Ethics

Answer 16

A consideration of what is acceptable or right behaviour in the pursuit of a personal or scientific goal.

Question 17

Ethical guidelines

Answer 17

protection from harm, avoiding deception, fully informed consent, debriefing, right to withdraw, privacy and confidentiality.

Question 18

Ethical implications

Answer 18

the impact psychological research may have in terms of the rights of other people, especially the participants.

Question 19

Socially sensitive research

Answer 19

studies in which there are potential social consequences or implications, either directly for the Ps or the group of individuals represented by the research.

Question 20

Ethical Implications of Research

Answer 20

In Psychology ethical guidelines are important to help protect those involved in research. Psychologists must consider the balance between the need to gain valid research and the rights of the participants. Ethical implications refer to the effects or consequences of research studies and theories on the participants.

Question 21

Socially sensitive issues

Answer 21

Sieber and Stanley used the term social sensitivity to describe studies where they are potential social consequences for the participants or the group of people represented by their research. They identified 4 aspects in the scientific research process. Which should be considered when conducting research to ensure it is not socially sensitive.

Question 22

1. The research question:

Answer 22

The researcher must consider their research question carefully. Asking questions like ‘are there racial differences in IQ?’ or ‘is intelligence inherited?’ may be damaging to members of a particular group.

Question 23

Conduct of research and treatment of participants

Answer 23

The researcher needs to consider the treatment of the participants and their right to confidentiality. For example, if someone admits to committing a crime should the researcher maintain confidentiality?

Question 24

The institutional context:

Answer 24

The researcher should be mindful of how the data is going to be used and consider who is funding the research. If the research is funded by a private organisation, why are they funding the research and how do they intend to use the findings?
E.g. Glaxosmith Klein drug company knowingly withheld results of their clinical trials which showed that the anti-depressant drug seroxat could increase the risk of suicide and violence in children and teenagers, just so they could sell more drugs.

Question 25

Interpretation and application of findings:

Answer 25

The researcher needs to consider how their findings might be interpreted and applied in the real world. The media could misrepresent the findings Or the research could be used to create new public policies. E.g. the development of IQ tests was used to identify those of low intelligence and sterilise them in the US in the early 20th century. Research into the heritability of IQ also affected the introduction of the 11+ exam

Question 26

Cost-benefit analysis is often used to decide whether research should be carried out. What are the problems with using this method? Use examples from Milgram/Zimbardo in your answers.

Answer 26

Cost benefit analysis is already used by ethics committees to decide whether research is ethically sound or not. However, it is not always possible to weigh all the potential costs with the potential benefits. This is because we do not necessarily know what the costs will be until the research is conducted e.g. Neither Milgram nor Zimbardo could have predicted the way participants would behave in their study and therefore how they would be harmed. In Milgram’s pre-experimental questionnaire it was predicted that only 1 in 1000 people would obey. In the same way, we cannot know the wider impact of research until it has been made public.

Question 27

How could socially sensitive research lead to issues of discrimination?

Answer 27

A criticism of conducting socially sensitive research is that it can lead to issues of discrimination. Therefore some psychologists would argue against conducting this form of research. For example, research examining racial differences in IQ has been used to justify new forms of social control:
Between 1907 and 1963 over 64,000 individuals were forcibly sterilised under eugenics legislation in the USA and in 1972 the US senate committee revealed that at least 2000 involuntary sterilisations had been performed on poor black women without their consent or knowledge. This social control was deemed to be justified by research findings which argued that black Americans had lower IQ scores in comparison to white Americans.
However, we now know that these findings only came about due to the results of flawed IQ tests which favoured white Americans.

Question 28

Sieber & Stanley identified 4 aspects in the scientific research process which should be considered when conducting the research to ensure it is not socially sensitive. Do you think all psychologists will follow these recommendations?

Answer 28

A criticism of current ethical guidelines is that they focus on the direct effects of research on participants but may not address the other ways that research might inflict harm on people in society. For example, the current ethical guidelines do not require researchers to consider how their findings might be used by other people or institutions to change social policy. Sieber and Stanley recommend that researchers should consider how their findings will be used. This would ensure that psychological research does not indirectly harm other members of society. However, this is only a recommendation and not all psychologists will follow these guidelines.

Question 29

If you were on an ethics committee, would you allow research to take place if there was a possibility that it might be socially sensitive?

Answer 29

It is also important that psychologists are free to carry out whatever research seems important to them. If governments were to start passing laws to prohibit certain kinds of research (e.g. ethnicity related research) then there is a real danger that research will be stopped for political rather than ethical reasons. However, there is some evidence that socially sensitive research is more likely than non-sensitive research to be rejected by ethical committees. It has been found that the rejection rate for socially sensitive research was about twice as great than non socially sensitive research. This suggests that university ethics departments are mindful of social sensitive research and appropriate measures are put in place to protect individuals and the wider community from socially sensitive research.

Question 30

Idiographic Approach

Answer 30

focuses on individuals as a means of understanding behaviour; often uses qualitative methods of research.

Question 31

Nomothetic Approach

Answer 31

develops laws of behaviour based on the study of groups; often uses quantitative data.

Question 32

strength of idiographic

Answer 32

Is that it provides a complete and global account of the individual. Is because it uses in-depth qualitative methods of investigation. Humanistic psychologists felt that psychologists had lost sight what it is to be human. Therefore a strength of the approach is that it has focused psychology back on the individual.

Question 33

weakness of idiographic

Answer 33

only uses case studies, so no scientific fact to back it up and there is researcher bias.

Question 34

strength of nomothetic

Answer 34

uses scientific methods as a way of research.

Question 35

weakness of nomothetic

Answer 35

The approach may sometimes overlook the richness of human experience.

Question 36

overall weakness of idiographic and nomothetic.

Answer 36

there is a false separation, and should use both approaches to investigate a research question.