Issues & Debates Flashcards
(Gender bias)
Alpha bias - Sociobiological relationship theory
- Men aim to impregnate as many women as possible - ‘survival efficiency’
- Women aim to ensure the healthy survival of offspring
- For men, promiscuity is biologically determined
Wilson
(Gender bias)
Beta bias - Fight or flight response
- Female biology has evolved to inhibit the response
- Women turn to tending to offspring and befriending other females to form a defensive network
Taylor
(Gender bias A03)
‘Institutional sexism’
- Women have little influence over questions research as few are appointed as senior level
- Lab experiments - females placed in working relationships with male partner
However, some feminists conduct their own research into the motivations and meanings of women using qualitative research methods (feminist standpoint epistemology)
Denmark
(Gender bias A03)
Criteria for non-biased research
- Field experiments > lab experiments
- Participation > observation
- Diversity between women > differences between sexes
- Qualitative data > quantitative data
Warrell
(Cultural bias)
Cultural relativism - Imposed etic and emic
Etic - looks at behaviour outside of a culture but concludes it to be universal
Emic - looks at behaviour within a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to it
Berry
(Cultural bias)
DIagnosis of mental illness
Afro-Caribbeans 7 times more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness
DSM
- DSM-4 included 25 culture-bound syndromes (CBS)
- Have treatments elsewhere but are not recognised in the west
E.g. Brain fog (West Africa), Koro (China)
Cochrane and Sashidharan
(Cultural bias A03)
Individualism and collectivism
- 14 out of 15 studies comparing US to Japan found no evidence of distinction between individualism and collectivism
- Cultural bias may have become less of an issue due to cultural globalisation
Takano and Osaka
(Cultural bias A03)
Some findings are universal
- Basic human/ animal facial expressions are universal
Ekman
(Cultural bias A03)
‘Scientific racism’
- Issued IQ tests to immigrants and concluded that they were ‘feeble-minded’ in comparison to US citizens
- Test required knowledge of English language
Goddard
(Free will vs determinism)
Soft determinism
- First to advocate the idea
- Scientists can explain the forces that act upon us but we have the ability to make rational choices
James
(Free will vs determinism A03)
Against free will
- Brain activity relating to decision-making seems to predate our knowledge of having made a decision
E.g. activity regarding pressing a button with our right or left hand occurs up to 10 seconds before being consciously decided
Soan
(Free will vs determinism A03)
We are influenced by our environment but have free will to decide what we pay attention to (ARRM mediating processes)
Bandura
(Nature vs nurture)
Nativism
- Human characteristics are innate; the result of inheritance
- Hereditability coefficient - assessment of hereditarity
0 - 1.0 (0.5 for IQ)
Intelligence must be influenced by genetics and environment
Rene Descartes
(Nature vs nurture)
Empiricist
- ‘Tabula rasa’
John Locke
(Nature vs nurture)
Interactionism
- Finnish adoptees study
- Most likely to develop schizophrenia if they had a family history of it and ‘dysfunctional’ relationships with adoptive parents
Tienari
(Nature vs nurture)
Epigenetics - mice and acetophenone
- Smell of acetophenone - electric shock
- Mice developed fear response
- Children and grandchildren also born with fear response
Epigenetic ‘mark’ left on DNA like an ON switch to switch on phobic reaction to stimulus
Dias and Ressler
(Nature vs nurture A03)
Shared and unshared environments in family studies
- Individual differences can mean siblings experience same environment differently
- Include age, temperament
- May be different consequences for same events
E.g. parental divorce
Dunn and Plomin
(Nature vs nurture)
Constructivism - ‘niche-building’
- People seek out an environment that personally suits them
E.g. naturally aggressive people will seek out aggressive friends
Plomin
(Nature vs nurture A03)
Genotype-environment interaction
- Passive interaction - Parent’s genes influence treatment of child
- Evocative interaction - Child’s genes influence environment (natural talent)
- Active interaction - Child creates own environment by selecting people and experiences
Scarr and McCartney
(Holism vs reductionism)
Environmental reductionism - though it ‘sub-vocal speech’
- Process of thought is just ‘sub-vocal speech’
- It is a physical process
- We do not control cognition, it is influenced by our environment
Watson
(Holism vs reductionism A03)
Against environmental determinism
- Ingested poison to cause physical paralysis
- Could still recall and solve cognitive puzzles
- Preventing speech movements would make thought impossible if we didn’t have independent control over cognition (Watson)
Dr. Scott Smith
(Idiographic vs nomothetic approach)
3 types of general law
- Classification - DSM
- Principles of behaviour - conformity studies
- Dimensions for comparison - IQ
Radford and Kirby
(Ethical implications)
Research indirectly led to it becoming the norm for women to achieve custody of children in divorce courts
Bowlby
(Ethical implications)
Social policy - The 11+ exam
- Showed that there was a hereditability coefficient of 0.77 for twins in IQ
- Intelligence believed to be genetically influenced
- Led to 11+ exams to seperate ‘naturally intelligent’ from others
Research based largely on fabricated findings
Led to social inequalities - more resources given to grammar schools
Cyril Burt
(Socially sensitive research)
Researcher should be mindful of 3 things
- Implications - giving ‘scientific credibility’ to stereotypes
- Uses - public policy
- Validity - is it really value-free?
Cross-cultural research
- Cross-cultural research can be ethnocentric, based on western standards
- Researchers need to operate with preconceptions
Sieber and Stanley
(Socially sensitive research)
Can be beneficial
Can give insight into marginalised, under-studied groups and promote greater understanding and sensitivity for others
Scarr
