Issues & Debates - A2 Flashcards
What is universality and what is its significance for bias in psychology?
- Universality: conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone everywhere, anywhere, regardless of time or culture
- Culture & Gender bias undermine psychology’s claims to universality
What is gender bias?
- Gender bias results when one gender is treated less favourably than the other, often referred to as sexism
What is alpha bias?
- Exaggerating the differences between men & women
- Theories assume there are real & enduring differences between men & women
What are some examples of alpha bias within psychology?
- Freud’s theory of psychosexual development
- During phallic stage, both boys & girls develop a strong desire for their opposite gender parent
- Boys: castration anxiety - resolved when the boy identifies with his father
- Girls: eventual identification with same-sex parent is weaker -> suggests superego is weaker
- Girls are morally inferior to boys
What is beta bias?
- Exaggerating the similarity between men & women
- They minimise gender differences
- Assumes all people are the same and so it’s reasonable to apply research/theories to men & women
- Often happens when theories obtained from men are applied to women without additional validation
What are some examples of beta bias within psychology?
- Fight or flight response
- Biological research has favored using male animals as female behaviour is affected by regular hormonal changes due to ovulation - ignores any possible differences
- Early fight/flight research assumes men & women respond to threatening situations with fight/flight
- Taylor et al - ‘tend & befriend’ - love hormone oxytocin is plentiful in women -> women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin -> reduces fight/flight, enhances tend/befriend
What is androcentrism?
- Taking male thinking/behaviour as normal, regarding female thinking/behaviour as inferior or abnormal instead of just being different
- Alpha & Beta bias are consequences of androcentrism
- Women’s behaviour has been misunderstood, & at worst, pathologised - taken as a sign of ilness
What are the strengths of gender bias in psychological research? (A03)
- Increases awareness of bias: research into gender bias highlights the prevalence of androcentrism & other forms of bias in psychological studies - researchers can work towards more balanced & inclusive approaches in designing studies & interpreting results
- Improves generalizability: addressing gender bias improves external validity of psychological research -ensures findings are applicable to all genders, not just 1 group -> theories more representative of the human experience
What are the weaknesses of gender bias in psychological research? (A03)
- Research challenging gender biases may not be published: Formanowicz (2018) analysed 1000+ studies relating to gender bias published over 8 yrs -> gender bias research is funded less + published in less prestigous journals - held true for other biases e.g. ethnic bias -> gender bias not taken seriously
- Gender differences falsely presented as fixed & enduring: Maccoby & Jacklin - found several gender studies concluded girls have superior verbal ability, boys superior spatial ability + suggested these differences are hardwired into the brain before birth - Joel et al found no sex differences in brain structure/processing (findings fit stereotypes of girls as ‘talkers’ & boys as ‘doers’ -> popularised) - research findings might be better explained as social stereotypes not biological facts
- Counter: research by Ingalhikar suggest the popular strerotype that women are better multitaskers may have biological truth to it - seems a women’s brain may benefit from better connections between RH & LH than men -> may still be biological differences
- Real-world implications: gender-biased research can reinforce harmful stereotypes or justify discrimination (e.g. in the workplace or healthcare)
What did Heinrich et al find and what does WEIRD mean?
- Reviewed hundreds of studies in leading psychology journals - found 68% of research ppts came from USA, and 96% from industrialised nations
- WEIRD: the group of people most likely to be studied by psychologists - Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised, Rich Demorcracies
- If the norm for a particular behaviour is set by WEIRD people, then the behaviour of non-westernised people = abnormal
What is cultural bias?
A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of one’s own culture, ignoring the effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour
What is ethnocentrism?
- Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture
- In its extreme - the belief in the superiority of one’s own culture which may lead to prejudice towards other cultures
What are some examples of ethnocentrism within psychology?
- Asch concluded that people will conform to the majority opinion (even when incorrect) - used only Americans + males
- Ainsworth’s Strange Situation: only reflects the norms/values of the Western culture -> misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in countries seen to deviate from the American norm - Japanese infants more likely to be classed as insecurely attached (rare separation of mothers & babies - Takahashi)
What is cultural relativism?
The idea that cultures can only be understood from within that culture
What is etic research?
When research based on one culture is generalised and applied to all cultures
What are strengths and weaknesses of etic research?
Strengths:
- Humans from various cultures do have similarities - human physiology is fairly similar + certain behaviours are universal e.g. language development, aggression levels
Weaknesses:
- The vast majority of research involves taking samples of a whole population - challenging to apply the principles & conclusions drawn to all cultures -> researchers can be biased due to an imposed etic
What is emic research?
- Based on studying a specific culture
- Results/conclusions drawn are not to be applied to all cultures
- The focus is to study behaviour within the group and between groups within the culture
What are the strengths & weaknesses of emic research?
Strengths:
- Researchers can avoid cultural bias & bias from imposed etic
- Not trying to generate universal laws
Weaknesses:
- Bias still possible - researchers can over-emphasise differences between cultural groups & not looking at differences within cultural groups
What are the 3 ways of reducing cultural bias?
- Cultural relativism: the idea that there is no universal standard to behaviour
- Representative sampling: all sub-groups within a larger group should be represented ->allows for generalisability of results
- Context: research should be conducted in meaningful contexts & use researchers local to the culture being studied -> reduces imposed etic
What are the strengths of cultural bias in psychology (A03)
- Emergence of cultural psychology: the study of how people shape/ are shaped by cultural experience (Cohen) - incoorprates work from researchers in other disciplines e.g. sociology -> cultural psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentic assumptions - take an emic approach + tend to focus on just 2 cultures -> modern psychologist know the dangers of culture bias
- Improves external validity: addressing cultural bias ensures findings are applicable across diverse populations rather than limited to a single culture (often WEIRD populations) - enhances ecological validity of psychological research
What are the weaknesses of cultural bias in psychology (A03)
- Many of the most influential psychological studies are culturally biased: Asch & Milgram’s og studies were conducted with US ppts - Asch type replications in collectivist cultures found higher conformity rates than original US studies -> understanding of topics like social influence should only be applied to individualist cultures
- Counter: in an age of increased media globalisation, the individualist-collectivist distinction may no longer apply - Takano & Osaka found 14/15 studies comparing USA & Japan found no evidence of collectivism or individualism
- Temporal validity:
cultures evolve over time, & findings from older studies may no longer reflect current cultural norms or practices - hard to draw long-lasting conclusions about cultural influences on behavior - Language barriers:
in cross-cultural research, translating materials such as questionnaires or interview protocols can lead to translation errors or loss of meaning - some concepts may not have equivalent terms in different languages, affects validity of the measures - Sampling issues: samples in cross-cultural studies are often unrepresentative of entire cultures, relying on accessible participants such as university students (often WEIRD populations) - limits generalizability of findings to broader populations within the studied culture
What is free will?
- Humans are self-determining & free to choose their own thoughts and actions
- Implies we are able to reject external forces if we wish because we are in control of our own thoughts/behaviour
- Free will can be subjective e.g. school setting
What is determinism?
The view that free will is an illusion & behaviour is controlled by internal/external forces over which we have no control
What is the difference between soft and hard determinism?
- Hard determinism: also known as fatalism - suggests all human behaviour has a cause & it should be possible to identify & describe these causes - assumes everything we think/do is controlled by internal/external forces
- Soft determinism: human behaviour may be predictable but we have the freedom to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations