Paper 3: Issues and Debates

Question 1

1) What is gender bias?

Answer 1

Gender bias happens when one gender is treated less favourably than the other. It’s often referred to as sexism.

Question 2

2) What are some consequences of gender bias / sexism?

Answer 2

• Scientifically misleading
• Keeps stereotypical assumptions
• Validating justified sex discrimination
• Gender bias being ignored doesn’t mean we pretend that men and women are the same.

Question 3

3) What is universality?

Answer 3

Any underlying characteristic of human beings that’s can be applied to every human, despite different experience and / or upbringing.

Question 4

4) How does bias affect researchers’ findings?

Answer 4

Bias threatens the universality of findings in psychology. This means ‘facts’ psychologists find about human behaviour can’t be 100% objective.

Question 5

5) What is alpha bias?

Answer 5

When differences between men and women are exaggerated. In turn, this usually means that male and female characteristics are emphasised. This may devalue females in comparison to their male counterparts.

Question 6

6) Whats an example of alpha bias?

Answer 6

The socio-biological theory explains human sexual attraction and behaviour through the principle of ‘survival efficiency’.

It’s in the male’s interest to try to impregnate as many women as possible to increase the chances of his genes being passed onto the next generation.

It’s in the females interest to preserve her genes to ensure the offspring are
healthy and survive.

Males are genetically determined to have higher sexual promiscuity but females who engage in the same behaviour are regarded as going against their nature.

Question 7

7) What is beta bias?

Answer 7

When the differences between men and women are minimised or ignored

This often happens when findings obtained from men are applied to women without additional validation.

Question 8

8) Whats an example of beta bias and the researcher who provided a counter point?

Answer 8

Flight or fight response

Early research into the flight or fight response was based exclusively on male animals. This was largely because female hormones tend to fluctuate. In turn, this was assumed to be a universal response to a threatening situation.

Taylor suggested that female biology has evolved to inhibit the flight or fight response, and the females respond by offering social support in a stressful situation.

Question 9

9) What is androcentrism?

Answer 9

Thinking that male behaviour is normal and female behaviour is deviant, inferior, abnormal.

Question 10

10) Whats an example of androcentrism?

Answer 10

Asch’s line study

He used 123 male students and published the results as if they were correct for females as well.

Question 11

11) How does Freud show gender bias in psychology?

Answer 11

His theories were heavily androcentric. He saw ‘biology as destiny’ and women’s roles as prescribed & predetermined and defines women psychologically by the fact they’re not men.

His ideas had serious complications as they reinforced stereotypes of women’s inferiority and shunned women who deviated from traditional female behaviour.

Question 12

12) What are some biomedical theories of abnormality?

Answer 12

In women, mental illness (like depression) is more likely to be explained in terms of hormonal processes rather than other possible explanations such as social or environmental reasons (like domestic violence or discrimination)

Question 13

13) 1✅2❌ Evaluate gender bias

Answer 13

✅Feminist psychology - Judith Worrell put forward a criteria that helps avoid gender bias in
research. Women should be studied within meaningful real life concerns rather than being objects of study.
Diversity amongst female groups should
be studied rather than compared
with men.

❌Sexism - A lack of
women appointed at a senior level means that female issues may not be reflected
in the research. Lab experiments in psychology might be a disadvantage to women. Female participants may be labelled unreasonable, irrational and unable to complete tasks if the researcher is male. This means psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism creating bias in theory & research.

❌Implications of gender bias - Gender biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discrimination. If men set the standard for
normalcy then it’s possible that women will feel abnormal which has damaging consequences to the lives of real women.

Question 14

14) What is culture bias?

Answer 14

When the findings of psychological research conducted in one culture may not apply directly to another.

Critics argue mainstream psychology has ignored culture as an important influence on human behaviour and has mistakenly assumed findings from studies in western cultures can be applied all over the world.

Question 15

15) What is an example of culture bias?

Answer 15

Zimbardo

Question 16

16) What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 16

Research centerd around one cultural group. (usually their own)

When a researcher assumes their own culturally specific practices or ideas are natural or right. They use their own ethnic group to evaluate and make judgements about other individuals from other ethnic groups.

Question 17

17) What is an example of ethnocentrism?

Answer 17

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Only reflected of the norms and values of American culture. The variables used to measure attachment type were inappropriate to non US children ie Japanese children showed a high number of resistant attached children as Japanese mothers don’t usually leave their kids.

Question 18

18) How do you counteract ethnocentrism?

Answer 18

Cultural relativism

Question 19

19) What is cultural relativism?

Answer 19

The principle of regarding the beliefs, values and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself.

It’s practiced to avoid cultural bias in research as well as avoiding judgement on other culture.

Question 20

20) What is an emic construct?

Answer 20

Where the research takes place in only one culture.

Question 21

21) If research of a European society is from a European perspective by Wyripean researchers, what construct is it, etic or emic?

Answer 21

It’s an EMIC approach.

Question 22

22) What’s a disadvantage of emic approaches? (2 marks)

Answer 22

Culture bias can occur when a researcher assumes that an emic construct is actually universal to all cultures.

Therefore, emic constructs are more likely to be misunderstood as researchers from another culture may not be sensitive to the background of the research.

Question 23

23) What is an etic construct?

Answer 23

A theoretical idea assumes to apply in all cultural groups. They’re considered universal to all people and are similarities that are applicable across all cultures.

Question 24

24) What’s a disadvantage of etic approaches?

Answer 24

Making the assumption behaviours are universals across

cultures can lead to imposed etics, where a construct from one culture is applied incorrectly to another.

Question 25

25) An example of etic approach

Answer 25

A man from Egypt, studying Egypt - in Egypt.

Question 26

26) How does Ainsworth show cultural bias in Psychology?

Answer 26

The Strange Situation isn’t appropriate for non Western cultures as it’s based in America and the American ideology of bringing up children.

Ainsworth only used American, middle class, white infants and mothers. Generalising to other cultures is questionable.

Takashi found no children in the avoidant-insecure stage as Japanese children are taught that that behaviour is impolite and is discouraged from displaying it. Japanese children also experience much less separation, so the experiment would be way more stressful.

Question 27

27) 2✅ 1❌ Evaluate culture bias

Answer 27

✅ Challenging assumptions - Cross cultural research may change out typically Western ways off thinking and viewing the world. Being able
to see the knowledge and concepts we
take for granted aren’t shared by other people may promote a greater sensitivity to individual differences and cultural relativism in the future.

✅Individualism and collectivism - Osaka found 14 out of 15 studies that compared the USA and Japan found no evidence of the traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism. This could perhaps suggest that culture bias in research is less of an issue than it once was.

❌Unfamiliarity with research tradition - In Western cultures people are generally familiar and trust scientific research. However, the same knowledge and faith in scientific testing may not apply to all cultures. As a result, demand characteristics may be exaggerated in certain cultivées affecting the validity of the
research.

Question 28

28) What is free will?

Answer 28

The notion that humans beings are self determine and free to
choose our thoughts and actions.

This doesn’t deny there’s biological and environmental forces that exert some influence on our behaviour, but we’re able to reject these forces as we master our own destiny.

Question 29

29) What is determinism?

Answer 29

The view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something.

Question 30

30) What is soft determinism?

Answer 30

All events, including human behaviour have causes. Behaviour can also be determined by our conscious choices in the absence of coercion by others.

Question 31

31) What’s hard determinism / fatalism?

Answer 31

The idea that free will is impossible and our behaviour is always caused by internal or external events beyond our control.

Question 32

32) What is

biological determinism?

Answer 32

The belief that behaviour is causes by biological influence (ie genetics, hormones and evolution) that we can’t control. For example: we can’t control the ANS during periods of stress and anxiety (fight or flight).

Mental disorders are thought to have a genetic basis and research has shown the effect of hormones ie testosterone in aggressive behaviour. Biopsychologists also believe our environment can also influence our biological structures.

Question 33

33) What is environmental determism?

Answer 33

The idea that our behaviour is caused by some sort of outside influence ie parental influence.

Skinner argued that freedom’s an illusion and the probability of any behaviour occurring is determined by past experiences only.We think we’re free but this is because we’re not aware of how our behaviour is determined by reinforcement.

Question 34

34) What is psychic determinism?

Answer 34

Freud argues that free will is an illusion but he thinks this is due to biological drives.

He saw human behaviour determined by unconscious conflicts and stems from childhood events.

Question 35

Explain the scientific emphasis on causal explanations

Answer 35

One of the basic principles of science is that every event in the universe has a cause and effect. This is explained via general laws, and these laws help scientists predict the future.
For example, in Chemistry adding Chemical X to Chemical Y will result in Reaction Z within the controlled environment of a test tube.

So in psychology, the lab experiments let’s researchers stimulate conditions of the test tube and remove extraneous variables in order to precisely control and predict human behaviour.

Question 36

Evaluate free will and determinism

Answer 36

✅Evidence supporting free will - Everyday experience shows that we are constantly exercising free will. Research suggests people
who have an internal locus or control tend to be more mentally healthy. Those who believe their lives are controlled by external factors are more at risk or suffering depression. This suggests that even if we don’t have free will, the fact we think we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour.

❌Evidence against free will - Soon et al conducted a study on brain activity that determines the outcomes of simple
choices exists before the choice. The neurological activity revealed the friction to press a butting with the left or tight hand occurs up to 10 seconds before participants were consciously aware of making such a decision. This shows that even our most basic free will experiences are decided and determined by our brain before we’re aware of them.

✅Supporrs determinism - The notion that orderly human behaviour obey laws places psychology with equal importance with other more established sciences. Prediction and control of human behaviour has led to the development of treatments and therapies - for example psychotherapeutic drug treatment in controlling and managing schizophrenia. Schizophrenia, where the sufferers experience a total loss of control over their thoughts and behaviour casts a doubt on free will as no one would choose to be schizophrenic.

❌Against determinism a Hard determinism is problematic as it’s not consistent with the way in which our legal system works. In law, offenders are held morally for their accountability in their crimes. However. if we believe someone’s behaviour was determined by biological or environmental influences, then we’d expect criminals to get lient sentences. Causes of behaviours will always exist, even if they’re not found yet.

Question 37

What’s the order of approaches to psychology from nature to jurture

Answer 37

NATURE
1. Biological research - Genetics, hormones and neurochemical explanations. (100% NATURE)

2. Psychoanalysis - Innate sex drives, aggression. (75% NATURE) Social upbringing during childhood (25% NURTURE).
3. Cognitive psychology - Innate mental structures ie schemas, perception and memory. Constantly changed by the environment. (50/50)
4. Humanism - Maslow emphasises basic physical needs. Society influences a person’s self concept.
5. Behaviourism - All behaviour is learnt from the environment through conditioning.

Question 38

What’s the heritability coefficient

Answer 38

Used to asses heredity. It’s a numerical figure ranging from 0 to 1.0 which indicated the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis (1 being 100% genetic determined)

Question 39

What is nature?

Answer 39

The view that all our behaviour is determined by our biology and genes. In addition, some genetic characteristics only appear later in development as a result of maturing.
The main assumption of this approach is that any particular behaviour has evolved because of its survival value.
Examples of heavily nature based topics are sexual selections and Bowlby’s attachment theories.

Supporters of this views are call nativists.

Heredity assess the amount of genes that are involved in behaviour.

Evolution explains

Question 40

What is nurture?

Answer 40

Nurture is the view that all behaviour is learnt and influenced by external factors such as the environment. All knowledge is gained through experience.

Question 41

What does Lerner say about the importance of nature and nuture?

Answer 41

lornah suggested that a child’s environmental influence begins as soon as they’re born and perhaps earlier. Natural nature are closely into intertwined for instance in twin studies are often very difficult to tell whether high cocordance Rates are more the result of sad genetics or shared upbringing. Psychologists are now more likely to ask what is the relative contribution of each influence.

Question 42

What is the diathesis stress model

Answer 42

this model suggest that psycho pathology is Caused by a biological/genetic vulnerability which only occurs with the environmental trigger. Research is found in a group of finish adopt years, there is more likely to develop schizophrenia had biological relatives of the history of the disorder and relationships with their adoptive families that were defined as dysfunctional. The vulnerability and this is the sketchers schizophrenia and the trigger was a dysfunctional family
.

Question 43

What is Epigenetics

Answer 43

this is a change in our genetic activity without changing our genetic code. It’s a process that happens throughout life and is caused by interaction with the environment. Aspects of our lifestyle and events we encounter for example smoking pollution and war leave epigenetic marks on our DNA. These marks tell our bodies what jeans are ignoring what do you two years. Intern, these may influence the genetic codes are children and their children have. Therefore this introduces a third element into the nature nurture debate – life experience of previous generations.

Question 44

Evaluate nature and nurture.

Answer 44

tic-Bowlby’s evolutionary explanation of attachment doesn’t ignore environmental influences which other evolutionary experiences do. Only suppose that infants became very strongly attached to the caregiver who responds my sensitivity to the infants needs. The experience of sensitive care given (nurture) leads a child to develop expectations that others will be equally sensitive so that they tend to form an adult relationship started in German and trusting

.
Cross-shadona on shadow environments research that attempts to separate the influence of the environment from nature is difficult. this is because siblings raised in the same family may not have experienced the exact same upbringing. But I do have shared environment suggest that individual differences mean that different events mean different things to different siblings for example divorce one child might be happy about it but the other side. This would explain the finding that even identical twins who have the same upbringing don’t show perfect coordinance rates as they experience life differently. This suggests that nature and nurture can’t really be separated.

cross – Constructivism the notion of Constructivism suggest that people create their own nurture by actively selecting environments that are appropriate for their nature. Therefore an aggressive child is more likely to be comfortable with and other aggressive children. Researchers argue that this is further evidence that impossible to separate the effects of nature and natural an individuals behaviour and that it’s impossible for them to be separate.

Question 45

What is holism

Answer 45

Holism suggest that we should be looking at the whole person rather than a specific part to their behaviour. It doesn’t deny the potential influence of genetics/biochemistry but feel that human behaviour is far more complex. They believe that social context is important in terms of their influence. For this reason holistic approaches tend to be drawn drawn to higher levels of explanation such as cultural influence.

Question 46

what is reductionism

Answer 46

reductionism is the argument that we can explain behaviour and experiences by one factor such as biology or learning. Reductionism is often the simplest explanation and has greater emphasis on biological explanations.

Question 47

What are the different levels of explanation in psychology?

Answer 47

– Cultural – sociopolitical – subcultural – social cognition – social groups – interpersonal interaction – genetics (r) – biochemistry (r)

Question 48

If we’re looking at the topic of depression what is a holistic way to go about it versus a reductionist way to go about it?

Answer 48

holistic-a hilllooking at depression from a holistic point of view somebody may suggest that the depression is caused by biological, social and cultural factors.
reductionist – a reductionist may look at it from a biological point of view ONLY.

Question 49

What is biological reductionism

Answer 49

biological reductionism is the most common reductionism. Is based on the premise that we are biological organisms made up of physiological structures. Therefore all behaviour is at some level biological and can be explained through neurochemical no physical evolutionary and genetic influences. This is the main assumption of the biological approach.

Question 50

What is the idiographic approach?

Answer 50

idiographic approach is an approach to research that focuses more on the individuals means of understanding behaviour.
Generalising from person to person is difficult because each person is unique.

Question 51

What research methods are researchers using the idiographic approach more likely to use versus less liikely to use? Why?

Answer 51

They favour case studies as they document the unit for spectrum behavioural differences which can be used to help evaluate any theories.Case studies are criticised for their lack of applicability to the general population but they’re useful as a test for theory. They can also also show flaws in a theory as it only takes one case study to argue that a theory is wrong as a theory should be able to accommodate all individuals.
i

They are unlikely to conduct a large-scale studies or use quantitive data as this generalise results going against what they believe.

Question 52

What is the nomothetic approach?

Answer 52

The nonathletic nomothetic approach is about attempting to establish general laws and generalisations. The focus of the number thetic approach is to obtain objective knowledge through scientific methods.