Paper 3 Issues and Debates

Question 1

Discuss gender bias in psychological research. Refer to examples of alpha bias and beta bias in your answer (16)

Answer 1

alpha bias: exaggerates
- Freuds theory of psychosexual development
beta bias: underestimates
- fight or flight response = male animals (female affected by hormones)

AO3:
strength - more awareness
- gender specific elements
BUT research challenging gender bias may not be published (underfunded)

limitation - implications raised from findings
- misleading assumptions about female behaviour (don’t challenge negative stereotypes)

Question 2

Discuss cultural bias in psychology. Refer to examples of research in your answer

Answer 2

ethnocentrism = superiority of ones own cultural group
- US and Europe
- Ainsworth strange situation

cultural relativism = all cultures worthy of respect
- etic approach = behaviour outside culture (universal)
- emic = inside culture identifying specific behaviours to culture
- ainsworths research as an example applied universally

AO3:
limitation - most influential studies are culturally biased
- Asch and milgrams study US participants
- collectivist culture = higher level of conformity

Strength - emergence of cultural psychology
- cross cultural research

Question 3

Discuss the free will and determinism debate. Refer to two topics you have studied in psychology in your
answer.

Answer 3

free will = self determine and free to act
determinism = behaviour is governed by internal or external factors

hard determinism = behaviour has a cause
- identify and describe these causes

soft determinism = constrained by environmental or biological make up but to a certain extent

types of determinism:

biological - influence of the autonomic nervous system on stress response or influence of genes on mental health

environmental - forces outside of individual
- skinner = conditioning

psychic - biological drives instincts
- unconscious conflicts represented in childhood

AO3:
for determinism - helped establish psychology as a science
- investigating causes and predictable behaviour
- biological and behaviourist approach = drug treatment in managing schizophrenia

against determinism - position in the legal system
- offenders are responsible for their actions (free will)
- determinists aren’t practical giving an excuse for behaviour

for free will - practical value
- exercising free will improving mental health
- exhibit external locus of control rather than internal = less likely to be optimistic

against free will - brain scan evidence
- unconscious brain activity leading up to conscious decision came before participant consciously felt they had decided to move

interactionist position - compromise

Question 4

Discuss the nature-nurture debate. Refer to two topics you have studied in psychology in your answer.

Answer 4

Nature - heredity
- closer two individuals are genetically, the more likely that both of them will develop the same behaviours.
- bowlby: attachment behaviours are naturally selected, which can only
be done through genetic mechanisms.

nurture - environmental
- behaviourism = skinner classical and operant conditioning

AO3:
strength - use of adoption studies.
- If adopted
children are found to be more similar to their adoptive parents, this suggests the environment is the bigger
influence.
- Whereas, if adopted children are more similar to their biological parents (no influence on their
environment), then genetic factors are presumed to dominate.
BUT: people create their own ‘nurture’ by
actively selecting environments that are appropriate for their ‘nature’.

strength - real work application
- people who have a high genetic risk of OCD because of their family background can receive advice about the
likelihood of developing the disorder and how they might prevent this

limitation - empiricists suggest that any behaviour can be changed by altering
environmental conditions. (therapy)
= strong commitment to either a nature or nurture position corresponds to a belief in hard determinism.

Question 5

Discuss the holism-reductionism debate. Refer to one topic you have studied in your answer.

Question 6

Discuss idiographic and nomothetic approaches in psychology. Refer to two topics you have studied in your answer.