Paper 3 - Issues & Debates

Question 1

Gender Bias : What is universality and gender bias (what undermines what )

Answer 1

Universality - Idea that psychological theories, concepts, and research findings should be applicable to all people, regardless of their gender, culture or background.
Bias is leaning towards a personal view that doesn’t reflect reality- research and theory may not accurately represent the experience and behaviour of men and women (gender bias).

Gender bias undermines universality

Question 2

Gender Bias : what is alpha and beta bias (how do they assume)

Answer 2

Alpha Bias - theories that assume there are real and enduring differences between men and women. Differences exaggerated.
Beta bias - theories that ignore or minimise gender differences.
Alpha and Beta bias do this by assuming all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to apply these theories with both men and women. Remember we are trying to create theories that can be apply.

Question 3

Gender Bias : evidence for alpha bias

Answer 3

Alpha Bias - Evidence to support (Freud)
This exaggerates the difference between men and women, therefore theories that are alpha bias devalue one gender in comparison to the other.
This is evident in Freud’s research
Freud’s theories reflect the culture in which he lived, in the 19th century men were more powerful and more educated and superior. In Freud’s theory he viewed femininity as failed masculinity (exaggerated the difference).
Evidence – women have penis envy, they cannot undergo the Oedipus complex and therefore have a weak identification with mother. Women have an inferior morality due to her superego.

Question 4

Gender Bias : evidence for beta bias

Answer 4

Beta Bias
Androcentrism can also result is people assuming that what is true for men is also true for women, thus mistaking minimises the differences between men and women.
Consequence = one gender is ignored (generally women).
An Example: Research on fight-or-flight stress response
Biological research is usually conducted with male animals because in females variations in hormone level would make the research more difficult. It is assumed that the fight-or-flight response was universal until Psychologists have challenged this.
Taylor (2000) found that females produce a tend-and-befriend response at times of
stress which is adaptive – ensures survival of their offspring and networking of females. Therefore real gender difference was ignored = Beta Bias

Question 5

Gender Bias : androcentrism & universality

Answer 5

Androcentrism - From the start psychology was always male dominated, most of the theories we study therefore represent a male world view. This is Androcentrism and may produce alpha or beta bias. This also leads to female behaviour being misunderstood and even pathologised (taken as a sign of illness).
Universality - It would be wrong to eradicate gender difference as a way to resolve the gender bias issue – that would be beta bias. The solution therefore lies in recognising differences but not the superiority of one gender over the other.

Question 6

Gender bias : moral reasoning research (Kohlberg and Gilligan)

Answer 6

Kohlberg (1969) produced a theory on moral development – suggesting that the moral decisions we make are based on an ethic of justice. His research entailed asking men to describe what behaviour was more appropriate in certain situations then applied his findings to all. = Beta Bias
When Kohlberg tested women in 1982, he found they were less morally developed than men = Alpha Bias – the original bias meant that he now exaggerated men and women differences
Gilligan (1982) showed that women favoured a care orientation whereas men favoured a justice orientations. Shows there’s a difference but NO bias.

Question 7

A03 : Gender bias : feminist psychology (Eagly)

Answer 7

Only way to counter androcentrism is to take a feminist perspective. Feminist psychology argues that difference psychology arises from biological explanations of behaviour. However they believe these are socially determined stereotypes which make far greater differences. Feminists believe that a condition to any social change will be a revision of our facts. They are a branch of psychologists aimed to address the imbalances in theory and research in psychology.
Eagly (1978) acknowledged that women may be less effective leaders than men, but this knowledge should be used to develop suitable training programmes and therefore create a future with more women as leaders.This way the balance can be restored through greater support.

Question 8

A03 : Gender Bias : Bias in research methods (Rosenthal)

Answer 8

It may not be the gender that differs, rather the methods used to test or observe them are biased, so males and females appear to be different.
Rosenthal (1966) found that male experimenters are more pleasant, friendly and encouraging to female participants then to male participants. Results male participants preformed less well than,female participants.

Question 9

A03 : Gender bias : reflexivity and reverse alpha bias

Answer 9

Reflexivity - embrace own biases as an important aspect of the research process
Reverse alpha Bias - Another approach is to develop theories which show differences between men and women

Question 10

A02/A03 : Gender Bias : 3 links to other topics (gender, schizophrenia & social influence)

Answer 10

Gender
Bem sex role inventory - gender bias in highlighting the difference in female and male characteristics when attempting to identify androgyny (alpha bias as assumed androgyny was superior).

Psychopathology
Disorders such as depression and anxiety are more frequently diagnosed in women, likely stemming from women being seen as more emotional. This links to alpha bias

Social Influence
Zimbardo’s Standord Prison Exp - only males were sampled and the conformity of social roles /authority is generalised to females even though we don’t know they will act the same. This is beta bias and shows universality.

Question 11

Culture bias : explain Heinrich et al term WEIRD

Answer 11

Henrich et al coined the term WEIRD to describe the group of people most likely to be studied by psychologists (Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised, Rich Democracies)
• If the norm or standard for a particular behaviour is set by WEIRD people, then the behaviour of people from non-Western, less educated, agricultural or poorer cultures are inevitably seen as ‘abnormal’, ‘inferior’ or ‘unusual’.

Question 12

Culture bias : alpha bias (real and enduring differences between culture groups)

Answer 12

• Distinction is usually made between collectivist and individualistic cultures.
• We would expect individualistic cultures to be less conformist, as they don’t work for the group norms.
• HOWEVER – Takano (1999) reviewed 15 studies comparing US and Japan in terms of individualism and collectivism. 14/15 studies did not support the common view about the differences in conformity. This suggests that the distinction between individualistic and collectivist cultures is no longer useful.

Question 13

Culture bias : beta bias (theories that ignore/minimise cultural differences) - links to imposed etic

Answer 13

• All people are the same and therefore its reasonable to use the same theory/method on all cultures.
• Psychologists use IQ tests devised by Western Psychologists to study intelligence in many cultures, therefore the view of intelligence applies to all cultures equally. However Western societies state intelligence lies within the person, whereas collectivist cultures see intelligence as a functional relationship depending on shared knowledge between the individual and the society. Therefore if a western IQ test is used on a non-western individual then they more likely to appear less intelligent. This is imposed etic – a research tool made in one culture imposed on another culture.

Question 14

Culture bias : ethnocentrism

Answer 14

The use of our own ethnic group as a basis for judgement about other groups. A tendency to view the beliefs, customs and behaviours of our own group as normal and even superior, whereas those of other groups are strange or deviant.

Question 15

Culture bias : ethnocentrism linking to alpha bias

Answer 15

• Ones own culture is considered to be different and better, and the consequence of this is that other cultures and their practice are devalued. i.e. individualistic cultures,
independence is valued, dependence is devalued. In collectivist dependence is highly valued.

Question 16

Culture bias : ethnocentrism linking to beta bias

Answer 16

• If psychologists believe their world view is the only view. i.e. IQ testing is ethnocentric as American IQ tests can be used all over the world as the assumption was American standard was universal.

Question 17

Culture bias : cultural relativism

Answer 17

The idea that all cultures are worthy of respect and that while studying another culture we need to try to understand the way that a particular culture sees the world.

Question 18

Culture bias : cultural relativism links to alpha bias

Answer 18

• The assumptions of real differences leads psychologists to overlook universals. I.e. Meads research (from Gender) where she initially concludes that there were significant gender differences due to culture, but later recognised that there were universal’s (men are more aggressive than women).

Question 19

Culture bias : cultural relativism links to beta bias

Answer 19

• In the case of statistical infrequency definition of abnormality, behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be statistically more frequent in another. By assuming the same rules apply universally, we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but that diagnose is relative to our culture.

Question 20

Culture bias : imposed etic linking to Ainsworth strange situation

Answer 20

Imposed etic is when a psychologist creates a research tool to work in one culture then expects it to work on another. For example Ainsworth strange situation, was created for western cultures where mum and child plays, then mum leaves the
room (child showed anxiety) this showed western children mainly as secure. However when used in Japan, children where described as insecure resistant as they showed intense distress. This is due to the fact that mothers rarely put their young down/leave their child, therefore it made Japanese children seem inferior to western.

Question 21

A03 : culture bias : indigenous psychologists

Answer 21

Indigenous Psychologists
Encourage indigenous psychologists that develop theories in different countries. Afrocentrism is a movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots in Africa and that psychological theories concerning such people must by African-centred and must express African values. It suggests that values and culture of Europeans at worse devalue non-European people, and at best are irrelevant to the life and culture of people of African descent.

Question 22

A03 : culture bias : emic-etic distinction

Answer 22

The emic approach is one that only tends to show the behaviour of one specific culture (above). The etic approach looks for universal behaviour, however may be bias. The way to counteract this bias is using indigenous psychologists in each cultural settings, for each theory/research. This way true understanding of that culture can be truthfully given.

Question 23

A03 : culture bias : bias in research methods

Answer 23

Cultural bias can also be dealt with by using samples from different cultures.
• Sears (1986) found that 82% of research studies used undergraduates as participants and 51% were psychology students. This shows that a considerable amount of psychology research is based on middle-class, academic, young adults who are often male. Therefore a lot of research is not only unrepresentative globally but also within the western culture.

Question 24

A02/A03 : culture bias : linking to gender (BEM’S BSRI)

Answer 24

Bem’s BSRI, Only tested in the USA and masculine and feminine traits will differ across cultures so shouldn’t be generalised. Not applicable to eastern/collectivist cultures.

Question 25

A02/A03 : culture bias : classification of Sz

Answer 25

DSM-V made by the American psychiatric association. ICD-10 made in Europe.
Cultural bias, Some symptoms like hearing voices are desired in some cultures/religions (voices of god or ancestors).
e.g. Afro-Caribbean societies ‘hear voices’ from ancestors. Afro-Caribbean British men are up to ten times more likely to receive a diagnosis as white British men, probably due to over interpretation of symptoms by UK psychiatrists. This means that Afro-Caribbean men living in the UK appear to be discriminated against by a culturally-biased diagnostic system.

Question 26

Define free will and determinism

Answer 26

Determinism - An individual’s behaviour is controlled by either internal or external forces. Behaviour is predictable.
Free Will - Individuals have an active role in controlling their behaviour, they are free to choose and not acting in response to any external or internal pressures.

Question 27

Determinism : Biological Determinism

Answer 27

• A lot of research on human genomes is proving that our behaviours are determined by our genes.
• i.e. research on intelligence has identified particular genes found in people with high
intelligence, such as IGF2R gene.
• Genes influence brain structure are neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine that are often implicated in behaviour.

Question 28

Determinism : Environmental Determinism

Answer 28

• Behaviourists believe all behaviour is determined by previous experiences, though operant and classical conditioning.
• Our experience of ‘choice’ is the sum of reinforcement contingencies that have acted upon us throughout our lives.
• Our behaviour has been shaped, and determined through stimulus response.

Question 29

Determinism : Psychic Determinism

Answer 29

• Behaviour is determined and directed by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood.
• Behaviour is driven by the libido, which focuses sequentially on erogenous zones such as the moth or anus.
• If a child is overindulged or frustrated, during development then the libido remains tied to the relevant erogenous zone and the individual is this fixated on that zone.
• The method of obtaining satisfaction that characterised the stage will determine the adult personality.

Question 30

Determinism : Scientific Determinism

Answer 30

• All events have a cause and that causes can be explained by general laws.
• Knowledge of causes and the formulation of laws are important as they allow scientists to predict and control events in the future.
• The laboratory method enables researchers to stimulate the conditions to manipulate an IV to measure the DV and control extraneous variables.

Question 31

Determinism : what is hard and soft determinism

Answer 31

Hard determinism
• Suggests that all human action has a cause
• It should be possible to identify these causes
Soft determinism
• Suggests all human action has a cause but people have freedom to make choices within a restricted range of options

Question 32

Free Will : Humanistic Approach

Answer 32

• Maslow and Rogers argued that self-determination (free will) was a necessary part of human behaviour. Without it, self-development and self-actualisation are not possible.
• Rogers (1959) claimed that as long as an individual remains controlled by other people or other things, they cannot take responsibility for their behaviour and therefore cannot begin to change it.
• Things which are outside a persons sense of self remain beyond personal control.
• Only when an individual takes self-responsibility is personal growth possible, resulting in psychological health.

Question 33

Free Will : Moral Responsibility

Answer 33

• The basis of moral responsibility is that an individual is in charge of their own actions.
• The law states that children and those who are mentally ill do not have this responsibility, but otherwise there is the assumption, in our society, that normal adult behaviour is self-determined (free Will).
• Humans are accountable for their actions, regardless of innate factors or the influences of early experience.

Question 34

Scientific Determinism : what is causal explanations and what is the emphasis on it

Answer 34

Causal explanations - what is this?
• Psychology as a science
• Basic principle:every event has a cause & these can be explained with general laws
• Knowledge of these laws allows scientists to predict and control events
Psychologists must:
• Generate a theory and hypothesis whereby cause and effect can be established
• Use empirical methods such as lab experiments to test the hypothesis
• Apply statistical analysis to see if their prediction is statistically significant or not

Emphasis on Causal explanation
• To establish the influences on behaviour, psychologists attempt to use the scientific method, by controlling all extraneous and confounding variables as far as possible to ascertain that the IV has affected the DV (result)
• Determinism lends itself to using the scientific method, increasing the credibility of Psychology and allowing predictions to be tested. As a result, treatments for conditions such as schizophrenia have been successfully developed.

Question 35

Free Will/Determinism : What is the paradigm shift

Answer 35

• A paradigm is a widely accepted belief or assumption about how behaviour is studied or explained
• A paradigm shift, as identified Thomas Kuhn (1962), is an important change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline
• It is a change from one way of thinking to another
• Also referred to as a ‘scientific revolution’