psych p3 Issues and Debates Flashcards
Define universality?
Conclusions that can be applied to everyone and anywhere despite different experinece and upbringing.
Define bias?
leaning towards a subjective view thats does not portray objective reality
Define alpha bias?
occurs when differences between men and women are exaggerated and are fixed.
these could devalue woem in relation to men.
What is a example of alpha bias?
using freuds psychosexual development stages
boys develop the desire fro oppostite gender parent thorugh castration anxiety and will reduce when he identifies with his father
but a girls evebtual identification with same gender parent is weaker which means her superego is weaker as it develops as a result of taking on same gender parent moral perspective.
what odoes the example of alpa bias show?
women are morally inferior to men.
Define beta bias?
ignores and minimizes differences betwen men and women.
How does beta bias occur?
when researh findings can be eqully apllied ot men and women.
What is an example of the beta bias?
Because woman have more emotional chnages due to their hormones, men were used and women were left out of research, so research findings were applied to both womenand men.
so responded same way in flight and fight research
What research found can contradict the beta bias approach?
Found that women actually act differently o men to tend and befrined response due to more hgiher evels of oxytocin in women.
so they react differently to stress due to oxytocin hormone, to help their offspring survive so adapted response.
also in attachment section they may have misreperesente men in showing thta men can provide the emotional care fro babies too.
What is /define androcentrism?
Male dominated approach thats sees mens behaviour as rational and normal/
womens behaviour as irrational or is misunderstood.
what is one - og gnder bias in ppsycholgy?
is that gender differenced are usually presented as fixed when they are not.
Evidience comes from a rseaercher who found several gender studies that girls has superior verbal abilty and boys have better spatial ability and found these differences are hardwired into the brain at birth.
however a rseaercher did brain scannning and found no sex differences in brain structure or processing.
so it me\ans that data from the study about spatial and verbal ability was popularised just ebcasue it fitted into the sterrotyps of girls being speakers and biys as doorers.
this means that differenced arent acuatlly objtivelt due to biological facts but based on setreotpyoical facts.
Why is SEXISM IN RESEARCH a - of gender bias?
P-one - is that gender bias promotes sexism in the research process.
EV- This is because women are highly unreperesnted in uni departments such as women being more undergraduates but men are the lecturers in psychology departments.
EX- This means that the research is more likely to conducted by men and and a male rseaecher may expect a women to be more irrational ad unable to completed complex tasks so they underperform in studies.
L thsi means that methods of psych may produce findings that are gender biased esp from institutions.
Why is GENDER BIASED research a - of gender bias?
P- one - is that rsearch challenging gender bias may not be published.
EV- this is evdidinet in a rseacher who anaylsed 1000 journals relating to gender bias over 8 years and found research on gender bias was fnded less often and in less presitgious journals.
Ex- this meant that fewer scholars or researcher were aware of it so couldnt apply it in their work and wasnt true with other types of bias such as ethnic bias, where other factors such as methodology used.
L- this means that gender bias is psych research may not be taken as seriously as other forms of bias.
Define cultural bias?
tendecy or liklehood of interpreting a situtation through one culture and ignoring different experinecs of cultures on a behaviour.
How does reseach support the idea of cultural bias exisisting?
Psych claims they finds facts about human behaviour universally.
and the term WEIRD by HENRICH et all decribed the people that most likley to be studies by psychologists which were westernised, educated people from industralised rich democricies.
Define term ethnorcentrism?
judging a culture based of their own culture in belief that theirs is superior.
what is a exmaple of thenocentrism research?
in mary ainsworths strange situation-
when conducting research on attachment types suggested that ideal attachments types were ones with low or moderate anxiet when left alone.
but this lead ot other child rearing prcaticces as abnormal such as japanse infants were more likley to be classed as insecurely attached becasue they show high seperattion anxiety- takshi study.— but this was due to the different rearing style of babies rarely sepreated from their mother.
Define cultural relativism?
idea of norms and values cna only be meaningful when looked from a specific cultrual context.- from withing the the culture they came from
What is the difference between etic and emic apporach?
Etic appraoch look as behaviour from outisde of a culture and attempst to describe those behaviour as universal.
Emic apporoach: loos from within or inside the culture and identifies behaviour specific to that culture.
What is an exmaple of a imposed etic?
Ainsworths research becasue she had studied behaviour in one culture-america and then made an ideal attachment type- assuming it was the best one and applied it to all cultures.
How can ethnic bias be reduced in psychological research?
By being aware that they can be interpretaed from within that specifc culture and in which they were discovered in
What is one limiatiion of cultura bias?
one - is that many studies in psychlogy are culturally biased.
Ev: comes from social influnece studies were asch and milgram only used white middle class men and then assumed conformity and obedience is
EX;- uniform in all cultures. However when replicated they have found different conformity rates such as lower ones in collectvist cultures, than individualist ones.
L- therfore understanding certain topics such as social influnce should only be applie to indivualist cultures.
What is a counterpoint to this limitation?
P- however in a age of gloablistion we could argue tjat indiviualist -collectiist cultures distinction no longer applies.
Ex- This is becasue individualist cultures such as the US value indedpnednace whereas collectivst cultures such as china value more society and dependancy.
Ev this comes from a rseaecher who found that 14/15 studies that compared US and japan found no evidience of colectivism or indivualism.
L- therfore this suggest that cultrual bias in research may be less of an issue in more recent psych research
What is one + of cultural bias?
p- one + is the emergence of cultural psychology.
EX- an example of this is hoe the people shape and are shaped by their cultural experinece, whichis a new field that combines researchers from other disciplines such as sociology and anthropology.
Ev- this means that culturla psychologits can try to avoid ethnocentric assumptiosn by taking an emic approach and conducting research from withing a culture
such as focusig only on two cultures rather than large scale studieswith 9 or more countries..
this is a strength because it shows modern psych can be aware of any cultural biases and attempt to avoid it.
Define free will?
the idea or beleif that humans can make their own choices and theri behaviour isnt determined by any external or bio forces.
How may this affct our behvaiour?
humans are self determing,
but doesnt deny that there are bio or envromental forces that exert influnce on our behaviour
but we can choose to rejet or accept these beause we are in control.
Describe hard determinism?
also known as fatalism all human behaviour is predeterined and controlled by external or internal forces that we have no control over.
Describe soft determinism?
what determines our behaviour doesnt take away our free will that we have to choose our decisiions.
What are3 types of detrmisn?
bio enviro and psychic
Descirbe biological determisn?
belief that all behaviour is determined by biological factors such as genes or neurochemistry or the autonomic nervoour system.
stres response and genes on mental health sucha OCD and sciz.
Descibe enviromental determins?
skinner argued that free will is an illusion and is result of past conditioning and experiences.
alhtough we may think we act on our own free will it is a sum of all reinfomcents through experineces.
Descibe psychic determisn?
Freud also aggreed that free will is an illusion and bio drives and insticts drive our behaviour.
human hebaviour is determined by uncosnous throughts repressed in childhood- so all behaviour comes from unconsious.
Describe or explains the scinetifc emphasis on causal explantions?
in scienece or psych every event or behavior must have a cause that an be explained by using general laws (hard determsis)
allows scientists to control and predict in future– so lab eperiments are used as they are highly controlled and causal relatioships can be estabalished
Practical value/RWA of free will?
P- one + of free will is its practical value in everdya life.
EV- Evidince coms from researchers who looked at adoclenscents who had a strong beleif in fatalism and lives were out of their control. They found hat these people were significantly geater risk of developing depression.
who had a higher external LOC rather than internal were less likely to be optismistic.
EX-the normal view i sthat we execrcise free will in our everday basis but even if this isnt the case then even thinking that we doint is good for our mental health
L- suggesting even if we dont have free will we can beleive we do whcih can have a positve affect on our behaviour
researchc evidience to support determism?
P- one - of free will is that its shows determissm influencing our behaviour
EV- comes from researcher who told participinats to choose a random moment to flisk their wrists while measuring their brain activty called readiness potential.
They had to say when they felt consious will to move
Ex- they found that unconsiou brain activty leading upto conscous decision to move came half a second before the PS consciously felt they decided to move
which shows that our basic experineces of free will are actually determined by our brain before we are aware of them
L- showing our behaviour is pre dteremined by our brain.
The LAW/ - of determinism?
One -of dterminism is the postions in the legal system.
this is becasue the hard detrmisnt stance is that the indivudla is not the cause of behvaiour- but isnt consistent the way law operates as in courts offender are responsible for their actions due to their free will.
therfore determisn may not work in real world.
