Topic 8: Issues and debates Flashcards
Gender bias
The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences.
Types of gender bias proposed by Hare-Mustin and Marecek (1988)
- Alpha bias: Exaggerating the differencess between men and women. The consequence is that theories devalue one gender in comparison to the other, and may emphasise stereotypical characteristics.
- Beta bias: Ignoring or minimising differences between men and women (this often happens when findings are obtained from men and applied to women without additional validation.
Universality
The aim to develop theories that apply to all peope, which may include real differences. The solution to gender bias is recognising gender differences but not the superiority of one gender over another.
Andocentrism
Centred or focused on men, often to the neglect or exclusion of women.
Moral reasoning research
Kohlbeg’s study into moral development contained beta bias because he tested only males using justice related dilemas and then assumed the finings would apply to all ppl. When he later tested on women, he used the same dilemas, which had a male orientation, and then concluded that women were less morally developed than men - an alpha bias outcome.
Gilligan’s research showed that women favoured a care orientation whereas men favoured a justice orientation - Identifying differences without bias (universality).
Evaluation/discussion on gender bias in psychology
- Feminist psychology: There are real differences, but social stereotypes cause more damage than any real biological differences; by identifying such stereotypes the balance can be redressed. Evidence that women may be ‘inferior’ to men (i.e. Eagly’s research into women being less effective leadetr than men) can be used to provide women with greater support (i.e. developing suitable training programmes to create a future with more female leaders) rather than merely rienforcing stereotypes.
- Avoiding a beta bias: equal rights may disadvantage women because they do have different needs, e.g. equal parental leave ignores special biological demands on women.
- Bias in research: poor methodolgy (single-sexed samples, male-only experimenters) may disadvantage on gender.
- Assumption need to be examined: Darwin’s theory of sexual selection has been challenged as rooted in Victorian ideas about female coyness.
Culture
A set of values, practices, traditions or beliefs a group shares, whether due to age, race or ethnicity, relgion or gender.
Ethnocentrism
Seeing things from the POV of ourselves and our social group. Evaluating other groups of people using the same standards and customs of one’s own culture.
Cultural relativism
The view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates.
Cultural bias
The tendency to judge all people in terms of your own own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgement.
Ethnocentrisim can lead to…
Alpha bias: Exagerating the differences between cultures. One’s own culture is considered to be different and better, (and the consequnces of this is that other cultures and their practices are devalued. (E.g. Individualist vs collectivist cultures; difference not found in meta-analysis of conformist behaviour - Takano & Osaka)
Beta bias: Refers to theories that ignore or minimise cultural differences. They do this by assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories/methods with all cultural groups. (E.g Western-based IQ tests used to measure other cultural groups who then appear less intelligent - an imposed etic)
Imposed Etic
Making the assumption that behaviors are universal across cultures can lead to imposed etics, wherea construct from one culture is applied inappropriately to another. Imposed etics is when theories are considered to be universal based on emic research in one individual culture.
Cultural Relativism can lead to…
Alpha Bias If psychologists assume there are differences and overlook universals (e.g Margaret Mead’s research in Papua New Guinea)
Beta bias because may mistakenly assume symptoms of mental disorder are universal (e.g. In the case of statistical infrequency as a definition of abnormality, beahviours may vary in frequency between dif. cultures and therefore may lead to misdiagnosis.)
Evaluation/discussion of cultural bias
- Indigenous psychologies, each rooted in their own culture, such as Afrocentrism that seeks to understand the culture of Africans.
- The emic-etic distinction - indigenous psychology is an emic approach (emphasises the uniqueness of each culture); an etic (universal) approach can use indigenous researchers for data collection (e.g. Buss investigated universal mate preferences, while avoiding cultural bias, by collecting data from 37 different cultures, using local researchers to ensure accurate translations and resolve descrepencies, however his research contained about 77% of Western PPs).
- Bias in research methods: Samples in textbooks mainly American (Smith and Bond) and mainly middle-class, young adults (Sears, Henrich et al.)
- Consequnces of cultural bias: Helps to create or reinforce stereotypes. E.G. US army IQ test before WW1 (which was related to knowledge of America) led to enduring and damaging stereotypes about black and immigrant populations (Gould).
- The worldwide psychology community meets much more now than 50 years ago, due to more accessible travel, which should reduce ethnocentrism and cultural bias.
Indigenous psychology
The scientific study of human behavior and mind that is native, that is not transported fromother regions, and that is designed for its people.
Free will
- Each individual has the power to make choices about their behaviour.
- Humanistic Approach - self determination is required for mental health (Rodgers), otherwise can’t take control of negative beahviour.
- Moral responsibility - adults are accountable for their behaviour regardless of innate factors or poor early environment.
Determinism
Is the view that an individual’s behaviour is controlled by either internal or external forces acting upon the individual. This means that behaviour should be predictable.
Soft determinism
A version of determinsim that allows for some element of free will
Hard determinism (fatalism)
The view that all behaviour can be predicted and there is no free will. The two are incompatible.
Types of determinism
- Hard determinism: The view that all behaviour can be predicted and there is no free will. The two are incompatible.
- Soft determinism: A version of determinsim that allows for some element of free will.
- Biological determinism: The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetics, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control. Individual genes (e.g. IGF2R linked with high IQ, Hill et al.) or neurotransmitters (dopamine hypothesis of schitzophrenia)
- Environmental determinism: All behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and punishment and classical conditioning) that we cannot control.
- psychic determinism: The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control. Adult personality is caused by a mix of innate drives (libido) and early experiences (fustration or indulgence).
- Scientific determinism: Science seeks causal relationships by manipulating an IV and observing the effect on a DV (e.g. Harlow’s attachment experiment).
Evaluation/discussion of free will
For Fee Will:
- Roberts et al (2000) - adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism were at significantly greater risk of developing depression. Free will = positive.
- Everyday experience gives the impression that we have free will, giving face validity to the concept.
Againts Free will:
- Neurological studies by Benjamin Libet and Chun Siong Soon et al found that the activity related to whether to press a button with the left or right hand occurs in the brain up to 10 seconds before the PPs report being consciously aware of making such a decision. This shows that our basic experiences of free will are determined by our brain before we even become aware of them.
- In terms of mentall illness behaviour would appear determined because no one would ‘choose’ to have a mental illness.
Evaluation/discussion of determinism
For determinism:
- Neurological studies by Benjamin Libet and Chun Siong Soon et al found that the activity related to whether to press a button with the left or right hand occurs in the brain up to 10 seconds before the PPs report being consciously aware of making such a decision. This shows that our basic experiences of free will are determined by our brain before we even become aware of them.
- In terms of mentall illness behaviour would appear determined because no one would ‘choose’ to have a mental illness.
- Determinism is conistent with the aims of science and the value of such reserach is that the prediction and control of human behaviour has lead to the development of treatments (i.e. a biological explanation for depression has lead to drug therapies).
Against determinism:
- The legal system is not consistent with determinsim.
- Determinism is unfalsifiable.
- Roberts et al (2000) - adolescents with a strong belief in fatalism were at significantly greater risk of developing depression.
Nature-nurture debate
Nature - Innate influences which may appear at any stage of life
- Genetic explanations - MZ twins more likely to boht develop schizophrenia that DZ twins (Joseph).
- Evolutionary explanations - attachment is addaptive because it aids survival and reproduction (Bowlby); it relies on genetic transmission.
Nuture - the social and physic environment/experiences; we are born as a blank slate.
- Behaviourism - classical and operant conditioning can explain the formation of attachment.
- Social Learning Theory - the urge to be aggressive may be biological, but we learn how to express this through direct and indirect reinforcement (Bandura).
- Other explanations e.g. Bateson’s double bind theory of schizophrenia is based on experience.
Interactionist Approach
With reference to the nature-nurture debate, the view that the processes of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposition.
Evalution/discussion point for the nature/nurture debate
Interactionist Approach:
- Nature and nurture cannot be seperated - like the length and width of a rectangle (Hebb), or phenylketonuria which is a genetic disorder resulting in brain damage but is not expressed if given the right diet.
- Diathesis-Stress - A person’s nature (diathesis) is only expressed under certian conditions of nurture (stressor). This approach can be used to explain schizophrenia and reserach has consistently shown drug therapies and CBT or family therapies to be most effective in treatment.
Nature affects nurture: Indirect genetic influences: Reactive (Plomin) - one’s behaviour changes the environment (a child who is genetically more agressive may provoke an agressive response in others. This response become’s part of the child’s environment and affects the child’s development). Passive (Plomin) - parents influence the home environment (a parent with a genetically predetermined mental illness may create an unsettling in environment and result in a child’s mental disorder due to passive/inderect effects). or active (Scarr and McCartney) - niche picking - we pick our environment to best suit our nature which in turn nurtures that trait (e.g. an agressive child chooses to be friends with those who act similarly).
Nurture Affects nature: neural plasticity, as in Maguire et al’s study of spatial memeory in taxi drivers (London taxi drivers who had to undergo extenisve learning and training had more grey matter in their hippocampus than those who has not studied ‘the knowledge’.)
or Blakemore and Cooper’s study of perception in kittens (they altered their innate visual system through expereince, by restricting what they could see as newborn kittens.)
Epigenetics: The material in each cell of your body that acts like a set of ‘switches’ to turn genes on or off. Life expereinces such as nutrition or stress, control these switches, and most importantly these ‘switches’ are passed on to subsequent generations. Explains why MZ twins and clones are not identical. Introduces a third element in the debate:the life experience of previous generations: Dias and Ressler gave male lab mice an electric shock every time they were exposed to the smell of a chemical.The mice showed a fear reaction as soon as the scent was present(conditioning).The mices children also feared the smell even though they hadn’t been exposed to the smell or given any shocks.Introduces a third element in the debate:the life experience of previous generations
Reflexivity
Reflexivity is the process of engaging in self-reflection about who we are as researchers, how our subjectivities and biases guide and inform the research process, and how our worldview is shaped by the research we do and vice versa (Wilkinson, 1988)
Reductionism
An approach that breaks down complex behaviour into simpler and seperate components, such as the biological approach.
Types of Reductionism:
Biological Reductionism: Reducing behaviour to a physical level i.e. neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones etc. E.g. it has been suggested that schizophrenia is caused by excessive activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
Environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism: Behaviourist explanations suggest that all behaviour can be explained in terms of simple S-R links. Reduces behaviour to a simple relationship between the behaviour and the enviornment. I.e. The Learning Theory of attachment.
Experimental Reductionsism
Reductionism underlies the experimental approach. Where behaviours are reduced to operationalised variables they can be manipulated and measured to determine a causal relationship.
Holism
Focuses on systems as a whole rather than on the constituent parts, and suggests that we cannot predict how the whole system will behave just from a knowledge of the individual components.
Gestalt Psychology - Our brain uses holistic principles, suggesting we see our environment as a whole and not in individual components.
Humanistic Psychology - Believes that the individual reacts as an organised whole, rather than a set of S-R links. Focuses on unified identity and how a lack of ‘wholeness’ leads to mental disorders.
Cognitive Psychology - Connectionist networks are described as holist because the network as a whole behaves differently than the individual parts; linear models assume that the sum of the parts equals the whole.
Levels of reductionism
Highest Level: Social & Cultural Explanations (the influence of social groups on behaviour).
Middle Level: Psychological Explanations (Cognitive, Behavioral/environmental).
Lowest Level: Biological Explanations (neurochemicals, genetics, brain structure etc).
Levels of Explanation
Highest Level of explanation: Holism - explanations that focus on all of the person as a whole and not broken down into simpler parts.
Higher Level of explanation: Sociocultural explanation
Middle level: Psychological Explanations
Lower Level: Biological Explanations
Evaluation/discussion of holism and reductionism
- Lower levels of explanation (biological/behavioural) may result in the meaning of behaviour being overlooked. E.g. Wolpe, who developed the theory of systematic desensitisation, treated one woman for her fear of insects. He found no improvement from this behavioural method of therapy. It turned out that her husband, whom she’s not been getting along, was given and insect nickname. Her fear was not the result of conditioning but a means of representing her marital problems. A higher level of explanation and hence treatment would’ve been more appropriate.
- Biological reductionism has lead to the development of drug therapies, which help treat symptoms however psychological explanations take more account of causal factors and have produced many successful therapies.
- Environmental reductionism and the behavioural approach was developed using experiments with non-human animals. Therefore such explanations may not be appropriate for more complex human behaviour, as they ignore other possible influences on human behaviour, such as social context, intentions, and emotions.
- Experimental reductionism may not tell us much about everyday life and thus may have a negative impact of the relevance of psychological research. E.g. Loftus and Palmers lab experiment into EWT have not always been confirmed by studies of real-life eyewitnesses, where memories have been found highly accurate (e.g. Yuille and Cutshall).
- An Interactionist approach may be more appropriate than a reductionist approach: Analysing how the differnet levels of explanation interact. Research has often shown that the mind can affect our biology. Martin et al Found that depressed patients who received psychotherapy expereinced the same changes in levels of seritonin and norepinephrine in the brain as those receiving drugs.
The Nomothetic Approach
Description: Seeks to formulate general laws of behaviour based on the study of groups and the use of statistical (quantitative) techniques. It attempts to summarise the differences between people through generalisations. Uses highly controlled experiments and structured observations. Includes behaviourist, biological and cognitive approaches.
Idiographic approach
Focuses on individuals and emphasises uniqueness; favours qualitative methods in research i.e. case studies, content analysis and unstructured interviews. Does not establish general laws. Includes the humanistic approach, which takes an individualistic approach to understanding behaviour, and parts of the psychodynamic approach (e.g. while Freud did produce generalisations from his case studies, they are still idiographic because they were drawn from unique individuals).
Nomothetic and Idiographic Evaluations
Idiographic Strengths
- Focuses on the Individual, which provides us with a more complete understanding.
- High validity as it produces rich, detailed data, however at the expense of relaibility as unique, indivual circumstances cannot be replicated.
- Can be use for hypothesis generation, which can then be tested nomothetically.
Idiographic Limitations:
- Lack of objective evidence. Vulnerable to subjectivity/bias due to the intensive data collection techniques and time spent with the individuals.
- Time-consuming due to depth and detail
- Inability to produce general predictions about behaviour. Such general predictions can be useful i.e. in the development of drug therapies.
Nomothetic Strengths:
- Generalisation and general predicitons can be useful, for example in producing drug therapies to treat mental illness.
- Objective measurement - high reliability at the expense of validity due to its inability to control individual differences.
Nomothetic weaknesses:
- misinterpretation - ignores individual differences
- Superficial as fixed criteria do not give a complete picture of the individual. E.g. two people with depression diagnosis may have very different experiences.
Integrative/combined Approach:
Involves using both idiographic and nomothetic methods in combination to generate general principles. I.e. general trends may be identified using the nomothetic approach, followed by an idiographic study exploring the trend in an individual (e.g. patient KF supports working memory). Alternatively, idiographic findings may generate a hypothesis which can be studies nomothetically to establish general laws.
Social Sensitivity
Socially Sensitive research refers to any research that might have direct social consequences for the participants in the research or the group that they represent.
The reseach process - Social sensitivity
Sieber and Stanely Identified concerns researchers should be aware of:
- Research question may damage some groups. Is the research question written likely to influence how it is used or does it come from an open mind?
- conduct of research especially confidentiality. How objective is the research? Is it based on bias?
- Institutional context Researcher should be mindful of who is funding the research and why - may lead to data misuse or misunderstanding.
- Interpretation and application of findings, e.g. IQ tests used to promote black stereotypes. Researchers need to consider how their data is going to be used. Is it going to be used to inform a policy? The researcher needs to consider implications/wider effects (e.g. is the research going to add ‘scientific credibility’ to discrimination and prejudice?)
Ethical Issues in socially sensitive research
- Privacy - pps may reveal more than they intended.
- Valid Methodology - the media/public may not be aware of poor methodology/invalid findings, thus poor studies might shape important social policies to the detriment of those groups represented by the research.
- Values - Scientists seek general laws, whereas pps interested in individuals.
- Risk/benefit ratio - hard to determine
Eval/discussion of ethical implications of socially sensitive research
- The wider impact of research - family, co-workers, etc may be affected and need safeguarding.
- Inadequacy of current ethical guidlines, e.g. researchers not required to consider the use of their research.
- May disadvantage marginalised groups, who are not included as research participants and then research findings cannot be applied to them.
- Just avoid socially sensitive research - psychologists have a responsibility to tackle difficult topics.
- Engaging with public and policymakers - Individual psychologists should actively promote the benefits of their research.
- SSR can promote progression for uner-represented issues.
Takano and Osaka(1999)
Takano and Osaka(1999) found that 14/15 studies that compared the US and Japan found no evidence ofthe traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism. This could perhaps suggest that cultural bias in research is less of an issue than it once was.
Margaret Mead (1935)
studied cultural differences in gender. In New Guinea she foundthree tribes—the Arapesh, the Mundugumor, and the Tchambuli—whose gender roles differed dramatically from gender role expdectations in the US at the time. In the Arapesh both sexes were gentle and nurturing
