Issues and Debates Flashcards
What is Universality?
The idea that a concept or conclusion can be applied to anyone and everyone, regardless of time, culture, upbringing etc.
What is Bias?
Where a belief leans towards a subjective view that doesn’t necessarily reflect objective reality.
When considering human behaviour, bias is a tendency to treat one group differently to another.
What is Gender Bias?
Where psychological research does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviours of men or women, usually women. Gender Bias can be split into two forms - Alpha bias and Beta bias.
What is Alpha Bias?
Where research focuses on the differences between men and women, and exaggerates these differences. These differences are presented as fixed and inevitable. They can highlight the value of women, but typically devalue women in relation to men.
Example - Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual development - Argues that women are morally inferior to men due to them having a weaker superego, as they do not experience castration anxiety in the phallic stage
Chodorow (1968) - suggested that mothers and daughters have greater connectedness than sons and mothers due to their biological similarity. As a result of the child’s closeness, women develop a better ability to bond and empathise with others
What is Beta Bias?
Where research focuses on the similarities between men and women, and ignores or underestimates differences. This can happen when it is assumed that research findings apply equally to both men and women, when one gender (usually women) has been excluded from the research process.
Example - Fight or Flight - Biological research favours the use of male animals as female behaviour is affected by hormonal changes due to ovulation, so excludes females from the research process. This was the case with fight or flight research, and the theory itself. However Taylor et.al (2000) argued that women actually have a ‘Tend and Befriend’ response. The ‘love’ hormone oxytocin is more plentiful in women than in men, and research suggests that women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin production. This reduces the fight or flight response and encourages the tend and befriend response, which is an evolved response to look for others.
What is Androcentrism?
Alpha and Beta bias are both products of androcentrism, where behaviour is judged by a male-centric standard. This means that female behaviour tends to be labelled as abnormal or deficient.
Only 6 of the APA’s 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century were women, which suggests that psychology is a subject that has been produced for men, about men, and by men.
Often women’s behaviour, if it has been considered, has been misunderstood or pathologised. For example, premenstrual syndrome has been criticised on the grounds that it medicalises women’s emotions, explaining anger in hormonal terms. Meanwhile men’s anger is often seen as a rational response to pressure (Brescoll and Uhlmann 2008)
What is a limitation of Gender Bias in psychology - stereotypes and scientific fact?
Gender differences are incorrectly presented as fixed and enduring - Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) presented the findings of several gender studies which concluded that girls had superior verbal ability, while boys had better spatial ability. Maccoby and Jacklin suggested that these differences are ‘hardwired’ into the brain before birth, an idea which was later accepted as fact (along with the findings). However Joel et.al (2015) found no such sex differences when conducting brain scan research, in terms of brain structure or processing. It is possible that Maccoby and Jacklin’s theory was so widely accepted because it fitted existing stereotypes of girls as ‘speakers’ and boys as ‘doers’. This suggests that we must be careful when accepting research findings as biological fact, as they may be influenced by alpha bias, and may be more social stereotypes than scientific fact.
What is a counterargument - Stereotypes/scientific fact?
There is research which suggests sex differences have a biological basis. Ingalhalikar et.al (2014) found that women’s brains may have better connections between the right and left hemisphere than mens, which could explain the popular stereotype that women are better at multitasking.
What is a limitation of Gender Bias - promotes sexism in research?
Murphy et.al (2014) found that despite the majority of undergraduate psychology students being women, lecturers in psychology departments are more likely to be men, meaning that women are underrepresented in universities, and that research is more likely to be conducted by men, so may disadvantage women. For example, a male researcher may be more likely to assume that women will be irrational and unable to complete complex tasks (Nicolson 1995). These expectations lead to women underperforming in research studies. Furthermore, research challenging gender biases may be unpublished. Formanowicz et.al (2018) studied over 1000 articles relating to gender bias, and found that research on gender bias is funded less often, and published by less prestigious journals. As such, fewer scholars are aware of it when conducting their own research. Institutional structures and methods of psychology may produce findings which are gender-biased, and when this occurs it is often not taken seriously.
What are WIERD people (Henrich et.al)
WIERD is a term created by Henrich et.al to describe people most likely to be studied by psychologists.
It describes Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised, Rich Democracies.
It comes from a review by Henrich et.al (2010) which looked at studies from leading psychology journals and found that 68% of research participants came from the United States, and 96% were from industrialised nations.
This suggests that many of psychologies ‘universal’ facts and theories are subject to cultural bias.
If the norm for behaviour is set by WIERD people and research into them, then the behaviours of people from non-Westernised, less educated, agricultural, and poorer countries may be seen as abnormal and inferior.
What is Cultural Bias?
A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of ones own culture, ignoring any effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour.
What is Ethnocentrism?
A form of cultural bias, centred around a belief in the superiority of ones own cultural group. It involves judging other cultures by the standards and values of ones own culture. In an extreme form, the belief in the superiority of someone’s social group can lead to prejudice and discrimination toward other cultures.
This idea can be applied to Ainsworth’s Strange Situation and its different variations. It is argued that its definitions of secure and insecure attachment are based on western norms. This means that variations, such as Takahashi (1986) where Japanese infants were classed as more likely to be insecurely attached, are more likely to be wrong, blaming attachment style on the relationship with the mother when findings are actually the result of cultural bias.
What is Cultural Relativism?
The idea that norms, values, ethics and moral standards can only be meaningful and understood when viewed within specific social and cultural contexts.
Berry (1969) drew a distinction between etic and emic approaches to studying human behaviour.
An etic approach looks at behaviour from outside a culture, and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal
An emic approach functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours specific to that culture.
An emic approach functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours specific to that culture
What is a limitation of cultural bias in psychology - influential research?
Many influential studies in psychology are culturally biased. Both Asch and Milgram’s studies of social involved American participants exclusively, most of whom were white and middle-class. Replications of these studies in different cultural contexts produced different results, for instance replications of Asch’s line study in collectivist cultures found higher rates of conformity than the original study (Smith and Bond 1993). However it is the original studies and their culturally biased findings which are most well known. This suggests that there is a need to expand research so that it looks at several cultures, or, if not, to only apply findings to a culture similar to that of the participants eg. individualistic for Asch’s participants.
What is a counterargument - cultural bias - influential research?
It could be argued that in an age of increased media globalisation the individualist-collectivist distinction doesn’t really exist. Takano and Osaka (1999) found that in 14/15 studies comparing the US and Japan there was no evidence of individualism or collectivism, describing the distinction as lazy and simplistic. In modern psychology, cultural bias may be less of an issue.
What is a strength of research into cultural bias - cultural psychology?
Research into cultural bias has led to the emergence of cultural psychology - Cohen (2017) described cultural psychology as the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience. This field aims to avoid ethnocentric assumptions, taking an emic approach and conducting research from within a culture. This often involves working alongside local researchers and using culturally-based techniques. This suggests that modern psychologists are mindful of the effects of cultural bias, and are taking steps to avoid it.
What is a limitation of cultural bias - ethnic stereotyping?
Gould (1981) explained how early intelligence tests led to eugenic policies in the US. Psychologists in WWI piloted IQ tests on 1.75 million army recruits. Many of the items on the test were ethnocentric (eg. assuming that everyone would know the names of the US Presidents). Results showed that recruits from south-eastern Europe and African-Americans received the lowest scores, and were used to inform racist discourse about the genetic inferiority of particular cultural and ethnic groups. Ethnic minorities were deemed ‘mentally unfit’ and denied educationally and professional opportunities as a result. This illustrates how cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice and discrimination.
Outline the freewill-determinism debate:
Asks if our behaviour is selected without constraint or if it is the product of internal/external influences
What is Free will?
The idea that humans are free to choose their own thoughts, actions and beliefs. The approach recognises that biology/the environment may exert some influence on behaviour, but we are able to reject these forces if we wish. The approach is advocated by the humanistic approach.
What is Determinism?
The view that an individuals behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces, outside of their control. There a two levels of determinism, and 3 types.
What are the two levels of Determinism?
. Hard determinism - Sometimes referred to as fatalism - Argues that all behaviour has a cause, which should be identifiable. It assumes that everything we do is dictated by internal or external forces outside of our control, so free will is an illusion.
. Soft determinism - The view that behaviour may be predictable and be caused by internal or external factors, but this does not detract from the freedom we have to make rational, conscious choices. There is room for personal choice from a limited range of possibilities (restricted free will). It is an important feature of the cognitive approach.
What are the three types of Determinism?
. Biological determinism - The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we can’t control
. Environmental determinism - The belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (eg. systems of reward and punishment) that we can’t control. Skinner argued that all behaviour is the result of conditioning, and that our experience of ‘choice’ is the product of reinforcements throughout our lives.
. Psychic determinism - The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious psychodynamic conflicts that we can’t control. Freud emphasised the importance of biological drives and instincts, with behaviour a result of conflicts repressed in childhood.
What is a strength of free will - fatalism?
Free will has practical value - Roberts et.al (2000) looked at adolescents who had a strong belief in fatalism (the idea that their lives were shaped by forces out of their control). The study found that these children were at a significantly higher risk of developing depression than their peers who did not believe in fatalism. This suggests that thinking that we can exercise free will in everyday life can improve mental health. Even if we do not have freewill, the belief that we do may have a positive impact on mind and behaviour, demonstrating its value.
What is a strength of free will - legal system?
The position of the legal system on responsibility - the hard determinist stance is that individual choice is not the cause of behaviour. This idea is inconsistent with the way the legal system, which views offenders as being responsible for their actions. The main principle of the legal system is the idea that the defendant has exercised free will in committing their crime, so can be held personally and morally accountable. A deterministic viewpoint would make societies current version of justice, as it would suggest it is wrong the punish an offender for behaviours caused by factors out of their control. A free will stance is arguably necessary in the real world in order to maintain order and justice.
What is a strength of determinism - evidence from brain scan studies?
Evidence from brain scan studies supports the concept of determinism - Libet et.al (1983) instructed participants to chose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured activity in their brain (‘readiness potential’). Participants had to say when they felt the conscious will to move. Libet found that the unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision to move came half a second before the participant felt they had consciously decided to move. This can be seen as suggesting that even our most basic experiences are determined by our brain before we are consciously aware of them. This strengthens the idea of determinism.
What is the nature-nurture debate?
Part of the interactionist approach, it seeks to answer whether our behaviour is more a product of inherited or acquired characteristics. It is not a ‘debate’ between one or the other - not ‘either or’ as behaviours and characteristics tend to arise from a combination of both factors
eg. Kagan (1984) proposed that a baby’s innate temperament also affects the attachment relationship. So nature creates nurture - they interact.
For this reason, psychologists are are more likely to ask what the relative contribution of each influence is - so the debate really looks at how nature and nurture interact (interactionist approach)
What is meant by nature?
Inherited or hereditary influences. Early nativists eg. Descartes argued that all human characteristics, and even some aspects of knowledge, are innate. Physiological characteristics such as intelligence or personality are determined by biological factors. eg genes just as physical characteristics are.
What is meant by nurture?
The influence of experience and the environment. Empiricists eg. Locke argue that the mind is a blank slate at birth (tabula rasa), which is then shaped by the environment (an important feature of the behaviourist approach)
Lerner (1986) identified different levels of the environment, which includes prenatal factors (how physical and psychological influences affect a foetus). More generally development is influenced postnatally eg. the social conditions a child grows up in
