Issues and Debates - Paper 3

Question 1

What is universality bias? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 1

In their quest to understand human behaviour, psychologists aim to produce theories which are universal. Bias occurs when researchers view things in a way that is unbalanced or unfair. Two forms are gender and culture bias

Question 2

What is gender bias?

Answer 2

The differential treatment and/or representation of males and females based on stereotypes and not real differences

Question 3

What is androcentrism? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 3

This means that theories or research are focused on a male view of the world, often to the neglect or exclusion of women

Question 4

What is an example of how androcentrism affects women? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 4

Many object to the diagnostic category or premenstrual syndrome as it trivialises and stereotypes female experience.

Question 5

What is gynocentrism? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 5

Where theories are centred on or focused on females. This is much less common in psychology

Question 6

What is alpha bias? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 6

This occurs when the differences between men and women are exaggerated. Thus behaviour between males and females is seen as being different. This serves to undervalue members of either sex but typically females

Question 7

How do you remember what alpha bias does? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 7

A + E
Alpha + Exaggerates

Question 8

What is Beta bias? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 8

This occurs when the differences between men and women are minimised. Such theories tend to ignore questions about the lives of women, or assume that what is true for men must also be true for women, thus mistakenly minimising gender differences

Question 9

How do you remember what Beta bias does? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 9

B + M
Beta + Minimise

Question 10

What is an example of Alpha bias? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 10

Freud argued that there are genuine psychological differences between men and women. His theory suggests that females are inferior to males because they are jealous of men’s penises and, as they cannot experience castration anxiety, they develop a weak superego, and are therefore morally inferior to men. He viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity

Question 11

What is an example of Beta bias? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 11

Biological research into the fight or flight response has often been carried out with male animals. It was assumed that this would not be a problem as fight or flight response would be the same for both sexes.

Question 12

What are the negative evaluation points of gender bias?

Answer 12

Implications of gender bias: scientific justification:
Gender bias creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour. These can provide a ‘scientific justification’ to deny women opportunities within the workplace or wider society. E.g., critics claim that the diagnostic category PMS medicalises female emotions, especially anger, by explaining these in hormonal terms. Thus, being diagnosed with PMS may affect how a women is viewed

Sexism within the research process:
A lack of women appointed at senior research level means that female concerns may not be reflected in the research questions. Male researchers are more likely to have their work published, and studies which find evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journal articles than those that don’t. Lab experiments - female participants are placed in unequal relationships with a usually male researcher who ahs the power to label them unreasonable and irrational and unable to complete tasks. This suggests that psychology is guilty of being both beta and alpha biased

Question 13

What is culture bias?

Answer 13

The tendency to judge people in terms of cultural assumptions

Question 14

How have feminist psychologists proposed ways of reducing gender bias?

Answer 14

Worrell:
- Women should be studied within meaningful real-life contexts and genuinely participate in research rather than being ‘objects of study’
- Diversity within groups of women should be examined rather than differences between men and women
- There should be a greater emphasis on qualitative research

Question 15

What is reverse Alpha bias? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 15

A way of tackling androcentrism in research is to emphasise the value of women by showing instances where women outperform men. Cornwell et al found that women are better at learning because they are more attentive, flexible and organised. This technique helps to challenge the stereotype that in any gender difference, they male position must be better

Question 16

What is Ethnocentrism? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 16

The use of our own cultural group as a basis for judgements about other groups. This includes a tendency to view the beliefs, customs and behaviours of our own group as ‘normal’ and even superior, whereas other groups are deviant, abnormal and underdeveloped

Question 17

What is an example of Ethnocentrism? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 17

Ainsworth’s strange situation is an example of an imposed etic with her assuming that the US based model of classifying attachment is the norm

Question 18

What is cultural relativism? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 18

Suggest behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration. It argues there is no universal norms or standards of behaviour and instead these norms are determined by and within each culture. Therefore, any study which draws its sample from only one cultural context e.g., American college students and then generalises its findings to all people everywhere is suspect

Question 19

What is an example of cultural relativism? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 19

The meaning of intelligence is different in every culture. Sternberg pointed out that coordination skills that may be essential to life in a preliterate society (for shooting bow and arrow) may be mostly irrelevant to intelligent behaviour for most people in a more developed society. The only way to understand intelligence is to take cultural context into account

Question 20

What are the negative evaluation points of Culture bias? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 20

Implications of culture bias: scientific justification:
It creates misleading assumptions about people from less dominant cultures. These assumptions can provide a ‘scientific justification’ to deny people from certain cultural groups in society. An example of the damage done by psychologists through culture bias was the US army IQ test used before WW1. The tests showed European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans and African-Americans were at the bottom of the scale. with the lowest mental age. The data from these tests had a profound effect on the attitudes held by Americans towards certain cultural groups

Culture bias within the research process:
When conducting research in Western cultures, it is presumed that participants are familiar with the aims and objectives of scientific testing. However, the same knowledge of scientific testing may not extend to cultures that don’t have the same historical experience of research. So, demand characteristics may occur more often when working with members of the local population, reducing validity

Question 21

What are the positive evaluation points of Culture bias? (Gender and culture bias)

Answer 21

Psychologists have proposed ways of reducing it:
Awareness of the ethnocentrism that exists in psychology has led to the development of ‘indigenous psychologies’. These are theories drawing explicitly on the particular experiences of people in different cultural contexts e.g., Afrocentrisms is a movement which disputes the view that European values are universal, suggesting that psychological theories concerning people of African descent must be African-centred and must express African values. This suggests that there is growing awareness about cultural norms and values

Question 22

What is free will? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 22

The notion of free will suggests that as humans we are able to choose our own thoughts and behaviour. It does not completely ignore the role of biology or environment but suggests we are able to override these forces. This view is advocated by humanistic psychologists

Question 23

What is determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 23

Determinism proposes that we do not have conscious control over our thoughts and behaviour, instead, our behaviour is controlled by internal or externa factors

Question 24

What is hard determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 24

Suggests that all human behaviour has an identifiable cause and that everything we think or do is dictated by internal or eternal forces that we cannot consciously control. Hard determinism is compatible with the aims of science - to uncover the causal explanations that govern thoughts and behaviour. It is an important feature of the biological approach

Question 25

What is soft determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 25

Whilst acknowledging that all human action has a cause, soft determinism also suggests people have some conscious mental control over their behaviour and are capable of making rational choices in everyday life. It is an important feature of the cognitive approach

Question 26

What are the versions of determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 26

Hard and soft

Question 27

What are the types of determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 27

Biological, environmental and psychic

Question 28

What is biological determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 28

Behaviour is caused by brain structure, biochemistry and genetics. Genes influence brain structure and neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine, that are implicated in a range of behaviours e.g., SERT and COMT are responsible for the imbalance of neurotransmitters found in OCD. Links to biological approach

Question 29

What is environmental determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 29

Behaviour is caused by environmental factors such as learnt associations, conditioning and role models. E.g., aggression is learnt via the observation of aggressive role models in the environment. Links to SLT and behaviourism

Question 30

What is psychic determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 30

Freud argued that adult behaviour is shaped by a mix of innate drives and early experience that we cannot control e.g., Gender development is caused by experiences in the Oedipus complex - Little Hans. Links to psychodynamic

Question 31

What is scientific determinism and causal explanations?

Answer 31

Basic principle of science is that all behaviour has a cause. This ‘scientific emphasis on causal explanations’ allows scientists to predict and control events. E.g., understanding causes of mental illness to prevent or treat them. However, the concept of free will implies that behaviour and thinking result from freedom to choose and this is not compatible with the assumptions of science and emphasis on causal explanations

Question 32

What are the positive evaluation points for Determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 32

Practical applications:
The theory that SZ is caused by the neurotransmitter dopamine, led to the development of antipsychotic medication. These drugs have proven to be an effective way of reducing SZ symptoms. This suggests the deterministic emphasis on cause and effect has enabled researchers to predict and control events, to the benefit of people who suffer from a wide range of mental disorders

Question 33

What are the negative evaluation points against determinism? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 33

Incomplete explanations:
Neither internal nor external forces on their own can explain all behaviour. Studies found that MZ twins have a concordance rate of 40% for SZ compared to 7% for DZ. The fact concordance isn’t 1% for the MZ suggests genes alone don’t entirely determine these behaviours. However it does show they play a significant role

Incompatible with the legal system:
Research into the role of the MAOA gene in aggression argues that we may be somehow pre-programmed to be aggressive and therefore have no free will over our aggressive behaviour. One implication is that it may be seen as wrong for the legal system to then find people responsible for their aggressive behaviour if it was not something under their conscious control.

Question 34

What are the positive evaluation points for free will? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 34

Face validity:
Everyday experience does ‘give the impression’ that we are exercising free will through the choices we make. This means that the concept of free will has face validity. Research has found that people who feel in control of their own behaviour (internal LOC) are more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform. This suggests even if we don’t have free will, thinking we do can have a positive impact

Question 35

What are the negative evaluation points of free will? (Free will and Determinism)

Answer 35

Experience of mental disorders like SZ where the sufferer experiences a total loss of control casts doubt on the concept of free will. This suggest that in terms of mental illness, behaviour would be determined and that free will may be an illusion

Free will is a subjective notion. Just because people believe they have free will, doesn’t mean they do. Free will is inconsistent with the assumptions of science e.g., all physical events have a cause. Free will implies behaviour is random and without cause

Question 36

What is Holism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 36

The idea that any attempt to break up behaviour and experience is inappropriate as these can only be understood by analysing the person as a whole. This is a view shared by humanistic psychologists who saw successful therapy as bringing together all aspects of the whole person

Question 37

What is reductionism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 37

Analyses behaviour by breaking it down into simpler component parts. It is based on the scientific assumption of parsimony: that all phenomena should be explained in the simplest, most basic terms

Question 38

What are the types of reductionism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 38

Biological and environmental

Question 39

What is biological reductionism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 39

Biological psychologists reduce behaviour to a physical level and explain it in the terms of neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones and brain structure

Question 40

What is environmental reductionism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 40

Explains behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience. Behaviour is reduced to a simple relationship between behaviour and events in the environment

Question 41

What are the levels of explanation? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 41

High, middle and low. There are different levels of viewing the same behaviour

Question 42

What is the highest level of explanation? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 42

Social and cultural explanations: considered the most broad, general and holistic explanations. Behaviour is explained in terms of how wider social and cultural groups affect our behaviour

Question 43

What is the middle level of explanation? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 43

Psychological explanations:
Seen as more specific. At this level, behaviour is explained in terms of psychological processes such as cognitive processes.

Question 44

What is the lowest level of explanation? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 44

Biological explanations:
Considered the most precise, simplest and reductionist explanations. Behaviour is explained in terms of brain structure, neurochemistry and hormones

Question 45

What are the positive evaluation points for holism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 45

Explanatory power:
Some behaviours can only be understood from a more holistic, higher level of explanation e.g., Stanford prison experiment couldn’t be understood with participants as individuals, it was the interaction and behaviour of the group suggesting some behaviours require a more complete and general understanding

Question 46

What are the negative evaluation points against holism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 46

Vague and unscientific:
Can be vague and overly complex as they often combine different explanations presenting researchers with practical dilemmas. E.g., by considering a wide range of factors in a given behaviour - depression, it becomes difficult to establish which factor is most influential and which should be used for the basis of therapy

Question 47

What are the positive evaluation points for reductionism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 47

Practical applications:
Biological reductionism has led to the development of drug therapies. SSRIs are more effective than placebo in treating OCD

Question 48

What are the negative evaluation points against reductionism? (Holism and reductionism)

Answer 48

Cannot provide a complete understanding of many behaviours. This is because they operate at the level of the gene and neuron and don’t consider vital info about the social context of the behaviour suggesting they can only ever form part of an explanation

Question 49

What is the idiographic approach? (Idiographic and nomothetic)

Answer 49

Focuses on individuals. Each individual is considered a unique case with subjective experiences. No attempt is made to compare to a larger group. Generally associated with qualitative methods meaning only small numbers of people are tested. Their central aim is to describe the richness of human experience and gain an insight into the person’s unique way of viewing the world
Humanistic approach favours this

Question 50

What is the nomothetic approach? (Idiographic and nomothetic)

Answer 50

Generalisation in order to crate ‘laws’ e.g., general principles of behaviour. Studies a large number of people in order to formulate universal laws of human behaviour Data gathered provides a standard against which people’s behaviour can be measured. Associated with quantitative data and experimental methods using standardised procedures and replication. Links to behaviourist and biological approaches

Question 51

What are the positive evaluation points for the idiographic approach? (Idiographic and nomothetic)

Answer 51

Praised for bringing the focus of psychology back to the individual. Focus has provided useful insights that challenge general laws of behaviour E.g., case studies of Clive Wearing provide insight about the mind and behaviour that we cannot acquire through other means helping to increase validity

Question 52

What are the negative evaluation points against the idiographic approach? (Idiographic and nomothetic)

Answer 52

Time consuming:
E.g., case studies greatly restricts the scale and scope of findings produced, making it hard the establish whether findings are reliable and representative. Freud’s Oedipus complex was largely developed from Little Hans (single case). Furthermore, use of qual methods are subjective and subject to bias

Question 53

What are the positive evaluation points for the nomothetic approach? (Idiographic and nomothetic)

Answer 53

Highly scientific:
Large-scale testing under standardised conditions. Quant data allows general laws to be established which allows researchers to make predictions about behaviour. Useful in creating drugs. Would be time consuming to produce personal therapies

Question 54

What are the negative evaluation points against the nomothetic approach? (Idiographic and nomothetic)

Answer 54

Preoccupation of this approach on large samples, statistical data and general laws means participants are seen as a series of scores rather than individuals and subjective experience is ignored. Knowing there is a 1% risk of developing SZ tells us little about what life is like for a sufferer. The approach overlooks the richness and uniqueness of human experience