debates

Question 1

nature and nurture + interactionism

Answer 1

• nature = Suggests behaviour is due to genetic or biological factors. Nativism + Internal factors
• nurture = Suggests behaviour is caused by interaction with our environment and upbringing. External factors
• interactionism = Both nature and nurture play a role – they interact in complex ways e.g. neuroplasticity / gene-environment correlations

Question 2

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence to support nature debate

Answer 2

Sperry - the specialisation of brain function is in the nature of the brain and is universal

Question 3

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence to support nurture debate

Answer 3

Social Psychology – Milgram , Levine

Question 4

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence to support interactionism

Answer 4

Maguire – Neuroplasticity

Question 5

strengths of nature debate

Answer 5

• Could potentially be useful by pointing towards practical solutions to some people’s problems
• Probably not ethnocentric as biological factors will affect people the same way anywhere
• Would be associated with scientific research and evidence

Question 6

weaknesses of nature debate

Answer 6

• Limited usefulness: it may not be possible to do anything to change a person’s nature
• Reductionist: it can mean missing out the impact of nurture
• Could be socially sensitive if identifying a problem that someone can’t change about themselves ( for example brain structure research )

Question 7

strengths of nurture debate

Answer 7

• Can be useful, suggesting ways to change behaviour by changing how a child is brought up
• has implications for greater understanding of some people’s behaviour
• suggests that people can change their behaviour when exposed to different influence – so suggests treatments

Question 8

weaknesses of nurture debate

Answer 8

• Reductionist: it can mean missing out the impact of nature
• Might be ethnocentric as cultures will vary in how people are brought up within them

Question 9

reductionism and holism

Answer 9

• reductionism = Human behaviour can be explained as arising from simple processes (e.g. because of hormones, or because of which behaviour has been rewarded in the past); research is best done by focusing on one thing at a time
• holism = Human behaviour should be viewed as the product of different influences which all interact; research is best done by looking at all factors that could affect behaviour

Question 10

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence in reductionism

Answer 10

Loftus and Palmer – they isolate the effect of even something as minor as the verb used in a question

Question 11

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence in holism

Answer 11

Freud – he was very open-ended in his research method, capturing as wide a range of comments from little Hans as he could, with no attempt to narrow these down

Question 12

strengths of reductionism

Answer 12

• Taking a reductionist approach allows psychological research to be more scientific (as it allows researchers to test the impact of a single factor on behaviour).
• Studies which take a reductionist approach are therefore more replicable as they tend to be more highly controlled.
• Allows for a simpler explanation of complex behaviours.

Question 13

weaknesses of reductionism

Answer 13

• Human behaviour is often too complex to be reduced down to single-factor explanations
• Focusing in on one factor at a time can result in other variables being missed out
• Studies which take a reductionist approach are often highly controlled experiments and, as such, can lack ecological validity

Question 14

strengths of holism

Answer 14

Taking a holistic approach gives a more complete explanation of complex behaviours.
- Research is not limited to a single area or approach within psychology so can consider different explanations for the behaviour being investigated.

Question 15

weaknesses of holism

Answer 15

• It can be difficult for researchers to pin down which, out of many different factors, is having the most effect
• Holistic explanations can only be verified by separating out the different elements within them and testing them one-by-one to confirm that all the different factors within them do, indeed, play a part in explaining the behaviour in question. (NB If this is done then holism is, of course, collapsing back into reductionism).

Question 16

freewill + determinism

Answer 16

• freewill = We are able to freely choose how we behave.
• determinism = Our behaviour is caused (or determined) by factors outside our control. Factors that determine how we behave could be genetic (biological determinism) or to do with our upbringings or physical or social circumstances (environmental determinism)

Question 17

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence in freewill

Answer 17

Bandura – the aggression shown by the female role model was less likely to be imitated, suggesting that the children had some free will about which behaviours they would imitate (the physical aggression by a female model was seen as less acceptable). This would also suggest why girls showed lower levels of physical aggression than boys.

Question 18

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence in determinism

Answer 18

Grant et al – our ability to remember information may be determined by the context in which that information was learned. They found that people were more likely to recall information when the context (noisy vs. silent) matched across study and test conditions. This suggests that our ability to recall
information may be determined by external factors such as the level of noise when we learn new information.

Question 19

strengths of freewill

Answer 19

Not socially sensitive – people will often like to feel that they have control over their behaviour

Question 20

weaknesses of freewill

Answer 20

Unscientific – is ‘free will’ just the way we ‘explain’ behaviour that we can’t explain in any other way?

Question 21

strengths of determinism

Answer 21

• Open to positive uses – if we know what causes a wanted behaviour, we can make the behaviour occur again
• Scientific – determinist explanations often arise from controlled experiments in which cause and effect has been established

Question 22

weaknesses of determinism

Answer 22

• Open to negative uses – lawyers could use determinist explanations to get guilty people acquitted
• Reductionist – maybe behaviour isn’t so easily explained
• Socially sensitive – people may find it uncomfortable being told that they are not in control of how they behave

Question 23

individual and situational debate

Answer 23

• individual = Suggests it is a person’s personality or unique experiences that influence his/her behaviour.
• situational = Suggests that our behaviour is determined by the situation we are in (anyone put into the same situation would behave in the same way).

Question 24

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence in individual debate

Answer 24

Freud – phobias are caused by an individual’s unconscious personality conflicts. Little Hans’ phobias were, according to Freud, a result of his fear of castration as a result of his unconscious desires towards his mother (his Oedipus complex).

Question 25

to what extent does psychological research provide evidence in situational debate

Answer 25

Loftus and Palmer – situational factors such as information presented after the event can influence an eye-witness’s memory of that event. They found that participants’ estimates of the speed of a car were affected by the verb used by the experimenter (e.g. smashed vs. hit vs. contacted). This suggests that
memory can be affected by the way a question is asked (a situational factor).

Question 26

strengths of individual debate

Answer 26

Useful – we could try placing people in jobs (or even romantic relationships!) on the basis of their personality characteristics

Question 27

weaknesses of individual debate

Answer 27

Limited usefulness – if a person’s personality is the reason why they behave the way they do, then this will not be easy to change
- Reductionist – misses out situational factors as an explanation

Question 28

strengths of situational debate

Answer 28

Useful – we can alter behaviour by altering the situations that create it

Question 29

weaknesses of situational debate

Answer 29

• Socially sensitive – it could be used as an excuse to explain away bad behaviour (i.e. it wasn’t me; it was the situation that made me do it!)
• Reductionist – misses out individual factors as an explanation

Question 30

psychology as a science

Answer 30

Research is scientific if it has the following features:
> Objective (i.e. a matter of fact., not opinion)
> Replicable (i.e. could be repeated to see if the same findings are obtained)
> Falsifiable (i.e. could in principle be proved wrong)
- This will generally be true of experiments which have testable hypotheses, are controlled (to establish cause and effect), and have standardised procedures
that can be repeated.
However, there is a debate about whether conducting controlled scientific research is the best way to understand human behaviour, especially if it is done in artificial laboratory settings.

Question 31

To what extent does psychological research provide evidence in the claim that Psychology is a science

Answer 31

Loftus and Palmer – a highly controlled study with a standardised procedure that could easily be replicated; in principle, it would have been possible to prove wrong the hypothesis that the verb in a question would lead (in experiment 1) to different speed estimates or (in experiment 2) to different beliefs about whether there had been any broken glass.

Question 32

To what extent does psychological research provide evidence in the claim that Psychology isn’t a science

Answer 32

Freud – a unique case study, it would be impossible to replicate this; it is arguable that the interpretations of little Hans’ phobias and fantasies were just Freud’s opinion (and were, therefore, not objective fact); and yet it would not have been possible to prove them wrong as Freud would have rejected such suggestions as the product of someone in denial.

Question 33

strengths of research being scientific

Answer 33

• Quantitative, objective data is gathered
• There is less possibility of researcher bias influencing findings
• Laboratory experiments are carried out where IVs can be manipulated and cause/effect
  inferred
• Laboratory experiments can be replicated to see if findings are reliable

Question 34

weaknesses of research being scientific

Answer 34

• The research is often lacking in qualitative data (and therefore its explanatory power is reduced)
• The research is often reductionist because it tries to test the impact of a single factor
• Studies often involve highly controlled laboratory settings, which can reduce the ecological validity of the findings

Question 35

usefulness debate

Answer 35

The usefulness debate considers whether psychological research has practical applications to the real world aside from adding to our understanding of a particular issue or concept.

Question 36

To what extent does psychological research provide evidence in the claim that psychological research
is useful

Answer 36

Chaney et al – this could have a number of useful applications. The knowledge that providing positive reinforcement can increase health behaviours could be used to promote other healthy behaviours such as
healthy diets or use of other medications as well as in other areas such as parenting or education.

Question 37

To what extent does psychological research provide evidence in the claim that psychological research
isn’t useful

Answer 37

The study by Freud could be considered to lack usefulness because of the fact that the findings are very difficult to generalise (being based on a single case study of one boy) and also because the methods used would be very difficult to replicate.

Question 38

benefits of research being useful

Answer 38

• It can have positive practical applications that can improve the quality of people’s lives
• It can improve the reputation of psychology as an academic subject

Question 39

weaknesses of research being useful

Answer 39

• It can be put to negative uses
• If two people on opposite sides (e.g. lawyers) both make use of the same piece of psychology then the
  usefulness of the research is cancelled out
• If it is implied that research ought to be useful then psychologists might not do ‘pure’ research that isn’t useful now but could be useful in the future

Question 40

ethics debate

Answer 40

The ethical guidelines (e.g. those published by the BPS) seek to clarify how participants should be treated during psychological research:
> For humans, this relates to consent, deception, withdrawal, protection from harm, confidentiality, debriefing and where observations can take place
> For animals, it relates to avoiding or minimising stress and suffering, considering alternatives to animal

Question 41

To what extent does psychological research provide evidence in the claim that psychological research
is ethical

Answer 41

Chaney et al – parents signed a consent form at the start, they were able to withdraw from the research and, as it was a repeated measures design, no participants missed out on the benefits of the Funhaler intervention

Question 42

To what extent does psychological research provide evidence in the claim that psychological research
isn’t ethical

Answer 42

Bandura – those children who were exposed to an aggressive model may have been made more violent as a consequence of taking part in this study; steps were taken to keep the children from wanting to leave
the study; it’s not clear that parents knew the precise research their children were involved in (to give consent), or were debriefed afterwards

Question 43

benefits of research being ethical

Answer 43

• Enhances the reputation of the subject
• Likely to get other volunteers for psychological research in the future if they can see that participants are treated well

Question 44

weaknesses of research being ethical

Answer 44

• Can place limits on the sort of research carried out (preventing research that might be really worthwhile from being done)
• Can reduce validity if participants know the aim of a study (as this can then lead to them not behaving how they normally would)
• Sampling bias can be a problem if participants are able to withdraw (i.e. you get left with a sample that isn’t as representative as it could be)

Question 45

socially sensitive research debate

Answer 45

Some areas of psychological research could have negative effects either on the people being researched or the class of people that they represent (e.g. people of a certain age, gender, ethnicity or mental state). It is therefore important to ensure that the findings of the research are as valid as possible and to ensure that they are not used inappropriately.

Question 46

To what extent does psychological research provide evidence in the claim that psychological research
is conducted in a socially sensitive way

Answer 46

Baron-Cohen – he has worked hard to put the findings from his research to positive use such as in the development of The Transporters TV series for children with autism (in which trains have faces on them to teach them about emotions)

Question 47

To what extent does psychological research provide evidence in the claim that psychological research
isn’t conducted in a socially sensitive way

Answer 47

Baron-Cohen – as his research was identifying a deficit in the ability of people with autism (in relation to theory of mind), it has the potential to lead to people with autism being prejudiced against

Question 48

benefits of research being socially sensitive

Answer 48

• Answers questions about important areas of human behaviour (e.g. why people with autism find social interactions difficult)
• Can lead to treatments for people with these conditions or advice for others about how to support them.

Question 49

weaknesses of research being socially sensitive

Answer 49

• It could potentially be used for harm rather than for good (e.g. Loftus and Palmer’s work on leading questions)
• It could lead to a negative stigma for people with the condition (e.g. in the media)