Issues and debates Flashcards
(7 cards)
Gender bias
Alpha bias:over exaggerates differences between genders, leaves one gender as devalued
Beta bias:ignores differences between genders, assume what is true for one gender is true to the other
Universality:highlights differences between genders
Androcentrism:focuses on males being the norm
Gynocentrism:focuses on females as the norm
Feminist psychology:recognises differences in culture and society and between men and women
Examples:
Asch experiment-only male participants
Cultural bias
Alpha bias:over exaggerates differences between cultures
Beta bias:ignnores differences between cultures
Ethnocentrism:researcher views their own culture as the norm and uses their norms and values to judge other cultures
Imposed etic:when a researcher uses uses inappropriately a cultural specific method
Cultural relativism:researcher aims to understand cultures based on their own norms
Emic construct:explanation of theory which can only be applied tome culture
Etic construct:explanation of a theory which can be applied to all cultures
indigenous psychology:solution to problem,different psychologists are employed from other cultures that aim to study to adapt the research resources
example:
Ainsworth strange situation
Free will Vs Determinism
Determinism:behaviour is theoretically predictable, no choice over our actions
Biological determinism:behaviour is determined through our genes
Environmental determinism:behaviour is determined by learning what happened to you
REFERENCE:Bandura proposed that the likelihood of children behaving aggressively depends in if they are exposed to an aggressive role model-> cause+effect between observing behaviour and doing behaviour
Psychic determinism:behaviour is caused due to a mixture of your innate drives
REFERENCE:Freud,problems dying psychosexual stages would lead to faulty ego which causes problems in later life
Scientific determinism:each behaviour and thought has a direct effect
Hard determinism:no free will
Soft determinism:we have some control over our actions
EVALUATION:
1)more scientific:sciences emphasise casual explanations-> more scientific as free will suggests actions without causes
2)useful:determinism can explain behaviour-> more useful for predicting,treating and explaining behaviour
3) Research support:Libet found there was brain activity fractions of a second before participants felt the conscious urge to press the button
FREE WILL:
-we have complete control of our actions and behaviours regardless of other influences i
EVALUATION:
1)importance of moral responsibility->need to believe in it as it is a paradigm shared by the justice system.Need to hold people accountable for actions
2)we feel like we have free will.Compelling evidence for most people
Nature Vs nurture
nature:innate behaviours
nurture:our experiences since birth
interactionist approach:nature and nurture work together to give us our characteristics
cocordance rates:chances of you having a particular characteristic if they already have it eg I dental twins have a 48% for schizophrenia
nature:
nestadt et al
Gottesman:identical twins have a 48% of getting SZ compared to 17% in DZ
nurture:
bandura:children learn to be aggressive through observing aggressive role model
Little Albert study:pairing fluffy toy with loud noise
Reductionist Vs Holism
Reductionist:over simplifies a complex issue by only focusing on the individual aspects involved
biological reductionist:human behaviour can be explained through biology
Environmental reductionist:all human behaviour is explained through learning
Experimental reductionist:assumption when carrying out an experiment with more than one independent variable everything about the participant remain the same from 1 condition to another
Holism:considers all aspects and how they fit together
Levels of explanation:attempt to explain behaviour in ways of differing complexity from most reductionist
Gestalt psychology:whole is greater than some of it parts
evaluation:
Reductionist:
easier to carry out research
useful applications
overlooking of meaning
Holism:
more valid
Idiographic Vs Nomothetic
Nomothetic: -large samples -findings can be applied to everyone -use quantitive data -create general laws of human behaviour evaluation \+more reliable \+more useful for the general population Idiographic: -focuses on individuals -use qualitative data -focus on abnormality and those who don't conform to normal expections evaluation: \+help improve general laws -smaller samples so less reliable -cant be generalised for everyone
Ethical implications of research
social sensitive research:studies which could have impact on society
Research question:investigating a question you can lend scientific credibility to the idea
Conduct of research and treatment of participants:must be sure not to cause potential harm to participants
The institutional context:research news to be funded by an institution, can manipulate answers for the outcome they want
Interpretation and application of findings:ways in which research is reported or apply those findings is unethical
Arguements:
Avoid social sensitive research:
-missing out on vital research
-who decides what is socially sensitive
+no one gets upset
Researchers publish their research plans before carrying them out:
+no publication bias
-miss out on crucial research
Introduce strict rules about how the media interprets and represents research:
+everyone interprets research the same no one gets upset
-hard to control the media
