issues and debates

Question 1

universality

Answer 1

the conclusions of research can be applied to everyone, everywhere

Question 2

gender bias

Answer 2

research may produce a view that does not represent all genders - alpha and beta

Question 3

alpha bias

Answer 3

a view that exaggerates the differences between men and women, usually devalues women

Question 4

beta bias

Answer 4

a view that ignores or minimises the differences between men and women

Question 5

androcentrism

Answer 5

gender bias is a result of androcentrism

most research has judged male behaviour to be the normal behaviour and women to be abnormal

Question 6

evaluation of gender bias - social differences

Answer 6

studies that show differences between gender are often believed to be biological, when actually they could be due to social differences

Question 7

evaluation of gender bias - sexism

Answer 7

institutions, such as universities are still dominated by men, which means women are seen as abnormal in comparison to men

Question 8

evaluation of gender bias - publishing bias

Answer 8

research into gender bias is still infrequently published and is also less funded - suggests not taken seriously

Question 9

ethnocentrism

Answer 9

judging other peoples’ cultures from the values of your own culture

our own cultural perspective is taken as a standard by which we measure other cultures, which can lead to prejudice and discrimination

particularly true of western societies imposing their own values on non-western societies

Question 10

cultural relativism

Answer 10

behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates

researchers may use an emic or etic approach to understanding culture

Question 11

emic constructs

Answer 11

specific to a given culture and vary from one culture to another, they look at behaviour from the inside of the cultural system

Question 12

etic constructs

Answer 12

analysis of behaviour focuses on the universality of human behaviour

universal factors that hold across all cultures

looking at behaviour from outside of the culture

Question 13

evaluation of culture bias - indigenous psychology

Answer 13

as more researchers become more aware of culture bias, there has been a move towards using more native researchers to conduct research and interpret results

Question 14

evaluation of culture bias - asch

Answer 14

like many classic studies, replications of asch found that there were differences in conformity in individualist and collectivist cultures, demonstrating cultural bias in the original

Question 15

evaluation of culture bias - stereotyping

Answer 15

cultural bias has led to prejudices against certain groups

for example, IQ tests were used to claim that african-americans were genetically inferior during WWI

Question 16

free will - determinism debate

Answer 16

free will suggests we have a choice in determining our thoughts and actions and are not controlled by biological or external forces

determinism is the belief that behaviour is caused by internal or external forces that we cannot control

science believes a deterministic approach is needed in studies to be able to determine cause and effect and create general laws, so researchers can control other extraneous variables

Question 17

hard determinism

Answer 17

an extreme position that implies that free will is not possible as our behaviour is always caused by internal and external events beyond our control

Question 18

soft determinism

Answer 18

behaviour does have causes but we also have the ability to make rational conscious choices

Question 19

biological determinism

Answer 19

the belief that behaviour is caused by biological influences that we cannot control

Question 20

environmental determinism

Answer 20

the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control

Question 21

psychic determinism

Answer 21

the belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control

Question 22

evaluation of free will v determinism debate - twin studies

Answer 22

twin studies never show us 100% concordance rates, so it is unreasonable to assume that our behaviour can be purely biologically determined

Question 23

evaluation of free will v determinism debate - face validity

Answer 23

everyday experience ‘give the impression’ that we are constantly exercising free will through the choices we make on any given day

Question 24

evaluation of free will v determinism debate - legal implications

Answer 24

our legal system relies on free will to hold people responsible for crimes - if we take a hard deterministic approach then this has implications for how we sentence criminals

Question 25

nature

Answer 25

influences on our behaviour are inherited or innate heritability is measures using correlation coefficient the closer to 1.0 or 100% the more inherited it is

Question 26

nurture

Answer 26

influences on our behaviour that come from the environment or our experiences of the world based on the behaviourist assumption that we are born a blank slate - tabula rasa

Question 27

interactionist approach

Answer 27

most psychologists will look at the relative contributions of nature and nurture rather than believing only one causes behaviour, and how they interact with each other

Question 28

diathesis stress model

Answer 28

behaviour has a predisposition in our genes but it requires an environmental trigger for it to actually be expressed eg trauma

Question 29

epigenetics

Answer 29

refers to life experiences that can change the way our genes are expressed environmental influences such as lifestyle can leave marks on our DNA, which can last our whole lifetime and be passed onto our children

Question 30

evaluation of nature-nurture debate - adoption studies

Answer 30

adoption studies have proven useful in understanding the relative contributions of nature and nurture as researchers can assess the heritability of characteristics without children having the same upbringing (nurture)

Question 31

evaluation of nature-nurture debate - real world application

Answer 31

by understanding the nature-nurture debate, researchers can almost predict the heritability or certain disorders - potential sufferers can be given prevention strategies to help prevent it being expressed

Question 32

evaluation of nature-nurture debate - moral implications

Answer 32

if we discover certain genetic predispositions to behaviours or personality traits, then this could lead to gene editing by scientists - eugenics - this could have moral implications for future generations of children

Question 33

idiographic research

Answer 33

idiographic research tends to be small scale and focuses on individuals or small groups qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews focus is more on detail and non numerical data and not attempting to make broad generalisations more subjective and interested in people’s individual experiences

Question 34

idiographic examples

Answer 34

humanistic and psychodynamic approaches are considered most idiographic due to use of case studies and in-depth interviews and therapy conversations

Question 35

nomothetic research

Answer 35

aims to create general laws that can be generalised to all human behaviour quantitative methods such as structured questionnaires that follow a scientific method seeks to provide numerical data that can be easily analysed and conclusions drawn from this type of research tends to be more objective due to its standardised methods that can be replicated without bias

Question 36

nomothetic examples

Answer 36

behaviourist and biological approaches are nomothetic in the methods they adopt laws of conditioning were created from skinner’s research and the use of brain scans is a scientific method

Question 37

evaluation of idiographic and nomothetic approaches - both can be used

Answer 37

idiographic research can be used to discover evidence to support or refute general laws and so can lead to new hypotheses and the use of nomothetic research to investigate further

Question 38

evaluation of idiographic and nomothetic approaches - scientific

Answer 38

nomothetic approaches have scientific credibility due to their standardised and objective methods they can also be triangulated with idiographic research to increase their validity further

Question 39

evaluation of idiographic and nomothetic approaches - losing the person

Answer 39

nomothetic research is accused of ignoring the whole person in psychology, instead focusing on general laws it may not be useful when trying to create individual treatment plans

Question 40

holism-reductionism debate

Answer 40

holism is attempting to understand human behaviour by analysing the person or the behaviour as a whole rather than its constituent parts it typically uses more qualitative methods reductionism analyses behaviour by breaking it down into constituent parts - based around the scientific principle of parsimony - all behaviour should be explained using the most basic principles typically uses more quantitative methods

Question 41

levels of explanations

Answer 41

several ways or levels to explain behaviour lowest level considers biological explanations, middle examines psychological explanations and the highest level looks at social and cultural explanations the lowest levels are the most reductionist

Question 42

biological reductionism

Answer 42

includes the biological level and explains behaviour through genetic, neurological or neurochemical causes, as well as evolution

Question 43

environmental reductionism

Answer 43

all behaviour is learned (behavioural approach) and can be explained through stimulus-response links (conditioning)

Question 44

evaluation of holism v reductionism debate - scientific

Answer 44

reductionist approach lends itself to scientific validation researchers can easily establish a cause and effect by examining operationalised variables from one level of explanation

Question 45

evaluation of holism v reductionism debate - is holism practical

Answer 45

if there are many factors affecting a person’s behaviour then it is difficult to establish what therapy might be best suited to them so lacks practical value

Question 46

evaluation of holism v reductionism debate - simplistic

Answer 46

examining behaviour in a reductionist manner can be too simplistic for more complex or group behaviours it does not recognise that behaviour can be due to a combination of factors and not just one simple explanation

Question 47

social sensitivity

Answer 47

ethical implications examine the consequences a study could have some research has greater social sensitivity social sensitivity refers to research that has ethical implications that go beyond the research situation and affect wider society - could affect those who took part, their families, or other people within society eg cultures

Question 48

implications - research question

Answer 48

how research questions are phrased could influence the interpretation of findings eg using the phrase ‘alternative relationships’ suggests that they are being judged against heterosexual relationships

Question 49

implications - dealing with participants

Answer 49

informed consent, confidentiality and protection from harm should all be considered in socially sensitive psychological research eg if examining victims of abuse

Question 50

implications - how findings are used

Answer 50

researchers should consider how their findings might be used to inform public thinking or policy historically, ethnic differences supposedly found in IQ led to discrimination and prejudice

Question 51

evaluation of ethical implications - reduce prejudice

Answer 51

a strength of conducting socially sensitive research is that it can help reduce prejudice by increasing our understanding of certain groups

Question 52

evaluation of ethical implications - real world application

Answer 52

governments look to socially sensitive research to inform policies

Question 53

evaluation of ethical implications - poor research

Answer 53

poor research into socially sensitive topics can have a lasting impact for example, cyril burt claimed intelligence was highly heritable which led to the creation of the 11+ examination but much of his research was fake