issues and debates Flashcards
(42 cards)
what are the two forms of gender bias?
alpha and beta bias
what does universality mean?
how humans are all the same, we can apply findings to everyone
what is alpha bias? give an example
when the differences between men and women are exaggerated
eg freud’s penis envy theory, he says that girls super ego is underdeveloped because our identification to the mother is weaker, this means the super ego is under developed because we take on the same sex parents moral perspective - so women are morally inferiour
what is beta bias? give an example
ignoring/minimalising the differences between men and women, generalising data from male research onto women
eg assuming we both respond the same way in the fight/flight response, research tends to be done on males because hormonal changes can affect behaviours, its now argued women actually have another response, tend and befrend, because we have more oxytocin and have evolved to look out for others
what is androcentrism
male centered
androcentrism results in the alpha and beta bias, its how psychology is male-dominated, behaviour is judged to a male standard resulting in female behaviour to be deemed as abnormal
in psychology female behaviour is often under researched, misunderstood or wrongly diagnosed
what happens to a lot of research that challanges gender biases?
it doesnt get published! people dont want to see things that contradict their views. research into gender bias is funded less and if published, its in worse journals
whats the one type of culture bias and whats its opposite?
ethnocentrism, cultural relitivism
what is ethnocentrism? give an example
judging another culture through the standards of your own culture and believing that your cultures norms are superiour than the others.
eg. Ainsworths strange situation, babies in other countries were judged to a US system, stating that the babies had insecure attachmets when they were normal in their culture
what is an etic approach and an imposed etic?
an etic approach looks at behaviour from outside a culture and describes behaviours as universal
an imposed etic is when you study behaviour from inside one culture and then apply it to other cultures
what is an emic approach?
an emic approach works within a culture and identifies behaviour specific to that culture, only applying findings to the cultures its studied and not others
what is cutural relitivism?
norms only exist within the culture they originate and cant be applied to others/ norms, values, ethics etc are only meaningful in spesific cultures
what is culteral psychology?
studying how people are shaped by their culteral experience, they strive to avoid ethnocentrism and take an emic approach
what is ethnic stereotyping? give an example
how culture biases in psychology lead to stereotypes of cultures, when the first intelligence tests (IQ tests) emerged lots of the questions on there were spesific to america eg name the US presidents, when people not from america then did poorly, they took this to mean everyone else is stupid, not the test we created was bad, leading to ethnic minorities being deemed ‘feeble-minded or mentally unfit’
what is the free will - determinism debate?
discussing how much of our behaviour is determined by ourselves without influences or constraints and how much is determined by internal and external influences
what is free will and what approach has a free will standpoint?
the idea that we are self determining, our thoughts and actions are free from external forces, the humanistic approach, maslow believed its important for recovery if we believe we can ifluence or own change
what is determinism?
the view that our behaviour is controlled and shaped by external forces, theres hard and soft deterinism, hard states our behaviour is caused by other factors and we have no controll, soft states that whilst we are mainly determined we have some say/ freedom to make choices
what are the different types of determinism?
biological - were determined by biological structures and genetic influences
environmental - behaviour is due to conditioning (behaviourism)
psychic - were determined by repressed conflicts from childhood, there are no accidents (freudan slips) its as a result of our unconcious
what is the scientific emphisis on causal explanations?
science wants to show cause and effect so they can predict behaviour using general laws.
everything in the universe has a cause, and these causes can be explained through general laws, these general laws mean we can predict future behaviour and control it, lab studies are used to remove extranuous variables and precisely control and predict hman behaviour
what effects does the free will - determinism debate have on the law?
if all our behaviour is determined by factors out of our control then offenders cant be held responsible for their actions? determinist approaches dont work in the real world else our entire legal system falls apart
what is the nature-nurture debate?
the nature nurture debate discusses the extent to which behaviour is a product of nature - inherited, innate, genetic influences or nurture - experience and the environment were in
what does the nature side state?
they focus on innate things and state that, just like physical apprearence, charicteristics like personality and intelligence are inherited
what does the nurture side state?
they believe in environmental and experiences influence. the say were born a blank slate (tabula rasa in latin) and were completely shaped by our environment.
this includes different levels of environment, like how things can affect a foetus prenatally aswell as social conditions were brought up in
how can we measure nature and nurture?
using concordance rates in twin studies, if a trait is heritable then identical twins should have very high concordance rates
what is the diathesis stress model?
having a genetic disposition/vulnerability that needs to be triggered by an environmental stressor. this is an interactionist approach because it involves both nature and nurture
