Issues and debates

Question 1

What is gender bias?

Answer 1

The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real difference.

Question 2

What is alpha bias?

Answer 2

A tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women, suggesting that there are real and enduring differences between the two sexes. The consequences are that theories devalue one gender in comparison to the other, but typically devalue women

Question 3

What is androcentrism?

Answer 3

(andro=male) A bias towards a male-centred view.

Question 4

What is beta bias?

Answer 4

A tendency to ignore or minimise differences between men and women. Such theories tend to ignore questions about the lives of women, or insights derived from studies of men will apply equally well to women.

Question 5

What is Ethnocentrism?

Answer 5

Ethnocentrism is the assumption that one ethnic or cultural group is superior to other cultural groups as we use our own cultural group as a basis for judgement of others.

Question 6

What is Universality?

Answer 6

The aim to develop theories that apply to all people, which may include real differences. This describes any underlying characteristic of human behaviour which can be applied to all individuals, regardless of their differences. Bias, lack of validity and issues with reliability reduce the universality of psychological findings.

Question 7

What is cultural bias?

Answer 7

The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgements.

Question 8

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 8

The view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate.

Question 9

What is Indigenous psychologies?

Answer 9

A method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of different groups of theories in different countries.

Question 10

What is determinism?

Answer 10

The belief that behaviour is controlled by external or internal factors acting upon the individual and beyond their control. There are 3 types of determinism: biological, environmental and psychic.

Question 11

What is biological determinism?

Answer 11

The view that behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control, such as the influence of genes

Question 12

What is environmental determinism?

Answer 12

The belief that behaviour is caused by previous experience through classical and operant conditioning

Question 13

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 13

The idea that all human behaviour is a result of unconscious mental processes

Question 14

What is free will?

Answer 14

Each individual has the power to make choices about their behaviour, without being determined by internal or external forces beyond their control. A common feature of the humanistic approach.

Question 15

What is hard determinism?

Answer 15

The view that all behaviour can be predicted, according to the action of internal and external forces beyond our control, and so there can be no free will.

Question 16

What is soft determinism?

Answer 16

A version of determinism that allows for some element of free will and suggests that all events, including human behaviour, has a cause

Question 17

What is moral responsibility?

Answer 17

The basis is that an individual is in charge of their own actions. The law states that children and those who are mentally ill do not have this responsibility but other than this, there is an assumption that normal adult behaviour is self determined. Therefore, humans are accountable for their behaviour regardless of innate factors or early experience.

Question 18

What is Heredity?

Answer 18

The process by which traits are passed from parents to their offspring, usually referring to genetic inheritance. The heritability coefficient can be used to quantify the extent to which a characteristic has a genetic basis

Question 19

What is holism?

Answer 19

A type of learning approach that suggests that to understand human behaviour we must look at the human as a whole

Question 20

What is reductionism?

Answer 20

An approach that breaks complex phenomena into more simple components and implies that this is desirable because complex phenomena are best understood in terms of a simpler level of explanation. This is in contrast with holism. For example, a reductionist explanation of depression would be the consequence of low levels of serotonin in the brain. This is biological reductionism and a neurochemical viewpoint.

Question 21

What is biological reductionism?

Answer 21

Reducing behaviour to biology as it is based on the premise than we are biological organisms.

Question 22

What is environmental reductionism?

Answer 22

Behaviourist explanations suggest that all behaviour can be explained in terms of simple stimulus response links

Question 23

What is the idiographic approach?

Answer 23

A method of investigating behaviour which focuses on individuals and emphasises their uniqueness. Subjective and rich human experience is used as a way of explaining behaviour, without the aim of developing general principles and unifying laws

Question 24

What is the nomothetic approach?

Answer 24

Seeks to formulate general laws of behaviour based on the study of groups and the use of statistical, quantitative techniques. It attempts to summarise the differences between people through generalisations, whilst developing general laws and unifying principles which can be used to accurately predict and control behaviour.

Question 25

What is the nature-nurture debate?

Answer 25

The argument as to whether a person’s development is mainly due to their genes or to environmental influences. Most researchers accept that behaviour is a product of the interaction between nature and nurture.

Question 26

Name some examples of the influence of nature.

Answer 26

Genetic explanations Evolutionary explanations

Question 27

Explain genetic explanations (nature)

Answer 27

The more closely related two individuals are, the more likely that thy will develop the same behaviours. The concordance rate for a mental disorder such as schizophrenia is 40% for MZ twins and 7% for DZ twins. This illustrates how nature plays a part in contribution to the disorder. However, concordance rates for MZ twins are not 100%, despite being genetically identical. This suggests that nurture and the environment also plays a significant role in development.

Question 28

Explain evolutionary explanations (nature)

Answer 28

These are based on the principle that a behaviour which promotes survival will be naturally selected e.g. running away from fire or avoiding deep water. This is because such behaviours are adaptive, so the individual is more likely to survive to adulthood and reproduce. Bowlby proposed that attachment was adaptive as it meant an infant was more likely to be protected due to displaying social releasers (innate, ‘cute’ behaviours which activates the adult mammalian attachment system) and features of infant-caregiver interactions (such as interactional synchrony and reciprocity). As such, the infant would be more likely to survive and reproduce as an adult.

Question 29

Name some examples of the influence of nurture

Answer 29

Behaviourism SLT

Question 30

Explain behaviourism (nurture)

Answer 30

Behaviourists assume that all behaviour can be explained in terms of experience alone. Skinner used the concepts of classical and operant conditioning to explain learning and suggests that attachment could be explained in terms of classical conditioning where the food reduces the discomfort of hunger (negative reinforcement) and is therefore rewarding.

Question 31

Explain SLT (nurture)

Answer 31

Bandura proposed that behaviour is acquired indirectly through operant and classical conditioning but also by directly through vicarious reinforcement. He acknowledged that biology had a role to play e.g. the urge to act aggressively could be biological but the way a person learns to express anger is through environmental influences (such as through observing and imitating the methods of expression of anger displayed by the identified role models).

Question 32

Outline what is meant by levels of explanation

Answer 32

These are different ways of viewing the same phenomena in Psychology e.g. socio-cultural, psychological, physical, physiological and neurochemical. Reductionism suggests that lower-level explanations will eventually replace higher-level explanations, according to the reductionist hierarchy of science Highest level (most holistic) - Cultural and social explanations of behaviour Middle level - Psychological explanations of behaviour Lowest level (most reductionist) - Biological explanations of behaviour

Question 33

Is environmental determinism soft or hard determinism?

Answer 33

Hard determinism because it don’t include conscious thought processes in their theories instead they support behaviour can be fully explained by a series of stimulus-response links

Question 34

Is cognitive approach soft or hard determinism?

Answer 34

Soft determinism as it accepts influence of biological factors on human behaviour but still believes in significant role of cognitive processes which involves decision making

Question 35

Is biological determinism hard or soft determinism?

Answer 35

Hard determinism -Uses drug treatments which directly influence functioning of biological processes -States all behaviour is due to biological factors such as hormones, genes, brain structure, neurotransmitters …

Question 36

Is psychic determinism hard or soft determinism?

Answer 36

Soft determinism, through psychoanalytic therapy, individuals can become aware of their unconscious motivations and gain conscious control over their behaviour

Question 37

AO3 Outline one weakness of the free will approach (Libet et al)

Answer 37

One weakness of the free will approach is that there Is contradicting evidence from Libet et al. He found that the motor regions of the brain become active before a person registers conscious awareness of a decision. E.g. A decision to move your finger was a pre-determined action of the brain. This robustly suggests that many responses are biologically determined. This contradicts what free will says, suggesting that behaviour may be down to biological determinism after all. Therefore this research from Libet et al suggests that behaviour is biologically predetermined, thus weakening acceptance of the free will approach to understanding human behaviour

Question 38

AO3 Outline one weakness of the deterministic approach (Court)

Answer 38

- A determinist position may be used for people to try and justify behaviours if they have committed a crime. = This would be undesirable as it excuses their behaviour. Therefore, a hard deterministic stance is not in line with the principles of the judicial system, which sees individuals as taking moral responsibility for their actions. Determinism has also led to treatment methods for mental disorders, such as depression through the control of serotonin by using SSRIs and SNRIs. However, this biological deterministic approach does not allow the use of other treatments which are not based on biological mechanisms, such as CBT.

Question 39

AO3 Outline one weakness of the deterministic approach (twin studies)

Answer 39

— 100% genetic determinism is unlikely to be found for any behaviour. = Studies that compare monozygotic twins have found 80% similarity for intelligence and 40% for depression. This suggests that genes do not entirely determine behaviour and supports an interactionist standpoint. The fact that concordance rates for MZ twins are often higher than for siblings, despite both sharing 50% of genes, may be due to MZ twins being more likely to share the same environment.

Question 40

Outline one strength of the determinis

Answer 40

+One main assumption of the deterministic approach is that behaviour has a cause. this is beneficial for patients who suffer from mental illness as it allows researchers to develop drugs which combat their symptoms. For example, it is suggested that an imbalance of serotonin causes OCD. As a result, researchers can develop drugs that target this system to increase or decrease the serotonin in the synapse to help improve a patient’s symptoms. Therefore, determinism has led to real-world applications, improving people’s well-being and mental health. However, despite this, there are still 1/3 of patients who don’t show any improvements when administered the drugs. Therefore, serotonin can’t be the sole cause of OCD because if it was then we could expect all patients to show improvement in their symptoms by taking drugs that target serotonin.