Issues And Debates Flashcards
(37 cards)
What is gender bias?
The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real difference
What is alpha bias?
A tendency to exaggerate differences between 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
What is androcentrism ?
The consequence of beta bias and occurs when all behaviour is compared according to a male standard often to the neglect or exclusion of women
What is beta bias?
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
What is universality ?
The aim to develop theories that apply to all people which may include real differences this describes any underlying characteristics of human behaviour which can be applied to all individuals regardless of their differences. Bias, lack of validity and issues with reliability reduced the universality of psychological findings
What is cultural bias?
The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultrual assumptions this distorts or biases your judgement
What is cultural relativism ?
The view that behaviour,morals,standards and values can’t be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate
What is the emic-etic distinction?
Emic approach is one that emphasises the distinction of uniqueness in every culture problem with this is that findings are only significant for that culture the etic approach seeks universal aspects of behaviour one way to do this whilst still avoiding cultural bias is to use indigenous researchers in each cultrual setting
What is determinism ?
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.
What is biological determinism?
The view that behaviour is always caused by internal biological forces beyond our control, such as the influence of genes. For example, research on intelligence has identified particular genes in those with high intelligence, such as the IGF2R gene (Hill et al, 1999). Also, genes which affect brain structure and neurotransmitter production (i.e. serotonin and dopamine) may also determine our behaviour e.g. the CDH-13 and MAOA gene being candidate genes for criminality.
What is environmental determinism?
The belief that behaviour is caused by previous experience through classical and operant conditioning. i.e. phobias are a result of conditioning, as demonstrated by Watson’s study on Little Albert and Skinner’s Box (operant conditioning determining the behaviour of lab rats). These are external forces, over which we have no control
What is psychic determinism ?
Freud’s theory of personality suggests that adult behaviour is determined by a mix of innate drives and early experience. These result in unconscious conflicts over which we have no control. For example, Freud’s psychosexual stages of development suggests that each stage is characterised by a conflict which, if unresolved, leads to fixation in adulthood e.g. anal expulsive personalities being the result of fixation at the anal stage.
What is free will?
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.
What is hard determinism?
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. For example, behaviourism suggests that all behaviour is the product of classical and operant conditioning, the biological approach sees behaviour as the product of genes and
neurochemistry, whilst social learning theory suggests that behaviour is the product of vicarious reinforcement and mediational processes.
What is soft determinism?
A version of determinism that allows for some element of free will and suggests that all events, including human behaviour, has a cause. For example, the cognitive approach suggests that individuals can reason and make decisions within the limits of their cognitive system.
What is the importance of scientific research ?
scientific research is based on the belief that all events have a cause. An independent variable is manipulated to have an effect on the dependent variable. Through repeating the research under controlled conditions (e.g. using a laboratory experiment) and performing statistical tests, a ‘cause and effect’ relationship can be established between two variables. This increases the scientific credibility of Psychology, through enabling the prediction and control of behaviour.
What is the humanistic approach?
Humanistic psychologists argue that self-determinism is a necessary part of human behaviour. Rogers (1959) claimed that as long as an individual remains controlled by other people or other things they cannot take responsibility for their own behaviour and therefore cannot change it. Only when an individual takes self responsibility is personal growth or ‘self-actualisation’ possible. By taking such a stance, humanism has been praised as a positive approach, essentially seeing people as good and free to ‘better themselves’.
What is moral responsibility ?
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.
What is the interactionist approach?
With reference to the nature-nurture debate, this is the view that the processes of nature and nurture work together rather than in opposition. They are linked in such a way that it does not make sense to separate the influences of the two.
What is the nature vs nurture debate?
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.
What is holism?
The principle that complex phenomena can’t be understood through an analysis of one simple idea
Looks at a person as a whole or perhaps looks at a complex of factors which together might explain a particular behaviour
What is reductionism?
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.
What are the levels of explanation?
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 i.e. Sociology, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and Physics (from top to bottom). Explanations begin at the highest level and progressively reduce down to the bottom of the hierarchy.
Highest level - Cultural and social explanations of behaviour e.g. depression being explained by a withdrawal from social activities, low energy levels and insomnia, which is viewed as odd by society.
Middle level - Psychological explanations of behaviour e.g. depression being explained by Beck’s Cognitive Theory (the product of the cognitive triad of automatic negative thoughts, faulty information processing and negative self-schemas) and Ellis’ ABC model (an activating event produces an irrational belief which leads to an emotional or behavioural consequence).
Lower level - Biological explanations of behaviour e.g. depression being explained by the action of candidate genes (e.g. 5HT1-D beta controlling the efficiency of synaptic serotonin transport) and neural factors (e.g. abnormal functioning of the left parahippocampal gyrus and the lateral frontal lobes).
What is biological reductionism?
Reducing behaviour to biology as it is based on the premise than we are biological organisms. i.e. depression can be explained biochemically as a result of low levels of serotonin in the synaptic gaps between neurons. A characteristic feature of the biological approach.
