Issues and Debates Flashcards
(7 cards)
Discuss gender bias in psychological research (16 marks)
A01
Gender bias = differential treatment of men and women
Alpha bias = differences between men and women are exaggerated
Beta bias = differences between men and women are ignored, minimised or underestimated
Androcentrism = Normal behaviour judged against male standard - women often look abnormal
A03
- Beta Bias = women remain under-represented in university settings = issue because if research is conducted by men and only men, then it is unlikely to represent the experiences of women
+ Beta bias can be seen as positive as it has lead to equal treatment of males and females = voting rights, education and employment
- Formanowicz found through over 1000 articles relating to gender published over 8 years = gender bias is often published less and is funded less - not taken seriously
- Gender differences are often presented as fixed when they aren’t = Maccoby and Jacklin found girls have better verbal ability and boys have better spatial ability - Joel used brain scans and found no sex differences in brain structure or processing
- However, we should not avoid studying this as Ingalhalikar found a women’s two hemispheres communicate more frequently than men’s - multitasking!
Discuss culture bias in psychological research (16 marks)
A01
Culture bias = all behaviours are interpreted through the ‘lens’ of ones own culture, ignores the effects that cultural differences may have on said behaviour
Cultural relativism = idea that norms and values can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts
Imposed etic = when we impose western beliefs on another culture
Etic approach = research conducted in one country and findings generalised to other countries - believes behaviour is universal
Emic approach = research conducted in one country and ONLY used to describe behaviours of that culture - believes human behaviours are specific and unique to a given culture
A03
- Many classic studies are culture bias such as Asch and Milgrams = only used white US males
Replications in other countries are seen as abnormal or inferior for getting different results
+ However, there is an argument to say that there is no longer an issue with individualism and collectivism = Takano and Osaka found that in 14/15 studies comparing US and Japan there was no evidence of individualism or collectivism - they say the description is lazy and too simplistic
- can lead to prejudice against groups of people and can even create eugenic social policies = Gould found when testing intelligence in WW1 on the 1.75m USA army recruits that the ones from South East Europe and African America scored the lowest - this lead to racism, prejudice and discrimination as well as deeming them as “mentally unfit” compared to white people
+ Research into culture bias has led to cultural psychology = Cohen says this is the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experinces
modern psychologist are more mindful of cultural bias and take steps to avoid it by taking an emic approach
- It should not be assumed that all psychology is culturally relative = only some human behaviours are universal to all (e.g facial expressions) so have to consider both universal and specific to have a better understanding of human behaviours
Discuss the free will and determinism debate in psychology (16 marks)
Determinism = Individuals behaviour is shaped by internal or external forces
Hard = fatalism, everything we do is caused by something
Soft = all behaviours and events have causes but can be influenced by our conscious choices
Three types of determinism:
Biological = determined by biological makeup E.g genes
Environmental = determined by reinforcement and punishment we have received in our lives (experience)
Psychic = conflicts in the psychosexual stages and repressed traumas dictate our adult behaviour
Free will = Can make own choices and behaviours and thoughts are not determines by internal or external forces
A03
+- Argument for determinism and against free will = there is scientific evidence to support determinism
Libet instructed participants to flick their wrist whilst he was measuring their brain acivity - particpants asked to report the moment they felt the conscious will to move the wrist and was found that unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision came half a second before
Suggests that the brain signals for a voluntary action preceded the conscious intention to act - disputing the idea of free will
+ Determinism helps to determine psychology as a science due to approaches such as the behaviourist and biological both being highly scientific and leading to advancements such as therapies
Approaches which take a ‘free will’ stance tend to be less scientific and have fewer real-world applications
+- Argument against determinism and for free will = determinism is worse for your mental health - Roberts found that adolescents who believe in determinism have a higher risk of being depressed
free will is compatible with the law, determinism is not (legal system wouldn’t work otherwise)
everyday experience gives the impression that we are constantly exercising free will through the choices we make - this gives the concept of face validity
consistent with the ideas of the humanistic approach
Discuss the nature-nurture debate in psychology (16 marks)
A01
Nature = the influence of genetics and biological factors on behaviour and development
Nurture = the influence of environmental factors, experiences, and upbringing on a person’s development and behaviour - pre and post natal
Epigenetics - environment leaves marks on our DNA without actually changing genes - tell our bodies which genes to ignore and which to activate
Study:
Dias and Ressler = gave male lab mice electric shocks everytime they smelt perfume and the rats showed a fear response to that smell = rats offspring also feared the smell without the shocks
Diathesis stress model - environmental stressor coupled with genetic vulnerability
Study:
Tienari found that in a group of Finish adoptees - those who’s biological mothers had SZ (genetically vulnerabel) only developed it when brought up in a family labelled as ‘disturbed or ‘dysfunctional’ (acting as the stressor triggering the genetic predisposition)
The interactionist approach - nature and nurture work together to shape human behaviour
Study:
PKU is caused by the inheritance of two recessive genes, one from each parent
However, if child diagnosed early they are placed on a low protein diet for first 12 years which helps to advert the disorder
Nurture can displace natural expressions
A03
+ Adoption studies helpful as they seperate the two variables = Rhee and Waldman meta analysis found 41% of the variance in aggression can be accounted for for by genes. This shows how adoption studies can tell us the relative effects of nature-nurture
- However, Plomin argued that it is impossible to separate the influence of nature-nurture = people create their own ‘nurture’ by choosing environments based on their ‘nature’
Plomin refers to this as ‘niche picking’ and ‘niche building’
+ Real world application = research shows OCD is highly heritable (0.76 according to Nestadt) = this can help put in place genetic counselling for those likely to be affected
(where people receive advice about the likelihood of developing a disorder and how they might prevent it)
- Epicgenetics supports an interactionist view point (N&N work together) = in WW2 the Nazi’s blocked food distribution to the Dutch and many died from starvation - Susser and Lin found women who became pregnant during the famine had low weight babies and this meant they were 2x as likely to develop SZ
This supports the idea that life experiences from previous generations can leave “epigenetic markers’ that affect their offspring
Discuss the holism-reductionism debate in psychology - include reference to levels of explanation (16 marks)
Holism = cannot break something down into its parts and expect to understand it as a whole
Reductionism = all complex systems can be understood in terms of their components, break something down to treat the whole
Two types of reductionism:
1. Biological = biological factors can be broken down into single physical points
2. Environmental = a psychological concept that assumes human behavior is a result of a stimulus-response relationship with the outside environment
A03
- Holistic lacks practical value = considers many aspects of human behaviour which makes its difficult to know which are the most influential and the most important to address during therapy - therefore it becomes difficult to administer and efficient and effective therapy, meaning it lacks practical value
+ Holistic can explain complex social behaviours e.g conformity = in this case it is inappropriate to study an individual as the behaviour can only be understood by observing interactions between groups of people
+ Reductionist is very scientific = uses operationalised variables and carry out studies in labs - this gives psychology greater credibility, placing it on equal terms with natural sciences
- Reductionist loses the ‘bigger picture’ = as it simplifies behaviour down to its basic parts (e.g OCD due to a single gene) it lacks context which means it can only be part of an explanation as it is unable to provide a full explanation on its own - lacks validity
Discuss the idiographic and nomothetic approaches - refer to examples in psychology (16 marks)
A01
Nomothetic = approaches focus on general laws through quantitative methods such as central tendency and dispersion, graphs and statistical analysis - more scientific
EXAMPLE = average IQ being 100 or chance of developing SZ is 1%, Behaviourist approach, Biological approach, Strange situation
Main assumptions:
- psychologists should produce general laws
- this provides a “benchmark” against which people can be compared, classified and measured
- large numbers of people should be studied to establish ways that people are similar to each other
Idiographic = approaches focus on understanding specific individuals through qualitative methods as it studies individuals in depth with the focus being on the quality of information rather than the quantity
EXAMPLE = HM, Phineas Gage, Little Hans
Main assumptions:
- people are unique entities
- people have their own subjective experiences and motivations
- you cannot compare unique individuals to larger groups, standards or norms
A03
+ Idiographic uses detailed and complete accounts for individuals
- However, it is time consuming and takes a hilt to collect and analyse such detailed information - reliance on case studies makes the approach less scientific as conclusions often rely on the subjective interpretation of the researcher (open to bias)
+ Nomothetic is very scientific as testing uses standardised procedures and statistical analysis of data to establish norms of behaviour which gives the discipline greater scientific credibility
- criticised for losing the ‘whole person’ = we may know the risk % of developing OCD bt we don’t know how it feels to live with OCD = this means that we lose some external validity
Using examples from psychology, discuss socially sensitive research (16 marks)
A01
Ethical implications even whilst following BPS guidelines:
1. Caughy found that middle class children put in daycare at an early age generally score less on cognitive tests than children from similar families reared in the home
This may make more middle class families decide to not put children in day care at an early age
- IQ tests administered to black Americans show that they typically score 15 points below the average white score
This may cause stereotypes and assumptions that black Americans are not as intelligent as White Americans
Socially sensitive research = some areas of research are likely to be seen as controversial or socially sensitive compared to others
Aronson said just because it attracts attention from the media and public does not mean we should shy away from from it - in fact, usually this research is very important and therefore psychologists may have a social responsibility to carry it out
Sieber and Stanley identified aspects in the scientific research process that raise ethical implications in socially sensitive research :
- The research question = the research must consider this carefully - asking Q’s like ‘are their racial differences in IQ’ or ‘is intelligence inherited’ may be damaging to members of a particular group
- Dealing with participants = must consider issues such as informed consent, confidentiality and psychological harm - for example a partner discussing domestic abuse may worry that their partner will found out. They may also find the research very stressful and therefore we should protect them from psychological harm
- The way the findings are used = the researcher should be mindful of how the data is going to be used, for example research could be used by the government to justify policies and prejudice e.g research into ethnicity and intelligence
A03
+ socially sensitive research can benefit people = for example research in 1948 with over 5000 men, asking about their sexual behaviour led homosexuality to be removed as a ‘sociopathic personality disorder’ from the DSM in 1973
- However, it can have negate implications = for example research into genetics could help to identify a ‘criminal gene’ this poses problems for the legal system about whether individuals are responsible for criminal behaviour
+ it is important socially sensitive research is carried out as organisations such as the Office for National Statistics collect data about the economy, society and population = this is good because the government use this research to help implement policies such as those relating to childcare, education and mental health provision etc
- However, it has a history of being used by the government to shape policies that may not be based on valid research = for example, discrepancies in Burt’s data later revealed how much of it was fake, but the idea of 11+ and that children should be separated on their natural ‘IQ’ remains in society today
One way to deal with socially sensitive research, is to avoid doing it = according to the American psychological association ethical committees approved 95% of non-sensitive proposals, but only 50% of sensitive proposals - this is an issue because it limits our knowledge and understanding of topics and potential studies, just because of it being socially sensitive research. We are potentially stopping impactful and useful knowledge being learnt and used or applied to everyday scenarios
